THE SEVEN@HANGLA'S HANGOUT RESTAURANT

One rainy evening in nov@7.45pm-

Scene 1
“Hey this is the restaurant, Hangla’s hangout. Cease the car here”, I shouted with excitement, pointing at a free space.
“Are u sure, dear”, A soft voice tried to confirm the restaurant.
“Yeh, it is."
“Ok, I will pick u after two hrs."
“Please listen, give Anu a cup of milk with bourbon biscuits, it is her favorite.”
“Ok, u don worry. enjoy yourself.”
The car started and turned back

Scene 2-
“Hello madam, sir is waiting for u in the upstairs”, a young man informed me in a very gentle manner. He was in orange shirt and black color trouser.

“It is still the same dress code after 10 long yrs”, I thought.

I went upstairs with my mind encountering lots of unknown excitements and curiosity as I climbed the stairs. I saw a table with 7 chairs of which two were empty.Suddenly a guy had come to me. He was wearing a navy turtleneck shirt with cream color trouser having one pleat.
“Why are u so late?” the guy demanded. “Aren’t we supposed to meet at 6.30 pm?”

He was impatient.

“You didn’t come by 201, right? Dont give any excuse”, a lady with specs claimed.. The extremely high power lens in her specs were creating some kind of deep tunnels somewhere inside the lens and her eyes appeared to be popping out from those tunnels than usual due to the effect.

“No actually I was caught in traffic jams in BT road”, I tried to prove my innocence.
“How are u Bhaswar”, I asked the guy.
“As u see”, Bhaswar told with a cute smile.
“Bhaswar is now one of the top hoteliers in Kolkata”, the lady with spec lauded.
“Ur love for food has brought u to this position, Bhaswar”, I said
“I remember those old days when u had the complete database of every restaurant in our locality. And every alternate day u had convinced us to go out and try the food of different restaurants in salt lake.”

I sat beside the lady. The lady was in long flowing gowns in silver lame.
“U have changed a lot, Swati”, I told her.
“yeh, she is now Documentum head of TCS.”,a guy wearing peach blue shirt sitting opposite to me responded.
“Badal da, plz don’t pull my legs”, Swati said adjusting her specs properly.

“Really Swati I am very happy for u I have seen ur dedication and love for Documentum technology. What abt ur hubby? how is he?”

“He has become a very responsible dad now. I have to move here and there for conference. He is looking after our sons at that time”, Swati replied.

“Really! U have twins, right? In which classes they are now?”

“They are in nursery.”

In the mean time I had played my eyes over the interiors of the restaurant. It was really beautiful. It had really changed a lot. Bhaswar had really done a good job. I could remember those days when we used to come to this restaurant during most of the occasions. Bhaswar took the charges and changed its name to hangla’s hangout. Actually Titash had suggested him this name It made me little bit emotional. I could not control my feelings in front of the others.

“This is our favourite restaurant Bhojo Hari manna, do u all remember?” I told.

“yeh u r right.” the lady with pink shiffon sari replied.

The lady again started talking over her phone.She was wearing dozens of bangles in both of her hands. Her bindi and lipstick were well matched with her pink sari. she really looked like a pink-fairy.

“What happened to titash?” Badal questioned.
“Give him a call.”Badal told Bhaswar.

“oh congrats Badal, you hav won the nobel prize for documentum technology. we are really proud of u.” I said.
“yeh the year 2019 is really a special year for me.” Badal smiled.
“congrats to u also. ur last novel has hit the market with a buster .” Badal patted me.
“Thanks dear”.
“Hey mamta, ur love for ph is still the same”, I said her
“no no actually the call was from my son’s school.” she replied.

“really!”, badal asked

“He is so naughty u can’t believe. Every day I get a call from his teachers with some new complaints”.
“Really mamta, ph and u have some unique connection. 10 yr ago u were busy with friends and now with ur son’s teachers.” The guy who was sitting opposite to Swati said.

He was Arnab.He was wearing a one buttoned blazer having blue shades. We all started giggling

“Hey ur salwar is so nice.” Mamta pointed my salwar.
“Thanks, it’s putu’s choice”, I replied happily.
“He was having a conference in jaipur last month. he bought this from there”.

“Salwar is really very gorgeous.” Swati said
“Thanks”.
“During the course of time putu learnt to buy ladies wear.” I thought.

The white salwar kameez is really beautifully crafted with antique golden rust, yellow & maroon stones work design on neck. Dupata has the traditional rajasthani chunri style dyed in red color. Churidar pajama is of printed silk material

“Badal da u invited Arnab to the international documentum 2019 conference but not me. It’s not fair.” Swati complained.

“He was in California at that time.” Badal explained.
“Swati u have not changed at all. U still believe Badal is more partial towards me.” Arnab said with a serious tone.
“no no actually….” Swati did not get any words to explain.

“hey forget it. Arnab we want to listen ur love story.” I told.

“I remember we used to search a gf for u.” Mamta told with the best of her voice.
We all started laughing.

“Yeh, tell us how did u complete the mission?” Badal questioned.
Arnab knew he had to answer. so he responded without wasting the time.
“As all of u know i got a chance to go onsite after a long wait.”

“It was a documentum project.”
“ok” Bhaswar continuously trying titash in the phone.

“Martina my wife was the client of that project, During that time we used to talk a lot about projects requirements. And slowly we became good friends. Code was doing well in UAT as well as in PRODUCTION. We went for a dinner to celebrate this and that day she proposed me .I didn’t think twice and said yes to her.”

“Really!” we were all listening his story with full concentration
“We married then and for last 7 yrs I am staying there.” He continued.
“I left TCS and working in same company with Martina. I come down to India once in a year. Thats all.”
“gr8 love story.” I told.

“What about ur daughter.” mamta asked me
“Anwesha is in class 1 in Delhi Public School.”
“really”.
“hey ur book price is so high”,Swati again complained
“I already had a talk with penguin publication. They will lower the price for my next novel”.

“I remember those days when we were in same project and in lunch break, tea break u always marketed ur blog and insisted us to read and give comment in ur blog.” Badal said.

“yeh. ha ha.” I started laughing

“Where is the manager babu?” Mamta asked
“Hey what happen to titash, its already 8.30 pm?” I asked angrily.

“I called in his home phone. His son told that titash was not at home as he had many work today. He has already left home abt 1 hr ago.” Bhaswar explained

“Oh my god ,the same reason. he used to give when we were calling him for tea 10 yrs ago”,I said.

“Hey here is the titash.” Bhaswar announced.

Titash was in denim jeans and maroon colored round neck Tshirt

“Hi manager babu.” I asked
“Areeee I am sorry I had some work.” Titash said.
“oh it’s ok we know its ur inbuilt dialogue, how is ur account doing?” Badal asked
“Yeh ur now GL of PLCS account. gr8 yaar.” Arnab said

“What abt Mr Agarwal?” Mamta took a break from her phone.
“He is GL of some another account in the US, he moved to the US two years back.” Titash said.

“Badal da, Swati ,we need some good resources for Captiva and Documentum technology. we got a good and big project in imaging.” Titash told.

“okay, we will try to provide u some good resources.” Swati replied
“From the very beginning I knew u will became a manger one day. u were the manipulator of our group, but of course the bad manipulator.” I said

“yeh I remember he used to tell that if ‘X’ project comes then ‘Y’ will be the PL..if’ ‘Z’ goes to onsite this time then definitely ‘W’ will go in the next turn..bla bla and many more.” Arnab tried to imitate titash.

“yeh, but at last all his manipulations went wrong. ” Bhaswer said.

We were all started laughing.

Scene 3

“Ok lets have the dinner.”Arnab announced.
“Bhaswar, today what is the special menu..?” Badal asked
“Chingri macher malai kofta.” Bhaswar replied proudly.
“ok this will be for everyone. what other dishes u all would like to have?” I said
Badal was the sponsor. he was throwing the treat for receiving the nobel prize.
“Badal da, I will take hilsa curry.” Swati said.

“same here.” Titash said.
“I will love to take chitol fish curry”,Arnab responded.
“I will take both.” Bhaswer smiled.

“Mutton curry.” I also announced my choice.
“Here chicken curry”, Mamta said

“Ok I will go for chital fish curry.” Badal told his choice.
Badal ordered also ful gobi, dal, aloo fry, betki macher paturi for all of us.

“After 10 yrs, however, our choice has not changed.” I thought.

We were all busy in eating, laughing, giggling and gossiping.

I noticed a young group of college goers entering the restaurant. They were 2 girls and 3 boys.I observed one of the boys had my latest novel in his hand. they sat besides our table.I tried to overhear their discussions. They had a debate on some issue.

“Chetan Bhagat is better than Mausumi Dutta. He is so sweet.” One of the girl in blue salwar shouted.

We were all paused for a moment. Titash looked at me.

I felt sad but pretended as if nothing had happened. Celebrities have to face all this things. “May be he is good but not better than Mausumi. She is a versatile writer and attracts all types of readers. She never appeared publicly. I want to meet her.” The boy replied back.

I felt a bit relaxed.We finished our dinner.
“Bhaswar, tell the boy to bring the bill.”
“no Badal da, it is a free treat for all of u.” Bhaswar answered.

“Oh that’s gr8. lets plan another treat over here. Bhaswar is our dearest friend, he will always give us free treats.” Arnab said in a joking mood.

We got ready to leave. I was still trying to eavesdrop the youngsters’ debate. I badly wanted to know their views abt me.Suddenly I felt as if someone was hitting me on my shoulder.

Scene 4

“Who’s there”, I shouted.
“Get up, it’s already 7.15 am,” Mom shouted.
“Oh! no, mom give me 5 min more..Again 201 bus.” I said
“It was my dream, its 2009 Nov. Oh! my goodness I have to reach my office within time.” I realized quickly.
“But the dream was really nice.” I murmured.
I got up from the bed and went towards the wash basin.

"Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it. We all achieve our dreams one day, definitely." I thought and started brushing my teeth