A Reality Check?

Was well overdue. I very excitedly exclaimed my new found poker and teen patti abilities on the facebook world, fueled by a recent winning spurt on Diwali day. 'Beginners luck shigginers luck' I told myself, 'you won by sheer talent woman'. Now a person like me dismissing beginners luck or any kind of luck is extremely justified given the strokes of (un)luckiness Im usually thick in the midst of. You know the person who waits in line for an hour to reach the ticket window and it shuts just when its her turn? Or the person who will make 7 trips to a government office, each time rejected for different missing documents, or the person who always plays Housie or cards and never wins? That's me!

[To be fair, I did win 5 bottles of citra in kids housie one time when i was 10, and another time i won a pair of plastic cockroaches for my rendition of a brilliant Hindi poem. (I thought they liked it?)] Heck, I was Memory game champ in Delhi and I STILL never won birthday party memory games - you know the one with the tray covered with 10 items and you have a minute to look at them and recollect? My all-Delhi champ status suffered a heavy bruising by these childish birthday party games. Its like Miss India losing in a Miss Lokhandwalla competition or something. [well, not exactly but you get my point.]

So, the point being that My initial assumption of acquisition of supreme poker playing skills were trashed (rather badly) when I cleaned out my first bank in a matter of 20 minutes. Clearly playing at 20 blind is an expensive affair with pots reaching the magnitude of 1500 rs in no time. I stared wistfully at my chips, long gone, and doing the rounds in other peoples kitty. Fortunately I lacked the courage of taking another bank immediately, choosing instead to be a spectator for the last two hours of the game. phew.

Must watch This video - Gus Hansen, known to be a reckless Poker player, and one of the highest poker pots in the history of the game. I feel ashamed missing my 500 bucks.

Of alcohol induced bonhomie

This weekend started out itself with a brilliant friday evening - and since I had a couple of events lined up for saturday as well as sunday I knew I was in for a tiring next coupla days.

'Made of Honour' was my weekend fiesta initiation. The movie is mostly flat with Patrick Dempsey being the only thing worth watching about it. Ok no, make that two things, there's a scene in the movie when he kisses Hannah (his best friend) that made my stomach plummet to my ankles or thereabout. [I'm wondering if im old enough to stop being flippy about these things?]

Dinner was at Ivy Lounge, with a glass of Merlot-something. I like this place, though I wish the inside was as nice as the outside. I have a theory about wine being had in a slightly dimly lit place, with mellow music and a nice companion. Its kind of an intimate drink, in my opinion.

Saturday night saw Serendipity at 'Shiro' - a lounge bar/club type place, with FANTASTIC ambience. Its a go-in-a-big-group or go alone with someone-you-have-so-much-fun-with-you-dont-care-whose-around type place. They serve a nasty Mojito, in a tall glass, no less which can make a happy person veryy happy. Add to this the house music they were playing and it all culminated into a brilliant time. The only bad move being some alcohol induced decision of 'Lets go to Bling' at 2.30 a.m. in the morning. There were all of 2 people not drunk, myself included and two cars so apparently since we had non drunk drivers = number of cars, we had problem solved. [except the tiny detail of Bling being at Andheri, and Shiro being at Worli, and most of us living in South Mumbai].

4-5+ Drinks raises enthusiasm levels to off the scale limits, hence we all set off, reached Bling at 3.15 to find out it would cost us about 3 grand a couple to enter. Did we enter? YOU THINK? Got home that errr morning at a shameful hour, only to be asked by mom the next day 'Beta what time did u come in home last night - 3?' and I dutifully nodded my head apologetically , all the time thinking (phew, im glad that wasnt an open ended question, had she waited for me to answer, i'd have had to tell her 4.30!!)

Sunday was spent playing Taboo and Jenga among most of the guys who were stull hungover from the previous night, and who were (wonder of wonders) still drinking. Im a sucker for board games - Pictionary, Taboo, Monopoly, Jenga are my favorite favorite party games YET. If there were any words to elaborate how much ive laughed and the ridiculous things these boys have said in their half drunk stupor, i would. Until then.

Games people play!!

I was on this post which triggered off a lot of old memories... Memories of ridiculous fun with a bunch of crazyy friends. A few of my favourite moments -

This one time, we were playing Pictionary (at Barista) and the word was "Room mate". it was my teams guess, and this guy drew two beds, and two stick figures next to each bed. id ont know what got into this other friend of mine she stands up excitedly and yells "SEX" yikes. This incident has never left her till date. Right after that, a couple of words later was the word "Honeymoon" and everyone yells to her saying "A this word's for you"!!

At all these times, ppl in my team would cheat and exclude me cos i could never carry off lying/cheating cos id always break out into giggles. Anyway, so if the other team ever got suspicious id be the one who would have to swear we dint cheat. and since i wasnt included in the cheating i could say that with so much sincerity that the other team had no option to believe it! i was bakra like this for a loong time, until everyone figured it out.

There was also this time we were playing Taboo (the game of Unspeakable fun). For the people who dont know what it is about, its the same as pictionary only u cant draw or use actions, you can only TALK. You can say what the heck you want to save for the 6 taboo words listed on the card. sounds easy? its not. cos the 5 or 6 words listed will be the MOST obvious words and in the space of under a minute to guess as many words as u can its tough. for e.g. the word could be "dad" and the taboo words would be - father, children, pa, married, son and some other thing. its way funny. so there was this one time that we were playing boys vs girls and it was the guys turn. Easy as it sounds, one of them said "This is what i call you all the time" and the other guy answers "DICK" we were all in splits. needless to say we could not play anymore after that cos we were laughing so hard. oh btw, the word was "kid".

Then there was this one time (at bandcamp?!!) on Holi that we were playing cards at my place and the guys had secretly mixed Bhaang in the Thandaai without telling me ( i had of course threatened them not to do so). so there we were playing teen patti lke good kids and after a while im wondering why everyone (except me who had a cold that day and hence did not partake of the thandaai) was suddenly laughing so hard over small things, talking so loud, forgetting it was their turn. i got suspicious but what did it was this round when this guy D STOOD UP for his turn and RAISED HIS HAND, as if answering a question in class and then played his turn. what a giveway huh! course i was angry but it was just so funny i could'nt be angry for long!

Now im in flashback mode. :)