The Rye In The Whisky

Dinner with Shiromani and Param at their residence was fantastic, they were the best of hosts and large hearted folks, never was there a dull moment in the conversation, it was almost as if they liked us and had done that for ages.  Shiromani was a school teacher and her conversational tone was one of as if she was speaking to young school going kids.  I liked her instantly, she had started calling me a brother soon after we had entered her home.  The house was a regular medium sized bungalow that had a womans touch to show for with pride.  There was not a dull moment soon as we entered, there was coke to be served along with punjabi snacks called fried pakoras followed by a sweet called Rasmalai.  Param was constantly rushing to the kitchen bringing out stuff she had made while Shiromani served it with a chefs pride.

"Did they manage to book a plot ?" asked Shiromani, looking at me but speaking to Param.

"They did look interested and they have till tomorrow morning to decide."

"It's a fabulous road to buy land on and build a house, either one of you could do that."

"Give them time Shiromani, they still have to decide," Param lovingly chided her.

"These plots are going away like hot cakes, pretty soon there will be none left to decide on," she was equally adamant.

"Friend of mine, her husband bought a plot on the Circular last week and already the prices have climbed by a quarter."

"Outsiders need to evaluate their options carefully before buying a land here, after all we are a small town.  We are where we are and right now, that's us folks, they on the other hand come from large towns and used to fast paced life," and Param got up to get some more Coke.

It was a cold and dry night, I would have preferred to have some Whisky but knew that travel and wine didn't do me justice, Param was already on his second Patiala Peg.  The Patiala Peg is the largest of measures that gets served in India, it is 75 ml of whisky and a meagre 10ml of water, Param was a large hearted man with an enormous appetite and a great sense of humour that begun to flow once he had liquor in him.

"Shiromani makes some pakoras that could make a man drop dead," he said with a mischevious smile on his face.

"Yes," said Shiromani after a thought, she was used to her husband pulling her leg and always considered his comments for a moment before answering back, and this time she decided to refrain from commenting.

That didn't stop Param of course, "Last she made it for me this Sunday, I slept non stop for 4 hours that too without having even a drop of whisky."

"Hell, I am thirsty again," he dropped in a line with a smile again, carefully avoiding the pakoras.

I got up to make him another drink, we had this old joke from years ago, its cheaper to drink whisky than water, as I made him another peg, and carried it over to the table, he was in great mood as a matter of fact he was always in a great mood with friends.  Long ago when we had got together and wanted to get the bike repaired, he had suggested the following things to me, never ride a bike without the basic neccessity kit which included the medical aid kit, a puncture repair kit and the tools for repair, when he had suggested that to me I had realised that I had never realised that certain tools would be required to carry out repair and in other circumstances I wouldn't even have thought of a puncture repair kit.  As it turned out, when the road is lonely you need the tools of the trade with you.

There were a lot of trophies on the mantle and I was wondering where he had won those trophies, some of the trophies came with price money and as he told me, he had used the price money to purchase the shop from where he was operating now.  These are the signs of hard work and every trophy had a nameplate attached to it, I asked him about the largish trophy which glittered in the overhead light, he said that one was the best and he had won it during a mechanic competition that his previous boss had recommended he attend.  Without that recommendation there was no way that anything could have been achieved within this short span of time.
"Why Be The King, When You Can Be The God."