Theme parties..overcrowded sales...catching up...obscure exams..et al...

So the last week has been rather, well, interesting. Lots of old (and now unrecognizably plump) friends dropped in. If I start generally this will be one hell of a digression-filled post.

So we shall do what the order obsessed part of my brain says - we shall go chronologically...

Wednesday, AG came in from Mumbai. R and AG are doing a course on intellectual property rights law from National Law school here in Bangalore. After a number of postponements they've finally decided to grab the bull by the horns this time. Thats why AG has come in to give the exams (ok, now you've got the whole story behind his presence in Bangalore)

Thursday showed me the sheer over-crowdedness of this city. There was a Nike 50% off sale near MG road. I got to know of this through an internal company email saying that this is for employees of my company (the liars! every tom dick and harry could've just dropped in). Another reason for my eyes popping over at this news is that I've recently been getting many lessons on "living - within - a - budget" by a friend. AND she laughs her head off on my purchasing style (Which consists of paying whatever the salesperson asks for the first time. After some apologetically mumbled bargaining efforts that I know I'm supposed to do. OK so I can't bargain, I'm terrible at it...so shoot me!)

Anyway, I thought I was really smart. I started early in the evening from office after coordinating with a couple of friends (yes, we tele-conferenced to plan this using my office's faciilities...so shoot me! hmmpff)

R and I were to reach first and then AK was to join us later. So there we were, patting ourselves on the back for our enterprise, contacts, foresight, superior planning and brilliant execution ability....and then we paused - there was a line of cars one BLUDDY kilometre long around the venue of this supposed "exclusive sale". Arrgghh.

But we still persevered (No one shall say that we learn our lessons easily. No siree, we take all the knocks, then we repeat , get all additional knocks and then MAYBE, just maybe we'll learn our lessons). After wading through a sea of populace we finally glimpsed the holy grail - the so called brilliant shoes. Absolutely no variety, and atleast two people attached to each reasonably decent shoe (God, one look there and it seemed like Nike, in a magnanimous moment, had opened the gates of its factories for people to just rush in and take whatever they wish for; instead of paying "STILL-exhorbitant-at-half-price" prices for assembly line shoes in weird shades of purple, green and most noticeably Pink)

Anyway, after spending a fortune in time we managed to touch a few shoes. Thats it. We bought nothing from there. We went upstairs to see their apparel. Selected a few good things, but blanched at the prospect of holding on to our purchases in the face of a turbulent line that snaked from the check out counter. After dumping our selections in a bin meant for shoes (*shakes fist - there, ye Nike Gods; how did you like the revenge of the little people? I bet it must've taken you some 2-3 minutes to retrieve those shirts after the sale closed.).

The only positive that came out from this experience was that I got to ogle ..er..look at a rather cute girl who was managing the whole show (and very commendably too, keeping in mind the throes of people and the subsequent staff that had been deployed there). I'd met that lady once earlier at a party and had subsequently exchanged a few scraps as well. However, looking at how busy she was and that it was quite improbable that she'd remember me (I met her atleast 7-8 months back), I didn't impose myself on her. But yes, she's definitely in the "very-cute" category, and seeing her after such a long time could be said to have compensated a bit for the wasted journey.

But poor R was livid, absolutely nothing for him on this trip (He gave me ugly looks and enquired - "did you bluddy know she would be here you disgusting stalker".

Hehe..don't worry, I jest, I jest)

But then the evening progressed well. We ended up in 13th floor sipping on Brahmos'.We were a total of six people and it was good fun. Good food and drink, good company, good ambience = Good fun.

Well we've covered "overcrowded sales...catching up...obscure exams" and are left with "theme parties". I'll tell you about it later, its getting late and I need to go watch WWE to sleep for an early day tomorrow.

cya later kids!