Mission Chola

Two months back, whenever i used to call these guys or chat with them, I get to listen to the same monologue: "Machan ! three of us haven't spent time together. So, this winter, we will definitely oor suthify in chennai". Both of them are my close pals. I had spent close to 5 years with one of them(Say Mr.X) and he is my closest friend ever. The other happens to be a guy(I Wud call him Mr.Y) who i met few months before i joined cognizant. Over a period of time, Y and I became very close friends thro mutual kalasifying(Thanks to yahoo Msgr).

The day arrived and both these men were back in chennai for a winter break. After some mini-meets that happened over the first week, we decided to go to a movie and porukify the entire evening and enliven the ever-repeated promise. Taking X's Car(This guy has been the best in this job ... Even at college, he would be the guy picking up all of us) and picking up Y on our way, We fled to Devi Theater where we had planned to see Aaru. Through out the journey and sometime in the theater too, the guys kept pissing me off through their repeated rambling and discussion of their respective towns in US and their way of life(holy @%#%). After the movie, X wanted to go to Gangotri(a fast food joint in chennai). In our college days, X and I used to Take Parcel from G'tri and drive all the way to marina and eat it there. The nostalgic feel this gave urged us to relive those old days.

After 4 hours of continuous movies and chatting, X and Y wanted to do some liquefied Downloading(they wanted to go to some restroom). Gangotri never had one and hence "MISSION CHOLA" was launched. X and Y wanted to go into Chola Sheraton(a five star hotel in chennai) to attend their respective calls. I tried doing all i could to break their mission. But, they were insistent on this, as this was expected to be a fun filled exercise. What predominantly held my mind was the embarrassment of being caught in the act and being victimized for doing nothing :(

I was forced to accompany them, as I had no other choice. We all drove into chola and got down from the car like visitors from US embassy. All of us had mischievous smile of our lips as we walked in. It was hard to control the laughter. Our men had immediately spotted the board which read "gentleman". They wasted no time in walking into the room. Now i was alone in the lobby and there was a well built nepali faced guy standing the lobby who asked to take my seat.

Chola had pathetic seating arrangement. Lobby was devoid of good chairs. So, I walked into the very familiar bar and asked the bartender some weird name that i was sure he would not have heard about and continued my conversation with him asking him to name some good pubs in chennai as if i was new to my own city. Seeing my friends come out of the restroom with relieved faces, I pretended to attend a call and walked out of a bar and three of us walked towards the exit. The man at the parking counter was amused when we asked the car back within a few minutes after parking. We werent able to control lauging at the end of the exercise.

These kinda things often appears silly and absurd....but people do assume pride in doing such things.

JK