The Last Reunion

“Cheers” said all three of us in chorus as we stashed our glasses together. While Akash and I went slow on it, Sid drank bottoms up. His days were coming near, he was getting married. So was Akash but in a little more time. It was probably going to be our last bachelor’s night out so the occasion brought us to this big five star hotel. We still persisted drinking under the night sky with a pool side view.

None of us would have imagined such a night together when we first met 8 years ago on the first day to our engineering college. Coming from three different parts of India, different culture, different family and financial backgrounds, we become friends instantly. We had nothing in common. I don’t know if we ever liked anything about each other because we hardly said good things to each other. But we were friends nonetheless, that too the best of them. There was trust, care and bonding.

Our story may sound to you straight out of Chetan Bhagat’s immortalized novel ‘five point someone’. But actually it was far from it. We were not in IIT, not even close to it. None of us had any love interest in our college’s HOD’s daughter. We didn’t even know if she existed. We weren’t exactly the brightest of future of this country nor did our parents expected us to be. But yes, we had to work our ass off for grades, study through the endless nights on endless projects, run around after professors for attendance after missing the lectures because of last night’s hangovers.

I still remember how ugly we looked. Coming from smaller cities, we had no sense of fashion or style. Akash looked starved and an absolute idiot as he always chose to wear pant-shirts. Sid being from Punjab was fair as cream but like me he had no style. We were amongst those boys who were absolutely neglected for even a look by any girl of the college. They preferred boys in branded jeans and T’s with expensive cars to go with it. But we never missed to stare, ‘check out’ in good language.

We were deprived of girls. This was very heartbreaking for us especially for Akash who was romantic to the core. ‘If Ajay Devgan can get Kajol, why can’t I?’ he used to say after 2 pegs on the hostel roof. It was this roof which made us so addicted to the sky view drinking, made our college life absolutely unforgettable and our friendship to be unbreakable. I still remember how Akash concentrated more on food, thinking to be unnoticed while Sid and I drank.

Our outlooks may have changed because of the expensive clothes and watches that we were wearing now but we were still the same from inside. Akash still concentrated more on food as the waitress served another Aussie dish. The way Akash checked her out made me realize that even after so many years and an Australian girlfriend, he could still sexually molest a girl with his bare eyes. 

Yes, our ugly Akash turned smart ‘Quality Manager’ with an IT major had moved to Australia and lived-in with his Aussie girlfriend. I myself couldn’t believe it till he landed in India with her, three months ago. His family is under a much bigger shock than Sid and I were when we saw Stacy. She was hot. Her figure could put any lingerie model to shame.  How did he manage to get a beach babe like her is the question that Sid and I are still trying to unravel. But we are happy for Akash and proud of their love, for the pain they are going through to convince Akash’s family.      

Sid, the big businessman, on the other hand was in for a surprise from his family. His strict dad, yes because of whose strictness he was always short of pocket money, had decided to get him married to a friend’s daughter in Punjab. This meant that half the decision had been made and our obedient Sid won’t rebel. Akash, Stacy and I joined Sid in his depressed state and on his adventure trip to meet his bride in some remote town of Bathinda. 

He wasn’t as unlucky as we thought he would be. Pooja was Bathinda’s Priety Zinta with a beautiful dimpled smile, beautiful eyes and a beautiful Indian outlook. As we soon found out how caring, sweet and joyful she was, our Sid was flattered. While he completely lost himself into her and Stacy lost herself in the farms, Akash and I lost ourselves on the most important thing, Tandoori Chicken. In three days that we spent there, Sid was so much in-love that if he had it his way, he would have taken Pooja along. This is what beauty can do to men.

So this was it then. The stage is set for marriage now in a few weeks time. Akash would follow soon after. Now comes the time of insecurity. Till now we were free birds. We could meet up any time of the day and night. This is how we had managed to keep close for so long. Though none of us would admit but things were going to change now. We were entering a new world, a new life with a new person. There will be more responsibility and less time. Instead of hanging out at bars with each other during weekends, we will be grocery shopping with our wives. Once the family grows, it will be even more responsibility and even less time. Though we had managed 8 years of great time and friendship, we didn’t know if after next 8 years we will even know where the others are. But with a promise to be as close as always, made after ten pegs of absolute vodka we asked for the bill. Like always it was great to fight over the bill, not for ‘who’ll pay it’ but for ‘I’ll pay it’. I wasn’t very keen to participate because I am still a struggling writer, trying to entertain.

                                                             

P.S- FRIENDS ARE GIFTS OF LIFE... NEVER LOSE THEM.