Mumbai Slice -- Royal Stag ;-)

This is where it gets blurred... The dates. It was late friday evening friday some time in Feb, is all I remember. Kamal (Kam) was in the office, so was I. I had ramped up quite fast and become quite a valuable member of the team. I had hit a blind spot and was not able to fix a problem. I faintly remember, It was not something I had to deliver on Monday, but I was frustrated and was eager to get on with it. Kam the "savior" of projects was in the office as usual. It may be quite late... maybe 10-10.30? may be later. Kam saw me fretting. He came to me and inquired in his same emphatic tone.. "Kya kar raha hai be? " and all I could say then was give him a blank look. A seasoned code he was, he gauged my anxiety and frustration and asked me to move of my cubicle. An we together set on our regular floor beat :). This beat, we would have a chat with any hapless soul on the floor, in the process cheering them up or frustrating them further, in any case we would liven our spirits.

Back to our beat. We found ourselves disturbing the veteran of late nights Ayan Dasgupta. Ayan da, as we would call him, was in the Web-Methods team, and always wore a "I am watching a couple F***ing" look when he saw the PC. The concentration and ofcourse dedication has been a source of envy till date. But we sure loved bugging this chap. This time we reached him and probably the third line ... was ... "chalo! Daru pine chalte hain ... bahut din hue piya nahin". Man!! it was like an invitation from heaven on a platter of gold. Without batting an eyelid, Kam says "chalo... "

As usual, I was not asked, but was simply expected to join. I was in a fix. Before this I had only drunk twice, that too in a plush restaurant, and now they expect me to go drinking that too at night ???????? .... Without a choice, I went. I think it is a right time, to give you my drinking background. I had drunk only twice till then. Once, in my aunts place, with their knowledge, I had 2 gulp fulls of a clean, decent smelling, throat warming, tongue burning liquid, later came to be known as Bacardi White Rum. I expected to be drunk and fall on the floor (as there were no gutters in the house ;) as seen in the gutters and in movies, Social drinking was a concept unheard of). fortunately nothing of that sort happened, and I soon forgot about it. I had a couple of friends, telling me about the cheaper variants of liquor, like, Old Monk, Khajuraho beer, KBL beer, Old tavern, and the most expensive of them all, Mc Dowells' Signature and No.1. So my "daru" vocab was limited to these drinks. I did not drink in college, and the second time I had booze was on the New years eve of 2004. Here I was, going with a couple of self proclaimed 'tankis' to god knows where.

What came next was the shock of my life. I was on the Station road of Borivili(E), opposite MSRTC bus stand, bang in front of a bar, SANJOG. I can already hear applause n heightened hearbeats from a lot of people. This is the place we were supposed to sit? urgh!!! was my first reaction. A shady name, a dark smokey place, dim lit and very very noisy. No signs of sophistication at all. We went in and sat at a table nearest to the back door. The tables were clean, for such a place. 2 table cloths diagonal to each other. The top one was checkered maroon with some dry-oily curry marks and some ash.

The waiter came and Kam asks us: "Royal stag", a word beyond my vocab. Ayan nodded and I followed suit. Kam ordered Royal stag qtr. What came to the table was free ground-nuts, Papad and some carrots. When we sat munching, he got a small weird looking bottle of golden-yellow liquid and we all drank. For a person who had not many drinks, this was heaven. I had developed a taste of liquor on my first drink. I loved it neat. 2 more bottles followed. We chatted along... I discovered my "problem" when drinking the very same day. That problem in detail ... later(read ... withing the next 2-3 blogs). So we were all almost loaded with a quarter of Royal Stag each, some food and in addition, I loaded with the fear, I might fall in a ditch. We prepared to leave. I had a quick glance at my watch, I see it gleefully showing 2:30. Oh Shit was my reaction. We had over shot the hotel closing time by 1 hr (this was almost 5 years ago ... now I heard they close on time)!!! My companions are still in their last pegs and I was yet to start my last. I said ... "Chalo yaar, it is late we have over shot by an hour." I could hear my speech slurring by the affect of a heavy dose of alcohol. I felt a strange feeling in my body. This was almost 3-4 times more than the max amount I had drunk in the past. I could hear them, say.. "Shut the f*** up, there is still time". "Havent they seen the time? " I thought, and then just dint bother and went on with my drink. Ayan paid the bill, thats when I understood the condition of 1 pays all drink ... in a round robin fashion. We staggered back to our feet. I was swaying a bit. The other two as if they had drunk water were perfectly normal, or so i thought. Welcome to the drunkards club, I thought to myself.

I was about to move to the front door, I was escorted by Kam and Ayan to the back door. "what the..." back door exit ... ooh!
As we stepped out in a cool morning of mumbai at 3AM, the plain clothed guard saluted us. I thought, " my god ... what a city". I was walked out, I saw 3 police men standing there. I froze, All that I had drunk... evaporated in a jiffy and I dint know what to do. Kam asked me ... "what happened", I replied " Cops". He said ... "They are to secure the city by the Night. They are nice guys, they wont disturb us". Truly, we may have been the least of the Cops' worries. They simply ignored us. We slowly walked back towards our homes. As I walked back. I felt really good. I was seeing the city by the night. A splendid city indeed. I was drunk, in love with the city, and felt really good. I don't know, what in this city pulls people. I know for sure, live this city, You will fall in love with it.