A wow weekend evening

Hey folks,

As promised earlier, here’s the post on last Sunday’s meetup.

The original plan was to meetup with Srinath (mainly to catch up with him) but also to cheer up the dude. He’s slogging his ass off at work and we (me and Vinay) couldn’t just leave him at that.

So, Yours Skeptically, just thought he’d plan a surprise party on the beach with a lot of common people and cheer up Srinath in a big way. But, as randomness would have it, Yours Skeptically, screwed up in his own unique way! Also, people like Teal, LVS and a few others opted out at the last minute, due to who-knows-what reasons!

So, the plan came down to me and Vinay meeting Srinath on the beach. Vinay suggested that the local Twitter user group was meeting nearby to celebrate Benedict’s and Nadhiya’s birthdays. Being the shy type, I initially hesitated. But, Vinay ‘compelled’, ‘persistently insisted’ and ‘literally dragged’ me there. Srinath had no issues with coming there, from the beginning.

Again, being the busy dude, Srinath said he would ‘confirm’ the plan by 4 PM. He promptly did so. Yours Skeptically was sleeping when he sent the confirmation SMS. So, had to get up, grab some grub and rush to the ’spot’!

I reached the Spencer’s Daily outlet in Besant Nagar and found Srinath waiting there for me promptly. We walked to the beach talking usual crap

It was nice talking to the fellow in person after a loooooooong time. We caught up on some old times. A few leg pullings et al.

Being the busier dude, Vinay turned up at 6 30 for a meeting scheduled at 5 30 PM. Payan periya aal aaittaan. Navin Iyer ku laam website design pannaraan! paah!

Srinath posing perfectly. Me looking at the scenery. Trick photography!

Then, we had a photo-shoot on the beach. Vinay is still uploading his pics from that session, one pic for every 3-4 days! Sustainable content delivery paradigm aamaa. Mokkai naai!

As we were pulling each others’ legs, Saranyan called up and asked where we were. I had informed him that I’ll be in his area in the evening and invited him sincerely for the Chennai Tweetup. To my luck, he agreed.

Srinath and I walked towards the Murugan Idli Shop on Bessie Beach Road, to meet Saranyan and go down to the Tweetup. Vinay, meanwhile, sped past us on his bike (scootie pep plus pink colour)!

He stopped by for Srinath to hitch a ride upto Mast Kalandhar, where the meetup was taking place. Meanwhile, me and Saranyan were talking about all kinds of stuff ranging from the French Revolution to Robin Williams’ stand-up comedy!

The generous dude, Vinay, dropped Srinath off at Mast Kalandhar and came back to pick up me and Saranyan. And, Saranyan, being the oh-so-accomodative guy, opted to walk. We had to use a few choicest swear words to ‘persuade’ him into getting onto the bike. So, three people on a bike driven by someone like Vinay. Need I say more?!

We landed at Mast Kalandhar about a minute later. Srinath was there with the camera and we took ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ style pics on Vinay’s bike!

Vinay and Saranyan posing perfectly. Me staring at scenery(?!)

Prakash stepped out of the restaurant and greeted us. Nice dude, I must say. Very gentle mannered. Works for Symantec, btw. So, now you know whom to kick if your Norton Antivirus doesn’t work well!

We then walked into the restaurant and spotted 2 tables worth of people (~ 10-12), all pepped up to smash the cake on Benedict’s and Nadhiya’s face! We then introduced ourselves to Aravind Kumar, Raja (I knew him already), Shiv Ranjan, Ratz, Magesh, Benedict and the rest of the gang.

Then, orey the cake cuttings, cake hittings, cake eatings only!

Srinath had to leave early and Vinay went to drop him. Meanwhile, me, Saranyan, Raja and Magesh mixed up our orders and ended up drinking each others’ drinks!

Saranyan and I were waiting for Raja to be done with his drink. Once he was done, we bye’d the gang and left the place. Stomach was making strange sounds. Then, I realised the drink I had was an apetizer! WTF mode.

Came down and spotted Vinay waiting for me and Saranyan across the road. Rushed, got onto his bike and went to AAB for a more economical, more filling dinner. Had a lot of ROTFL moments there, expecially at the billing counter and then while eating.

Once we were done eating, I had to leave with Vinay. We bye’d Saranyan and sped away towards the ‘heart of the city’!

Vinay then took an amazingly complicated route and dropped me in T Nagar. I got hold of a Share Auto from there. Sandhya kept me occupied on the phone during the lonesome Share Auto ride. Pretty surprising to find a Share Auto go empty for a long time around 9 PM in the night on a Sunday THIS close to Diwali. Folks at home were wow. Why? Because I had returned home much earlier than what I had informed prior to leaving. Maybe I should give them more of those wow moments!

Rest later.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. A totally amazing time we had that day, as may be evident from the tone of the post above.