On an ordinary day..

Friday evening. Clock crossed a 7:30 mark a few minutes back.

A scene Inside of a not-so-urbane café

A typical weekend crowd. Includes everyone from a small group of business executives with clean shaved faces, wannabes with weirdest hairdos, couples sitting cozily in corner sofas and random families with modern Indian ‘Super Moms’ and their most irritating kids.

Couple of LED TVs showing ‘India’s No.1’ hindi news channel with breaking news. Obviously it’s on mute.

A center round table. 4 guys sitting and waiting for their order to arrive. Let’s call them ‘Dudes’. Everyone’s eyes are on the breaking news.

It was about another rape incident ‘officially recorded’ in the capital city, which was nicely edited and showed like a bollywood movie trailer. Only few others noticed it, as the background score was muted.

Dude 1: “What the hell is going on in the city, man? Another one?”

Dude 2: “Sala, capital city hai ki ‘RAPITAl’ city hai? This is THE limit now. Nobody is bloody afraid of anything, no one is getting caught, no one is afraid of the punishment. There is no…”

Dude 3 interrupts Dude 2: (with aggression) “What has happened to my city yaar. I hate listening to all this. You know, they should be hanged publicly, just like they do it in Dubai and Oman”.

Dude 4; suddenly stopping girl-gazing; jumps in and showing his general knowledge “Dude that’s not Dubai. Tehran and Iraq and other Middle-East countries. Google it”

Dude 3: “That’s not the point. The point is, nothing’s going to change. People should do something. We should do something. Just like ‘Rang De Basanti’ Movie. Someone has to initiate. We can’t just sit like this and watch things happen, watch our country gets ruined.”

Dude 1, done chatting with someone on his iPhone 5, “True. Will put a black dot as my DP again. Just posted a status that ‘I am ashamed of the country I live in’ and I already got 15 likes in 5 mins. I think people are getting the message. We all are Indians, man. We should behave like one.”

Dude 4: “Good one, bro. Technology is awesome. Connects everyone and spreads our thoughts in split seconds”

Waiter arrives and puts 2 beer pitchers on the table. Someone changes the channel to IPL. It's showing 2 minutes to go, before high-staked Mumbai v/s Delhi IPL T20 match.

Dude 2: “Oh just 2 mins to start. Perfect timing. Mumbai this time! Hail Sachin, the greatest batsman ever !” (flaunting the wallpaper of him on his mobile screen).

Dude 3: “Hatt saale. Get lost. Sehwaag will kick your Mumbai’s a** this time. My Delhi will win this time. Your Mumbai will suck.”

Dude 1 and 2 completed filling the glasses by the time. Everyone takes one.

Here comes the first delivery.

Everyone says “Cheers!!”

And the evening goes on.

- Asthir Amdavadi