Horse is always black

“Will you be my Valentine?”

“Obviously ya!”

“Chal toh half an hour mein andheri station mil.”

As usual she made me wait. Like normally it’s me who’s invariably late. But with her it’s different. Anyway today was Valentine’s Day so I didn’t tell her anything when she finally came. We were moving towards the ticket window when I got a call. It was Nabil. Her boyfriend. No, ex-boyfriend. Or boyfriend. It’s complicated.

Oh by the way, I’m talking about Sadaf, my bestest friend. We were both single on that day (as in those days!) so we thought of meeting up, going to the Kala Ghoda festival, eating, roaming, ‘sight’ seeing. We hadn’t met for quite some time and we really wanted to make up for it. But then this call. It was decided that he’d join us there in some time. More waiting…..

Saddo’s parents were also around the same area, buying sweets for her to-be in-laws (I told you it was complicated). She called them and they said they were at Thakkar Sweets and asked us to go meet them. Anyway we had a lot of time to kill. So we went there (mainly with the intention of making them buy us sweets, which they almost did, but there were no gulab jamuns, and we both wanted precisely that). From then on, till the end of the day we were craving for gulab jamuns.

We took a train, reached Churchgate and walked to Kala Ghoda. We stopped en route every two minutes to check out old, yellowed, second-hand books. To admire a piece of art (there were many put up on the way). To decide whether to walk or to take a cab.

We were amazed by the colors, the energy, the activity. In every corner there was something to be seen. Even on the ground, there was a 3D painting. Looking up, there was a huge bell with so many smaller bells in it. We clicked crazy pictures! Around the mini Eiffel Tower, with a few weird paintings, under a fake nest.

As we were bargaining at one of the stalls, Saddo pulled at my sleeve. I looked in her direction and following her gaze saw a five hundred rupee note lying on the ground. We asked a few people but they said it wasn’t theirs.

Sadaf the Saint started saying things like “Oh we should give this money to a beggar...”

I asked her to shut up and took the note from her and asked her if she wanted a share.

That’s when Nabil jumped out from nowhere (he was lost) and cried, “I want! I want!”

Two minutes into the discussion as to what we’d do with the money and Saddo said sheepishly, “Ey can I also have a share? After all I saw the money…”

Nabil and I exchanged a look and started laughing. “Why not baby! We never said you couldn’t. Only you-”

“Haan shut up now. I just thought…anyway, let’s eat dinner with this money.”

So it was decided. We moved ahead to check the schedule. There was one thing that all three of us were keen to attend. Poetry workshop. There was like an hour left for it to begin, so we just loitered here and there and entered a lane and walked and walked. I saw a nice light blue building. It was a synagogue. We weren’t entirely sure if we could go in, but we sneaked in all the same. The peace and quiet was such a welcome change. We looked around, sat for a while, prayed and left.

Next we were headed towards the venue for the workshop. Kala Ghoda Office or something. Asking a lot of people where it was, dodging a few eateries (we didn’t have time to eat), we finally reached the building. The stairs were so awesome! They had that old world charm. We climbed up around three floors and there it was. Huh? It was deserted. But it was time for the workshop to begin. The lights were switched off, which we switched on. We examined the place, called out to someone who’d probably be somewhere in the other room. No one answered. Nabil walked towards a table that stood at one corner and picked up a sealed Coke bottle from there, opened it and started gulping it down! We followed.

There were three doors. We tried one. It opened to a pretty corridor. There was a small staircase going down from there but there was a grill so we couldn’t explore in that direction. The corridor led to a terrace. And there was another terrace over it. Excited little kids that we became, we started running around the place. We took more pictures. Then we went back to try the other two doors. One of them didn’t budge. The third door made way to a conference room. We rushed in, sat on the chairs, I even put up my feet on the table in full filmy style. Some more pictures.

Out in the real world, we started walking again and reached Colaba Causeway. Walking for another hour or so, simply deciding where to eat was the only time in the day that was not so happening, as we were all so beat. Finally Café Mondegar welcomed us and we had a hearty meal: crispy chicken, some pizza and chicken hakka noodles. Big smiles on our faces. We hailed a cab, took a train and reached Andheri around 11.

As if it wasn’t already an eventful day, we did another cool thing. We went to Mc Donald’s. No, that’s not what’s cool. What we did there was. The Mac at Andheri station is always so full we can’t sit there for more than 20-25 minutes without some staff member interrupting. That day it was empty! For the first time in our lives had we seen this. We went upstairs with our Soft Serves. ‘Aahuun Aahuun Aahuun’ was playing. Saddo and I got up and started racing. It was a who-sits-on-all-the-tables-first race.

We raced and Nabil took a video. And I won!