Get-to-gether at my place...

Finally when all my excuses exhausted, I invited my book club members for lunch. Frankly it was under sheer pressure from Amit that I decided to invite book club members for lunch. When Reliance declared Saturday as a holiday, Amit invited me for lunch. I declined the invitation for 2 reasons: first since this was a historic decision in the life of reliance, I wanted to celebrate / enjoy by sitting at home; secondly since we travel daily from Borivali to Ghansoli I avoid travelling this side of the place. However, I never thought I would be caught in a Catch 22 situation!!!. For the simple reason that then Amit said if you can’t come then I will come!!!...I had to stock few excuses for the subsequent Saturdays and Sundays so as to postpone him coming to my place or me visiting his place…

Finally, when none of the excuses were left, decided to invite all of them for lunch. Date was 31^st May 2014 (Saturday) at 12.30pm. Vignesh dropped out citing some personal work. Pratibha was unable to come since her father was unwell. She visits his place on weekends. Sumit couldn’t join for lunch as he had already planned to go to Pune with his friends.

Amit, Karthik and Deepali managed to come for lunch. Since Ketan (my younger brother) was alone at home, requested him to join for lunch. Niyati (college friend) likes meeting new people. Invited her also for lunch.

I knew Karthik and Amit would land at my place before time. Hence very strategically gave them only partial instructions of reaching my place. I underestimated their intelligence….They managed to reach my place at 11.30am!!!!! I prefer finishing all the work before the guests arrive. Usually, the host is in the kitchen preparing dishes and the guests are left with either watching TV or reading newspaper / magazines or worst playing the host’s kids or still worst responding to the tons of Qs asked by the host’s family members J

Luckily I had envisaged this and was prepared by then. Part of the menu was ordered from outside. Since Karthik and Niyati were veg, few of the dishes were veg. In addition to that, Karthik prefers starters to a five course meal. Keeping in mind Karthik’s preferences and Amit and Deepali being hard-core Non vegetarian had to balance the meal. On the top of that, I wanted to show some of my cooking skills as well sans spoiling their appetite!!!.

After giving much thought to the menu, decided to do the following: Chana Chaat, Aam rus, Potato wada, smoked chicken was self- made and the starters (Veg Spring Roll, Paneer Hungama & Chilli Garlic Potato), Veg Biryani and Chicken Biryani ordered from Hangout. Deepali came with a Cake (Hangout) and Mango Ice cream (Naturals). Amit managed to get Vanila ice cream (Amul). Niyati got Punjab Sind’s Lassi and Chhaas.

Over the lunch, we talked (cursed??) about our office experiences. It started with lunch and ended with 3 servings of Tea!!! Have realised, when we discuss office experiences it is usually the worst experiences we discuss and never the good ones!!!! We had decided that we will not be discussing books but later on the conversation drifted to what we were reading….Ketan left post lunch citing some excuse. Deepali left since her husband was travelling the same night. We decided to go for a movie. But Amit said he was more comfortable lying down on the floor than sitting in the chair and watching a movie…

So we decided to sit and chat at home. Niyati likes to read, but lately she couldn’t get hold of a good book. She wanted to know a good read. This becomes very subjective. I don’t think there is such a thing called a “good read”. It depends on your likes / tastes to read. Depends on your state of mind at the time of reading. If you are occupied with tons of disturbing thoughts, any reading will not be a good read!!And if you like reading, then it doesn't matter whether it is a fiction / non-fiction / comic/ spiritual / philosophical...

I think we enjoy reading only when we want to read. As usual Amit and karthik ended up giving 'gyan' to Niyati on reading. Since Karthik lately has been active on writing blogs (his name was included in the one of the top five bloggers in Chennai ) he suggested her to write. 

Guys, please give a serious thought to this..I and Karthik have been urging you for long to start writing your thoughts. Atleast start writing by reviewing the book you read. Just pen down your thoughts on the book you read...If reading is your hobby, add value to it. Not just by reading but writing a review of  the book.  

At 6.30 pm,  it was time for saying good byes!!!