Here is the much xpected world wide premiere of Wild West - Part Deux. By popular demand, here i am posting yet another report. Makkale, reporter thozhil koduthatharkaaha adiyenadhu nanri!

k, it all started with phone calls 2 Mani and Badri. We knew guys had come (as informed bfo' thru' our grp) and were also interested in having a gtg. Mani, though hesitant at first, saw 2 it that it was arranged.

'Samaalee' Swami came all the way from Tanjore and graced the occasion, thanking Samalee on behalf o' everyone for sparing his valuable time with us (spending an evening with us hope doesn't cost him his 'Man of the Year' or 'Employee o' the Year' or whatever at Polaris this time!)

It was in the af noon o' the day we decided 2 meet, that things became clear. 'Savukku' Visu, 'Maapillai' soon 2 b Ramprabhu (the 'Maapillai' story was the one which kept us occupied the whole evening, don't worry it's gonna unfold soon!!), 'Samaalee' Swaminathan, 'Battery' badri, 'Mookupodi' Mani and myself were the initial 6 guys.

The 7th one, 'Gopaldas' Shyam was the toughest 2 find. We weren't sure (think he wasn't even sure either!) whether he 'll make it. I had tried his shop the evening bfo' but cudn't get him. Next afnoon, phoning his shop, got the prompt reply - he'd gone home for lunch. called his home 2 get the answer he's started back 2 shop! hm, finally we got him somehow and he was so xcited 2 c all o' us. The 8th guy was Jambunathan,
a housemate of our guys in B'lore.

The venue decided was as the year bfo', the Wild West' bar o' Jenny's Residency. When I joined, the party was already on the way. Guys had ordered the first round o' cocktails and mocktails. As is typical with any 3 star hotel, the drinks (particularly the pineapple juice) took half an hour 2 arrive and it invited prompt comments - "he's just planted the pine apple plant daa , "he's just gonna buy a mixie daa" etc.

As was the usual case, there 's always a Hero in any party, this time it turned out 2 b Ramprabhu! Oh, everyone o' us may forget the evening but not him. Its the evening when he decided (rather we made him decide) abo' his marriage and that too 2 a particular girl. k, the girl's working in Silverline and her name starts with (oops, is it) J (guys, guess urself the name) are 'udhiri' details. Ramprabhu anna, nichayathaartham mudinjutha? actually i had promised the guys that there'll b a surprise post and had planned to post a 'virtual' invitation o' his marriage, then thought otherwise, as it was toooo much for the poor fella!!

'Battery' was in full flow, discharging a constant voltage - the drinks neither making him go more nor less. He was talking abo' his Pune environment and the girls over there. Paavam payal, says, as the PrabhuDeva number goes - "nee bike vachuruntha Marutiya paapaalunga- Maruti vachuruntha Ikona paakaraluga, Ikonaa Mercedes Benzku thaavraaluga"nu ore polambal. Inbetween he also made sure that the topic on Ramprabhu didn't simmer down.

With 3 to 4 rounds of 'drinks' (actually it wasn't a 'thanni' party at all with too many teetotallers spoiling the evening - that includes me too) with exotic names such as Virgin Mary to Bloody Mary to WildWest and talks mainly surrounding marriage plans o' 'Maapillai' Ramprabhu, it was 6:45 pm. Enter Shyam - he was the unique guy in the set. He had brought a photo album of his tour 'down under' and started xplaining 2 us the tour and also abo' his family members. It wuda been better if he had guys like Vishal Pujar or 'kutambi' Ramnarayanan as his company! His was a different world I suppose, and guys commented abo' his "there is a 'DEAD CHEAP' $800 package tour to Bahamas, anyone wanna take it?" query he posted in our egroup. He was all praise abo' 'Steffi' Sreeni's housemates in Australia taking good care o' him when he toured. Also he told abo' his meeting Mahesh and having lunch with him.

some o' the other topics - pasanga like savukku, samalee and ramprabhu 'elachu' ponathu pathi there were general grievances. hmm, naaya ulaikaraanaga paavam. and the Karnataka-TamilNadu 'civil' war, 'Panni'Selvam as CM, getting 'kuth'ified at Phy/Chem labs in Bishop for doin' mischief, seeing LH rooms with binoculars in Puthanampatti college et al.

With the drinks over, we were next onto dinner. Shyam prompted us 2 try 'Hotel Mathura' warning us it'll be just 'vegeterian'. We all strolled to the restaurant. Everyone ordered typical South Indian food - sambhar/plain idlis , dosa and the hotel being a chettinad type - idiaappam too. There was naan 2 with a typical North Indian dish 2 add variety.

As was usual, Samalee was the one who 'finished' of everything ordered, thereby ensuring we didn't leave any leftovers. And thus the evening came 2 an end for all but 4.

Mani, Jambu, Badri and myself just roamed abo' in theppakulam 'njoying the diwali shopping crowd. And from there it was home with the pleasant evening coming 2 an even pleasant end.

guys, hope i didn't disappoint anybody - its too late now 2 rem all that happened and write abo', just a ragtag report compiled in haste, sorry.



(Nov 26, 2001)