Delhi MS Meet, 7th of June, 2009
They were all unanimously united against sugary candies and unanimous in their opinion that only I am bereft of any gooey insides and caramel coatings. I don't know what did I ever do to earn that reputation, but at that very moment I could empathize with Raju guide for being christened as the village druid and made to fast till death. And the guy who coaxed a wannabe out of her marriage, lived off her money and sentenced for fraud actually had to live up to it! That's what giving into hype can do to you!
So here I am, typing a diary post about the MS meet I have just returned from, earning the wrath of my already cross better half (for ruining her Sunday), supposedly exposing the 'bitter truth' of the meet (The expectations are so amazingly high that I have to invent some sensational bitter truth if their was none!). As I said, I have given in to the hype. I won't blame you if you kick me out of your TC after this (please just quietly uncheck my name in your TC feed filter if you care to be little polite, please)!
Dressed to kill (or at least I thought so. I always think so when I wear black. High hopes, huh!), I land up in this labyrinth (they call it mall) about to burst with people on a Sunday afternoon SMSing Sujata (Faerie) for directions to Barista. A few are there (Sujata, Sonika, Shubro, Titu and family) and a few are on the way. Hellos, HIs, handshakes, looking for extra chairs around and we settle down. The second lot (Swati aka Aarini aka Niraa [Sorry Swati, if you were planning to have this open secret carry on for long, you are busted!], Sweety and Shalu) arrives soon after. The customary exchange of details of logistical information [complaints about traffic, heat et al] precedes the 'pretend to be busy with mobiles while someone starts some kind of conversation'.
Now this is why its so imperative to have the likes of Shalu and Shubro in the meet. I mean these guys can talk to a wall if need be! So while the rest of us are busy measuring up the mood and the right things to say, fiddling with our mobiles, Titu getting delusional with some GK MS meet which never happened, Sujata and Sweety capturing the most comfortable sofa, talking and smiling scandalously amongst themselves (that was a bit later actually), Sonika alternating her thoughts between the real and the imaginary (poor Piscean), Swati actually trying to do a LinkedIn (scouting for an operations guy for her 'event management company' (I get very suspicious of anyone who uses that term)) on the meet, these guys (Shalu and Shubro), thankfully start talking about MS!
One thing led to another (I have never seen that sentence being used anywhere else apart from when the Hero and Heroine end up having sex 'mistakenly' on their first date! Ouch!) and the torch turned to the fake IDs on MS! This is what I live for Man! Scandals! I didn't burn 300 Rupees of petrol to fiddle with my mobile, huh!. You know, it would be an understatement if I say I was enlightened today. Today, I saw how deep the drain goes! Today I saw the underbelly of MS! (Are you scandalized enough by now, or need I say more?!)
Believe you me, we took full advantage of everyone not present there. We bitched, we exposed, we mercilessly slayed anyone and everyone (who's who of MS) we could. I am sure no one even noticed how we were being robbed by TC&B (Rs. 102 for a cuppa tea!!) apart from Aarini as she had the most sensational secrets to tell! Shalu was not far behind. Oh! She had some boulders on her chest which needed to come off and come off they did! And it didn't require more than a 'Cummon, you can tell us' poke to get her started!.
All niceties fell apart and we were all ears! Which 'she' is actually a 'he'? Who is actually who? Who is actually not a who? Who forgot to sign off with the fake name he was signed in with? Fake IDs for self glorification, fake IDs to rattle the big ships, fake IDs to cause sensations, hypocritical indifference to stardom, shared ID (one ID - many people. I almost fell off the chair when I heard of that concept!). Oh! 'twas all there and the voyeur within me couldn't have had it better. It just ogled with an enlarged retina and ear to ear smile at the expose. My money was utilized, every penny of it! Yesssir, I had fun :)
Having tasted the blood, nobody was ready to leave. A quick photo shoot and the venue shifted from Barista to TC&B and the revelations just kept coming! Finally, with nothing left to expose, we all had another round of click-clicks and warm handshakes in the parking basement and dispersed. This was one MS meet, as a MS meet should be ;)
