AND now it is KAUSHAL’S TURN

The day I went to eat at kaushals place...
The Night Before:
Wow, its only 1 o clock, got another 5 hours to go before the cock crows. Also an hr at least before sleep comes to me. Yikes, that’s a long long time, what am I supposed to do till then. The phone rings, who could that be at this ungodly hour for normal mortals I think. Hey its rakha. Goodie another iiftian desperately lacking in sleep. and he still has his free phone calls. Well not exactly free but when u not going to pay the bill that’s what u can call it. So we chat till an hr goes by. And he finishes his last or do u call it first cigarette of the day. Whew 2 o’clock. Sleep seems to beckon.
Go online, what is this? The yahoo messenger which used to show around 20 people online when I was in instit shows almost everyone on sms. Hmm no luck there also. Lie down on bed, and thankfully asleep.
The Morning:
This was the prelude to the day which I called the day I went to eat at kaushal's not because it caused any earth shattering change in my life but for lack of any other defining happening in the day rather than the movement from TV to bed via the comp which is how every other day happens. It’s like the earth has stopped rotating and revolving. Anyway morning comes and by that I define morning as 9 am which would ideally have been dawn in my dictionary nowadays. But the phone rings again. Try to ignore it but it keeps ringing incessantly. Who the heck is it I wonder? If it was rakha I was going to abuse him. Hey he had also slept late. Oh on a totally different platform, nowadays my mom had given up trying to wake me at a respectable hour by her standards and 10 or 11 had become my usual waking hour. This aside was just to explain the importance of the phone ringing at 9 am. It will become clearer as the story progresses as to why this particular part is important. So this was how the call came. It was kaushal on the line and a very sleepy me tried to make head or tail of what he was saying. Something abt going to his house in the evening or is it for dinner? But even in my sleep induced unconscious mind I remembered that I had no idea where his house was. So I ask wait a sec all that is ok but where is your house? So kaushal says there is this movie hall very close to his place, why don’t I stand there at around 6 and he will come and pick us up (oh yeah he does say ladia, manish and binti oops sorry binit are going to be there). At least that’s what I hear. I readily agree for lack of anything better to do.
Evening shows the way:
Anyway there was nothing better to do in the day so went thru the day waiting for the evening to come. And finally wonder of wonders evening did come. Err it must be doing so everyday but you see generally I am fast asleep at that time of the day. Anyway I go to this hall in front of which I am supposed to meet kaushal. Reach there around 5:45. One of those second rate halls of cal which has gotten even worse with the coming of cals very first multiplexes. now even cal can stand up and be counted on the grounds of having another haven for teen vices as the shiv sena, rss or any of those freaky parties who want to take India to the lovely age of ram rajya would descibe it.
Whoops sorry am getting away from the story which is about kasuhal well even if not him then at least his place or the visit to his place. So I stand and wait and wait and wait and WAIT a little more. Here I am neglecting to describe to u the numerous agonising mins tat I spent looking at the watch wondering when the crackpot would arrive and looking at every passing man to see if that was kasushal. Would like to tell ppl that I didn’t want to use the phone to call up kaushal primarily for 2 reasons.
1. was half asleep when kaushal called so didn’t really know when he had invited me. So didn’t want to embarrass him or myself or his parents etc,
2. Was also not really sure of what kasuhal had heard and made out of my statements when I was sleep. So wait till 6:30 and finally muster up enuf courage o call kaushal.
RING RING RING (that’s the phone ringing)
"Helloo" (that’s kaushal)
"Err may I speak to kaushal please" (urs truly)
"Speaking" (heck have got tired of these bracket thingies ... make out for urself who is talking etc)
"Hi kaushal, nagu bol raha hoon"
"Haan nagu bol"
"Kaushal, tune kab aane ke liye bola tha?" (ok need the bracket thingie to explain something ... here the Hindi kab was very useful as I concluded that since I used kab even if he had called me the next day it would work as much as if I was asking for the time today .... in case u guys didn’t understand. kab stands for when as much as what time well at least I think it does and so we will say it does)
"Abhi yaar, tu kahan hai"
"Oh main to movie hall ke saamne hoon ...."
The rest of the conversation was mere direction seeking but what was imp abt the conversation was I was cursing myself for thinking too much and not just going ahead and calling kaushal and also cursing kaushal for not having the good sense to stand in front of hall and expecting me to call when I get there. Anyway the rest of the story isn’t much (actually laziness has taken over) suffice to say there must have a been a mini famine somewhere bcoz between ladia, binti (who says he is going for jogging every morning), banthia, kaushal and myself we must have finished a load of food which could have fed somalians (here I mean actual somalians who are famine victims not people like tun or me who look like someone who has come from famine ridden place - but I got an explanation for that u see for every rakha there has to be a mass equalisation in this world newton or some crazy fuck said that, so for every rakha there has to be a tun) anyway that’s that - time to go back to bed
END of the STORY FOR NOW
BUT THERE WILL BE MORE