It was good fun

How do you define fun ? Do you actually dole out a definition or give experiences to explain it ? Our main aim in life is to have fun, right ? So I had it.

The bench (please refer to the 'Managing to Study' blog for explanations on my bench) had assembled at my house for an outing ... in other words ... it was for a treat for my birthday today. We had two scooters and there were four of us. It was really hot. Yet we went out to have fun.

Our destination ? We thought of Mayajaal on ECR, for those who arent acquainted with the place, its a big building built for entertainment. Its got 6 cinema halls, bowling alleys, pool table, arcade gaming, a restaurent, a shopping area, yada yada.

We started out on the ECR ... the East Coast Road. Soon we forgot all about the heat ... We found the ECR to be a pleasant road, with almost no traffic. With the wind in our faces and a song in our hearts ... we journeyed to our destination. When actually singing on the back of a scooter and the wind in my face, I forgot the fact that I was wearing a cap. When we were doing around 40 km/hr, It flew off.

I yelled "Stop. I lost my cap" to Rama. So he did. I ran down to the side of the road near my cap. It was in the middle of the road. Cars, jeeps, lorries, trucks were whizzing past my cap at 80 km/hr and the bridge scene from M:I-3 came to mind, and I looked up to see if there was any hint of an aerial assault. Just before looking for any copters, I saw a truck go almost over my cap. I then looked up to see if there were any imminent missiles and then looked down. My cap wasnt there.

I then saw it was stuck on the truck wheel and was being given a rag doll ride. So I formulated a plan. I ran to the scooter, asked Rama to step on it and we caught up with the truck. When we were close to the back wheel, I stretched out my hand, leaned to one side and with an action-hero style, I ripped the cap from the wheel. But, then I fell off from the bike and rolled to a stop on the ECR.

Foreseeing all this in Final Destination style, I never ran to the scooter. I walked. (and after a few days, bought another cap for for 50 rupees). 'Better safe than sorry or under a lorry' is my kinda motto.

You see that truck in the distance on the photo ... Its not the truck that has my cap ... But its a truck on the ECR and thats close enough.

We then arrived at mayajaal, with a stupid looking half lion in front. We all wondered if it was broken or was it just a bad sculpture? Whats the point of a lion having a face, a mane, two legs and then after two to three feet it has its two rear legs ... we kept searching for a body that connects the two ... but i guess the sculptor had not attended his biology classes or must have slept through them, like I do, most of the time. Poor lion. If it ever wants to go some place, all it can do is hop around with two legs and wonder "why is my behind always getting left behind ?".

After parking at the back of the place under some shady trees, we looked at a vast expanse of grass and few nice buildings and it slowly dawned on me that this was Mayajaal's new sports club venture and the fact that there was'nt a soul in sight showed that the place was far from doing well. We walked back to the front entrance, and on the way, took a gander at the movies that were currently being shown. 'Fanaa' was one of them and two of us were interested. So I inquired the price of a ticket.

"Rs. 150, saar." was the flabbergasting reply.

No other dialogue was required within 'the bench'. Everything was understood. We somberly walked past the ticket counter to the entrance were they gave us entry tickets. The price for entry was Rs.50 and we had to pay Rs.200 which we could use through a magnetic card, inside the complex. Fun had its price.

We went to the bolwing alley. I had played bowling just once before. That time, it was with my brother and my friend, Rithesh. I saw that I had completely lost touch. Deepak started getting a few good shots in, and beginner's luck was starting to win. After five to six throws, I started getting my game back and got a score with four first time ten-splits on my game and even though I lost to Deepak, I was happy with my ten-splits and to the fact that the scores were far off at all.

We then started a game of pool. Rama and I teamed up against Deepak and Arravindh. After a single shot, Rama confessed he had never played before, and so w all started teaching him and soon, he started to connect easily. We then played four games and Rama & I massacred the other two guys. We almost lost the first game when Deepak had the winning chance to pot the black. Only the black was left on the table. He did pot the black, and the two guys started shouting and celebrating the fact that they had won. But our eyes were still on the green where the white slowly followed the black into the hole. That was a big funny moment. Arravindh started shouting at Deepak and Rama and I started shouting in victorious glee. After that, we played three more games and it was smooth sailing to complete victory. 4-0.

We came down to eat and some guy started saying "I'll give you two meals for two ... Its actually a meal for one, but I'll make the same thing a meal for two and you can have the unlimited stuff from the buffet". So we thought this might be an interesting offer and looked over the items on the buffet menu. It was standard Tandoori fare. He then suddenly said "Please, sir. Take the offer, please". Now I wondered what was wrong with this sentence ? Yah - right - he had said 'please' twice. Now you dont often hear a waiter saying - "Oh. Please eat our food. Its cheap on your wallets". On second thought, Its not often, its never. This struck a bad note.So, we then looked at the buffet itself and found that it looked OLD. Then we understood. But, he had seen the mild eagerness on our faces when we saw the fare and earlier, we had no doubts, as this was 'Mayajaal'.

But we had to take evasive action at that point, or it might have lead to our stomachs being tortured for a day or so. We slowly started to walk away and the guy started pleading us to take the offer and eat the buffet ... I started to feel sorry for the guy, but I wasnt about to just run my stomach through a possible rollercoaster ride for pity's sake. We politely told him "Dont worry. We'll be back after a few games". Needless to say, we didnt go back.

We then went to Marrybrown, had a few burgers, later ordered some chinese items and, in the end, headed for the arcade room.

There was this counter game where we had to press a big pink button at the point when the counter reaches 1000. It starts from zero, goes up really fast and we have to have lightning fast reflexes to get it right. We all tried it once and didnt win. It then dawned on me that it could be easily programmed to make sure that nobody ever 'won'. Still the guys wanted to try again and we stupidly did, only to be dissapointed again, but it was real fun shouting all the time the counter went up, trying to distract the guy's concentration on pressing a big pink button. We played a few more games, collected a few tickets and finally we won a .... wait for it ... a 10-piece CRAYON SET.

After 3 hours of fun and complete satisfaction, we went to a beach on the ECR and sat on the sands for a while and talked about strikes, college, lives and all stuff. 'The bench' is a strict non-smoking, non-alcoholic, purely vegetarian group and Arravindh mentioned these attributes. I told him that i did have some alcohol once, when I was less than two years old and I was on board a ship, a few crew members gave me a few thumbs dipped in alcohol, and after that, according to my parents, I danced all night, was completely drunk and I guess I had a great time, and you have to remember that I was less than two.

After a great many laughs, a few wrong turns, we reached the ECR, came back home to a nice evening and a day well spent. It wasnt bad for a birthday of fun. Wasnt bad at all.

[Description of a fun day]
- Abhishek Ranganathan

{ "First, there were some amoebas. Deviant amoebas adapted better to the environment, thus becoming monkeys. Then came Total Quality Management." - Scott Adams on 'The Theory of Evolution' }

No weddings, one funeral and almost another

It was a dark and stormy night.

Well, it was actually a hot and sunny afternoon but i've known Snoopy to start most of his stories this way, so I just gave it a try.

My mother and I were just returning from a funeral and we were coming home in a tourist taxi. On our way back, we were passing through Indira Nagar (a place close to home) and suddenly a guy with some Gym equipment ran past our car. The driver, with good reflexes, had the instinct to apply brakes, and only after this did we notice who the guy was.

It was this guy in the photo.

I didnt realize this until our driver had slowed down and I was about to shout out something at the guy. But if our driver hadnt slowed down, We could have killed him. Atleast ten producers would have cursed us for bankrupting them. A million fans would have mourned for their star. He gave us a frightened glance and ran off to the 'Maverick' gym on the opposite side of the road.

I still think what would have happened if our car had hit this guy. Maybe we would be saving ourselves from a bit of his over-acting - just a thought.

[A near collision experience with Vikram]
- Abhishek Ranganathan

{ "I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point." - Michael Caine }