Beta Sab Bare Peg Serve Honge

Gulla on The VV Club Get Together Nov'06
Know how to wreak havoc in a staid, conservative institution such as the Vasant Vihar Club?
You start by getting Shorty - in his rich, fruity baritone - coach the bar waiters - country yokels of recent import from Bihar - the niceties of fine service. "Beta sab bare peg serve honge aur tum poochna nahin bas laate jaana, laate jana!"


Then you have the saints - the creme de la creme of Mech 71 - come marching in - here a VK, anon a NK, even a Rajni Kant from Mumbai - and the tables start filling midst much merriment & bonhomie - a sudden blare of trumpets and in march KC & Ranjana & Sheikh Pujari along with Maestro Marwaha (who has single handedly brought our maverick flock together again after many a year). KC firmly declines a snifter - "Oye main peeta nahin hoon! " - but then who is he to pit his feeble cunning against the wiles of Shorty's writ? A puff of bar dust and our hero is holding a glass in both hands. No such temperance problems for old Puj! A deft flutter of his burnoose and a discrete flash of them dinars and the waiters promptly forget their tutorial and flock around him with an assortment of potent containers, each clamouring for his custom.

KC dwells on his approaching grand-father hood with much pride. A sudden hush prevails as he goes into the intricacies of gripe water, nappy rash and pottie training. Marwaha nods knowingly & the dapper Manchi listens carefully. They mix KC another chhota. Shorty starts singing "The Mayor of Bayswater. . . " Pujari invites us all to his daughter's wedding in January in Kerala. It is to be solemnised at the Guruvoyur Temple. He is aghast when informed he will have to go topless and in a lungi - or did we confuse the setting with Sabrimalai? GB & Ramu would know.

We troop in for dinner - a huge spread of the best and brightest VV Club has to offer. And then its packup time - Petkoff Sunil Gupta speaks his third sentence of the evening & the event draws to a fitting close.

Thanks heaps - Marwaha & Shorty and all those present - for another impeccable do. Perfect as always! Eyes down now for Merani's, and then El Gill's & jolly Johri's evenings! Delhi is shining!

Gulla (from Vienna airport, waiting to connect a flight!)

PS I don't think all the 71ers have been addressed - Normal bhai pls forward to those I've missed out! Thanks