Among other things, the visit to Hyderabad was also about touching base with a few friends. Friday evening, we spent time with Meeta at her place.
Now Meeta has a beautiful old house. I am a sucker for rickety beams, and wooden cupboards, and high ceilings. And Meeta also has a lovely Golden Labrador called Leo. However, Leo is overweight, and has come to resemble a golden baby elephant. But that is immaterial, because there is so much more of him to pat and scratch.
So while Sri sat and looked fondly at Leo, and me. (Well, for starters I make better tea than Leo, so case closed!), Meeta and I went on a gossip binge. Oooh! When you live with a man, the essential sacrifice you make is that while your chatter is ‘heard’, the man is not going to respond to it. In weak moments, he will admit that he enjoys the chatter, and loves hearing you go on and on about some vague person’s wife’s eccentric kicks, but he will not really respond in kind. He refuses to kindle your imagination with similar talk. However, at times, the man will mask such talk with issues of concern and disbelief, thereby not coming across as ‘chatty’ but as ‘concerned’.
Gossip! About an ex-boss and the new car she might get. About an ex-colleague and her innovatie ways of pissing people off. Mind you, we never talk about things like make-up and clothes. Just gently probe the lives of some others, and have a few harmless opinions about all that. Meeta’s mom’s wedding gift… A lovely silver bookmark. How well some of us know our bookworms.. J
Saturday evening. We meet some of Sri’s friends. On an average, I enjoy meeting his friends. Other than the fact that he has nice friends, talking to them gives me sudden glimpses into his life that I missed. Stuff about when he was 13 years old. And men, when they get together, gossip like crazy, but do it very carefully, as though it is not gossip. All the more fun!
So we head out with three of them. One of them I know very well, as he helped out immensely in the first few week so me moving to Bombay in 2002. He’s almost got this big-brother attitude. He again helped me out a great deal when I moved to Hyderabad in 2004. The other guy was seriously funny, and someone who I briefly met in 2001 when Sri and I visited Hyderabad.
But now, there was a third guy who Sri really didn’t remember. He was from school days and a friend of the other two. And man, that guy TALKED. And wouldn’t stop talking. He went on and on. He put ME (yes, yes.. me!) to shame!
We squeezed into a Maruti and went for a Hyderabad darshan at night. Headed out to Durgam Cheruvu. And at night, after the madness of Holi wrecking people’s strength to come out and stroll, the place looked beautiful as ever. That drive in Banjara Hills, Hi Tech City and beyond, brought back a strong sense of nostalgia.
