A long and peaceful friday of lazing around in bed and waking up only to eat had plans of culminating in a nice peaceful dinner with friends (and that too without the liquids known to make it a terror-ible saturday morning!) It was nothing more than what Dire Strait puts as..
"Stepping out Angellucci's for my coffee beans
checking out the movies and magazines.."
After making use of the washroom services provided by the cafe the next stop was a petrol pump to tank up on the gas and reserve on the petrol... And well... with one man and his backpack off went the four of them! The other three mentally resigned to using their fingers as a brush the next morning!
Take off: 10:30 PM. The joys of the elevated highway experienced as various forms of rock played on the car stereo and lo and behold they were on the Chennai highway! Yes 'when we remember we are all mad, life stands explained!' A couple of calls were made to "to be harassed hosts" with them being warned that we will touchdown by 3/4 AM to their beautiful newly wed abode!
Stops for loading up on peppermint and water and pee-ing later as conversation started to mellow (the excitement still soared) and yours truly at the wheel dodging trucks and buses as her jonga responded with wonderful ease.. the music changed to bollywood item numbers! They are after all the very sing-along-keep-you-awake numbers perfectly suited for the dance into the night! From 'Mai disco.. Tu disco.. Duniya hai ek Disco... Disco 82!' to 'A remix of Ishq tera tadpave' to 'No one so saaxy in the whole galaaxy' to 'Laila o Laila' they sung along to it all! Well the three of them sung along while Bhai's avid protests were turned a deaf ear to!
Well... in the neighbourhood of 3 AM they begin the house hunting for the beautiful home of the newly wed couple also playing host to the bride's parents (but were given no choice except to provide us shelter for the night ;) )A couple of roundabouts in jalebi town and we were where we wanted to be with full confidence exhibited by the lady navigator!
Halla Bol! ;) We tried to be as quiet as possible... as she made herself comfortable on a gadda in the living room she looked at the couple and mentioned "you guys should sleep" and pat came the reply "abey mere gadde pe baith ke bolti hai so jao!" ~ sheepish grin ~ Extra gaddas were found and the living room turned into a dorm as these 4 madhatters and the lovely couple snoozed into the night!
Whose to know when the world around woke up! She woke up when she heard her name being mentioned in pun to another newly wed couple who obviously had the decency to arrive to another fellow couple's house at a more earthly hour of say 8 / 9 AM (it's tough to be sure with the beautiful stupor of a back straightening sleep which is most welcome after a long drive!). The smells of exquisite hot coffee, the luck of cold Chennai whether and the satisfaction of a yummy warm home cooked breakfast! Kudos to the hospitality at such short notice!
Well.. it goes on to become the story of borrowed t-shirts, face washes, combs and kajals to make themselves presentable for the rest of the day! Ah yes... the plan was to drive back the same afternoon... but as the powers that be spun the web the plan became to jam along and leave on Sunday afternoon (which needless to say stretched to evening) ;) Again the protests of a pretty protesting bhai fell on deaf ears and he was silenced into a nodding agreement.
Meanwhile she was patting herself on the back for accomplishing this night driving feat (the first of its kind undertaken by her.. she's always had a qualified co driver to take over as needed on other occasions!) So well.. she takes a bow! :)
De Mello's studio beckoned and the sound of muzik was soul stirring.. a practice cum jamming session is always fun and this one even more so as the protesting bhai discovered his talent for being a 'drumductor' (akin to an orchestra conductor but with instructions being actioned out only to the drummer who had a penchant for forgetting Audioslave's Be Yourself!). As the drummer's bro decided to sit at the drums all heads turned and a conversative silence fell over the studio! His 'sound check' like drum roll matched beautifully by the Lead Guitarist was mesmerizing! Echoes of 'isko baadme layenge drums pe nahi to expectation high ho jayega' reverberated alongwith the applause! Good? He was brilliant!!
The Bass Guitarist and his beautiful professional photographer of a wife lugged around the laptops and the camera equipment to make the band look good on a poster! The moment was achieved outside a Yamaha store on it's 'perfect' steps with minor experiments in light! All this post lunch and post another session at jamming just before dinner beckoned! (yeah they're a lot who likes to eat so the penchant for food is shared apart from it being just the muzik!)
The night found the four runaways at the Lead Guitarist's abode whose lovely mum made it home for all of them! The girls were given a comfortable change of clothes and our poor guitarist went "aila! teen teen mummy" as he saw them in mommy dearest's clothes! Another restful night and a yummy breakfast of parathas, aloo, apples and awwwsum chai later they were on their way to the studio. Oh yes.. they managed to have a bath this morning however the clothes continue to be the same and the brush was still their precious index fingers!
"I am a man who walks alone
And when I'm walking a dark road
At night or strolling through the park
When the light begins to change
I sometimes feel a little strange
A little anxious when it's dark.
Fear of the dark,fear of the dark"
deserves special mention for it almost cost our vocalist his voice! ;)
A takeaway lunch of kathi rolls and delightful milkshakes found them as they practised! This she figures inspired Bhai who decided to fiddle with the guitar, the drummer (yeah the awwsum one) and the lead guitarist to take on the avatar of the vocalist as they belted out something totally amazing however unknown even to them! They hope someone's deciphered the lyrics with the recording that was made! ;) Ladies and Gentlemen... ~ Applause! ~
With this and with the sounds of blackest eyes, imagine and fear of the dark in her head it was time to drop one newly wed to the station for them to make it back to hyd and for them to tank up on gas again and head to... "Sweet Home Alabama".
Lots of hugs and "cya next weekend" later they were sad to say but they were on their way!
Thus began a frantic search for Red Bull! Several petrol pumps and tiny stores later just as they hit the highway awaiting them was a CCD! Screeching off it and stopping right behind an innova their moment of eureka had been achieved. A flask was dug out from the car boot which limitedly keeps coffee warm.. 4 energy drinks and a flask full of coffee alongwith 2 boxfulls of mint and they were set for take off! Little did they realize that there's little that replaces a red bull.. and not the least of it is something called a "Cloud 9" whose taste went from being described as rose water to rotten grape juice to water mixed with gulal! ;)
The drive back was peaceful with a large number of stops to pee providing sufficient opportunity to stare at the starry sky above, breathe in fresh air, and spray on water into tired eyes! The music continued to be variants of rock this time around! :D ~ small mercies ~
Cheers to a whirlwind surprise weekend with na rehne ka thikana, na khane peene ka thikana!
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one"
- John Lennon
