after what seemed like ages, i had a nice long four day weekend.

tuesday was a holiday because of janmastami. coupled that with an off on monday and i had four precious days to catch up on pending work and friends, prabal, mona and their little one, who had come down from mumbai.

saturday night after introducing the pals to the joys of shioks, jil and rocky decided that we needed chai to shake off the effects of the numerous cocktails we had consumed (smooth lover, arctic kiss, arctic blue, madhu’s illusion). so it was past midnight when we headed to mg road. i realised it was the first time i was venturing out to that part of town at that time of the hour. was pleasantly surprised to find it a hub of activity. the chaiwallah was hiding from the cops, but resourceful pals managed to hunt him down and we managed to get the tea.

on sunday, despite an overwhelming temptation to join all of them for a short trip, i settled for french grammar while the pals enjoyed a nice day at sravanabelagola, hassan and halebid.

on monday, it was my turn to play host. the out-of-towners were back. decided it was time to show off bangalore. slight hitch – bad roads and heavy traffic. no parking on mg road. but despite everything, i acted like a true blue bangalorean for a day as i took them around. mg road. koramangala. lalbagh. the road to lalbagh via diary circle had turned into a dirt race track and my poor ma cherie was bobbing up and down and i was terrified that she would protest and stop right there in one of the horrible mud bumps. i could see some of the heavier buses in front actually slipping because of the mud heaps. i tried to maintain a safe distance from the huge monsters not liking the idea of being crushed under them.

lunch with a view happened at the 13th floor on mg road. they have a decent buffet. if you’re that side in the afternoon, it’s worth a try and pretty reasonably priced too. friends were surprised to see the prices (compared to mumbai). i said, ‘bangalore is like this only’ :).

went gallivanting around mg road on tuesday and caught up my long pending shopping. went a little overboard and bought 4 pairs of shoes. though there is some kind of a myth about women and shoes, which does not apply to me, i decided to subscribe to it. visited gangaram, higginbothams and decided not to buy anymore books (for a change!).

fixed the worldspace connection at home after tinkering around with it for about a month. i’ve been doing merry dance on my balcony to find the ‘beam’ all this time. tried my luck again yesterday and voila, there was the beam! and music – hiphop, riffraff, rock, classical, hindi, remix and even french radio!

Now I’m going home to worldspace 🙂