I was headed to a meet organised by this B-School bringing together all alumni and students currently based out of Mumbai. The venue was a posh multi-star hotel near the International Airport. As is the case with most such meets where you are not likely to be knowing more than two individuals beforehand and where you are likely to be using all your energy in doing an "Oh My God! Where have you been all these years?" when coming across an acquaintance from school, college, neighbourhood, street, city or state by chance, the crowd resembled one you would find at a funeral.
Sensing the eerie silence, the 'alumni' did its bit by going through a perfunctory round of introductions in which nobody seemed one bit interested. I always get the jitters before such introductions for you are invariably asked to do one of the following: a)sing b)dance c) crack a joke d) Answer some weird question e) Talk of your love/crush/would-be crush/could-be crush. Needless to say, I am poor at a), b) and e) and only average at c) and I couldn't thank my lucky stars enough when all I was subject to was d).
And then the "party" began. Now it needs little emphasis that there is little space at such parties for a person like me who has lived one heck of a boring life so far by sticking to vegetarian solid and non-alcoholic liquid. My interest in such events is limited to careful observation so that it gives me sufficient content for a blog post like this which in turn helps me with my Google Talk status message for a week. It has always intrigued me how any person in his/her senses is able to hold on to a peg of vodka for well over an hour without finishing it. In the best interest of etiquette, I gulped a litre of fruit juice and another couple of litres of mineral water. However, my hands started complaining from having to hold on to empty glasses/bottles and I decided that etiquette could go to bed for the day.
Besides the observation part, I also take great interest in whatever little vegetarian food that is on offer. It always fascinates me how the proportion of non-meat starters on offer decreases exponentially with time so much so that you are forced to barge into the kitchen to enquire whether there was any impending vegetable crisis. Frustrated at having to wait for so long, I dived into the main course and after eating to the content of my stomach, had water out of necessity for the first time.
The last bit of such parties is the one I enjoy the most. I am not talking about the desserts which were so sumptuous that I am skipping both breakfast and lunch today. Everybody is so thoroughly sloshed that they start to rail against the system. When you are inebriated, you seem to get one of these 'Eureka' moments when you realise that you have lived a life of very little substance and instruct all and sundry not to repeat the mistakes you have committed. One common rant was against three particular institutes known to have a canny resemblance with three consecutive letters of the English alphabet.
So I came back with the usual gyaan on networking, studies and stuff. From my side, I am thoroughly looking back to getting back to hostel life which I believe is the greatest education that you can receive in life in a thoroughly mesmerising campus (I have been there before) getting back to doing all that I enjoy doing. I have never looked forward to a break so much so far.
