AN ODE TO FRIENDSHIP

Pristine beaches, calm waters, cool breezes, ultimate pampering. These have been just some of my thoughts over the past few weeks. Saying I needed a break would be an understatement.

But all these thougths were thrown out the window after last weeks long Eid break. I was off work for 6 days and believe me it has been quite a while since I had such a fun time.

Prior to the holidays commencing I was surrounded at work by people who had planned exotic breaks to Bangkok, Phuket, Mauritius, Beirut etc. etc. I went through a bout of real misery wondering why I could not do the same for myself. To top it off, my birthday was fast approaching and the yearly ritual that my parents had started eversince my 1st birthday of throwing lavish parties was a distant possibility as Ramadan was still on.

So here I was miserable that I could not travel and even more miserable that I could not have a huge birthday bash. I had therefore resigned myself to an entire weekend of shopping or any other similar mindless activity.

Little did I know that things would take a turn for a better. It all started off with a Diwali party at Jinesh & Poojas place. Very sweet of them to bring in my birthday. We did have our fun of bursting some crackers that night. Thank God for small mercies - because 2 days later, on the actual Diwali day a moron snatched our crackers away from us. Anyways on my birthday a last minute decision to get all our friends to join us at the boardwalk was an excellent idea. It was an extremely chilled out evening and we ended up being at the Boardwalk for 7 hours. That was indeed a record.

It was on that evening that we decided that we should continue our initial plans of going into the desert for Eid. This meant getting people to confirm, getting a fix on the costs, getting the food, the right booze, the desert camp et al organized in 2 days. A herculean task it might have been but if it was not for Prem and Bob who did most of the running around, this would not have been possible. Most of all it was our friends who willingly participated at such short notice that was even more commendable. The outcome: A FANTABULOUS night-out where we all got so sloshed and energised (I use the term energized because none of us could stop dancing - we danced for at least 6 hours at a stretch).

Why did I want the holiday in the first place? To Chill, To Relax, To Unwind. Did I achieve that? You bet I did and even more. Not only did I experience all of the above, but I got to do it with the people I love to be with. Now which holiday would have cost me less than Dhs.2000/- where I could be with all the people I love and yet do all the things I enjoyed? Not a fat chance.

Anyways it is 1 week since we were in the desert and I distinctly remember what we were doing at this hour 7 days ago - Roy Bhaisaheb had just about reached the camp with the rest of the castways (I use the term castaways because they were literally left standing in the dark in the middle of the desert for almost 2hrs), Ashu had gone up and down the sand dunes about half a dozen times already and was in the middle of some daredevilry i.e. landing on his butt and making it down the slope in reverse (head came first, feet flailing in the air - trust only Ashu to achieve such dare devilry), Clive was on his 156th peg of the day, Adolf had already yelled at Bryan and some other unfortuante male soul who dared to ask him for a glass of wine (you see Adolf was saving that for us gals), Bryan & Sriram were making all the right moves on the dancefloor, Sid surprised me with his foot movement (great going Sid), Anil remained his confused self - not sure if he should dance with the gals or the guys, Prem was lost somewhere behind the bar, Sunny and Bob were on the dancefloor with their ladies literally celebrating Sunny & Jules return to Dubai, Sheeba sat in a corner with her male troops staring at the dancefloor and shooting Ali with warning looks, Priya Viju Kamlesh & Ankita were really moving their booty & continued to do so till the wee hours, Jinesh did his version of an Arabic/Hindi Dabki, Pooja gyrated around him, Michelle & Sandy looked like Amitabh & Jaya on the dance floor with Sandy protectively dancing around Michelle, Sorab & Havi moved from one side of the dance floor to the other, Fares watched Sana and attempted to imitate her Bombayya dance moves, Bur & Sharon were torn between dancing with the rest of us and keeping their friends entertained, Anoop, Manish & Sachin stood in the wings and watched the rest of us make asses of ourselves, Gupta finally got to have his first drink of the night, Xavier got his son to start dancing with him, Prateek (who in my minds eye is still 5 years old) in a very gentlemanly manner danced with his sister-in-law, Roy Bhaisaheb's office colleagues went into shock mode when they saw what his friends were like and of course lets not forget the Kids - they went completely beserk.

None of the above would have been possible without a bunch of friends who know how to make a fun moment happen. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them for making my Diwali/Birthday/Eid weekend wonderful and for wiping away my holiday blues completely.

Cheers Guys. Looking forward to even more wackier moments.