Rocking night!!!!

Was feeling very down on the 31st December afternoon. After making and canceling several plans for new years eve……the final outcome was that I was left out with no plans at all!! Most of my friends had their backup plans. Some were going out with their girlfriends (they were the ones who, of course, had no other option!!!!). Some others who didn’t have girlfriends were still going out somewhere. So one of my friends, Irfan and I were the ones who were left alone. I called up Irfan that afternoon and asked him as to what the ‘situation’ was? He told me that his car was available in the evening and that if nothing happened we could atleast go for dinner and a long drive. Now we were also faced with another problem……… we had to have people apart from myself and Irfan. (We would have looked like a ‘couple’ of a ‘different kind’, if only both of us, had gone out for dinner and a long drive!!!). Luckily, two of my other friends, daanish and nikhil, who we meet only sometimes (they are quite busy at other times!!), agreed to join us!!! So we finally were heading somewhere with this last moment plan…..I had this idea of going out for dinner at a local place and then heading out for a long drive till lonavla. Daanish knew a dhaba near karnala which serves excellent food……we decided that we will go there……We started at around nine-thirty at night……The police had placed checkpoints at many places……to catch late night drunken drivers…….We crossed panvel and were heading down the Mumbai pune old road……I did not know the road to karnala, nor did nikhil, nor irfan, and as daanish knew where the dhaba was, we assumed that he knew the road. After sometime however it seemed that Daanish was a bit confused about the road too!!!……he kept telling us that he could not make out the roads at night time!!! When we came to the toll station on the Mumbai pune old road…..he mentioned that he did not remember seeing a toll station when he went to the dhaba last time!!! By the time he told us this, Irfan was paying toll to the toll station booth man!!!! We realized that the karnala road was left behind and we had payed the toll for a different road!!!! After everyone finished punching Daanish for his stupidity, we took a u-turn and headed towards the karnala road (Karnala is on the Mumbai Goa road…….A right turn at panvel ‘phata’ takes you to Mumbai-goa road!!! We had gone straight earlier and had left the right turn behind!!!) Finally we reached Daanish’s dhaba. It was a ‘typical’ dhaba. A small place which looked shabby on the outside with the paint on the wall chipping off and trucks parked nearby. Nikhil started complaining that the place did not seem ‘decent’ and that it did not serve liquor and that we should go to a place which looked decent. After listening to much of this cribbing we turned back to go to another ‘hotel’ which we had seen in the way not far behind. The ‘hotel’ to which we went was decent enough but did not offer very ‘decent’ rates. So after ordering the starters and punching Nikhil for his stupidity (and the liquor, Nikhil had bought a quart of ‘Old monk’ rum.) we decided to leave it at that and go to the ‘indecent’ dhaba much against Nikhil’s wishes. On reaching the dhaba an old man (‘kaka’) greeted us and directed us to a nice place to sit…..a ‘tent’ open from the sides and with roofs made of straw and the sides partially covered with green colored curtains……Kaka told us that dinner would be ready in half an hour. Till that time, we chatted, wished each other a happy new year (it was almost new year when we ordered the food!!!) and enjoyed the peacefulness of the place. Also the ‘divine’ aroma of food coming from the kitchen was stimulating our appetites. The food came after an hour or so…..(Kaka’s judgement of ‘half and hour’ was a bit erroneous!!) The food was excellent…..pieces of chicken roasted on coal and coated with the typical village ‘tandoori masala’, A spicy and hot curry containing fresh chicken pieces, and a typical ‘khichree’ with a ‘jeere ka tadka’!!! I cannot describe the joy of eating that food after being hungry for so much time in the cold weather!!! We finished eating at 0200 hrs in the morning, paid kaka (a small bill amount of Rs 510 to which we added a generous tip of Rs 40!!!). As they say in hindi, “ Khana aisa tha ki pet bhar gaya lekin dil nahi bhara.” Our plan for new year was different, it was adventurous, but yes it was sucessful!!! The ride back home was also great….no traffic on the way…..Not many vehicles on the road and the stars shining on a new year’s morning!!!