At Shahi

Me – “ Rohan will kill me for this. I had promised him and now I am bunking and doing t p (time pass)”
Sameer – “Arrey bro , li8 le. I will take responsibility if Rohan says anything. For now , just chill. Man , I’m really hungy , missed breakfast and lunch today.”
Me – “Really , when did you get up ?”
Sameer – “Around four or five “
Me – “Then why did you go to velino’s?”
Sameer – “My head was huting like hell, I really needed something to get my mind off that”
Me – “Wow dude. Usually people have headaches after drinking , you know hangovers kind of thing. But you drink to cure your headache, you are certainly something “
Sameer – “Come on man do you call a few pints of beer drinking. They are not even enough to get me started”
Me – “ Whoa , do you drink a lot?”
Sameer – “Doesn’t matter . See we have almost reached shahi . What do we order , hmmm……. . I’v heard that the chicken tikka is highly appraised of.”
Me – “No way man , I’m a strict veggi , there’s no way I am going to eat that crap. I would rather not eat anything. Mera dharma bhrasht ho jayega”
Sameer – “You still believe in all that . Come on dude this is the 21st century , in which world are you living--------“
I could only hear some of the lecture that Sameer was saying for the rest …….
Sameer – “Are you even listening? What are you staring at man. Hey Puneet , dude……”
Me – “Uh … huh you were saying something”
Sameer –“You look lost dude . What happened”
Me – “Look Sameer , there she is sitting with her friend”
Sameer – “Who she , wait a sec , do you mean Pooja . Cool man , now is your chance , go and talk to her.”
I couldn’t believe my luck . I thanked my stars for having listened to Sameer and come to shahi.
Sameer – “Let’s go and sit with them . There’s no one sitting there, even her friend looks kind of interesting.”
Saying this he went towards them literally pulling me . I was quite apprehensive of his approach because I didn’t want to freak her out.
Sameer to both the girls – “ Excuse me , mind if we join you ?”
Now there is a certain inherent quality in some guys of pleasing girls. Girls go gaga over such boys , they will treat them as some kind of studs always laughing on the dumbest of jokes they make and all that kind of stuff. The sad part is that this quality is inborn and cannot be taught to fools like me. But usually guys from the metros like Sameer are masters of this art , therefore all the beautiful girls fall for them . Now I didn’t see Pooja interested(this doesn't imply she was not beautiful, she was just different) but her friend immediately took a liking for Sameer .
Pooja’s friend – “Ya , why not”
Sameer – “Hi , I’m Sameer , this is my friend Puneet.”
Pooja’s friend – “Hi , I’m Srishti”
Pooja’s friend did not say anything to me but I was relieved to get a small ‘hi’ from Pooja. ‘Nice, she has not forgotten me entirely .’, I thought
Sameer – “So we were confused over the menu , do you know anything good that we can order?”
Srishti – “I don’t know dude, I’ve come here for the first time. Pooja might be knowing something.”
Pooja – “The non-veg food is pretty good here . I have not tried anything else. I am a pure non-veggi , you can say that. We can order some chicken dish. Is it ok with you guys?”
Before Sameer could say anything
Me – “Of course , I simply looovvveeee chicken. I say we order chicken tikka first, then we can order something else.”
Sameer gave me such an astonished stare and an even wilder elbow nudge as if to say ‘What happened to Mr Dharam Bhakta who was a pure veg one minute ago’
Sameer – “ Do you guys know our friend Puneet has an exceptional taste in non veg food. Isn’t it Puneet.”
Me – “Uhh ….huh…. ya why not. I mean ya of course”
Pooja – “Really , then we have that quality in common. I mean what is life without non veg , nothing.”
Me – “ Ya of course and to think of those people who spend their entire life without tasting it just because of some stupid reason . Come on you’r living in the 21st century man.”
I got another nudge from Sameer.
Sameer – “Anyways bottom line is I’m really hungry. Let’s eat”
Srishti – “ I second that”
Sameer – “O K then I am going to place the order. Srishti, would you like to come?”
Srishti – “Of course , chalo”
That left Pooja and me alone , well not really, you can’t be alone in a open kind of restaurant. At least I didn’t have the nagging presence of her friend . She was more interested in Sameer than her friend , the food or anything else. Way to go Sameer , friend ho to tere jaisa.
Me – “So how’s college going on.”
Pooja – “Fine , just a few patches here and there , other wise it’s ok “
Me – “What patches?”
Pooja – “Arrey nothing much , was just having a bit of problem with the workshop pracs , this fitting job is not my type. Anyways apna batao.”
Me – “Nothing great , these morning lectures are not of my type . I always end up missing them. Prob Stat is going over my head. I haven’t attented a single lecture of thermo and I always end up sleeping in the maths lec . Physics is not also going that great. Bas baki sab thik hai.”
Pooja laughing – “You have a horrible sense of humor”
Me - “Ya and a horrible sense of time managemattent as well. I really need to start attending some lectures .”
Pooja – “Arrey , it is only the start, you will surely improve. By the way, if you have
not forgotten, you have promised to show me some of your stuff”
Me – “Stuff what stuff?”
Pooja – “You had promised me to show some of the pieces that you have written , don’t you remember.”
Me – “Ohh that, ya will do …….”
Just then Sameer came holding two bottles of soft drinks and Srishti holding two.
Sameer – “These guys are too lazy . It will take at least 15 mins for the order to be served.”
Sristhi – “ Anyways , what I was saying was that ki our campus is so boring , there is no fun no masti.”
Pooja – “No , not at all . I thinks our campus is very cool , you should see other colleges before commenting on your own.”
Sristhi – “What I was trying to say that we are in GOA , goa man . We should be out there on the beaches, not here wiling away our time in the library like you do.”
Pooja – “Who says that ….. I don’t go to the lib…..”
Sameer – “Time out , time out , cool it girls . The topic of the great debate is that what are we planning to do during the weekend.
Me – “ Weekend , what weekend , what are you planning to do ?”
Sameer - “Beaches, beaches and booze that is what goa all about”
Me – “Huh…..”
Srishti – “ Ya , good idea. I am dying to see beaches , haven’t visited any of them”
Sameer – “ Then it’s done , this Sunday we are hitting the beaches, wassay Pooja “
Pooja – “Hmm …. I’m not quite sure”
I glared at Sameer trying to say ( ‘Dude are we not going too fast. Slow down or I’ll bite the dust’)
But Sameer did not
Sameer – “Come on Pooja , be a sport”
Srishti – “ Yaar tu bhi , kabhi to campus ke bahar soch”
Pooja – “Uhh.. I’ll think ….”
We spent the next half an hour eating chicken tikkas and chicken this and that .I felt like vomiting , the stuff had been always hard for me to smell, let alone eat. I wanted to throw up but I somehow managed to keep a smiling face and even talk sometimes. Meanwhile Pooja didn’t talk that much while her friend kept on chatting and laughing on every stupid joke made by Sameer. I was in a way glad when all this was over and we were about to head back .