Incredibulous: The misadventures of last night's get-together

When a friend of 16 years, Darshan, revealed he was all set to join Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) in New Delhi from the 28th of June I knew it was the end of what I believed to be an extended run at closure from NITK for a lot of my classmates: 5 dayscholars, 1 in college till July and a few who keep visiting made it feel like college never ended-Yet!

Enter Preet Joseph Joy who after spending what seemed like an eternity at Sreekumar Sir's farm at Karkala was beginning to look a lot like him:-

Preet normally

Preet Now

He was returning to college to bid farewell to the faculty and it seemed perfect that I had returned from Chennai an hour ago! Plans were made to meet for dinner at Chef's, Kadri for 7 pm and all around promised to be there. The weather was great and sunny and I made the huge mistake of not taking along an umbrella which, as it turned out, made this evening unforgettable even before we met at all...

I have a confession to make- I am ridiculously punctual; to the point where I arrive 15-20 mins earlier than the expected time even though I am fully aware others arrive 15-20 mins later. Similar was the case yesterday when I arrived at Chef's at 6:45 pm where the others (The earliest group atleast) was a good 40 mins behind. The weather was still breezy and clear so I decided to go "exploring" and went along a side road which I had not before traversed. Seeing that I had atleast 30 mins on me, I kept walking till I realised I was about 4 Km away now and night was falling quickly. All this was no problem until the first drops of rain started coming down on me, and I turned back only to spot a sideroad which "could" be a short-cut...

I have another confession to make- Even when I know the direct path will surely lead me to my destination, I will take chances on possible shortcuts to the destination if only to get it into my memory bank of maps and routes! Similar was the case yesterday and I took a road which led me to a small tea-shop by the side of the road when the heavens poured down- literally!

The rain was so bad that when I decided to chance it, I had to scurry back running and the "gud-angadi" man gave me a cup of his finest coffee for free (I had offered to pay!) and maybe due to the given circumstances it was the most delicious coffee I can remember having. The rain stopped briefly and I hurried back. I was but 200 metres away when rain struck again and this time I had to make do under a few banana leaves near the edge of a 50 foot fall off the road

straight onto the roof of a shop and so I waited, getting soaking wet nonetheless. In about 15 mins (the time was 7:25 pm) I was able to reach Chef's where the doorman had second thoughts about letting me in unless I dried myseld off!

Anyway everyone soon arrived and the party was great, especially knowing that I was probably seeing most of them (Preet, Manoj, Kiran) for the last time and the rest had few days left themselves- Suddenly August was not that far off!

Sanjay & Darshan