Monday, November 24, 2008

Dostana - real and reel

Last week just flew!

Firstly, I didn't go to work on Monday because of slight temperature and bad cold. So that anyway made work week shorter and that improves my mood totally! :p

One of the days Chandni of Chandu Land had posted about being in Bangalore and I just left a comment asking will we see her in when she is here. And one fine day I see a mail from her in my inbox saying "Do you wanna catch up?" and I couldn't say anything but "Of course".

Many missed calls later, Monika decided to co-ordinate the whole plan and thank you so much for that girl! :) We kept changing the time and place till we finally settled down on doing dinner at Indi Joe, a very nice continental khaana place near old airport.

This was the first time I was taking Cubby without M who had couple of con-calls scheduled that day and had to take a 6am flight the next. To expect him to chaperon us was totally unreasonable. I managed to get us a driver and off we were.

Picked up Chandni and her lovely buddy P from their hotel. The conversation started pretty much immediately with standard what do you do and where do you live with regular and lotsa attention being showered on Cubby. True to his style, he made friends with Chandni only on getting chocolate from her.

We got a bit caught in traffic and Monika was already there by the time we reached. Another round of hi's and hello's followed and we settled down to chat our hearts away! :) The three ladies ordered Long Island Iced Tea, while your truly said cheers with a glass of water and had soup post that to nurse her bad throat.

Cubby after getting bored of being told don't touch this and that, walked off and went on to make friends with everyone who would care to give him a second look. Being a weekday, the restaurant wasn't too full and waiters not too busy and someone or the other kept entertaining him. Sometimes I would find him sitting on the bar, at another he was chatting up with a l'il baby in her pram. He was totally playing to the gallery and putting his best foot forward and best smile ready to be seen.

While he was busy, we also ordered some yummy and fattening starters and kept talking about this and that. The topics mostly revolved around husbands and babies and jobs and families and it went on non-stop. No one went on for a second drink and we ordered our khaana and spoke with our mouths full! :)

By now Cubby had started getting sleepy and restless and after sharing our bill I decided to take a leave, while Chandu and P had plans to meet some other friends and Monika had to drive back home to her l'il guy Ojas. Of cos Cubby left the resto with a gorgeous flower from a fellow diner who was watching Cubby prance all over the place and came to tell us that he is just about the cutest and happiest baby she had seen! Touchwood! She actually ripped open her bouquet and pulled out the flower he liked! :)

All in all, lot of fun was had and no one would believe that we were meeting for the first time! Chandni asked if she was the way we imagined her to be, and I said its too much effort to imagine and am happy she is nice n cool in asli life! :) And so is Monika whom I hope to see again in near future since we are in the same city.

Saturday, plans to meet Swati and family finally worked out. Hubby A, Aryan and Swati made it to our place Sat evening for chai and it was so much fun. I made / fried some burnt snacks (I have a feeling Swati will NEVER accept a dinner invitation from me!) and we sat, ate, talked and tried to keep kids from either loving or hating each other too much.

Cubby obviously wanted to have EVERY toy Aryan touched and is still alien to concept of sharing. Plus Cubby had a bit of fever too making him cry at the drop of the hat. But by the end of the evening they had almost made friends when it was time to leave. Thanks for that cute Duckie, Swati! :D

Who would have thought blog world will give so many new friendships that don't seem NEW at all but leave you feeling comfortable and happy?! :)

Sunday noon was lunch with bro-in-law (the birthday boy) and sis-in-law sans the kids. We went to Silver Metro. The buffet was quite nice except the dessert counter which was not all that happening. We stuffed ourselves and kept chattering non-stop. Came home satisfied and happy with the way the afternoon had turned out.

Last night went to watch Dostana and had a rollicking good time. The movie is fun and totally politically incorrect! So if you are looking for some "classic" cinema, give it a skip. But if you just wanna laugh at the double entendres, enjoy Abhishek's excellent comic timing, smoking HOT John Abraham and sexy Priyanka Chopra doing their bit for Dostana, I suggest go for it. I laughed hard, drooled over John, cheered for Abhishek and danced to the songs!! :D And i don't care if that makes my taste crass! :p

Ofcos a terribly weird thing happened while at the movie. We were sitting outside, waiting to be let in the hall. A guy came and tried talking to Cubby. Now the kid rarely instantly dislikes people enough to not even smile at them. The guy didn't look very respectable, but we try not to judge and thought Cubby was just sleepy.

There was another woman and a man with this guy and in a few minutes the woman picked Cubby up and they were trying to play with him. They were in our line of vision constantly and Cubby looked markedly uncomfy. We went to take him as the movie was about to start and then took our seats in the movie hall. The theatre is perennially empty and these people sat behind us.

The girl tapped on my shoulder and said "Aunty, bacche ko mere paas de do." I said no thank you, he will sleep now. She said he can sleep in her godi and I can watch the movie. By now, I was terribly suspicious and said that wont be necessary.

What seriously freaked me out was the fact that these people just walked out and disappeared within 5mins of our conversation. I am now quite sure that they were the kind of people who steal kids and I just thanked my stars that I didn't worry about me being judgemental and trusted Cubby's and my instinct.

But the whole incident was very scary and the only bad part of the week that was othawise filled with fun and friendship - real and reel variety!

How was your week?

Cheers!

22 comments:

Monika said...

That incident is freaky Abha. It's scary what the world is turning into.

Monika said...

omg... thats scary man... world is full of weirdos... thank god for our instincts which are usually right...

and it was a pleasure meeting u abha... hope to catch up more often

Mampi said...

Eiiw, it was really scary. Glad you followed your instincts.

Anonymous said...

OH MY ! That last part had my heart pounding !!!! GOD !!!

Thanks to both your instincts !!!

With this on my mind now, I cant seem to comment on your otherwise happy weekend. Sorry...

Mamma mia! Me a mamma? said...

I'm glad your week was good, you sound so happy! God bless.

But OMG about the last bit! I would have stood up and made a scene!! What on Earth did they think they were up to? They should have been handed over to the police!

Preethi said...

that was freaky... glad you did not give her the kid!! and sounds like you had a great week!!! :)

Chikki said...

AAACK. These things make me so nervous! I don't think I will let Om out of my sight EVER. I'm going to be a totally paranoid Momma!

Artnavy said...

just when i think i shld be more trusting of others- i come across incidents such as this one of yours

but all in all a great week i must say!!

Mama - Mia said...

M&A - oh well. least nothing really went wrong!

monika - yeah! we should learn to sharpen them a bit more. and we should catch up again... soon! :)

mampi - true true!

SnS - i think you need serious hugs! :) thanks for your concern. thankfully nothing went wrong.

namesake - i had a lot of fun. AND i had a girls night out after god knows how long when i met up with Chandni and Monika. and yeah i would have made a noise if i could have some concrete evidence that they were trying to take Cubby away...

preethi - yup! had fun! and yes, its so unlike me to NOT trust people, that I am glad for once i was rude! sigh!

Om's mommy - oh being paranoid is just more grief! in 16 months this is the first time i found someone bad looking at Cubby. othawise it has always been lotsa loving attention! :) so dont worry! just be careful, thats that! :)

art - thats true. like is aid its in my nature to see the better side of things and people. first time my faith has taken a bit of beating. hopefully it will be just a stray incident.

cheers!

abha

Vidooshak said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vidooshak said...

Before the last incident, there have been so many incidents where "freaky" looking people have attempted to make friends with the Cub. Yet they all turned out genuinely nice people.

It is sad that this bunch of strangers gave strangers a bad name. But overall, I guess it is better to trust and love in these belligerent times than to suspect everyone. Aage, sabki apni kismat...

Am glad we had a great week. Winters are setting into Bangalore and we look forward to many such cool weekends!

Missing the pics after so many picture posts!! :-)

Dee said...

OMG!!! That was very very scary.. I guess mom's have gud instincts.. My aunt was once asked by some hospital attendant to leave my cousin,who was sick and to go to the pharmacy and get some stuff... Generally, my aunt would have done tat, but that day, she waited for Amma to come and then leave... Then, talking to the cleaning ladies, they told her the attendant was a total pervert and he used to molest small girls... Scary!!

I am so upset I missed the dinner.. I promise to come next time!!

Anonymous said...

Can't be too careful these days.

And I thought Dostana's first half rocked.....but the second-half sucked. Was too long, for one. But Priyanka looked great....can't believe it's the same girl in Fashion.

Cheers,
Quirky Indian
http://quirkyindian.wordpress.com

Indian Home Maker said...

That was so frightening! Thank God you followed your instinct, I think if you feel even a little doubtful - there has to be some reason!
But even if Cubby is friendly with them, and even if the strangers look very decent, one can never be sure.
Take care, Hugs to you both, - IHM

Spontaneous Mini said...

Was fun reading abt your blogmeet. Take care.

Just Like That said...

*shudder* on reading about those weirdos. One of my worst nightmares is to think of Sonny boy in the place of one of those street children. I am so sure at least half of them must be kids stolen from some happy home far off......

Cuckoo said...

Very scary dear. Perhaps kids do recognise auras etc. and am still freaked. My god!

Btw, so true. When you come to bombay anytime in the near or distant future, do look us up. I promise to serve you burnt food too :)

Cheers
Meera

Priyanka said...

That was a freaky incident, good thing you didn't let them hold Cubby during the movie.
Hugs !

Anonymous said...

wow that's freaky. my goodness.

Toonfactory said...

Shittt...that was scary...Dangerous Strangers...The world isn't a safe place anymore (I m deeply disturbed with the whole Mumbai scene..posting this comment just after seeing those disturbing News on TV so I might sound more pessimist than I normally am...can't help it)

WhatsInAName said...

Hey lucky you to be meeting so many friends :) And who would say NO to meeting a sweetheart like you!!!
BTW Yeah, I liked Dostana in parts. Some places I found too crude... else yeah I enjoyed!
And oopstake care of Cubby! That was a really scary incident. It sure is a big bad world out there

Swati said...

Ohh I loved our meet and the snacks were yum and Aryan loved his books. I felt embarrased at the ways aryan hit cubby and M though.

The theater incident is too scary :O