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interior smelled like it was an address to a rat’s grave. I daringly sat in the car.
    ‘So, Arjun, how do you like my baby’s roar, haan ? He asked attempting a weird accent while he inhumanly throttled the car. To me it felt more like a buffalo’s snore than a roar.
    Kartik, like his car, was of random make. Five feet six inches in height and dairy milk brown in colour, he was partly bald and had the rest of the hair cropped like an army cadet. He had a paunch too. Devika had been dating this bozo for five months. When we first met him, all of us took turns to go to the loo to laugh. Whenever in conversation with him, I had an acute itch of mimicking his fake accent, but for Devika’s sake, I behaved myself.
    Devika was waiting at the gate when we reached. For an instant I thought I saw Kartik actually slurp his drool off his lips when he saw her, but I don’t blame him because for the first time in all these years, even I checked Devika out. A knee-length blue off shoulder dress made her look even fairer. A black belt with red stones on the buckle, red stilettos with a clutch completed her outfit. Highlighted cheek bones, blue eyeliner combined with pink eye gloss and the extra something that she did to her naturally pouting lips made them look more luscious and kissable. She was truly drool-worthy. She hugged me as I got out of the car. She smelled awesome. She sat in the front and I took the seat behind Kartik.
    “Why are we leaving the city?” I asked as the car swerved on to the highway.
    “Because the party is in Khandala,” Devika replied.
    “Wow!” I fist pumped.
    “Isn’t it great?” Kartik said, clearly missing the sarcasm.
    Devika slapped my knee as I chuckled. It was going to be a highly enjoyable two-hour ride, listening to awkward gear shifts forcing the car to wail like an animal being butchered.

    I cursed myself for taking the back seat as the car’s air conditioner only cooled the front of the car. I was so cooked that anyone could have easily taken a bite of me. I looked like I had taken a shower with my clothes on. I was never sitting in that car again, I promised myself. Finally, the beats of the music could be heard from the farm house. I jumped out of the car as soon as it halted and walked to the desk at the entrance.
    “Arjun...” I told the bouncer at the entrance.
    “Stag for now, sir?” he winked at me checking my name on the list.
    “Yes,” I said realising it was the first time in seven years that I was walking alone to the party.
    Raghu saw me and came running to me with a bottle of tequila and pushed a nice sixty millilitres shot down my throat. He pulled me inside while Devika and Kartik followed us.
    The party pimp had done it again – poolside dance floor, open bar, more girls than guys, empty rooms and mind blowing music – everything typically Raghu. Our college friends, long lost girls from school, their friends from college, chat friends, Facebook girls, random girls, girls we met at the events we worked on, and even the girls we met at James Coffeewala and Pyaasa were there. This bastard had been in touch with every single one of them. I have to confess that for a minute I felt like a hungry man in a free for all cafeteria. But the happiness didn’t last for long.
    “Where the fuck is Hrida?” Raghu asked as he pushed another shot of tequila in my mouth. I didn’t say anything, and a girl pulled Raghu on the dance floor. I headed straight for the bar, and swigged down a mouthful of whiskey.
    As Shashank entered, a spot light followed him on the dark dance floor and led him to the cake. The lights came on and there were screams and woohoos wishing him. The girl he had brought with him fed him the cake. The tequila and the whiskey had begun to kick in. The volume of the music increased and the lights began to move faster. Raghu pulled me on the dance floor. I flicked a bottle from the bar and followed him. Shashank kissed me as soon as he saw me. I couldn’t