Kathirundavan Pondattiya...Nethu Vandavan-Part.2 (aka. The Wife-Exchange Part-2)

So on a nice sunny saturday (which by the way is default weather for Chennai) we all met up at Karthicks place  and piling our bags in the trunk set off on a road trip to Pondy. The first order of business was to fill up Karthicks Honda City with petrol and the next was inevitably the very raison d’être of a road trip- stocking up the beer. I reminded the guys that “look guys, Pondy is in a different state, we would be crossing state borders and carrying alcohol across state borders is a Federal Offence and after all, carrying beer across to Pondicherry’s like carrying ice cream to the arctic and you better not buy more than you can finish before crossing the border” but as usual my wise advice was disregarded by the fellows who were in no mood to listen to commonsense. 

Anyway we reached Pondy without incidence, after a three hour plus drive- the plus be accounted by the numerous breaks we took en route to shoot photos to upload later on the net. By the time we reached Pondy, we were ravenously hungry and instead of disturbing the busy relatives arranging things for the evenings function, we decided to have lunch before proceeding on. Just as we pulled up into the parking lot of  Hotel Annamalai, Karthick had a call from his big brother, Nitin, who screamed at him to come straight home for lunch or to get ready to face a kicking of a lifetime. So we pulled out again and headed for Nitins place. 

A visibly happy Nitin greeted us when we turned up at his place- for we were the only friends from college who had turned up for his betrothal. Something which might be due to Nitins reputation for a tough as nails rowdy act during college. While Karthick was ever the charmer, his big brother (cousin) was a bully who had ragged little kids to tears. He had once tried to mess with me in my very first days at college, until I told him in Rajnikants dead pan “Baasha” style “I have a flash-back story, so don’t mess with me until you know who I am and where I come from” which had frightened him off enough to make him treat me with respect henceforth. I could put on a pretty good act even then- but that’s a story for a different day. 

Anyway, we had a sumptuous lunch at Nitins place and all through lunch we couldn’t stop staring at a very pretty girl who was serving us. Karthick found me and Pradeep asking for second helpings of everything and introduced here as “this is Nithya, our- me and Nitins, sister, she has just finished her plus two and will be joining college here in Pondy soon”. She blushed at the detailed introduction- but it served its real purpose, we closed our plantain leaf plates after that and got up to wash our hands. When we went back to the guest room upstairs, Karthick explained in pretty vivid detail what would happen to us if either he or Nitin caught us flirting with his sister, but we shushed away his fears with a “She doesn’t look pretty- way below our usual standards- you know our taste better than anyone else machan..so cool, machan” which vaguely satisfied him and he left off that topic and leaving us in the room went down to the rest of the family. 

As soon as he was out of the door, Pradeep started professing undying love for Nitin’s sister and asked our help to become the son-in-law of the family. I thought of of putting in my application too, but before I started saying anything Mama told us “dei, you will not digest what you just ate if you think such thoughts da, she is an innocent young girl da  and just because she is freely mixing with her brothers friends don’t take advantage of it”. Which was a very uncharacteristic speech for Mama , had he turned a good guy now? He went on to show how much he had truly changed by his next dialogue “did you see their servant maid? I think something is going on there with her. If so, I will try to get an innings myself” which was all true Mama-speak. So arguing we spent the afternoon.