BENGALURU: Cao Gente Everybody is in a great hurry to bring back the glory days. Doomsday pundits are predicting a double-digit inflation next year; but people are in post-Covid euphoria. I am confused whether I should jump onto the bandwagon or not. Even doctors are saying that Covid ‘has gone’ and somehow I don’t understand that concept. Much to our horror and dismay, our pregnant daughter and her husband contracted the virus.
It is next to impossible not to go back to work, and though all procedures like masking (sometimes double) were done, both of them were infected. Rather than having a savoir-faire attitude, if we just use our humaneness and responsibility we can go a long way in mutually protecting ourselves. I find the resistance to wearing masks, and maintaining some semblance of social distancing waning. The exchanges of bodily fluids aka; the sweat that one encounters when people hug and air kiss you is alarming! I try to politely make a point by asking errant mask wearers to pull up their (double) chin bands but there is almost a manic frenzy to get back to the ‘old-ways’ and that includes not wearing a mask, and urinating and defecating outside. Sigh! C’est la vie.
I did a manic round up with friends to distract myself. Usually when my ‘game-face’ is on, there is no stopping me. Whether it is scintillating conversation ranging from books, wine, food, and people and their idiosyncrasies, one would never believe that there is a storm raging within. That is why I always choose happiness consciously. It is tough but when practiced often enough it can be accessed quite easily.
I am getting a tad bit tired of this new level of ‘political-correctness’. I understand some terms and some words sound (inadvertently) derogatory, but now there is a level of political snobbery which is manned by a charmed circle of elitists. Apparently I can’t call you, my readers, ‘my tribe’ because it’s politically incorrect. Well, there goes another greeting! Thank God, my friend Deepak Menezes (the suave Goan) who has just assumed charge of ITC Windsor Manor is as real as they come. We had a mirth filled dinner at Dakshin, over many gins (it was gin-day after all), and stellar South-Indian delicacies. It’s wonderful when friends have a sense of humour that translates into hearty guffaws.
I bumped into a gaggle of friends I hadn’t seen in a while at Fox in the Field, the popular vintner Abhay Kewadkar’s, new gastro-pub. The two levels of the pub were teeming with friends and the over-flowing bar and retro band that was playing just added to the right feel. It was a loud and raucous affair filled with good cheer and bonhomie. I believe another important event took place the same day but they were hardly any invitees as everyone was at Abhay’s do!
I was becoming more daring as I stepped into the dimly lit environs of Mirage to hear Jonas AX, the lead-advocacy of Bacardi-India talk loving (while we sipped lovingly) about the three new artisanal rums that was meticulously aged in oak-barrels under the Caribbean sun. The excellently paired dinner and the ambrosia only added to the ‘Rum-mersion’ experience. Play and be merry, but be careful. What we possess is temporary, what we become is permanent.