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So yesterday was Ben’s 21st birthday. We’ve been planning on going somewhere for a while now, so everyone was informed about it in the SIP program. That’s probably why so many people ended up going. Anyway let me start from the beginning.

Cat kindof organized when we were going and informed everyone about it; we found out about where to go by a recommendation through Anuj, a localite who is peer tutoring us in Hindi. It was my job to mobilize some Indians to go as well (I’m kindof known as the SIP student who knows all the Indians and is always hanging out in Gops, the nearby student canteen, making more and more friends). The day before, I had invited about 8 people to go, and they all accepted. They must have been pretty excited about it and pushed their plans around because who has all of Wednesday night completely open for a party? Anyway I told them all to meet at the guest house at 7:30 where we’d walk to the public bus at the university gate. It was an interesting situation; not only did not all of these Indians know each other, but not everyone in the SIP program knew them, I was kindof the glue holding that all together.

It was time for dinner at the guest house at 7; Cat and I walked in first to the dining room and were stunned to see Mr. Das standing behind the food counter with pizza and spaghetti in front of him (Mr. Das is the “RA” of the guest house, he lives there and manages things and helps us with questions etc. that we have). He had known it was Ben’s birthday and ordered food that he knew we’d like. I must say it was a nice break from the normal roti, rice, and daal (lentil)! Everyone was kindof gitty already at that point, not only was there tons of excitement about the “American” food for dinner, but we were all anxious to go to the club as well. The club Anuj had recommended to us is called Bottles and Chimneys, all I really knew about it at the time was that it was a club pretty far away by the airport and that we intended to take buses and rickshaws there.

I finished dinner quickly to go get ready back at the hostel and to be ready to meet my Indian friends. I was getting ready in my room when Subhash and Money showed up unexpectedly, I had told them my room number many days ago, and was surprised they had remembered. I also didn’t know how they knew that I was still in my room. Whatever though, sometimes things just fall into place, a common theme for the evening as you’ll read. Anyway I finished getting ready and we were heading for the guest house when Thy called and said they were already leaving and heading to the small gate. We shifted our direction to meet them, and I also had to call a few people who were initially going to the guest house to tell them our new meeting place. Subhash, Money, and I raced up the road leading to the small gate and were stunned to see a stream of people as far as we could see in either direction. They were all going to Ben’s party. Practically everyone in the SIP program was there! While waiting for the bus at the gate, we took a head count of about 45, and there were still more of my Indian friends coming. I had had no idea how this was going to really work. We were to take bus 216 to Medhiputnam bus stop and then 47A to the airport. Where the club was from there I didn’t know. Our group was going to fill at least a whole public bus, but they’re usually packed to begin with! If we were to take rickshaws, we would have had to have waited for at least a dozen or so. It started to rain. And the bus wasn’t coming.

We weren’t quite sure what to do when all of the sudden this private bus rolls in front of us, obviously attracted by the huge crowd waiting alongside the road. I had Satish and Subhash talk to the driver to see where he was going, and wouldn’t you know he was heading to Medhiputnam of all places. Why he was going there I wasn’t quite sure, why the bus was empty I didn’t know either. And how he coincidentally met us while we were waiting for all of 10 minutes alongside the road is a mystery. I wondered if Satish had arranged for the bus to pull up, he and Subhash had disappeared for a few minutes before it came. When I asked them though they denied it and claimed they had no idea where the bus came from. We all boarded on with this strange kind of excitement like…*is this really as fortuitous as it seems?* A private bus that came out of no where, taking us exactly where we need to go…hmm…ok I guess that works! We were eventually able to convince the driver to take us all the way to the club. And also to take us back to the University. We had arranged a private bus driver just like that; I’m glad my Indian friends were there because the driver really only spoke Telugu! We just barely fit, the bus was packed full, and everyone was referring to it was the ‘magical party bus.’ We were all hollering and singing songs the whole way there, it took probably about 50 minutes. I sat in the front kindof next to the driver on top of the engine and was able to see everything in front of us.

The way these people drive still stuns me. Pulling right out in front of cars that are already moving is just no big deal, especially when you’re in a big bus like this one, you’re just supposed to stop for the vehicles larger than you are. Anyway we made it to the club, but as we were going through all the security and metal detectors etc. some bouncers had stopped us and told Satish, Subhash, and Money that they couldn’t enter; they were wearing sandals. Obviously this was a nice high-end place. Nice and inconvenient. We were left at a loss over such a silly thing. The guards simply wouldn’t let them in. Everyone else had already entered except for me (not wanting to abandon them) and the three sandaled Indians. Most shoe places were closed by then (maybe 9:15), and it didn’t look like we were going to be able to smuggle any shoes from the inside out; I had called people inside but not only could I not hear them because of all the noise, but Satish said it was a bad idea, claiming the guards could get really angry over it. We resolved to take a rickshaw out into the city to buy shoes at a roadside stand. I was having a great time, I mean, going out into the street shops is what we practically do for fun in our free time anyway. Satish especially felt so bad about it though, claiming that he felt really ashamed that he was taking me away from the party etc. It seemed that he thought he was insulting Ben as well. As much as I tried to say that everyone would just think the story was funny, they continued to feel bad about the whole situation. I guess you can’t make someone loosen up, but by the time we reached the club I think they were ok with it.

The interior was amazing; there were two floors and all these lights flashing; definitely the biggest club I’ve been too. The other SIP students swarmed me as I entered, knocking me over and obviously glad I had shown up, whether or not I was an hour late. Immediately one of my other friends insisted I have a shot of tequila with her; when I saw the bill though I was a tad less excited. I thought that the fee was the calculated tip they gave us, but my jaw literally dropped when I learned that our three shots were 1,200 rs. That’s $10 a shot. And that was quite enough of that. I didn’t need to get drunk anyway. Each of the pairs of shoes was less than one of those silly tequila shots.

Anyway the night was so much fun; I’m in love with the CIEE students here, we all blend so well and it feels as if we’ve been friends for quite some time, much more than only 3 weeks. There was a lot of dancing etc. and hookahs etc.; I really liked the music there too, although didn’t recognize any of it. From what I heard it was Punjabi; it was funny to see all the Indians get excited when a Bollywood hit came on the speakers. Of course it was loud; I had expected this and had Amanda bring me a pair of earplugs. That’s my new thing when I go to clubs anymore, it makes the experience so much more enjoyable. You can still hear people talk when they shout directly in your ear (which they’d have to do anyway) and you feel neither deaf nor upset that you’ve damaged your hearing afterward. Love it.

The night lasted only about 2 hours though; the music stopped and the lights went up at midnight on the nose (most places close by midnight in the city unfortunately). People lingered around though and continued to talk as the bartenders managed the hundreds of bills that were paid or needed to be paid. Things kindof deteriorated from there; unpaid bills continued to be thrown at us, whether or not it was a sure thing that they belonged to us. Oh yeah then the police came to enforce the curfew. Then our bus pulled up and was partially clogging the street, enticing us to hurry up, collect ourselves, and leave. The bartenders forced us to pay for about 20 shots, amounting to just under $200; who knows, maybe they actually were all ours, but whatever the case, one person paid the bill and we decided to split the fare and pay her back separately in the morning when we could think straight after a night’s sleep. Same for the bus fare. It was kindof difficult to make sure everyone was on the bus…so many people to keep track of! The ride back was just as fun as the ride there, except this time people were a tad more quiet now that they’d been dancing for a few hours. We got back to the university at about midnight; I continued to spend time with my friends Minakshe, Anu, Vippin, Vikram, Sumedha, Rakesh, and Ankush until about 5 am. That meant I wasn’t going to be waking myself up for Yoga, a reasonable price to pay however for such an exciting evening.

I found out later that three of the guys from our group had gotten into the club with sandals. This stunned me because I imagine that the guards noticed, due to how tight the security was. If that were the case then there was discrimination against the Indians with sandals, but not the Americans. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it is possible that the sandals rule actually exists but wasn’t enforced for the American males because they knew we would have enough money to pay for a slue of drinks etc. It is less likely that my Indian friends would have been able to contribute as much money to the club, so why let them in at all? Just a theory.