Bachelor's Party without a bachelor

'Innovation', 'Lateral Thinking' and 'Thinking out of the box' are the latest buzz words in industry. In order to crack any interview or to create impression on boss, peers and subordinates the above words are commonly used (though rarely practiced). Believing that conscious efforts need to be taken in order to think differently, many B-Schools have introduced such subjects in the curriculum. I too believed that innovation happens only with conscious thinking, hard work and efforts. However I was proved wrong on the weekend just after the Diwali festival.

Bachelor’s Party, a trend practiced in western countries is now common in India. Movies like Hangover and JNMD have made it even more popular. Seeing the fun that Hritikh, Farhan and Abhay have during their trip to Spain (which happens to be Abhay’s bachelor party), I and my friend (Kaustubh – 30 years old; just married; working with TechM; Religious; Spiritual; Pure vegetarian, non drinker; non smoker) decided to plan a party for our dear friend Sachin (30 years old; about to get hanged; working with HSBC; Vegetarian; non smoker; possibly non drinker). Knowing the fate that Sachin would be going through (post weeding or is it wedding :) ) we wanted to ensure that this trip of his becomes a memorable one and he has memorable moments to look back during his married life. After a lot of thought and consultation we decided to visit ‘Mumbai - Madh Island’ for the event. Considering the fact that a visit to Mumbai and 'Madh Island' were planned earlier too and had not worked out, we thought that everything would go as per plan and we would have a rocking time (remember in JNMD, there were three friends and their Spain trip too had been cancelled earlier).

We started for Mumbai at around 8 PM. Cool breeze, nice music and friends. WOW. Everything was set for a perfect bachelor’s party. Dancing, Singing and discussions (about what we would be doing in Mumbai) ensured that the drive was smooth and within no time we reached Vashi. Since it would get late for us to reach Mumbai, we decided to have our last meal for the day in Vashi (Center One Food Court – Chinese; cold drinks and Paneer Salsa Wrap). During the meals we kept on discussing about the next day plans. Sachin is a person who tries to live (or rather tries to show to the world that he lives) an ideal/straight life. For him pubs are a taboo and had clearly indicated his desire of not entering a pub or disco. (I really am not sure if he even knows what pubs are). Just to make fun of him, we would talk about arrangements made in Mumbai (Ref.: JNMD – 'Ukraine se thee' scene) to ensure that the bachelors party is truly a bachelor’s party. We would make prank calls to make him feel that the plan is true and not a fake one. Soon we managed to make him believe that the plan was a reality and that there were people waiting in Mumbai to offer us the service. While such discussion was going on, Swati (Sachin’s fiancé – 28/29 years old; working with MSEDCL; emotional; sensitive and in-secured) called up. To add more spice to the fun, we (I and Kaustubh) kept on talking about the plans of visiting disco, drinking alcoholic beverages, etc. As mentioned in Swati’s description, she being an in-secured person believed that the plans were true and we were actually going to spend time as discussed. This resulted in her firing Sachin with volleys of questions and emotional statements. Sachin who was already nervous got disturbed with the statements made by Swati and moreover with the fact that despite knowing Swati’s emotional and in secured nature, we kept on discussing the fictious plan (which he felt was real). What followed later was a true picture of Sachin’s character. For the next 5 minutes there were a sharing of intense statements (argument; quarrel, whatever you call it - of getting down from the car and returning back to Pune; explanation of how sensitive the period before wedding ceremony is; how insensitive you guys are, ‘jyacha jalta tyalach kalta’ etc --- the quarrel is another resemblance to JNMD), followed by a 30 minutes silence. No one spoke with each other (Vashi to Chembur). Noise, of the wind and Car's engine were the only sounds that were heard. Soon Sachin realized that if he did not break the ice, he would be isolated for the remaining trip and would seriously have to think of returning back to Pune. 'Paneer Salsa Wrap' was the ice breaking topic :)

Soon we reached home and spent remaining time playing carom. Till then Sachin had calmed down and everyone had decided to make the argument a part of history. In fact we even laughed on the quarrel. After a couple of hours of carom, Sachin decided to retire (at around 2:30 AM). However I and Kaustubh kept on discussing (Retrospection of the year that is about to pass; resolutions kept/broken; resolutions for the next year etc) till 4 AM. We then felt that it was time for us to sleep as the next day would be activity filled and more exhausting. Zzzzzz...

The next day stated as usual with tea and biscuits. After getting ready, we decided to start our journey towards 'Madh Island' (approximately 45 kms from the place we were). It being a Saturday we were expecting less traffic and hence less travel time. None of us knew the exact route towards the destination however I had a fair idea of where it was located. Travel in Mumbai isn’t an experience that you would like to savor, however fortunately the weather was not bad. Exploring the city through the car and more discussions ensured that travel became even more pleasant. After about 30 kms of travel we reached a place where we needed to start taking guidance from locals. What followed next was hard to digest. The roads started becoming narrower and dirtier. The broad and somewhat glamorous roads of Mumbai disappeared and were replaced by narrow, dirtier and filthier roads. The high rise buildings were replaced by old 2/3 storey buildings. The glamorous shops disappeared and old small shops started being visible. We thought that it would be a small patch connecting the main city to 'Madh Island'. The hope of reaching a destination that would be hot and happening, full of beautiful/attractive girls kept us cheered and motivated. However nothing changed for a lot of time. In fact any change that took place was more depressing. It was hard to believe that this road could take us to a hot and happening place like 'Madh Island' and Aksa beach (the ‘God Tujhse Great Ho’ – ‘tujhe Aksa beach ghumadu aa chalti kya’ fame) However hope keeps a man going. Finally after maneuvering the car for a long time we reached a village called ‘Madh’. The resemblance of the village name with ‘Madh Island’ meant that we were near to our destination. However what we were seeing/experiencing (dirty water, open drainage, dead fishes lying around, foul odor, damaged roads, filthy locals - no offense mean to the locals, etc) was nowhere close to our imagination. On inquiring with a local person we were told that the Madh village itself was our destination. 220 kms of travel to see something that we would have seen in and around Pune !!! No way. There must be something that the local guy must not know. We kept our search going (need not say with enthusiasm and hope of a silver lining) and moved ahead. However nothing could be seen that we were expecting. ‘Things started getting worse. In fact we almost reached the end of the road (surprisingly at the end of the road, there was an L&T office - wonder if any one works there). The place was called ‘Jatti’. The description of the place has made a permanent impact on our minds. No words can describe the experience. Only the ones who visit it get to know the true picture. The most enthusiastic person would get depressed over there. However at the same time we wonder how the locals stay over there.

Nothing was lost yet. We had heard a lot about ‘Aksa beach’. The fact that stars like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra had shot a song over there meant that there was something over there to look ahead for. We headed towards the beach. Again hoping for something special to happen, however it was not to be. Aksa beach turned out to be even more pathetic than Dadar chaupati. The 'Girgaum Chaupatti' is more enjoyable than the beach that we saw. At least the Girgaum chaupatti has good stalls were you could have decent food. There was nothing around. Most of the stalls were shut. Even a cup of tea was not available. People were sitting around on the beaches (who were mostly locals) with dull faces and nothing exciting seemed to be happening. Finally we gave up and decided to head towards South Mumbai. But before we could leave the beach there was another experience that we had to enjoy. There was a tea vendor who was ready to serve us tea. We ordered for 2 cups of tea. Before we could drink it, a fly fell in one of the cups. Having told her about the fly in the tea, she readily accepted to serve us another cup. The best was yet to come. To our horror, she removed the fly from the tea and poured the tea back in the tea vessel………We drank the tea, wondering how many flies would she have removed from the tea that we had in our hands. Yucks.

After about 1 hour of travel were back on route towards South Mumbai. Having skipped the breakfast (hoping of a good meal in Madh Island), resulted in hunger pangs. We now had to forget the morning experience and look out for a good restaurant where we could enjoy the afternoon meal (It was 3:30 PM). After giving a lot of thought to the restaurants that we could visit, we finally decided to move towards Dadar and look out for one over there.

As Kaustubh says ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans’. We did the same by having a lot of discussions. When we thought that nothing worse could happen, the un imaginable happened. The incidence broke the sheer back bone of a bachelor party – presence of a bachelor.

Sachin received a call from Swati (from nashik) informing him about the demise of her maternal grandmother. Sachin was shocked with the news and reacted in a very strong manner. The fact that he had interacted with her a couple of days back did not make him believe that Swati’s grandmother had actually passed away. After consoling Swati and requesting her to take care of her parents he in excitement committed (Sachin is known for making commitments without giving any thought) to be there in Nashik. He lost all his interest in the party and suddenly the relation bonding theory took precedence. He lost all his interest in meals and seemed to be inclined in moving towards Nashik. He then called up his mother to inform her about the sad news. The discussions taken place after that may not be suitable to be placed on a public blog. Placing them over here may lead to lot of misunderstandings. Even though, I and Kaustubh felt that it was not totally necessary for Sachin to be there at the site, he was sure that he wanted to be there at any cost and on that day itself. There was something that was pulling him towards Nashik (not sure what was the actual force). After checking the various options available to travel to Nashik (Bus; Train; Local-Jeep and Cool cab), he decided to travel to Nashik via a cool cab (paid Rs 1600 for the full cab, which he borrowed from Kaustubh). As mentioned earlier Sachin’s absence meant that the remaining bachelor’s party had to be enjoyed by 2 married men. One with a child and other in the line.

The main reason of the party had left for Nashik, without even asking us about our opinion and even without thinking what we would feel by his sudden departure. It isn’t that we did not care for Swati’s grandmother or that it did not matter to us. However the manner in which it happened bothered us. We had been to Mumbai for the party in spite of having our own issues. Archana’s (my wife) father had organized a get together that evening to celebrate his birthday. However since Sachin’s party was planned before that and that I had committed to be there, I ignored the get together. Any married man would know what that means. (Jyacha jalta tyalach kalta). Kaustubh’s father was leaving for Uttaranchal the next morning and it meant that Kaustubh and his father would not be meeting each other till Kaustubh returns back from UK (could be 6 months or even a year). However he was there just for Sachin.

There was nothing more that we could do. After dropping Sachin at the Cool cab stop, we visited Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel, walked on Marine drive, had dinner at ‘Pizza – Just by the Bay’ and returned back to our home for the night. The excitement had been lost. Even while on bed there was regret related to the incident that took place. The fact that we were once again taken for granted annoyed us. We wondered if we would ever be able to (even if we wanted to; would our family members willingly approve that) trust him and his commitments. However we decided to take a lesson from it and move ahead. May be this experience was on the cards and bachelors party was just the medium through which it was to be communicated. We woke up at 5 AM and started for Pune. Bringing an end to a very different party.

A bachelor's party without a bachelor, 2 married men and at the most dull, un happening and dirty place in Mumbai would be no less than 'Innovation'/'Lateral Thinking'/'Thinking out of the Box'. No conscious efforts were needed for this innovation to take place. It just happened. Whatever?

This just may be the last bachelor's party we are attending, but it would definitely be a trip that would be carved in our hearts and would remember it for a long long time. After all life is not only about enjoying the good moments, it is also about enjoying (and learning lessons) the bad moments and experiences. If you can do that, you have lived a life or you are just passing time till death arrives.