Flavours of Friendship

After a long hiatus a bunch of us got together last evening and all thanks to Dharmesh. He had popped into town a week or ten days ago, headed up to Gangtok and on his return to the city called me day before yesterday and asked if I could get as many of our batch mates together. I immediately went about the task. Calling was going to be rather tedious, so a group text to all the boys was sent out. Monday evening’s plan got derailed as I guess the notice period was too short, and so Tuesday evening was confirmed by a couple of the guys.

On Tuesday morning Dharmesh called me and confirmed that instead of the usual Magnolias, Nizar had suggested a place called Flavours of India. Well that was no problem for me because it was just around a corner from my office and 7:00pm suited me just fine. So as I was getting into my car after work, Dharmesh called me and informed me that Nizar, Narendra and he were already there. Punctual fellow, I guess timing is everything if you’re a Stock Broker.

Anyway I arrived and suddenly realised that parking was going to be the most painful thing to find here, but as I pulled up in front of the restaurant, a Sardarji waved out to me and came up to the car and asked if I was going to Flavours of India and I gave him a confirmatory nod so he came around to my side and said that he would park the car. Yippy! Problem number one solved; now to find the guys.

As I walked in and looked around, an elderly gentleman standing in front facing me clicked his fingers nearly in my face surprising me and said, “Joseph’s?” As I nodded my head up and down involuntarily, he pointed to a table inside. I walked up and saw the three chaps sitting there. As I narrated the story to them, Dharmesh told me that since he had come in early he spent about 10 minutes with the old man and had told him about his life’s history and how he was meeting up with old school friends. Well that solved the mystery of how the old man knew my School’s name.

Anyway we got straight down to the business of catching up and the best way to do so is over chilled draught beer. So along came the first pitcher and then the next. As we got chatting, we were joined by Rahul, Neeraj, Rajat and Punit. More beer and snacks were ordered and the decibel level at our table also rose.

Dharmesh was meeting some of the guys for the first time after school and it was a nostalgic evening which got better as we remembered some of the funny incidents that had occurred in school. Gosh how we guys can meet up and talk about those same incidents every time we meet and still have so much fun. It’s like if we had to relive those times, we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Finally Manpreet and Pankaj joined in towards the end of the evening. By now the buzz had set in after what seemed like an entire keg of beer had been consumed at our table. It was a week night and a lot of us had to get back home to our wives and kids and so we called it a night.
I just loved our flavour of friendship, even though we guys met up rarely and some of us after years, but it never seemed like we had been separated. Our friendship is caught in some sort of time warp where we always get transported when we meet.

Anyway for any of you guys wanting to catch up of cheap booze (they serve Draught Beer and by the pitcher of 4-6 mugs too) and some fabulous munchies (ask for the cheese-onion-chilli-kulcha), visit Flavours of India.

FLAVOURS OF INDIA
6/3A, A.J.C.Bose Road,
Kolkata – 700017
Tel: +91 33 22901972, 22906574, 30284018
(Free Home Delivery Available)