It's been three years since we've passed out of college, and while it would not be fair to say that we have been paragons of virtue, it would certainly be reasonable to admit that Bacchus might not be best pleased with his once ardent devotees. And like I said, it's going to get worse.
But every now and then, even when we're seemingly cloaked in the garb of drab generality, we have it within us to get out there and raise Cain.
And by raising, I do not mean the odd pitcher, and by Cain I do not mean beer. I mean nights when gentlemen in khaki are involved, nights when old tires are pinched from roadside puncture shops. I mean nights when rides to Chandni Chowk are undertaken, and nights that end in roadside naps halfway to Mysore. Nights that involve flirting with arson, and nights that end... well some things even this blog cannot discuss.
Still, you get the point, no? We're talking about stuff that would make family go ballistic, if family were (shudder) ever to find out. Stuff that you can tell your children when the young tykes will sneer at your (by then) comatose lifestyle. Stuff that you can repeat to each other over beer in Goa. Stuff, in other words, that makes you think life on this planet has been not been all that bad.
And while in earlier avatars, such happenstances were nothing out of the unusual on Saturday nights, they are today precious few in occurence. Jobs, and schedules and family (old and new) and all things like that prevent all from being present together under one (about to be blown up) roof.
Which is why, when fortuitous circumstances arise, it is important to make the most of them. It is important to let down what is left of one's hair, hang the consequences, and party. The aftermath has looked after itself thus far, and that is reason enough for one to suppose that thus shall be the case tomorrow as well.
Tonight being one such night, when perpetrators of the tire incident, the arson incident and the incident that cannot be talked about, all gather under one roof. Along with other worthies, capable of making hair stand on end in their own right. They shall pray once again, after a long, long, long time, to their favourite deity, Bacchus, and may He bless us all once again.
Respectability, there's a bamboo coming up your derriere tonight. Plis excuse.
