Week-end or Weekend!

It’s the Friday eve and weekend ends today,

It's the time to chill and weekend ends today.

In the sane world the week ends today,

It's the time to chill and weekend ends today.

Feb 26, 2010

Characters – Sanjan “Serene”, Manuj “Purana” and Boss

Destination – I need not repeat it

How did the week go?

Well, we are in taxi, not even reached hotel, work has not even started and Manuj & Sanjan are already planning, what they will do after going back to India! Sanjan (in his foreign ways) – “Ya. We could watch Formula-1 in Bahrain”. Manuj (the gawaar he is) – “B#*K$&# pehle kyu nahi bola. I was game” and Boss (his ways are authoritative u see) – “Teko pehle bhi bola Sri Lanka chala jaa. Mara le”. So, the discussions have started gaining momentum and scene is set for a cheerful stay.

It’s morning time the next day and we want to have breakfast so we have Burgers. Nice! It’s lunch time and we want to have lunch so we have Burgers. Nice! It’s dinner time and no one talks about Dinner! Boss is a wonderful cook (not kidding at all) and now he has decided to make up for the dinner next day. He is cooking chicken for us and we get going to help him with preparations. Here are the ingredients that go into the making of this momentous meal

• 7 big chicken drums
• 8 onions - at least 1.5 - 2 Kg
• 4-6 tomatoes
• Garlic- All we had at home (as per Sanjan, this much is used in cooking an entire week's meal)
• Ginger - plentiful
• Abundantly full of Boss' secret spices from the base of Himalayas

Khaane waale 3! Three! Teen! (Chicken lovers out there! If you want , we still have some left)

Wednesday (equivalent to you guys’ Friday), 5 PM around and weekend is about to begin. We are in office, doing some work but Sanjan wants go home. Its’ simple right. The guy has worked hard. Its weekend time and he wants to go home. Fair! But the boss has a knack of asking “KYU”. So he asks Sanjan “KYU”. Sanjan says “At least, I will get to change my suit”. Belly laugher from Manuj and Boss but Sanjan in his style “Ha bhai”. Is tarha, hanste khelte. Nikal gaya week aura aa gaya weekend! (Manuj already announced it through his Facebook status. If I would call him names, it would be “loud speaker")

How did the weekend go?

That’s a challenging question to answer. For Manuj, weekend means chutti, atleast in some form. If not work, at least from bathing ya. But Sanjan, he is a Gentleman. Dono din nahaya wo. And when we are going out for lunch, to a desi restaurant round the corner, where we would sit inMEN’s SECTION¹ ,he is getting ready as if he is gonna go for a date. Man! Save some for the real day! For dinner, we went to the café in our hotel itself (Saudi Machan J) just because it would be some change! At least we would feel like weekend!

To summarize my feelings at the dusk of our weekend and dawn of yours-

Machan beckons, my 800 is ready,

But I am not there, I am not there…

¹MEN’S SECTION – For reference of those who have not been here, Restaurants in Riyadh have separate MEN and FAMILY section

Back to where we belong

Every time I hear someone say “It’s the journey that matters, not the destination”, I am reminisced of a destination which stands against this otherwise golden aphorism…Al-Riyad.

Feb 20, 2010

Travelers – Sanjan “Serene”, Manuj “Purana” & Sandeep Uppal (Boss J so no funny names)

Destination – I am sure you guys know it by now!

On way to airport

Sanjan and Manuj bid adieu to the last moments of sane and beautiful world (read office chics saying bye to us) and left for the airport. Sohan is playing his happening Punjabi numbers with “Mitran nu chad gayi daru” drawing maximum accolades from Sanjan. What would you guys do on the way to airport...Call up or text friends?...say bye to your Mother…That’s what you would do but Manuj makes Sanjan copy Sohan’s Punjabi numbers in his laptop!

At airport

We are standing in the queue for immigration and Boss is yet to even arrive. I see a guy breaking the queue when he is reprimanded and I tell Sanjan “Sandeep hota to pakda nahi jaata”. We spend eternity in immigration queue and when we reach the final security check, we see Sandeep smiling (read grinning) at us… Guess what, he was not caught…yet again!

We guys are hungry now so why not order a SUB. Manuj’s love for vegetarian food comes back again and he orders a “Veggie Delite” and then calls it “ghaas-foos” (cribber he). Now, the time is to have our favorite” Masala tea” at CCD with a chocolate brownie… Boss and Manuj just love this part of being at the airport. And then comes the boarding time but we are in no hurry until we hear the final boarding call and we are the only ones left J .

In plane

Well this is super funny and I wish could put the expressions of air-hostess and Boss here! Boss asks her “Does your airline provide frequent flyer card” and then this 6 feet woman shows her brace laden teeth and tells him with a smug…Why don’t you ask the supervisor…Fu*k! That was too much. Sanjan who has been serenely sleeping all through also wakes up to witness this event.

At THE destination

So we reach THE destination again…Sanjan’s 2^nd time, Manuj’s 10^th and Boss’…I have lost the count for him. The familiar beauty of sprawling arid desert, the sounds of “Yalla-Yalla” and “New-New” from the mouths of green immigration commandos, the immigration form with warning “Death sentence for drug traffickers”…it is all too known and comforting. But this time, a new and exciting thing happened which makes us feel special for once…We are asked to leave our position in the queue and come forward…read that again. Yes! FORWARD. Boss and Manuj share a glance and congratulate each other for this and in their hearts they realize, may be this is a GOOD START! Al'hamdiullah!