Friends, brothers, the older they are, the more you like them.

Two posts in one day, I really need to learn to pace myself, seeing that I went a few years without even a single one! But hey, I have time, I have thoughts, some depressingly nostalgic, others optimistically themed. And you, my dear eyeball owners are my captive audience, so enjoy, or do not, either way I couldn't really be bothered.

I have an old friend, he lives close to my home, we meet for drinks every Saturday night, a ritual that we have kept up with through breakups, highs, lows and covid as well. We enjoy each others company, or at least I do, he being the free thinking idiot that he is, may have a differing opinion. We spend Saturday nights in each others company, having a few drinks, pontificating about current affairs, the state of the country, things we experienced through the week, and in his case for a long time, the marital woes of a man who has a wife and 2 children. Now that I am married myself, I find myself empathising a little more with his troubles. He runs a manufacturing tool room, making tools and dies for the automotive industry and others via their channel of ancillary vendors in the ecosystem. His tool room has some snazzy CNC machines that operate 24/7 and churn out jobs that seemingly keep his stove burning. He happens to be a commerce graduate, who, by dint of his on the job training and 20 years of running his business is more of an engineer than those trained in the profession, like me will ever get the chance to be. But, I digress, this post was intended to describe our relationship, our Saturday evenings and little else.

So we walk to the nearest watering hole, about 700 meters away, each Saturday evening around 8:30 PM. Just like the bar in the sitcom, Cheers, its a place where everybody knows our name. So we are welcomed by the head waiter and led to our choice of tables, far enough from the lavatory, and well situated below two ceiling fans to be comfortable. We have been frequenting this haven for more than 10 years now, and it has since had a management change, but what has not changed is our continued patronage of this establishment. Chitranna, the man in charge here, greets us personally and we shake his hand, as he directs us to our seats and informs us about what he intends to send to our tables. And we never second guess his choices, for he understands our taste, and historically his choices have always been excellent. Once we are settled in, we order our drinks, and as we wait for them to arrive, look around at our fellow patrons, some of whom are regulars just like ourselves. There is the odd couple, both middle aged men, one clearly the dominant one with his lackey. The dominant one belongs to a political party know for extreme right wing views, and though irrelevant in the larger scheme of things, makes enough noise and trouble to remain in the news. He orders red wine, which I think is totally out of character for his persona, that being almost Godfather-like, more thug than Don Corleone. We wave at him, my friend who is usually effusive and talkative shares a conversation or two with him in Marathi, while I tap my fingers on the table wishing the waiter to bring our liquid courage soon. Soon, thankfully the drinks arrive, and the waiter goes through an elaborate ritual of mixing them with soda, mixer and water as the case may be. We bang our glasses together and take the first sip. Soon after we fill the relative silence with words. He starts talking about things he thinks are wrong with the world, I nod in agreement and keep sipping my drink. Soon it is my turn to vent, and I have precious little to contribute to the theme of the evening, not being long enough in the marital situation to really have 'woman issues', and not really caring about anything going on in politics to have a strong opinion about it. Occasionally, we find a topic that the both of us share similar views about, and here the lubricated vocabularies of our sozzled minds reach their creative epitomes, as we deliver TED talks to each other about either Virat Kohli's cricketing abilities, Narendra Modi's political genius or simply how good the latest automobile launched by Honda/Mahindra/Tata is.

As we continue the night, the drinks make way for food, and if in an extravagant mood, we order some ice cream for dessert. Then it becomes time to end the night and go back to our real lives. We settle the bill, and begin walking homewards. It is near 1:30 AM by now, my family is fast asleep. His children though are ready and waiting to resume jumping on their bed, much to his dismay. Such is life, I guess. And while I recognise that I am perhaps 3 years and one offspring away from being in the same situation, in the interim, I shall enjoy my peaceful repost.