'The' Blog

Friday, January 28, 2005

Funny things happen after drinking ...

We got drinking ... yet again , 2 days back. But this time it was a bit different. I stopped drinking after 2 and N went on to drink at least 5 (Not to mention the neat peg, right from the bottle .. a.k.a. Dharam paaji). Now since I was not drunk , I was in a much better state to see what exactly goes on after drinking. Now the usual didn't happen this time. N was overdrunk , as mentioned earlier , and he started with all his nonsense .Nonsense like .. "yaar , mujhse koi pyar nahin karta"(!!) and "Yaar tum meri wajah se bahut pareshaan ho na ?". Now what seemed like a joke at the beginning , turned to be really serious. N started crying, then he demanded more ... and when we denied him any more , he became violent ! He first took the coke bottle and smashed it to the ground , spilling sticky coke all over the floor. Then he pulled the door handle so hard that the latch came out , hurting him .. he was bleeding all over his hand ... but he still needed more Daru ! He was al messed up .. getting violent , crying , shouting obscenities. Finally we persuaded him to go to the loo to wash the wound. Now as he dipped his hand under the cold water , sth in the water got his fancy .. and he dipped his head under the water ! And then he wouldn't remove his head from under the tap ! (FYI , It is freezing in Delhi!). Somehow we got him out of there and then back to the room. But then his alcohol stained mind managed to recollect that there was still some Daru left, and he again started shouting for more. Another problem was that he wanted to go to his hostel at any cost , while there were at least 4 different places with guards between that hostel and the the hostel we were in. Finally G and J tied him down to G's bed and there he finally slept.
Once N was put to rest , we decided to end the drinking program , and then we went on to watch "You've got mail". This was , as far as I remember , the 6th time I was watching the movie , and it still seemed so nice ...
G and J then went on to see National Treaure , but I just can't see 1 movie after the other .. esp not after such a nice movie ... so I went off to sleep , thinking that I'll never drink after this ..... well , at least for some time....

Here is another 'pome'

All this drink ..
down the drain .
Short term euphoria
And then pain ..

And yet ...
Today I preach
What tomorrow ?

They say "It is but the devil himself"
"Has it done anybody any good ?"
But then , does anybody listen ?
It's no use telling me too ....
For I am also one of the 'anybody' ....

Though I lose my rhyme ..
It is due time ...
That I stop writng ..
And let things happen the way they are ..

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Mahushala

I found this english translation of the poem 'Madhushala' by Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachhan. Here are some excerpts from it :

My beloved wine-maiden seems a priest; her wine as pure as the Ganga's waters.
With unbroken pace, she rotates the rosary of wine glasses.
"Drink more! Drink more!" she intones in prayer.
I am Shiva incarnate and this tavern is my temple.

Life is short. How much love can I give and how much can I drink?
They say, "He departs," at the very moment that he is born.
While he is being welcomed, I have seen his farewell being prepared.
They started closing the shutters of the tavern, as soon as they were raised.

Yama will come as the wine-maiden and bring his black wine,
Drink, and know no more consciousness, O carefree one.
This is the ultimate trance, the ultimate wine-maiden and the ultimate goblet.
O traveller, drink judiciously, for you will never find the tavern again.

If anyone asks my name, say it was, "The Drunkard".
My work? I drank and passed the goblet to everyone.
O Beloved, if they ask my caste, say only that I was mad.
Say my religion worshipped goblets and then chant with your rosary, "The tavern, the tavern!"

For more visit here . For anyone who would like to read the full poem in hindi , visit here . The poem is really beautifully written. Some part of it was even released as music album , rendered by Manna Dey and selected by Harivansh Rai Bachhan himself. The album is really good too ...

Saturday, January 08, 2005

On what happened on new year's eve

On the new years eve ( As planned a month in advance ) , we got drunk in the hostel. Here is all that happened :
It was G's birthday on 1st of January and he was the one sponsoring the drinks. We were 5 ppl and so he got 5 quarters of drink. 1 backed out at the last moment and so we were 4 ppl left with 5 quarters of drink ... J , G , N and me. Now the drinks had been procured , we had to decide weather to to get drunk and then enter the new year or weather to enter the new year and then get drunk. Orginal plan was to start at 12 sharp , but G said that his folks may call up at night to wish him , so we shifted the plan to 12:30. At 12:30 , finally we sat drinking. The first peg was a Patiyala + Ludhiyana (Read really large) , in coke. Finished with it , we began looking at each other and started making funny faces. Finally I got up to fix another round. To our dismay ... we fell short of coke. Coke was left only for 1 more round of drinks and so we reserved it for the last. So for the first time , we took alcohol in water. Tasted yuck ... but we desperately wanted to get drunk. So we gulped down the second round and I poured out the remainants of the whisky bottle for the third round. Then we were left with a quarter of rum and some coke. G insisted we finish that off as well , but the truth was that we had already had enough. The truth was that we had already started dancing with the glasses on our heads and J was lying on the floor , rolling with laughter. The truth was that we should have stopped there and then. I told them to stock the bottle of rum for some other time. But they were drunk ... and so was I. The bottle was opened and we had our 4th round for the day. Finally ... each of us had had a quarter of a quarter more than a quarter (Read that slowly .. and u'll get what that means) of alcohol and were quite drunk (Though I guess I should mention here that I took half of peg less of Rum , so I was a little less drunk ..). Finally , exhausting all the alcohol , we set out on the college roads. First came the hostel gate with a guard. I guess we managed to walk straight (or so it seemed) , and without making much noise , we got out of the hostel. Then we went to this particular point on the road where we had sat down the last time we had gotten drunk (That was the only the second time , just in case u start thinking that I am a drunkard). We sat there for a while. J started speaking in his drunk-english which means english without words like in , the , a , are etc. Meanwhile N came to me and started explaining me what it takes to be a freind , in his bihari-english , very funny indeed. G was as usual calm and started talking about his crush on this girl in our class. And me ? I became very quiet ... as usual (Usual when I become drunk , otherwise , I can out-talk anyone).
But unlike always , we were over-drunk. After about half an hour of sitting and saying and hearing all kinds of nonsense .. we got up to pee in the nearby bushes. G got up first , went to the bushes and fell in. All of us started laughing , but actually , we were so numb that we took a lot of time to get up and help him up. Finally , when he got him up .. he told us that he had lost his chappal in the bushes. After some time , we were all frantically going through the bushes , drunk and numb , trying to find G's chappals. Finally I found it (Told u I was the least drunk ... ). Then as we started going back to the hostel , N puked. J took him to the hostel. Me and G then sat down and started talking. . Then I lied down alone (on the footpath!) and G began making calls to probably everyone he knew ... his balance dipped by at least 35 bucks that night. Then we went back to the hostel and met J at G's room. Now I was standing in the balcony , when G puked , in his room , all around the bed. I ran out of the balcony , out of his room , and finally I met J at J's room. Now both N and G had been put to sleep , and J was telling me to run to the bathroom at the slightest feeling of puke. Then we just sat outside his room and kept on talking about other nonsensical things and stopped when we finally slept at 4:30 in the morning.
This is how I celebrated the new years eve.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Into a new year

Just finished The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. An extremely out of this universe book. A must read for everyone.

I was thinking to myself that why is it that everytime you finish a book or a movie ( Only interesting ones ), u suddenly feel very dull , as to why it ended at all .... It always hapens with me ... So that I can't read one book immediately after finishing with another , or see end to end movies ... Why does it happen ? I guess this happens because instead of just seeing the movie or reading the book , you start living in it ... you associate with it subconsciously so that when it gets over , u feel dull that your new found life , that was so different and interestng than your present dull and monotonous one got over. But I think that this does not happen with many people. My mother says that I live in my dreams a little too much , and that is why this happens .... maybe. Maybe that is the reason I like to sleep so much ;-).

Meanwhile , finally 2004 is over. Phew ! What a dreadfully long year it was .... And now 2005 is here , I look forward to a lot of things. College will start in a few days , but this time I want to think less about her and more about other things. Other things being losing weight and improving my grades. I hope that this time I don't end up forgetting my new year resolution. But I guess this new year is just a change of date and nothing else. Nothing is going to change. But still I'll try my best. I wish luck to myself.