Tea Addiction

The gang is back... like old times

Old habits die hard. For years together, many of us have been meeting at a nearby chai shop after the exercises for a daily powwow on people and politics, religion, booze, women and sex … all weighty worldly matters that cannot be discussed in polite company (inside the Garden). We even appropriated the epithet, Badmaash Company before anybody else could bestow it on us. And not a day passed by without our spirited rendezvous at this tea joint.
But last year, it all ended abruptly – for a variety of reasons. The most significant reason was the series of mishaps that overtook Arun Patil, a key ‘badmaash’ of our core group.

Arun Patil at the wheel

It was in his flaming red SUV that we used to travel to the chai shop every morning. Knowing the distressful state he was in, the rest of us did not have the heart to meet. Still, we met a couple of times – but it was no longer the same.
Today, Arun took his car out and wonder of wonders he actually drove it to the chai shop all by himself.

End of another day... and week

As readers would know (ref post of September 29), this chap is without one foot and from the looks of it, has not yet got used to the prosthetic replacement. How he managed to negotiate the accelerator and brakes down narrow streets, taking sharp turns and bends through teeming traffic was nothing short of a miracle.
Earlier, everybody had advised him not to take the car out in the condition he was in. Srichand Arora suggested that he get rid of the damn thing for whatever price it fetches. Even the ladies had warned him not to risk his life by behaving like a mad man. But Arun, being the ‘man in a hurry’ had a point to prove and perhaps, was even justified in driving the car today as a necessary means of regaining self-confidence.
What however, remained unsaid was his eagerness to revive the old halcyon days when all we did was to curse the world and its mother with impunity over countless rounds of tea. That was the sole intention of landing at the chai shop -- our true objective and addiction. We were missing that.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd) from Mohali:
The attitude of Arun Patil is positive. It proves that a man, however differently able he may be, can do what he is determined to do. It is this spirit that counts. Three cheers to Patil for driving his car confidently and with ease. It proves the old adage, "Where there's a will, there's a way". Happy driving, Arun.
Harish Wadhwa:
One six-footer badmaash is missing. Arun, take care and drive very slow. Nice to see you regaining confidence.