An unusual evening at Mojo

This was one of the such evenings I will never forget and will cherish forever. After ten days of vacation at home I was back to work on Tuesday (31st July) afternoon. On reaching to office I received warm greetings from our gang members as per my expectations. Then sweets which I brought with me were on distribution. I also received some uncalled congratulations because of sweets. It was already few minutes past 1 PM and also I was too hungry so immediate work to be finished was getting food that could have satisfied my hunger. Lunch started with our usual discussions. Of course, I was the day's prime target!!!!!!! After all it was ten days ago when I would have been the target (but as far as I can recall ten days ago it was the day of one and only one the grt BIHARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was the centre of attraction that day!!!!!). Then the planning for the evening's celeberation was on the agenda. After all it was not just that I joined the gang after ten days but, the eight characters (Akhil(BHAI.......my mistake....I am still trying to rectify this mistake......., Arup Malakar(MALA), Ashish, Suresh (Bihari), Priyabrata(PK), Rohan(BABA) , Deep and myself ) of this blog were gathering at evening after a very long time (though few months.....but really long taken in consideration of working together earlier or meeting at various pubs usually twice a week). what a great day it was...I was back after the vacation, Akhil was back to bangalore after a short trip of US, PK was also back to Bangalore a day ago and Ashish was also in Bangalore because of some of his official work. So, all we started to discuss was timing and venue for the reunion party. About venue everyone was convinced with MOJO(our homeground) and about timings also nobody had any objections with evening.

So, at 5.30 PM, PK arrived at Qwest and we went out to cafeteria and started discussing a wide range of topics. But, today the highest priority topic was 60% ratio in PK's company. After chatting for sometime I received a call from Ashish telling that he would be available after 7.00 PM. Then Bihari called our busiest gang member (Akhil....commonly known as Kaamdev..because of his love for work or atleast as he pretends!!!!!!). Bihari also fixed the schedule with Mala. About 7.00 PM, we were about to leave office for Mojo...but it's the real devil....Bangalore's rain...it truely obeys Murphy's law. Till the time you are inside your home or office there will be no rain in Bangalore, as soon as you come out it will start poring heavily. Anyway, jab irade itne majboot ho to baaris aur toofan kya?? We took an autorickshaw and reached Mojo after covering 3-4 KMs...(all credit to Bangalore's one way roads.that forced us to reach 1 Km far destination after covering 3-4 Kms).

Around 7.30 PM we arrived at MOJO. Surprisingly despite of a weekday Mojo was almost fully occupied. Fortunately we managed to get a big table(sufficient enough to accommodate 8 persons) very soon. ohh....I saw Mala walking on his one and a half tang.......during my vacation his bike skid while returning to room after drinking.....Bangalore's rain was the culprit here also!!! For me it is still not clear who is responsible for Mal's this condition....Deep and Ashish are the two prime suspects. Anyway Mala was reminding me of Chandraswamy with his one and a half tang looks. Very soon all the eight persons were there and our usual protocols at Mojo. So, the first order was two pitchers of beer and some snacks.It was not just Mala who had a different appearance but there were a lot many surprises. Akhil's swelling tummy was forcing everyone to go for some interesting comparasion or infer amusing facts from this. So, there were a lot many guesses about the number of months to how many this tummy contains??? Even people started to discuss Karm-Kukarm theory behind this tummy.

For me this evening at Mojo was very different from my earlier evenings. I have stopped drinking and smoking about a month earlier. Though after that I have been at pubs with our gang and have taken mocktails!!!! But, this is the first time at Mojo after stopping drinking and also this was perhaps the first complete reunion after that....So, I was expecting that it would be really very difficult for me to resist today. As per expextations, before going for their first mug of beer, everyone started requesting, threatening, forcing.....me to drink. But, I was very inflexible and was in no mood to drink. So, everyone tried his best to convince me...it was like a board interview for me in which every member of board was applying his all the best techniques. Request, threat, abuse, senti, some unprintable dialogues were there for me. It was really a tough choice for me. Refusing to their request especially on such occasion was really something which I would never love to do. But at the same time I was in no mood to drink so, I had to go for this. The very obvious question everyone was asking... kisi ne kasam de di hai kya??? Koi mannat man rakhi hai kya?? ..a many more similar sort of questions... Even I am not very clear why I stopped drinking and smoking....but I want to stop it for more time... It may be the part of my love for changes..so, after drinking frequently for quite sometime now I want to stop for sometime!!!! So, after more than 30 minutes of this drama people accepted that I was not going to drink so they started with Bottoms-up.

Realizing that they have wasted about 30 mins in convincing me all were in the mood to go faster. Surprisingly today PK was also not drinking. We were going great, party was in full swing ..everyone was enjoying every moment of it. more and more beer were coming to our table....baba n mala were more than happy as songs playing there was very much familiar(Floyd, Nirvana, Eagles....) which is not a usual case at Mojo. Mala was busy in head banging after opening his hairs....Ashish was trying to imitate baba n mala...showing him like a crazy rock fan!!!!!! Deep was lost in thoughts as usual...Pk had the same deadly smile....for PK it is immaterial whether he is drinking or not??? Akhil was pretending to drink lesser as his parents were at his place.I tried to click some interesting photographs!!!!!!!!But as I was not drinking..so everyone together was there to stop me..so I was enjoying gobi manchurian, popcorns n watching these guys njoying their drinks n rock!!! Just all of this was not enough...I was thinking that Mojo has become monotonous place for us...We can't have more fun at this place we used to have. Later this thought was proved wrong and given me a strong feeling that at any stage of anything there is always a scope for improvement!!!

So, many more happenings were waiting. This time ot was something unusual....A guy sitting with the group in front of us started staring Mala continuously..... Then he came and sit at one empty chair near our table...then started interacting with Mala...By this time some of us realized this unusual behavior. Then he told Mala that he was looking exactly same as one of his friends (I forgot the name!!!!!!). Starting with some senseless chat with Mala that guy tried to mixed up with our groups. By that time Mala also sensed his intentions (though still unclear!!!) so, he shifted to the corner and sat at maximum possible distance from that confusing character. Then it was again time for everyone to give his expert suggestion and comments on this incident.
So, Bihari started-"Bhaiyon..aaj ke baad main to baal bade nahi kar raha!!!". What a timing??
That guy approached Bihari(Suresh) and spoke-" Hi, I am Raj. You look very similar to one of my close friend Bobby!!!". Then Baba(Rohan) started his long lasted chat with that guy and gave hime Bihari's cell No. Then this whole incident become too messy and people (Bihari, Baba and Deep) started the big fight. These guys were really crazy. Though the uncalled guest was gone but here these three guys were trying to kill each other with there innovative abusive WMD. After sincere request and intervention by rest of the gang mebers these guys were finally calm.

With so many happenings, we have already the almost closing time of the pub. This was a common happenings whenever we gather at Mojo. Whatever be our arrival time at Mojo after 5.00 PM, we left that place at the end only and that also after the waiter's repeated request about closing time.So, today also nobody was in the mood to leave this place. We started singing our own numbers because the music was off by that time. What a great performance by Baba...he sang so many Hindi tracks that I was hearing for the first time and truely speaking hardly there was any song which I have heard for double digit times. After a long pleading by the waiters, we finally came out of Mojo. Oh...it was raining outside, though not heavily at that time but sufficient enough to wet you thoroughly till you reach home.

Baba and Bihari was still in full form just like..."Mahfil to abhi jawan hi hui thi!!!". So, Baba was again singing from his own antique collection of Hindi Songs. Suddenly Baba was shouting at everyone "saala koi gaa hi nahi raha" then it was humble response form everyone "Baba aisa gaana aap laye kahan se ho??Yaad hoga tab na gaenge!!". But, Baba is known for his stubbornness so, he continued with his innovative numbers. The must interesting thing was that he had song for every gang member.After standing, singing, dancing and discussing the immediate course of action in that rain which was intensifying with time made them feel that they ahve the defeciency of alcohol again. So, the waiter of Mojo was asked to arrange some more alcohol at 12.00AM in night and that waiter went with Akhil and brought three bottles of beer. Then my house was chosen as the place for further happenings. Bhai(Akhil) ..aadat se majboor..bhav khana start kar diya!!! At the end everyone was convinced to be the part of further happenings.

Around 12.30 all of us gathered at my house. Then it was an openfloor discussion going on. There was a new joinee to this discussion- Ankur Bhatia(Bhattu). I started to click some of the unforgettable KODAK moments but it was not my day after all....A number of threats and unprinttable to me!!!!! Camera was taken out of my hand. I was the part of those KODAK moments then. After an hour of open floor session...everyone was feeling sleepy and started to leave for his place. So, the great evening was finally over.

This was an unforgettable as well as an unusual evening for me. I ws enjoying the great reunion at Mojo and that from the other side(not my usual side till this day!!!). But, this side was also very interesting. As, I am fond of changes, I enjoyed this very much.