How Much...???

New Year celebrations…something tht I always look forward to… mainly because that is one day of the year, when I feel, can dance out at any dance floor…lol!!! So now u understood, I get hyper excited with dancing out to exhaustion. My age or low stamina never stop me from dancing… Only issue was that I needed somebody to atleast accompany me at the dance floor… Dancing to self wud be a bit disappointing..lol…

2011 New Year’s eve…along with whole family we had dinner at a restaurant…soon after the clock struck 12, we wished each other all the best wishes for New Year…and then in one car myself, hubby, one of his colleague and a cousin left in search of any discotheque that would take us in…so tht we could dance out to celebrate New Year. After driving thru too many roads and alleys to avoid the heavy traffic, we did manage to get to a Discotheque and we settled ourselves there….My hubby wouldn’t dance, naturally he just stood by like a Body guard..lol!!!Thankfully, my cousin bro danced as if the world was no longer around him and I joined him… After 3-4 hours of dancing, we dragged ourselves to our car…and that’s when regret seeped in…Almost 5k rupees for just few hours wasn’t a good idea…all of us felt…hmmm….(hehe!!!naturally, its always like tht…after everything, we regret…especially for financial part)

An year passed by before we knew about it…This year, we decided to PLAN in advance…priority was given to a family party where we could have my son too…To have a company, I had to actually coax a cousin and her husband to join us…Gosh, this country had too much options for Singles and Couples but literally nothing for toddlers…and the very few we could find was way above our budget…Finally, we made ourselves understand, kids wouldn’t enjoy late night parties, they prefer sleeping (haa, I knew and tried to forget that my Son always liked late nights…hmmmm…)… Again started searching for good disco theques which wouldn’t rip off our pockets…

After too much searching, through a friend’s friend, we got a place…He gave a good bargain…for less than 2k we could have the dance floor, unlimited music and a grand buffet…wowwww…that was exciting… We rushed to the place…then was the moment, we were informed…that the pub was majorly for a different nationality…but still, the crowd was mixed…with 80% Indians…then fine…what would difference would it make, if we have 80% Indians and a few of other Nationalities...its always fun to have a mixed crowd… Thus, all set to dance, we entered the Pub…

Cough Cough…too much smoke…and saw 99% Indians…with very few other Nationality sitting here and there…90% of them were drunk…and was immersed in Cigarette smoke…Never mind, we were given a special place in the above floor, so was away from that mess…Maybe being the special people, everybody gazed at us…That is the curse of being beautiful, we thought… As the music played, we all wanted to hit the floor…but then we waited for dinner and 12 to strike…hmmm…long waiting…

Dinner was yummy…sumptuous…and fullll….as we were having the dessert, the countdown had started…so me and my cousin rushed…husbands followed…People smiled at us..wow, nice welcome… we danced for a while…but, smthing was not right..we got bored…we were dragged out of the floor by husbands….grrr..they felt the place was too crowded…was worried of our safety…grrrr.. we were upset…like nice wives we went back to the upper floor and just watched others dancing…getting bored of watching, we soon left the place…angry and disappointed…We were going to miss people’s stares and gazes, we said…

Reaching home, to wash off the smoke smell was a job to do…anyways, after that we went off to sleep…

Two days later…even the little dancing was hazardous for my health…my leg, arm, stomach muscles were all aching…I walked around like a robot…dragged myself to and fro my seat in the office…Every time I walked, I groaned…and colleagues laughed at my pathetic condition…and then my cell phone rang…tringggggggg….’Ha, that was my cousin…’…

Me: Hello…hii…how r u…
Cousin: Hi…How r u…how is the after effect…
Me: Oh God, I can’t even move…what about u…
Cousin: I am not asking about that…I am asking if you heard anything about that night…???
Me: What?? What to hear…Nothing, Why???
Cousin: Haa…anyways, now don’t tell anybdy wht u did on the New Year’s eve..!!!
Me: Whatt…Why…Why u saying so…
Cousin: Didi, did tht friend, who suggested that place, had any grudge against u?
Me: Why? What happened..now stop talking in riddles…tell na…
Cousin: You know what…Do u know, why all those men were staring at us…
Me: Whyyyyyy?
Cousin: Didi, when I was discussing about our New Year’s eve, one of my colleague only told me…that the place we went was an infamous XXXX Pickup Pub….and not known to be a place for decent couples to go…He was commenting that it was fortunate of us that none came and asked us ‘How Much for an hour’…

Total Silence….as I recollected the meaning of all those stares and gazes and what they actually was for…Wishhhh…I could hide my face somewhere or delete the memories of all those men who might have thought WHAT NOT about us…Just hope, that their memories got erased off as the effect of alcohol went down…

If not…we never know, What if; some day, some place, one of them would walk to me and say…

”How much?”….