balls of light

Friday was a good day. It started off quite underwhelmingly even though I should have been feeling a bit more nervous. You see, I had a test on Marketing Research and my mind was very badly muddled with the differences between concepts, constructs, extraneous variables, intervening variables and other such shite. But, I wasn't feeling it, it being the usual nervousness I feel when this confusion has the potential to confuse me, fail me. Instead, I flipped through the book with ease, which might be taken as a sign of great confidence but really the only way I could be ignorant of what I had not studied..... Anyhow, the class was pretty good and the test was... confusing but I think I did pretty well.

I met up with Nadeeka and Shashin for lunch after that. It was a very minimalistic lunch. I mean the food was alright, the conversation pretty sparse but I think we all left quite content. I think it's that time of the semester when you realize that leisurely lunches are not all that much of a necessity and lunch is not something you plan other events, more mundane events around but rather something you fit into a schedule. squeeze it in because you don't want to grab a curry puff, chocolate bar or some other unhealthy thing for something as sacred and so motherly-infused as lunch.

Came back, slept for a measely one and a half hours and then went for a meeting. I have joined a marketing plan competition for a brand of sanitary napkins called Kotex Dri-Comfort. We need to plan a year's marketing communications campaign for the brand with a budget of SG$500,000. It's very interesting work but I can totally forsee these meetings taking their toll on me and my haphazard schedule where I like to keep entire periods of time free so that I can possibly chill, zone out or meet up with friends. Hell, I shouldn't be complaining since this is what I hope to do in the long term. The meeting went for a very short time, after which I went home and slept for another 1 hour to keep my spirits up for........ Pavs' Dinner Party.

This girl and her flatmates put on one hell of a party. First and foremost, the apartment was in impeccable condition. The apartment is beautiful and these girls have nicely done it up. What struck me most and still does, is Pavs' room. It's very understated. The only thing remotely ostentatious about the room is the purple/pink balls of light she's hung on her wall. It's beautiful and it totally brings out everything else in the room. The pictures of her and her family, her bed, her curtains take on a completely different tone and colour because of these balls of light and it makes me feel like a child again. I am fascinated by light, especially lights of different colours in the dark. I am reminded of days in Colombo during Vesak when my uncle takes us out to see the pandols and the lanterns adorning the city. Every conceivable colour in every possibile receptacle of light splashed everywhere. I love it. In my garden back home, in the old house (now, it's been converted to concrete to accommodate our fucking vehicles), we had a custard apple tree and a frangipani tree. On these trees we used to hang small paper lanterns with a candle in each of them. My heart used to burn, when the lanterns caught fire because the wind was too strong. I used to love coming out in the night to just stare at these blurs of light (if you scrunch up your eyes) the same way I used to crawl under our Christmas tree at night to take in the aroma of the pine and bathe in the iridescent light.

Chh. I digress. The entire apartment was set in darkness with only a few spots of light, graciously provided by candles set around the place. The liquor flowed, the music loud as shit, the food slowly but steadily getting over and the crowd absolutely raucous and disgraceful in their behaviour. I don't understand how my friends... FRIENDS.. and I can just touch each other, grind with each other and still be as platonic as we are. It just feels comfortable and natural and quite hilarious. We have no boundaries and it might or might not come back to haunt us in the future but right now, I put my friends up there on a well-deserved pedestal.

So we slowly got drunk on wine, vodka and Bacardi and countless repetitions of the elephunk theme, striptease and galang. Also, we drank everyone else’s alcohol. After getting done with that, we bought another bottle and selfishly kept it hidden from everyone so only we had access to it. In that inebriated state, we entertained someone not usually in our group and some accusations were made against me. I don’t want to go into it right now, but if you think I spread rumours, then think again, because even though I gossip like an old Sindhi lady, my gossip is purely directed towards people I know, love and trust implicitly. My offended sensibilities slowly took in more alcohol and before I knew it, I was having fun again.

I shudder to think of what we did to Pavs’ room. We spilt alcohol, coke, cigarette ash and sugary syrup all over. I would never have been able to take it but the beautiful owner of the beautiful room was too busy looking for a phone that was believed to be stolen but was actually lying a foot away from her. Quite hilarious but how can I possibly afford to talk? I once, went up to random people in a club and asked them to look for my room key which I thought I had lost. Eventually, after asking about a thousand people about it, I realized I had given it to my friend for safekeeping. Some of these random people turned out to be Sri Lankans and after that, I have forever been branded as the useless fucker who’s a cheap drunk. Anyway, that is not the point. We were too fucked to care about anything else at that point and we happily set off to Club Momo.

For once, the guys, Anirudh and Myself, got in free while the girls had to pay. Sexism is back in fashion. Yay. Club was disappointing, so after a while we just sat outside, talking about a certain someone and referring in that context to one particular commandment set out in that all-consuming, all-empowering book called the Bible. We also ate some of the oiliest fried chicken which turned out to be fucking tasty. After that, we parted and came home. Ashanie was drunk, Anirudh coming out of some haze hanging around him (call it the happiness, totally not underwhelmed haze) and myself, angry with God knows whatever reason. Went back to room and did mundane things like check email, brush teeth, listen to some non-party music and then I slept like a fucking baby.

So all in all, minus the accusation, this party was a roaring, disgustingly drunk success. And now since, I was interrupted while typing this post and am now typing this 4 hours after I started it, I have totally forgotten the tone I wanted to end this post with.

So, bye.