It was Friday evening, the pentagon had its meeting today in Abhishek and Unmesh's double seater room in the block II of the hostel. Though room was called a double seater, it was big enough for three people and was unlike any other prison cell single seater in the hostel. it was a huge room with old wooden flooring, with the windows facing the barren fields between the hostels and the mess. This allowed the breeze during prolonged monsoon to cool down the atmosphere in the room which was perpetually heated by the argument between the childhood friends roommates.
The sheer size of the room, made the room the perfect meeting place for the Pentagon. Every friday evening Aritra , Arun, Kartik and the roommates met here over cheap whiskey and lemon concentrate, more than a dash of college gossip, and Kartik's never ending flings with a new girlevery week, but mind you, every week he thought he was in love.
Abhishek was that day in his ever so perennial pensive mood, that use to dawn on him during his first year of college. Today it was a fallout between the room mates again, today it was Abhishek's stuff on Udyogs side of the room again.
Fresh out of school, the children in them had not disappeared then yet.
The first member of the pentagon to arrive was Kartik, he was the one to score the whiskey that day.
Abhishek in his grumpy mood had decided not drink that day.
Slowly the gossips increased, with the flow of whiskey, Abhishek in his bed smoking his cigarette slowly feeling out of place, not being drunk. The heavy drinker he was , the whiskey bottle was too enticing for sleep, but he could not drink with the guy he fought that day he thought, and started contemplating in joining the party that was on its peak. No he will not drink he made up his mind for sure. It was then he realised, the bottle was three quarters empty.
And then it happened like lightning, before any body realised what struck them it was over, literally over. Abhishek had jumped from his bed after grabbing his glass from the bedside table, fixed himself to stiff 90ml drinks one after another and gulped it down neat. It was the statement that he made after that he meant after that remained a legend for years to come "Guys that what i call a Patiala"
Patiala was for sure, as sure as the fact that they had ran out of booze, not only that he had smoked the remaining two Wills navy cut thanks to the sudden rush of alcohol in his blood.
Unlike most of the days today the pentagon had a lot of money amongst them, and Abhishek was then the King of the world. At 3am in the morning he agreed to sponser good whiskey and packet of 20s wills for every body.
They had walked a mile to Good Luck cafe to in search of cigarettes.. Butno bootlegged liquor shop nor cigarette shops had kept the door open for them.
It was then Unmesh had the brilliant idea of picking up half smoked fags from the road and smoking them. At the hight of drunkeness that was the best possible option for everyone. With thousands of rupees in their wallets they had to scavenge for smokes, and beg for alcohol
near the military barracks, but did not have any luck with the whiskey the patiala had left the others not high and dry. That day a half smoked classic on the road was a goldmine to them.
As the defination goes.. Money is what money does , that day they were just paper.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
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7 comments:
Nice one. But if you look a little deeper is it just paper. Give the paper to sm1 hungry, sm1 shivering and needs a blanket. After 9/11 my fuindings were dwindled to zero, and I had to sleep with empty stomach attending 72 exams in a semester, and with only one wish " I will get As in everything, but can I get some food?" Thats struggle.
As i said Money is what money does.. if there is no one selling markets.. and you are in a middle of a snow storm, u might not get a blanket even if u are willing to spend a million.. i have faced situation where.. i have money but no food.. and have gone hungry as there is no where to get it.. also when u have no money thats when all the shops are selling your favourites.. but i agree with us we always knew its a matter of time.. but for those for whom its perpetual,,i empathise
is this the caste, socio,and religio politics and india's internal security stuff that you had promised EOD? hehehehehe
kidding bro - nice one as usual
so you remember francis walker. can't agree more with this definition.
a good one zico.....thoughts from college days. i wonder, do you have any story other than smokes and pegs ?
dont worry ... i will try to have a dry story.. but really cant recall it
instead of calling my book quintessentially Life , i should call it the bottle and I
hmmm.....talking about picking up half smoked cigs from the road reminds me of the other incident. me putting a pack of smokes inside washing machine.....then picking those up from there and drying it under the TT room electric biub and happily smoking away the night........oh those were the days.
what well written good i have my own opinion abt it nut u write good
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