Here I am sitting at the airport waiting to take the flight to Pune, from where I am to take a bus to Aurangabad. I was briefly back in Delhi, including the 24th, when we decided to have a small get-together for a handful of people. The preparation started on that very day as we hardly had any time for preparation. The vegetables, the meat, the alcohol, the Christmas tree, the wood, the charcoal, the bonfire, the barbecue, the invitations, the music, the seating, buying the decorations, decorating the place... all this happened within six hours. Well, the people started coming in at ten. It was a combined party so each of the flat-mates had called a handful of people. There were about 15 people in all,including the hosts, thanks to some people who ditched at the last moment. It was just ideal I'd say, as the intention was to have a quiet time around the bonfire and the barbecue. Things went well except for these Jat neighbours who wanted us to take the party indoors. There was a brief altercation, after whch the couple shut their window and never appeared again. We had a variety of reasons to not comply to their demands:
1. Christmas occurs once a year
2. We had never had any problems with any neighbours in the one year that we have stayed here. SO, it was not a regular occurence
3. We were not even making any noise.
Anyway, people went downstairs after some time, after which some of us went back upstairs to rekindle the fire. It was a fun evening with me inventing an interesting drink - which I am yet to name - Rum, lemon, sugar, 7-up and beer...try it out sometime... well, it was a regular party with people separating into smaller groups, the barbecued stuff being passed around, etc. A few drinks down, for one reason or another, I had mildly offended one of the ladies present there, not sure how, and she decided that she wanted to assault me. In self-defence, I ran to the terrace, which has two parts. A lower part and a higher part, both separated from each other by a parapet wall. Usually this parapet is easily accessible, but today, as we had done up the place a bit, the washing machine was blocking it. I reached the lower terrace, with the lady in hot pursuit. Trapped, I decided, in my state of insobriety that I would jump onto the washing machine, leap onto the parapet (which was about four feet away from the washing machine) and go to the other terrace.
What I didn't take into consideration was the fact that the washing machine was not fixed to the floor, and that I wasn't as light as I felt after 6 of those concoctions I had made. So I jump on to the washing machine and try to leap right on to the parapet. There I was with one foot on the washing machine and the other ready for take-off, when the washing machine decides to topple over. It was like one of those scenes on a tom and jerry episode where tom fails to reach the other end, halts for a couple of seconds and goes CRASH!!!...I don't know if it was me or the washing machine that hit the floor first. All I remember was that I was in mid-air, almost parallel to the ground, with my palm just about reaching the parapet. when I realised that I wasn't going to make it. There were four witnesses to this event, who all split into laughter. I lay motionless, till the laughter stopped and they came running to check if I was ok. After a couple of seconds, I couldn't control my laughter...surprisingly I didn't get hurt at all...the next morning I realised I had hurt my tail bone a bit as I had landed on my right side, but that was it. The witnesses maintain that it was totally like a movie stunt carried off to perfection, and that even if someone tried a hundred times, it would never be the same. As for the drink, I think I will call it 'The Great Fall'
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