slow weekends

saturday. lunch at 'don giovanni' with one model and two ceos. the model had fish. one ceo had heineken. the other ceo didn't have a problem with water which, come to think of it, is a habit i could learn to pick up. but, not just yet. i, with a hangover, opted for a heineken and followed it with a bloody mary. what the heck, life's too short. pizza, some mushroom in butter, and a very nice salad.

then, irish coffee at prithvi, with shashi kapoor walking past and hangers-on grovelling. for that girth, still an incredibly handsome man. then, vodka with pumpkin at enigma. three down, and the hangover was buried in the murky recesses of my past. pumpkin in a black sweatshirt and those cute, cut-off jeans that end above the ankles. good for teenagers, of course, but perfect for pumpkin who has long mastered the art of looking incredibly cute no matter what she wears. she doesn't believe it when i tell her that though.

post-dinner drink at midnight, by myself, at a quiet, empty bar. and, sleep.

sunday. way too much bad television on offer. i pick margaret atwood instead, hoping for something along the lines of 'alias grace' and settling comfortably, happily, into another story about a bride who can play a thief just as well. dinner at a restaurant in bandra called 'retro place', with a television news reporter. "do they play retro music?" i ask. "yes," she says, "stop annoying me." the retro music exists, but at a volume that has me straining to listen. we leave after i try the 'leek and potato soup'. later, at her place, i sit back and listen as she fills in on the gaps since our last meeting. she's grown up, i think to myself, and leave, happy at the thought.

11 pm. way too early for home. way to early for home in bombay, that is. way past bedtime in delhi and other horrible places that ought not to exist. 45 minutes at a place near toto's. then, home.

coming up this week: more meetings, with more friends and colleagues and entrepreneurs and friends of entrepreneurs. which leaves me with the strange, nagging thought that my life forces me to get busier even as i try conditioning myself to slow down. ironic, considering one of my reasons for quitting publishing was the fact that i was forced to meet too many people.

if all goes well, next year could be a slow one. then again, i doubt it.