Friday, 6th March
I woke up early this morning with a slight dizziness engulfing my mind. A glance around the room told me that I am in my own bedroom, on my own bed but have no idea how I got here. The last thing I remembered from previous day was sipping lemonade at Vrindavan restaurant. What happened after that, what did I do, how did I get home? With all these questions cropping up in my brain, wanting to get answers, I got up from the bed and made my way to the kitchen where mom was busy preparing breakfast. I entered the kitchen and inquired her directly,"Mom, what happened yesterday?" She turned around, startled to see me awake so early on a holiday. After the initial moment of shocked transpired, her faced turned to that of concern and asked me in a concerning voice whether I was feeling OK now. I had no idea why she was asking that, but got a feeling that something hideously strange happened last night. "I am feeling fine", I lied. The dizziness was making me feel weak and nauseated.I again inquired her about my previous day ordeal. She sighed and told me to have a seat.
We moved to hall and I comforted myself on the sofa, feeling somewhat relieved as continuously standing up was making me feel as if I am going to collapse any moment. By now my brother was awake too. He came and took his place beside mom. I observed their faces, they were looking at me amusingly, as if I have come from some different planet. There was a moment of queer silence. And then my mom, breaking that silence, asked "Don't you remember anything from last night?"
"No, why? What happened?" I replied.
They both exchanged a quick glance, amusement still striking their face. I was sitting there, trying to make something out of this exchange taking place before me.
"Please tell me, will you?" I barked out, a little frustrated.
They both gave me a disdained looked and started filling me up with the adventures, or should I say the misadventures, of last night. Suddenly, like a bullet, it hit me. Yes. Holi celebration in college. Friends. Colors. BHANG!!!!!
Oh!! Now I get it. I recalled how I was stupefied under the influence of bhang which I consumed the previous evening. Well, that explains the dizziness I was feeling today. It was the hangover from previous day's bout. But still, I can't recall how I got home. The last thing I could recollect from previous day was, as I said, sipping lemonade at the restaurant. Of that too, I had a very vague image in my mind.
Everything that I tried recalling from previous evening was hazy and indistinct.
My mom and brother went on to enlighten me on how I got here from college and what all transpired after that. I was too shocked to hear what was being said to me. All this incident took place last night, and I don't even have a clue of it this morning. I listened to all the stupidity, that apparently I performed yesterday, and instead of feeling ashamed, I started laughing. I could see the contempt rising in mom's eyes and controlled myself. The story I was hearing was to hilarious to be true. But it was true, they assured me.
Mom then suggested me to call my friends who had troubled themselves by bringing me home from college and apologize to them. I already had a guilt clouding over me by now. I Whatsapped Sukumar, one of the two friends who brought me home. The very next moment his call arrived. He too asked me how I was feeling now and what happened at home. After assuring him that I am fine and everything is thankfully calm at home, he proceeded with telling me his part of the story, the events that occurred before they brought me home. Once again I was listening to all the stupid deeds I did in my inebriated state. Sukumar's narration of the story helped in placing the missing pieces of yesterday's event in place. I listened to it, trying hard not to laugh at my own stupidity and ended the conversation after seriocomically apologizing to him.
I sat later that day, all by myself, trying hard to recall even the slightest memory of previous night, trying to figure myself doing all those things they said I did. I failed. This could possibly have been the most memorable day of my life, not that I was proud of it, but memorable nevertheless. I could reminisce this event in the future and have a good laugh at it."Hey, remember the time when I got totally high on bhang?" But the irony of it is, I can't even remember a thing of it. I solely depend on other's perspective of the story, which I realised was not that unfortunate. I decided to write down this story, to record this incident forever, so that I can come back to it someday and say "Hey, remember the time when I had the most memorable day of my life, of which I have no memory?"
So here it is, the story of an experience,of which I can't recall half of the things, but which surely is hilarious. The story in which I completely got wasted, made a fool of myself, but still cherish it. For it was, what I call, 'an experience of a lifetime'.
Thursday, 5th March (D-Day)
This was like any other day. Regular college, boring lectures, students waiting for them to get over. But today we had another reason altogether to wait for lectures to get over. Tomorrow was Holi, the festival of colours, and like every year, we celebrated it with our classmates one day prior in our campus. I, as always, was particularly excited about it. Holi is one of my favourite festivals. After all, who hates Holi? Everyone in our class seemed equally excited about it.
That afternoon, during the lunch break, few guys from my class decided to have bhang while celebrating Holi. They asked me whether I wanted to try it. Now, I never got a chance to try pure bhang before, so I agreed to go for it. Little did I know the price I would pay for it.
So the lectures finally got over. We went outside and celebrated Holi like hell. The guys had their go with the bhang. To say the truth, the very taste of it prevented me from consuming the bhang pills, but I convinced myself into taking one more pill and went on to have total three pills of that goddamn bhang, oblivious to the consequent effect it would have on me. Being done playing with the colours, we started posing for photos, which was, not to mention, a norm at every event. After having clicked a few photos, I started feeling a little giddy. My head became heavy and the world around me started swirling. The bhang had began to take its toll on me. I was, kind of, enjoying it. That feeling of being high! Ecstatic!! I was on cloud nine. The cloud which was about to rain down heavily.
We were soon done with our photo session and made our way to washrooms to ward the colours off our face. In spite of rigorously scrubbing my face, the fierce colours refused to leave my face. I reluctantly gave up. I collected my things, went downstairs and sat near entrance, waiting for my friends to join in. Arun,Sukumar and Vishal were seated beside me. Apparently, an incident took place while I was in washroom fighting the losing war against the colours. Some guy from second year had burst an egg on Aishwariya, my classmate and friend. She, being a vegetarian, got scared as to what she will say at home. The smell of it was very strong and hard to wash-off. We, the guys sitted near the entrance, called that second year guy to give him a mouthful. And from here, my vision and my memory, both started to get hazy. I have a very vague recollection of what all occurred afterwards. I was still fully conscious, though the bhang had started battling with my nerves. And I was losing this battle too.
We started for home, after the girls having a brief word with that second year guy. My throat was feeling parched, and I realised I had lost my water bottle somewhere in the midst of Holi celebration. I could see a water bottle dangling in a side-pocket of a bag of a person before me. Without asking for permission from that person, I snatched the water-bottle and gulped its content down my throat. Later I realised that the person was, thankfully, of my own group. Well, that saved me from atleast one embarrassment. But I had a dozen more waiting for me.
The group arrived outside the campus. By now, I was in sub-conscious state. I had no idea what I was doing. Arun later told me that I was completely out of my mind. On stepping out of the campus gate, I was trying to make my way back inside, apparently to get my bag which I was, at that moment, carrying behind me. He stopped me and made me aware of my bag being with me all the while. The next thing I know, the group was leading towards the Vrindavan restaurant. I blindly followed them. By now, I had partially lost my sense of hearing too. We took a seat inside and the group started a conversation, of which I was the major participant, talking all gibberish. The guys seating beside me couldn't make a sense out of it. They understood I was getting high. Someone ordered a lemonade for me. And this is where I completely lost it all. All the events that occurred after this were conveyed to me by others, me having not a slightest clue of them whatsoever.
So seemingly, I was having lemonade sitting there at Vrindavan. All of the sudden, I inserted my finger into the glass and started stirring it for no apparent reason. Someone noticed me and refrained me from further doing it. Sukumar, who was sitting on the chair beside me, hold the glass of lemonade for, out of fear that I would drop it. Later, my gibberish became far too incoherent. I was heard saying "There's no acknowledgement from the server". Yes, I was talking about studies in my babblement. That was enough to convince my friends that I was completely wasted. I had started creating a scene out there in Vrindavan. They decided to get me outside and started calling others, asking for some quick remedies to thwart my drunkenness. It was getting late. The girls, already getting scared of my inebriated state, were made to depart. Sukumar and Vishal stood back, and called Sharad to help them getting me safely at home. Apparently, they had made a call to my mom, almost gave her a heart attack by saying I was not able to walk, and then quickly describing my condition to her. Mom told them to bring me Borivali by auto rickshaw as it was not possible for her to come there to fetch me at this hour owing to traffic. My dad got home sometime later and called these guys again to inform them where exactly to bring me. So Sukumar and Sharad hired an auto, boarded me inside, and started our journey to get me home. While riding the auto, as Sharad and Sukumar notified me later, I was constantly patting the auto driver's shoulder, talking some nonsense to him. Oh, the embarassment my friends would have felt! The auto reached its destined location where the rendezvous was set with my father. My father boarded the auto I was sitting in, while Sharad and Sukumar boarded another auto as they made their way towards the railway station. I was unable to walk on my own and so my father took me to my uncle's house as I would not be able to climb stairs in my building.
On getting there, I was made to seat while everyone around was suggesting one or the other remedy to counter the effects of bhang. The odd thing is, I was talking in Hindi with my family members, evidently, under the hallucination that I am still with my friends. Someone brought a lemonade for me and I said, in Hindi, that I just now had one, why are you giving me again. But they made me have it. I accidentally dropped a little of it on my jeans, and sat there stupidly rubbing it, trying to dry it off. Also, as my brother recalled to me, there happened a funny incident involving me and my mom. I was sitting there having a chat with one of my cousins when my mom called out to me and said let's go home. To which I replied, again in Hindi, "Don't you see, we are trying to have a conversation here". Can't believe I said such thing to mom! One more funny incident he told me was when I suddenly got up from my seat and dashed outside where a chai-wala was working. I walked up to him and asked where did he kept my headphones!!! Imagine the shock on his face! My cousin who had followed me quickly took me back inside.
Later that night, after making sure that I can walk properly on my own, they brought me home. While leaving my uncle's house, I asked my cousin whether he has submitted a particular document as tomorrow is the last day for submission!! We reached home, and here too, a few incidents took place showcasing my stupid inebriated state. I was asked to change my clothes which were evidently filthy from all those colours. I entered bathroom, removed my dirty clothes, and instead of wearing the new one, put back the dirty ones on, soaking the new ones in tub filled with water. I came out of bathroom, with my old clothes still on. My mom, seemingly stunned, sent me to change again with a new set of clothes. Once again, I did the exact same thing and emerged with the filthy clothes still on. Tired, my mom made me change my clothes in bedroom and this time I did the task without any goof. After that, I sat to have dinner. I had left the rice on my plate untouched. Mom asked me why I didn't eat the rice, to which I replied, "Kyu, aapko chahiye kya?" LOL!!
Also that night, while mom was busy preparing my bed, I was randomly pointing to a cupboard, blabbering something. I was then made to sleep, but apparently, some remnant of bhang was still there inside me, doing its sorcery on me. I woke up a few times that night to drink water, as my throat was still feeling parched. I went to sleep again, waking about an hour later, thinking that it's morning and I have a college to attend. It took an effort from my mom and brother to persuade me that it's still night and only after I had a look at the clock that I was finally convinced and went to sleep for the final time that night. Thus ended my long intoxicated ordeal. Pfffff......
That was my story, of the day I would never forget. Of the events which I can hardly recollect, of the experience that would always be there with me.