“We were the reigning champions of every Treasure Hunt (TH) in our college….until today.
The four of us: Ankit, Kaushal, Akshay and of course me. We make our regular TH team.
Something about the driver. Kaushal is one of the best drivers I have seen in my lifetime. He can beat the shit out of a Merc when it comes to driving. Totally rash and totally controlled. Sounds weird but thats the way he drives. Totally safe, yet on the brink. He regularly hits speeds of 120 kmph something that is rarely achieved in this city of dreams.
We started off on a bad note and were stuck in the middle of nowhere not knowing where to go. We had to sacrifice with 25 points to get an extra clue. Once again our instincts were right and we already knew where to go. Yoko’s, Andheri, it was. The next clue we got was wayyy off to Bandra Reclamation. Once we reached there, we realised that the people at the previous place didnt give us the next clues and there were no clues at Reclamation
At reclamation we were given a task to perform to gain 125 points. It was to remove the tyre and put it back. As everything was going against us, the jack in Kaushal’s car was not working. We couldnt complete the task, the next clue was somewhere down Pali Hill, Bandra. This was where the worst thing happened. The brakes failed. Nothing dramatic (read, bollywood ishtyle) happened. But we had to quit with the TH then and there only.
But what a place it was for the brakes to fail. The best place in Bombay. Close in vicinity were Onyx, Olive and Out of the Blue. We were so damned pissed and low that we decided to drown it all down with a few pints. Then came a few more sad things. The front left door of his car refused to open (or even budge). We went to Onyx and then were headed back to Out of the Blue when we saw a cow pissing litres and litres besides his car tyres.
Following is the conversation that ensued once we entered Out of the Blue (we had to cancel Onyx because some bigshot had come and there was a lot of commotion) :
Waiter: Sir, you’ll have to place straight orders, we are closing down.
Me: Closing down so early??
Waiter: Yes Sir.
Me:
Waiter: Sir, I mean the afternoon session is about to end, we’ll be re-opening in the evening.
Me: Uh, thats cool then.
We placed our orders for a few pints of beer and a sizzler and were waiting.
Kaushal is really emotionally attached with its car and he was talking to his car, “”I sweared at you just once and you lost conrol
We were trying to cheer him up but to no avail. Finally the beer and the sizzlers arrived and slowly the alcohol, made him a little upbeat. Alcohol coupled with a few of our really sad and fucked up engineering PJs are enough for anyone to change his/her mood.
Finally after finishing in about an hour, we hobbled back to his car. Ankit had to get to the front seat from the rear seat, you see, the front door was jammed and he couldn’t get through the driver’s. We reached Vile Parle in about an hour, even though its only about 8-10 kms from Bandra. Quite unusually we went at a speed of 20-30 kmph (a few more jokes followed that, from a little inebriated minds of ours).
After we reached Kaushal’s home we heaved a sigh of relief and headed back to our homes after a little general conversation.
Overall it was a day with mixed emotions. A lot of lows and a few unpredictable highs.”