27. Nascent Drunkards

The night went on with various naïve ideas of how to get a bottle of vodka. Finally we decided on a particular plan.

We left Anu at home and asked mom to stay back with her as she is not so well. This is part of the plan. We asked the driver to drive to the Munnar town.

We asked him to stay at a place and were hanging around the entire place looking for the right person.

Just then an autorickshaw stopped by us, “Where to go ma’am”

Sangeetha, “No thanks..” we stopped her.

Looking at our tensed up faces he offered, “I know all the places around give me a cue..”

“No sir it’s not that..hmmm”

“Can you do us a favor?”, Swarna.

“Ya sure.. anything I could do..”

“hmmm…” , “Hmm..” blushing at each other nervously.

“Can you buy us a bottle of vodka, we will pay you for buying”, I opened up.

He gave a differed smile, “ Ok, what brand and quantity”

We looked at Swarna as she is our senior, “hmmm… any good brand and 2 bottles, How much would that cost?”

“Hmm… 2 bottles, 600 for a good brand and I need 200 rupees as my commission”

“But that’s too much….”, Sangeetha.

We cut her short and offered him a 1000 rupee note. “Hey wait take us with you, stop the auto at a distance and get it”

We hid the bottles in a travel bag. Sangeetha reminded us of the side dish and based on our only tutorial, south Indian movies, we bought Lays and pickles.

We entered the cottage trying our best to control blushing. Mom got a little suspicious but didn’t enquire. We impatiently waited for mom to sleep. Sindhu still protested.

At 11.00PM we are sure mom and others are in deep sleep. After a good struggle we opened a bottle and just then Anu reminded, “Hey aren’t we supposed to dilute it with soda or something”

We in chorus, “Oh shit!!”

Sindhu, “I guess we have soft drinks in the fridge”

Swarna kissed her and ran to get Coke and 7up. We could feel our hands shiver. We mixed 1:2 vodka and 7up in 4 glasses except for Sindhu.

I stuffed my mouth with lays and “1,2,3 up” all of us had almost the entire glass into our mouths.

Anu, “hey I feel like fainting, I am drunk, I am drunk” in a drowsy voice.

“Stop it idiot it’s not even a second since you finished the glass”.

“After 2 glasses all of us were really feeling a little dizzy. Sindhu failing to temptation, helped herself a glass. The first bottle is not empty yet but all of us are now in a very bad condition.

Sangeetha groped to the bathroom and vomited on the way. I was also feeling nausea. We shaking each other hid the bottle under the bed in a corner. Washed the glasses, sprayed the room thoroughly with perfumes and helped ourselves with gums.

The next morning, we woke up at 11.00 and fumbled our way to the dinning table. Mom reading newspapers, “what were you girls doing last night?”