Right by now you all know how that I had gone to India, I needed this trip for my own sanity or insanity, last year had given me a lot of sleepless , restless nights , when everything seems to be going perfect Life makes a U-turn. I know everyone says we have our up’s and downs but I have realised in my case it is more like ABOUT TURN or North – SOUTH , completely opposite. So when I finally finalised the trip got my holidays and tickets sorted, I told my friends, as usual it was the expected reaction I got which made the decision to go home even more sweeter.
My flight was from UK-Dubai-Mumbai as the plan was to stay a couple of days in mumbai and then leave for chandigarh, but due to the wedding arrangements I had to change that at the last moment, There is no domestic flight from Mumbai to Chandigarh late in the evening for some reason, So I had to still stay one night in Mumbai.
R’s mom offered me to come over to her home,which was so lovely of her, so Thank you so much R’s mom, I am sorry I could not make time to come and at least meet the little one and Family, but Next time Promise to meet. I really really appreciate this and believe me I wont forget ..
We had planned to meet up in mumbai, drive to pune , where I was to also get in touch with Rahul, and he was such a gentleman he too offered and invited me to his home, but due to the last-minute changes nothing materialised, Rahul to you also I am very sorry , but next time my friend for sure.
Rajesh whom we call GUPTAAAAAAAA JIIIIIIIIII was so angry at the change of plans , but it could not be helped, So the journey started , the party began from Home as two of my friends offered to drop me at the airport, which was an excuse to start the party, I usually dont carry that much luggage so I got my stuff checked in and straight for the bar. I needed the drinks as had a long journey ahead. Finally the flight took off and I landed at Mumbai.
I will mention here that I did not like the fact that Dubai airport no longer has free Wi-fi. I had some hard time passing the time there is only so much time you can spend in the duty free, Also I was not much impressed with the duty free, Thankfully the call came to board the Mumbai flight, Which turned out to be an experience in its own, As when the call came to board the plane, everyone moved towards the boarding gate , expecting to board the plane but instead there was BUS standing , Usually you would think the plane is probably parked on the tarmac 2-3 minutes ride away.
But hold your breadth we went on that bus for more than 25 minutes , that’s how big the Dubai airport is , God knows where the plane was parked for all we could see was tarmac, or the main road on the side running parallel which had lot of traffic, far in the horizon it was getting darker and darker as if its gonna rain Elephants and camels rather than cats and dogs .. Finally managed to reach the plane, Landed in Mumbai. The first instance was to get the phone on as Mumbai had Free Wi-Fi and thanks to all these Apps that we get on phone it has become so easier to be in touch.
Now in the normal world usually when you talk to someone they ask how are you, how was flight etc etc but here The moment I switched on , got a call From Rajesh saying “PAHUNCH GAYA” (You Reached).. and then the next question was “Kehdi Peeni hai” .. What you going to drink 🙂 , so we decided to buy Two bottles from the duty free.
Duty free is another place where rules are broken I guess depending on the face of the passenger , I had already bought my Quota of Alcohol from Dubai but that was for the wedding, so I just went to Duty free in Mumbai and picked up Two more bottles , I did tell the guy at checkout that I already got my Quota , and he just asked am I paying cash or card.. He even asked Do I need more .. 🙂
For some reason my luggage took ages to come out, it seemed everyone had left I was still standing there, finally the suitcase arrived. Another thing I found different at airport was that they scanned your luggage once again , just before you went out of airport, I never had that before.. so that worried me as I had over the top quota of alcohol , But no one seemed to bother.
I was supposed to be picked up by a hotel person, to take me to a hotel which Rajesh had booked for me for the night, Here let me tell you one thing that I was meeting him after a long long time the last I had met him was in first year of college , as Rajesh went to the engineering college after that, I did meet him once on his wedding day. But after that we had never met Or been in contact with each other .. so its was going to be A MOMENT.. meeting up for sure.
Reached the hotel Orchid checked in , meanwhile continuously in touch with him as he was driving from pune , He finally reached I can’t tell you guys what a feeling it was to meet someone after so many years, to meet someone with whom you have shared life’s best years, those who know all your secrets, those who stood with you right or wrong.. those who helped you every time when they could ..
We had so much to talk about , SO MUCH but before that the Bottle had to be opened, Cheers Time it was, I mean time was Flying just the two of us , When I was on flight I was wondering what are we going to talk about, its been so many years , I am sure both of us would have forgotten things as time gone by, BUT as we started it was like a dam had broken, Time was flying and suddenly it was suddenly 10pm , we had planned to have a few drinks and then go for a drive, have dinner outside somewhere..
Apparently Salman Khan usually came out to a place , we were to go and meet him 🙂 but the clock had its own mind, it was running on its own sweet speed, Time was flying past yet our talks did not finish .. After a couple of drinks we started calling other friends trying to tease them that we are having fun while they were probably in bed trying to go to sleep.. Called up almost everyone in the phone list, They were cursing us for that ..
Our Talks were like those of little kids .. YAAD HAI this.. YAAD HAI that.. DO you remember we went to see that movie , DO you remember the college canteen, DO you remember THIS . do you remember THAT.. it went on and on and Onnnnnnnnnnn , its funny how one thing leads to another, so many little stories that I had forgotten came to mind, as if we had just done them. College time was like NOW, How Mr Gauba the Chemistry teacher was disturbed , How the Samose-Channa-Bhatura in canteen were so OILY, I probably would not eat them now, at that time they were so tasty.
I use to have a Bicycle then, as parents would not buy me a Bike or Scooter.. We had a OLD LUNA (does any one remember those good old days of Luna) and then had a french moped called Sportif.. (Now that is really a BLAST from the PAST).
I would sometimes get that to ride, Gupta use to stay in University as his Dad use to work for the Punjab University, I would pick up the Luna in evening and go to meet him in evenings and we would go around the campus , walking around the Girls hostel, One of our friends Sister use to stay in Girls hostel , We were so concerned about her that WE HAD TO go meet her to see if she was ok 🙂 Via her we met other girls and soon the well being of her had taken a back seat .. we were more concerned about the new friends we had made ..
Both of us had changed so much Gupta paaji had become a bit heavier. 🙂 and had gone fatter than what he use to be a Skinny guy, and I was no more the sardar he had seen , I had -had my hair chopped , shaved , But what I felt was all that was just yesterday, It was just yesterday in first year for the finals Physics exam, we had somehow got the question paper leaked (or so we thought) , who did I take it, to get it solved , it was Gupta –Mr. Studious managed to solve it.
soon it was Selfie times toooooo ..
Early morning I had a flight to take to Chandigarh.. That part next time 🙂 I wanted to re live those 2 weeks hence putting one day at a time , I know all readers will get bored but please do bear 🙂
Me and My Random Thoughts 