Scene 1 - Office desk - Mail pops in - Dinner tomorrow at 7 30 pm... Face turns bright... Food always manages to bring a smile...
Scene 2 - Home - A million "what-to-wear" thoughts disco in my head... "You should always be well dressed for a party" - "Nah! Just another one of those meet all, shake hands with all and nibble all parties... Why dress up?" - "How bout that red shirt which you've never worn?" - "Perhaps you should skip the dinner altogether" - The music in my head doesn't look like it'll end anytime soon...
Scene 3 - Next day morning - A sudden flip of my neuro senses and a bulb lights up on my head... I will attend... Wear something new and good.. And look corporate...
Phew... That was a tough one... Sometimes I feel girls should not be blamed ;)
Combo of scenes - Day moves on in office... Another mail arrives during the day and mentions the dinner time being advanced to 7... Suits me right... Food should never wait... It's cruel... To us that is...
(Frankly, I still have no idea why I was looking forward to this dinner a lot... There was nothing exciting about it, the place was not the Taj, booze and I don't like each other, smokes go up in smoke when they see me and it was not like I was expecting dance and action... Hmmm... )
At around 19 12 (as noted on the huge clock), my colleague friend (who will be called CF from now on) and I were there... Our senior joined us a bit later and almost immediately my mind started scouting around looking for some clue as to where this hall might be... Minutes passed and all three of us finally decided (come to think of it, there was also some realization involved) that next to hunger, courtesy is just another word, which deserves the back bench... And on we moved to Floor 20...
Buffet Hall Grand Scene - Floor 20 of the Residency Towers - Our friends and colleagues from other departments (That sounded really corporate didn't it! I love myself :) ) were already present and I could see some starters and drinks laid across the table... The guests for whom this dinner was arranged mingled in well... Or so it seemed... We had ended up late...
As was expected, we moved on and on towards the far end of the table, where even the light from the candles on the table, feared to pass through... We set in and I occupied the last seat on that table... The picture was complete... At one end of the table, we had the top guns and the other end had the cigarette lighter guns...
As was the plan, I opened Gravity and began my tweeting... In response to my tweet saying that the dinner was colorless, I had friends popping in, asking me to play a Vijay track or have some fireworks and all that... None to work though... Because my sense of satisfaction and completeness was directly and indirectly related to the food that would be served... So I could not be bothered...
Somewhere in between, I sensed myself as a God like being, able to float around the room without being noticed... CF and the manager were discussing client work... Partners discussed modes on changing India, while at the same time bringing in benefits to our organization in general and the Chennai office in specific... The workforce (you know who I mean) were having their night out and had their hands on each other's shoulders... Pairs of eyes shifted between the different persons on all sides of the table... Taking stolen glances... attempts by the workforce to make their face familiar to the guests, so that the next time they land in "EINDIYA", they call em Dude !... And on and on...
But all of them looked so eerily similar... No one appeared comfortable... It was evident in each one's eyes that that they were so fully conscious of being there... As much as they tried to look all composed and in familiar territory, their body actions betrayed them... They were unsettled, shifting every now and then and were all eyes and ears to everything happening around... So alert that had I blown a flying kiss, each one would have told me the direction to which it was headed...
There was also this particular stereotype of a guy who always looks up the ladder and where the next step lay... He seemed particularly in a mood to laugh out loud with hands clapping, for some silent jokes made by the person(s) next to him.. You could make out that they were not really genuine reactions, from the way he used to suddenly calm down, have a sip of his lime soda and continue looking for ladder steps...
Dinner was served... The food was normal and nothing to shout about... King prawns ordered with a lot of hope in mind, disappointed us by looking like the puny and starving subjects of the king... Rotis were good... Curries tasty but not exceptional... The food affair went on silently, with some sounds coming from the other sides of the table, of people speaking with their mouths stuffed, clinking of glasses (beer and non beer), and the like...
Dinner done and someone suddenly realized that we were sitting on the rooftop and that we could have a decent view of the city skyline if we stepped outside... In one swift move, the table was empty and much to the discomfort of the guests seated outside, a certain organisation's workforce was crowding the rooftop restaurant looking down at the lights and the city...
Everyone likes the view from the top...
Back to their seats five minutes later and orders for dessert were placed... I had realized that brownie with ice cream was my heart's request... Another twenty minutes and on the table, in front of me, dripping with chocolate sauce and scoops of ice cream, was my sizzling hot brownie... But greed is not always good and I burnt my tongue and left cheek while learning that important lesson... It was delicious and for some reason, God made sure that I was not reminded even in the slightest manner of the calorie count and the blah and the blah... You don feel bliss very often...
All done, mouth wiped and the fresheners popped in, everyone moved towards the exit... Each one holding on to their corporate selves for the last few minutes... Everyone handed out their valet tickets and waited as their drive arrived...
Which is where I clicked this...
(not a great pic - Apologies)
Some desperate guy from desperate land had fixed glossy red horns to his Grand Vitara's bonnet, possibly in the hope of standing out from the crowd... But in a way it was a fitting summary to what the evening had been... Each one preferred to be someone and something different, but were not aware how... And ended up realizing after a while that all said and done, you are still what you are... You could go up, you could fix horns, you could paint yourself red, you could do anything... But if people don't take in the new you, you end up losing more of yourself...
Final scene - My car arrives, I hand out CF's bag and drive into the night... With Sarah McLachlan...
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