Out with Aji!

Aji and I had been hanging out in the apartment living room.

Listening together to our favourite songs on YouTube, it surprised me a lot that when I started singing the song 'raindrops are falling on my head', of all the hot phat cool songs I was showing him, that one was his favourite! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4VQajJ5Mws&feature=related

Aji lives in the room across from me. He's a very nice, fun loving guy from Kerala (Kerala's a very beautiful coastal state in India). IBM brought him to Hyderabad to work as a developer on a project.

It was a rainy... monsoon rainy, early Saturday evening. The sun was setting and we were wondering where we should have dinner. After the rain had subsided, we decided to go to my favourite Hyderabad restaurant and bar Havili & Bar One.

Bar One had already been featured in an earlier post about Ganesh's birthday party (see below previous post: Thursday, 3 September). I was looking forward to some good food and more gimlets!

It's a wonderful 5 story establishment with something for everyone. A family section where men, women, children can have nice meals.

Actually, the restaurant is called Haveli and the bar is called Bar One - which has a disco, bar and a roof top garden bar / restaurant, but they all seem to be attached to each other and share staff.

The disco (which I hadn't seen yet - see below), bar and rooftop are only frequented by men and no women. It's a typical concept here in Hyderabad.

The rain had subsided and we took off walking between the drops.

We arrived to a crowded restaurant. It was the first time I ate here and when we walked in I knew I found my place!

They had air conditioning and knives, forks AND napkins on the tables! Yeah! I felt relieved that I would be able to give the Indian style of 'eating adventure with my hand' a small break that evening!

Aji and I found a nice comfy booth to sit in. It was extremely plush comfortable leather seating, where I almost sunk away and lost myself in the furniture.

I immediately ordered a gimlet and became very happy when they brought the menu and I saw that there was a large international cuisine section to choose from!

Not to sound like a spoiled tourist, but since I've been having curry or other Indian spice packed foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day, it was a breath of fresh air to allow myself some time away from the daily immersion into Indian food and culture.

The menu was exactly what I was looking for at that moment. A nice big scrumptious plate of fresh prawns smothered in some sort of cheesy fatty calorie packed sauce with rice - pure heavenly decadent yumminess! I also ordered some nice Indian white wine to go with it.

Aji and I, both being rather happy talkative sort of guys, became lost in conversation as we were waiting for our food, when I suddenly found my self drinking water from the glass that was placed in front of me without even noticing what I was doing.

E-gads! The water was from the faucet. I had already drunk half the glass without paying attention to what I was doing. It was pure habit.

For foreigners in India, drinking the water from the faucet is like Russian Roulette, NOT DONE, unless you have a stomach of steal or already have had every slimy stomach bug and amoeba floating around in the various water systems of India!

I had been so careful since I've been in India to only drink bottled water or water that's filtered (and I actually see the containers that it comes from to verify). I thought - oops!

Aji, knowing how drinking unfiltered water could affect a non-Indian, he quickly called the waiter and ordered a litre of bottled water. And, then the food came.

The prawns were OUT OF THIS WORLD delicious! Every bite brought me back to joyful experiences of eating from my pre-Indian days.

As I was scooping up the last prawn/rice/creamy sauce delight, I remember wondering if Indian society would frown upon me if I were to lick the plate. My better judgment got the best of me and I left it completely un-licked.

After stuffing down a huge pile of chocolate mouse and ice cream for desert, Aji had mentioned the disco on the 3rd floor. Of course I was interested to check it out.

We walked into the disco as party crazed strobe laser lights blinded us as we entered. The music was thumping at very high decibals.

There were all kinds of men all over the place relaxing or dancing in groups on the dance floor. It seemed like everyone was having a blast!

Notice I mentioned 'There were all kinds of men...' above? That's because there were only men in the disco. In most nightlife places I've seen in Hyderabad and Bangalore, I have only seen men.

I can imagine, if a woman were to arrive in the disco, especially on her own, I think she would be considered a báááád person!

I wildly danced for about 10 minutes while Aji leaned on a table on the dance floor laughing at me.

As I was enjoying the music, I remember wondering if Aji was thinking that I'm a lunatic. I was not caring so much one way or the other because the thumping Bollywood music was moving me to dance whether I wanted to or not.

I was trying to blend into the rhythmic fervour of all the very thin and healthy Indian guys around me, until I started to feel like I was going to have a coronary arrest and was completely out of breath.

Maybe it was the wine and prawns? Yes! I'll blame it on the wine and prawns!

Since the sweat was pouring off my body and I was breathing so hard I could hardly talk, I decided to leave while the leaving was possible, so Aji and I headed back to the apartments, full of food and life!