Of pork-craving, rainy evenings and complain boxes!!

It all started when my pork hormones started peaking on a calm Bible-Study Tuesday evening!! Surprisingly, my “shweetest” grin couldn’t coax Ron or Sing Sing or anyone for that matter to hike out of campus that evening. So I have to go home and satisfy myself with hostel mess that evening… and the next evening too.

But like I said, there’s no way to subdue the peaking hormones that Thursday evening, that I round up the guys and convinced them to take an auto-ride to Nagaland House, to sink our sharpened teeth on Bastinga-flavoured pork. Ron, Sing and even Toi agreed… even though she act as if she hesitated a bit, complaining that we won’t let her go vegan for a month!!! As if she really would!!

So, regardless of the rain and the cold wind, we set out… with borrowed umbrellas! When we reached Ron’s room, Wicham decided to join us in our quest for quenching pork cravings. The five of us set out at around 8’o clock. Rain and wind won’t keep us in… yes… it won’t even keep us from bargaining with the auto-walla. So after a few hustles and a few fights we finally climbed in an auto… all five of us and got whisked away through the rain.

As usual we pulled Sing Sing’s leg in the auto… and sometimes even his cheeks. You can’t blame anyone, can you? Sing Sing’s always the one who attracts all sorts of cheek-pinching attention with his usual whimpers and his perfect little complains about everything - right from the rain to the people whisking by in their huge cars. He kept on complaining about the rain coming straight to his face (he was sitting on the side), and finally stopped his feeble growls and settled down after placing both his palms right in front of his face. However, an occasional “CHHHIII!!” often came up from his side of the auto whenever we ran pass not-so-hygienic-streets.

I couldn’t be more excited… there I was, on my way to Nagaland House for my much awaited pork dinner. I kept on squealing and bubbling in between to which Ron retorted “ You never know!! They might not have pork there!!”. Then the goose bumps started. What if he’s right? He can’t be right?? Can’t he?? !! Anyway, we rode chattering along with Wicham and his usual short, yet hilarious comments as he perched with the auto driver on the front, occasionally giving traffic signals to people driving by, holding out his borrowed umbrella… Toi’s umbie, to be precise.

There we were, after a 15 minute ride, at the place I wanted to be at dinner time the whole week!! We walked inside to a catastrophically bad news. There was no pork in the house!!! It turns out that if we are a fairly big group, we need to order before-hand. There were a group of NSUD people who had their meeting in the evening who ordered first. Therefore they get to eat and we don’t!! I sank, hoped they were joking but no!! Ron’s comment in the auto totally jinxed us!!! It was already 9 o’clock and too late to go anywhere else, so we settled for chicken!

But hope floats.

"When really in distress", my Grandma used to tell me "God assigns fluffy little angels to take care of us". We, or yet, I must be in a really big distress when a "fluffy little angel" came in the form of Yaransho (of the JNU animal-rights fame). He showed up, mysteriously and saved us by giving us a piece or two each from their pre-ordered pork meal. When he did so… Wicham and Ron were so boisterous in pointing at me, loudly saying that I was the one who wanted pork, not them!!! Some guys they are !! Toi, tomato red, couldn’t help but sink in her seat trying to hide behind the water jugs and muttering under her breath that she will not be back for a year or so. The poor NSUD’s… they had to order another plate of chicken since they gave away at least one person’s share. But thank you so much guys… even though I didn’t have the guts to thank you back then.

All’s well?!! Not so. Wicham was probably disappointed with the dinner and his piece of pork that he grabbed the ‘Complain box’ title from Sing Sing.

“I’m never coming back here again”

“The rice is not good at all. I can make better rice than this”

“It doesn’t even taste like Naga food”

“I can cook better”

Well, these are the more polite ones!! No one had an exhilarating contentment that night, but I get to eat so much that I couldn’t sleep the whole night. Nonetheless, we finished off everything except a handful of rice and dal... which we left only because Ron thought it's good to practice etiquette once in a while!

After dinner, some of us craved for icecreams (Sing, Toi and I), some for paan (Ron) and some for nothing (Wicham). But Sing Sing was broken to see his adoptive father chewing the paan away. He frowned, stared at me, back at Ron and back at me again, pouted his lips and muttered "You hypocrits!! I don't want you as my parents!!". Ron grinned. It's not exactly the first time that we've encountered Sing this way. In fact, he often fires me from being his Mom, but he always take me back when he needed me. What a son?? Huh??

Auto ride back to campus was again time for irritating Sing Sing. We got down at Ganga bus stop; since we wanted to walk in the rain… but sadly the rain stopped… we walked anyway!! Sing Sing couldn’t understand why we didn’t take the auto till Godavari. He started throwing tantrums but surprisingly cooled down after sometime.

We all went back to Ron’s room to clear out the finances of the evening, from where we walked back to hostel. I had a great evening. Not only the ‘bustled’ dinner that we had but it was also super hanging out with the guys. I can't complain about the rain... it makes our evening more dramatic. I can't complain about the 'complain boxes' either... you guys make our evening more spicy. Hope there are more evenings to come, evenings when pork will be available of course!!

Huh!! All this typing about pork makes me hungry again already!!! Khupchand Sausages…. Here I come!!