woes of a bachelor - 2

Hey..

With the heat wave sweeping across the NorthEast US and Wash,DC temperatures waiting to soar in three digits shortly, this weekend was not a welcome one. However I did have a few exciting events - being woken up early morning by the fire alarm, flashing lights and defeaning fire engines to start with; biking half the Mt. Vernon's trail (map on the left) only to find almost toward the end that we were biking in exactly opposite direction; planned for bowling as plan-A with Dirty Dancing on a open air theater as plan-B - only to cancel both plans and end up doing stargazing getting a neck pain... - a nice weekend.

And we had a birthday party of one of our friend's kids. It was a gala with lots of people pouring in, talking, rambling, yapping and what not in between the mouthfuls - we had an awesome time.

These kind of desi parties are good fun and good way to enjoy a weekend - eating when someone else's cooking, meeting scores of people, gossips/rumours/short stories/long stories/teasing/ragging.... - and loads of Indian delicacies.

But is it just that ?

One big trend in the desi get-togethers is the fact how bachelors are easily singled out. There are always the married people with kids - these kids steal the show playing & fighting and the parents sit & admire the kids, occasionally irritating them with stuff like "Mamakku hello sollu", "Thank you sollu", etc., The married folks flock together with the wives exchanging pleasantaries with each other, the hubbies shouting around slowly pulling the wives into discussions, teasing each other and all that.

Enter the bachelors into the party. There are two significant attributes to bachelors:
1. Always arrive in gangs
2. Always arrive late.
We slowly move around trying to mingle with others and at the same time avoid them as well - and in this process finally end up sticking with each other. We stand in a circle of our own - laughing, making jokes - the same things we would have done otherwise anyway. The only differences are that the volume is low here and the teasing is somewhat decent compared to other times. A few also try picking up kids, playing with them. Some others carry a new digi-cam shooting random pictures, which they will possibly never see more than one anyway.

The food bar is open after a agonising wait and the bachelors are specially called to have food. There is always the impression that we bachelors come to these get-togthers just for free food. It may not be fully wrong, though. And this is the killer time, when folks are in line for the buffet , that there is some chit chat between the two distinct communities - bachelors & the married ! The typical questions like "So when is the marriage annoucement ?", "When are you visiting India next ?", "When are you coming to OUR house ?" flow. And the victimised bachelor gives stupid laughs and tries shooing away the questions, only to find himself caught with the same questionnaire coming from a different person during the second helping. Sometimes phrases like "...lucky you guys, you dont have a commitment and can do as you wish.." can be heard. Not sure if it is a compliment, or if it is sarcasm or just a show off translating into ".. I have a wife & kids and Iam complete/perfect. You are single and worthless.."

Slowly after a couple of couples start leaving, the bachelor gangs try slipping away -a midnight movie mostly in the plans. Sometimes we just get lucky. Other times end up with us staying long after everyone is gone helping arranging the chairs and dumping the trash while also receiving free advice one-one with a experienced married man/couple on why we shouldnt postpone our marriage or why we should buy a house or what I should be doing with my life...

As the night settles in and when each of us say good bye and get dropped off, when we walk along the pavement, on the elevator and entering the home - the questions and the advice do remain clogging in the head, eating the brains, generating confusions... . Until the roomie pops up a drink and TBS channel starts AUSTIN POWERS for the umpteenth time, and bachelors become bachelors again..

PS: woes of a bachelor - 1 .

Chao..