and a town called Nasik, a lodge where I stayed several months, where some everlasting friendships were born and built.... and some friendships that were less immortal. One such, a Vinod Khanna lookalike, Arindam by name, employed in a private bank, handsome to a fault, impeccable English, improbable sense of humour and moody as a grandfather clock with a giant pendulum...
and how, on days when the "gang" of us would be having a gala time in one or the other's rooms we'd suddenly realise "Where's Arindam?" and go hunting. His room would appear locked, lights out, dark windows and we'd wonder "Where's he GONE?" until the next day he'd offer some rather lame, unbelievable story... until one day...
he was missing, again, and we went up, searching for him, the windows were dark and we turned back thinking Arindam's done the bunk again.. and heard a cough from within. And banged on the door, got him to open up and there he was, hiding, in the dark, drinking Benadryl because ..... well because with alcohol content 5% it was even better than beer and, more to the point, was available even on "dry days"!!
So, that explained the mystery of the missing Arindam..... and brought a smile to my lips as I recalled those days...
and I read "Pakistan: 16 die after drinking cough syrup" (see this:http://epaper.
Did you notice it? 16 die, the headline said, no? And the news story speaks of 15!! So, where is the missing 16th man?!! Where is Arindam?!! (Who, by the way, is missing, last seen somewhere in Pune but might as well be in Pakistan or Neptune for all I know...)
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Somewhere else, before I sign off on this.... on Yahoo, the headline fleetingly said "RBI will take steps if currency shortage persists".... I had filed that away, mentally, to read later. I guess they must have taken the elevator by now because the story seems to have vanished.... as for currency shortage, well, what are our Swiss Banks for?!!
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