It’s that time of the year when the calendar is filled with festivals – Eid, Navaratri, Diwali… Everyone…(well..almost everyone) is excited for some reason or the other…some for the thrill of festivities, the foodies of course have a feast all through, some lazy types like me thrive on the holidays and in the place I come from, they are more than elated about the 10 day term break they earned after four full terms of stress and distress!!
We have a Dandiya-Nite today in the campus. It promises to be great fun and energies are obviously running high!! I have one and precisely ONLY ONE memory of Dandiya and oh man what a fun it was!! This was about three years back – when few of us were planning for dandiya. After days of emotionally traumatizing my mom of how I would be missing on so much fun, and trading off by doing something which I dreaded and something she despartely needed me to do (which was getting a photo of mine clicked for 'ladke waale'), after assurance I would be in safe hands etc etc I finnaallly got the nod.
So, around eight of us went on an evening, all excited and thrilled. We ended up going to one of the expensive dandiya locations and that realization dawned upon us when we shelled out money for the entry ticket. Boyy….what a place it was - filled with laughter, colors, nonchalant chatter and music. There were people who matched the beat and the rhythm so well…..sooo very well…I was fascinated by the grace in their movements, rhythmic flow of steps, synch between absolute strangers (who for sure haven’t ‘rehearsed’ together)….it was amazinnggg….I was having fun watching them, when we thought it’s high time we try a step or two….so we all went in to dance or 'try' rather. For the novices that we were, we chose to form our own little circle. In total contrast to the veterans, we were totally out of rhythm, ridiculously clumsy and I wouldn’t even want to mention our co-ordination!!! But, it was absolute fun!!!!
Tired after a while, we decided to munch on something. We went around the stalls in search of food. We probably bought a plate or two of the super expensive chat and decided would share it. It very very obviously did not suffice the group of eight or six that we were. We decided it’s too expensive in there to have food and considering we had enough ‘hands-on’ of dandiya and more importantly, the perpetual 'kangals' that we were, we decided to move out and have food elsewhere. We left on our bikes, totally high from the excitement. Cool breeze, lovely night, empty roads – wait, did I say empty roads? I should rephrase it to 'totally deserted roads' – it was 2:00 AM and evidently, there was not a single food joint open. We checked out places where they served midnight buffet only to see that they were scraping out pieces of leftovers, if any!! It was already about 3:00AM then. We wandered randomly, in search of food and then decided to go home finally. This sensible thought struck us only around 3:30AM or about that time. With me was Nandu, whom I would rather call family than a friend, he lived right across the street from my house. I have known him ever since he was a kid (and he still remains so). This dude, me and his khatara kinetic – we definitely had some of the best times together. If I had a younger brother, he would be someone like him and I am convinced about that. (Getting back to the topic) Nandu and me bid goodbye to the other folks in the group. We were giggling, chatting away, driving in the cold morning and were still searching for food. We then found this blessing in disguise of a sandwich stall...realized it was the month of Ramadan and hence there was food available at that hour of the day. We hogged on the yummmmmyyyy sandwiches (well….if you are hungry at 4:30AM any food would taste delicious) happy and pleased with ourselves went back home around 5:30AM!!!
It was a day filled with fun, excitement, thrill, tad bit of craziness of driving at extreme speeds at that hour of the night (or day as you would choose to call 2:00AM and beyond - looking back it feels scary now!). I am sure I cannot relive the moment but I am more than glad I lived it!!!
P.S: Did I mention that in an attempt to play Dandiya, I managed to miff few fingers of the brave-hearted who tried to teach me a step or two!
We have a Dandiya-Nite today in the campus. It promises to be great fun and energies are obviously running high!! I have one and precisely ONLY ONE memory of Dandiya and oh man what a fun it was!! This was about three years back – when few of us were planning for dandiya. After days of emotionally traumatizing my mom of how I would be missing on so much fun, and trading off by doing something which I dreaded and something she despartely needed me to do (which was getting a photo of mine clicked for 'ladke waale'), after assurance I would be in safe hands etc etc I finnaallly got the nod.
So, around eight of us went on an evening, all excited and thrilled. We ended up going to one of the expensive dandiya locations and that realization dawned upon us when we shelled out money for the entry ticket. Boyy….what a place it was - filled with laughter, colors, nonchalant chatter and music. There were people who matched the beat and the rhythm so well…..sooo very well…I was fascinated by the grace in their movements, rhythmic flow of steps, synch between absolute strangers (who for sure haven’t ‘rehearsed’ together)….it was amazinnggg….I was having fun watching them, when we thought it’s high time we try a step or two….so we all went in to dance or 'try' rather. For the novices that we were, we chose to form our own little circle. In total contrast to the veterans, we were totally out of rhythm, ridiculously clumsy and I wouldn’t even want to mention our co-ordination!!! But, it was absolute fun!!!!
Tired after a while, we decided to munch on something. We went around the stalls in search of food. We probably bought a plate or two of the super expensive chat and decided would share it. It very very obviously did not suffice the group of eight or six that we were. We decided it’s too expensive in there to have food and considering we had enough ‘hands-on’ of dandiya and more importantly, the perpetual 'kangals' that we were, we decided to move out and have food elsewhere. We left on our bikes, totally high from the excitement. Cool breeze, lovely night, empty roads – wait, did I say empty roads? I should rephrase it to 'totally deserted roads' – it was 2:00 AM and evidently, there was not a single food joint open. We checked out places where they served midnight buffet only to see that they were scraping out pieces of leftovers, if any!! It was already about 3:00AM then. We wandered randomly, in search of food and then decided to go home finally. This sensible thought struck us only around 3:30AM or about that time. With me was Nandu, whom I would rather call family than a friend, he lived right across the street from my house. I have known him ever since he was a kid (and he still remains so). This dude, me and his khatara kinetic – we definitely had some of the best times together. If I had a younger brother, he would be someone like him and I am convinced about that. (Getting back to the topic) Nandu and me bid goodbye to the other folks in the group. We were giggling, chatting away, driving in the cold morning and were still searching for food. We then found this blessing in disguise of a sandwich stall...realized it was the month of Ramadan and hence there was food available at that hour of the day. We hogged on the yummmmmyyyy sandwiches (well….if you are hungry at 4:30AM any food would taste delicious) happy and pleased with ourselves went back home around 5:30AM!!!
It was a day filled with fun, excitement, thrill, tad bit of craziness of driving at extreme speeds at that hour of the night (or day as you would choose to call 2:00AM and beyond - looking back it feels scary now!). I am sure I cannot relive the moment but I am more than glad I lived it!!!
P.S: Did I mention that in an attempt to play Dandiya, I managed to miff few fingers of the brave-hearted who tried to teach me a step or two!
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