"Ring Ring....Ring Ring...," my cellphone beeped.
"Who the hell is calling me at 6.30 am in a saturday morning?"
After groping almost half of the area of my bed with eyes closed I managed to find my cell phone. "Hello", I murmured.
"Hey, how are you dude?" An ecstatic male voice replied from the other side.
But that ecstatic voice couldn't bring an iota of ecstasy in me. " I aaam f..i..n..e, who is this?" I struggled to reply.
"Well, guess who am I?" He replied.
How the hell people get the idea to give a surprise by calling at 6.30 am in a saturday morning? What kind of pleasure it can offer to someone? I seriously don't know.
"Sorry, your no is not stored in my cell and I can't recognize your voice. Please tell me who are you?" I responded, this time bit firmly.
"Well, let me give you some clue," the answer came from other side followed by a chuckle .
Now he wants me to play a trial and error! That's great! The saturday morning blue! I lost patience.
And I almost shouted. "Abbe tell me who are you. I'm not going to guess anything."
Probably that shout worked as I didn't have to go through that trial and error guessing game. I got the prompt response.
"Don't be angry dude. This is Jay. Last we met in bangalore almost an year back. Now I'm in your town. Lets catch up today over lunch and beer. What u saÿ?"
Holy shit! I just returned last midnight from a week long hectic official tour. Needless to say no evening was spent without beer and very little sleep throughout the week. I was just tired. When I hit the bed last night, I had a plan to sleep 14 hours at a stretch, take lunch and hit the bed again.
For a moment I thought to give reply a naked "No". But the very next moment I decided to handle the issue bit politely, by virtue of being a social creature.
"Can't you make it tomorrow? Actually I'm very tired today."-was my polite submission to him ( I could have given an excuse of not being well very easily though!).
Jay almost shouted. "C'mmon, I'm in your town. This is saturday and you are making excuses! You are changed dude. Dost ko bhul gaya?"
What could I say more? Surrendering to the very expected banality of my friend cum ex-classmate, I agreed to have a luncheon with beer on the very same day. " Ok. Ok. No problem. Where are you staying? Where should we meet? Is MG Road fine for you? Then come to The Zodiac. Ok?"
"No Problem dear. I'll be there at 1pm in the afternoon", Jay replied.
" Ok. See you there", I sighed and hung on.
I hit the bed once again.
1 pm in the afternoon. We met and our beer session (with little food) started. From beer, it went on to more beer and to more and more beer till we got tired and stomach didn't permit to consume more. Needless to say, in this 4 hours session, our discussion was very much diversified. It revolved seamlessly from classroom to late night boozing to roof-top parties to ogling at skimpily dressed girls to kharush boss in office and beautiful receptioninst and so on.
Was I happy with this afternoon? The answer would be "definitely not". Though what hapened was refreshing for mind but it was equally tiring for body. "No problem, tommorrow is sunday and I would take rest for the whole day", I consoled myself.
Behaving like a host, I paid the bill, bade good-bye to my friend and took the cab to home. My bed was calling me.
Infact, after I reached home and embraced my bed, with it was drizzling outside and Jagjit Singh playing on, I didn't feel that bad. Probably the thought of next day a holiday felt me poised !
I fall asleep happily !
Next day, I woke up at 11 am with eyes still without a wish to see light. I had some bread and jam and lazily sat in my arm-chair with the newspaper. Though I was trying hard to concentrate on the newspaper, my mind was busy thinking whether I should prepare lunch or ask for a home delivery.
Well, I decided to prepare rice, dal and omelette. I was scared of outside spicey food.
By then, it stopped drizzling outside but the weather was just awesome. I concentrated on the news paper.
My cellphone beeped again. This time it's Vicky, a friend from my town only. I picked up the phone and said "hello".
" Hey, what's up? Haven't seen you online since last few days. Are you in town?" He inquired.
" Actually I was traveling and reached here friday night only ", I clarified.
And I heard his cheerful and lyrical expression. " Badiya hai. Mausam mastana hai, Dil beyman hai, Kya khayal hai! Shaam rangeen karde?"
Fuck Fuck Fuck ! It meant again beer and more beer. " No No. I'm too tired. I need to take rest at home", I almost shouted.
" C'mmn. Last time also you gave excuse of office work. This time we are surely meeting with Sharma also joining us. Believe me, one pitcher of beer will take all your tiredness away. Will see you at 4pm at Zyng pub", all Vicky said without any gap.
I surrendered again. Fuck! I should have anticipated the motive of the call. Or I should have replied firmly with a "No". Why the hell I couldn't say a No. My plan of starting the new classic got postponed for another few days. Oh God, I'm screwed up again.
I'm not going to the detail of this afternoon rendezvous. It was almost same as the previous day one. I was left more exhausted physically and was thinking of taking a day leave on Monday.
Take away:
There are some disadvantages of too much socialization also. It snatches your own time.
If you can't say "No" upfront sometimes to your friends and family, you are screwed up.
If you can't say "No", give some false excuse and that should sound real enough.
P.S: This is the fact of almost every weekend of me.
I'm not against beer !
