14th February, 2005 with Valen-teenos

It is 1130 in the night. We are all suddenly quiet. Very Quiet.

All of a sudden, Mayur stops in the middle of the dark road and exclaims, “I want to go home.” We are in Vashi. About one and half hours away from “home”. The plan is to crash at my rented apartment. Now suddenly, Mayur wants to go home. Probably, he’s a bit tipsy. Excessive alcohol in the blood does that to you. Probably Nostalgic. Despite ourselves, the three of us cannot help quietly snigger.

It was the evening of 14th February, 2005, and thanks to an unusual policy by Mastek, we had all decided to dine together. The policy was simple. Each Mastekeer (A Mastek Employee is called a Mastekeer), was entitled up to a hundred and fifty rupees worth of reimbursement on production of food bills. Every Valentine's Day.

A Candle Light Dinner with her at Company’s expense. Sweet Music played in the back ground. Champagne Bottle on Ice. The clinking of glasses. The chef serves his specialty. A sumptuous dinner. The cheque makes its way to our table. The limit was 1500 bucks, ain’t it? We have overshot fifteen hundred by only a couple of hundreds. No problems. Just be careful of that glass there honey… .

Crash…

Wishes..wishes!

Three of us, Mayur, Maulik and me decided to go for dinner that day. To ensure that, people do not misconstrue three guys dining on such an auspicious evening, we even pulled Reena along. And before I get smacked, no, I was just kidding. We called Reena along, because, she is an awesome company, and we like the way she reacts to us say shocking stuff. The place’s called Blue Diamond. A nice little restaurant at the Kopar Khairane-Vashi Border. We walked in. Reminded each other that since we are four, the bill could get up to an upper limit of six hundred bucks. All four Mastekeers. And that, we had to produce the bills for the same. Kept reminding.

A twin occasion to celebrate. It was Valentine’s and we were accorded free food. By our employers. An occasion to drink. Err....plain Coke for the teetotaler me, other stuff for the others. Toasted to our friendship. And toasted to Mastek. 2 drinks down, and we toasted yet again. This time it was to our friendship and to the waiter who got us a bowl of peanuts and a plate of vegetable salad. And to the couple sitting on the next table. Then, a couple of drinks again. The bill’s already touched 500. Had their desired effect. Toasted the Air Conditioner for being cold. And Chandrababu Naidu for allowing IT in Hyderabad. And to MDI for selecting Mayur. And SIBM for Reena. To random, arbit stuff. And to Mastek again for allowing us free meals…wait….we had yet to order for any meal yet.

That task was obviously assigned to me. The other guys, well to put it euphemistically, a bit, drowsy. Reena was, again putting it mildly, a bit embarrassed (need to omit some gory details here, else, I wouldn’t have many friends remaining!). Starters and Main course was ordered together. The waiter got them together as well. And I thought only we were drunk.

It was devoured hungrily by us. And then some more food. And then the cheque. It came. Two thousand odd bucks. The horror of that figure made us forget the basic reason why we were there.

Love's day. Free food and all.

Paid up. Amnesia stuck, did not ask ‘em for a copy of the cheque.

As we started walking towards my rented apartment, content in our own little ways, humming corny, cheesy, Mithunda, Sunil Shetty and Sadashiv Amrapurkar numbers, away to glory, Mayur stops. Middle of the road.

Exclaims, “I want to go home.”
“yeah buddy, that’s what we are doing.”
“no, I want to go to MY home.”
“it’s 1130 in the night Mayur, you wont get any bus.”
“But, I want to go home.”

To this date, he denies saying that he wanted to go to Santacruz. He says he always meant to go to the rented apartment, because he was filling a bit dizzy.

A bit dizzy? The understatement of that year.

In the end, we managed to convince him, and went to the Vashi Lake instead. At midnight. Looked beautiful. Not the lake - that we could hardly see in the dark, the atmosphere.

Quiet.

Serene.

Intimidating.

Relaxing.

Four of us. Each one thinking about some thing different. Or probably the same. Quietly looking at the dark, black sky. Starlit and devoid of the clouds. The moon looked on thoughtfully. We stared back. No words were exchanged.


Wondering whether life could stop there. At least for a day. Or probably a week. When we did not have to report to our bosses. Or to anyone else.

A dog barked. I came out of my reverie. Looking at the watch on my wrist, I realized it’s already 12.30 in the night. Share this piece of information with others.

Mayur: See, I told you, I want to go home.
Maulik: Let’s go baby, we have had an awesome Valentine party. The Valen-teenos.
Suneer: That makes it three of us, Valen-teeno, what about the fourth…Reena?
Reena: A very bad joke in the middle of the night, this without a trace of booze in your blood. Wonder what would alcohol do to you?

Follow it up with a couple of equally bad ones. Don’t remember now. There is a ruckus that ensues between us. A mild hearted one.

Mayur: Let’s sleep next to the lake. It looks nice and cool.

Huh? He wanted to go home all this while. One day I will try Tequila.

Reena is the first one to realize that we had forgotten to get a copy of the cheque. Damn! After all, there is no such thing as free meal, right?

Drop her off to her apartment. Get to mine. Doze off.

The Valenteeno name stuck though. Till recently that is. Then Maulik got married.

The four of us still remember that night.