Read Part - I below before you read this.
Fortunately for the four of us, we did not have to try too hard for an auto outside the main gate at such an odd hour! He agreed for 300 rupees to take us to Mehdipatnam in the city.
Now as we 'embarked on the bumpy ride', I thought of my BITSian juniors living in Hitech City. Mad as I might sound, I called one of them asking if she would be willing to let us in into their apartment post midnight because we had no place else to go and that we wanted to "do something"! Mugdha ever so willingly agreed.
The auto ride wasn’t particularly something I would like to remember. It was terrifying to say the least. Why? Well, the road was completely deserted, with only the auto’s headlights flashing – only every now and then. Not a single vehicle crossed us, ahh, of course there were a few bulky noise-making trucks that did but we are not considering them here.
And, to scare us further, the auto-walla’s phone kept ringing (and he was receiving those calls while trying to drive with one hand) and he said, “main aa raha hoon, jaldi aa raha hoon.” Terrifying scenes from all the Bollywood movies flashing in front of my eyes, I turned completely white, apparently. Well, it was something to be scared of, after all!
Finally, after a long and rather speedy drive, we reached Mehdipatnam, and looked for another auto to take us to Hi tech City. Mugdha had sent us directions to her place in an sms. So, huddled into a smaller auto this time, the four of us experienced Hyderabad post midnight.
A blank above is to tell you that there isn’t much to write about Hyderabad’s post midnight life.
Upon reaching Mugdha’s luxurious flat and a round of introductions, my BITSian juniors cooked some delicious late-night dinner for all of us. The menu was exquisite – Pasta, Chicken sandwiches, and cold drinks along with some chips and chocolate-chip biscuits; we couldn’t have asked for more! As it happens always, when a few BITSians get together, and then if they belong to the same Department too, there’s no stopping them from going into long sessions of lachha, ignoring the rest of the world. Pretty rude for an outsider, I agree, so to not look rude, we narrated some BITS stories to the non-BITSians in the room and the lachha-session continued for more than an hour or so.
Have you ever played Taboo? It’s a card-words game, an extremely enjoyable one. And, that is what we did for the next three hours after two more juniors joined us. Two teams of four each, Controlz Vs Non-Controlz; and boy! did we have a gala time or what! Controlz made a clean sweep, although my friends in the other team provided both good competition and great fun – with Dipsen using all of the Taboo words one after the other for cards after cards!
Oh Dipsen, you are the cutest I know.
Post 5.30am, the diligent student and the sane human in us woke up to reality. We forced my juniors to retire; they had to get to offices and internships in about three hours time.
We gathered our tired minds to work, and strained our eyes to read the fine print from our laptops. Only to fail, for slowly, all the four wickets fell one by one on the big black cushiony sofas into a deep slumber of about an hour!
By 8am, we were on the way back to our campus in a seven-seater. We had taken our camera with us, but in all the excitement and madness, we forgot to click for most part of the time. But, none of the eight would forget the night, ever. For Dipsen – it was the satisfaction of having done something outrageous, breaking college rules to be precise. For the two guys who accompanied us – it was the delight of having given us company through such madness. For my juniors – it was reliving Pilani days, graveyard shifts in the Controlz Booth to be precise. And for me – it was the addition of another great story that I would relay to my grandchildren!