"THE NIGHT-STAY!"

“MAAAALUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!”

I ran to my balcony on hearing Pratishtha’s voice. I saw Sonal’s red Swift reversing , then taking a U-turn and eventually coming to a halt  right outside my Multi-story’s main gate . Pratishtha was nearly  fully leaning out of the car’s window as she shouted for me to come downstairs. Running back inside the house, I grabbed my small runsack and hugged both my mother and sister before rushing towards the front door of our house.

“I’ll be home by tomorrow afternoon Mom!” I said.

“All right beta! Enjoy yourselves and don’t create a  havoc there for Sonal’s mother!” she said, with a knowing look in her twinkling eyes.

“Don’t check her now Ma!” my sister said, rolling her eyes “Let them have fun!”

After kissing each of them goodbye, I ran down the stairs to the ground-floor  and reaching the car, yanked open the backdoor of the car. Sonal was sitting in the passenger seat at the front, with her family’s driver  behind the wheel at the driver’s seat. At the back, Sakshi and Pratishtha shifted to make room for me. They both had bags of their own on their laps and we greeted each other with loud shouts and laughter. We were super excited!

“Hey  look! There’s Aunty! And Manna Di too!” Sonal pointed towards the balcony of our first floor apartment.

 ‘Manna’ is my sister’s nickname. She is named after our paternal grandmother whose name was- ‘Manorama’. Both Sonal and Pratishtha  leaned out of their respective windows to wave at them and I had to retrieve my glasses as Sakshi incidently knocked them aside ,while leaning across me to shout her greetings as well! 

“Be good, Children!” Mom said, waving back “Enjoy your stay!”

All three thanked Mom as the driver turned the key into  ignition and the engine purred to life. We all chatted  nineteen to a dozen as the car sped towards Sonal’s house.   

Sonal belonged to a strict, business-class  ‘Jaini’ house-hold! Hers was a nuclear family consisting of her parents and an elder brother. Her dad did not allow her to spend the night outside the house so we always had night-stays at her place. She lived in a handsome, white bunglow situated in a locality named-‘Janki-Nagar’. Most of the residents living here belonged to the Jain community and the whole area was neat, green and beautiful, with magnificent mansions lining the streets!

As the car entered the main gate of Sonal’s house, her mother opened the front door and stood smiling warmly to welcome us. All three of us greeted and  hugged her as we reached the doorway, our bags slung over our shoulders.  Sonal’s mother was a thin, ever-smiling simple lady who was always dressed in a  saree .She was an excellent house-wife and their house was always buzzing with a couple of servants who kept everything sparkling clean under Aunty’s careful supervision. Sonal was also equally proficient at all the household chores and this was the reason we called her “Mumma”.

“Children!” Sonal’s mom said, leading us inside the house, “ I will send the servant with the snacks while you all put your things in Sonal’s room and make yourselves comfortable. Sonal has arranged today’s dinner keeping in mind all the special requests by her  friends.”

Both Sonal and her Mom were fabulous cooks and we usually started making special requests to her a few days prior to our slumber parties. Thanking Aunty, we started up gleaming black marble stairs, which led to the first floor, where Sonal’s room was located. As soon as we entered Sonal’s room, we immediately felt at ease. She had a huge room with countless posters of bollywood and Hollywood celebrities pasted on the cream-coloured walls and plenty of soft-toys crowding the glass shelves.  There was a small changing room accompanied by a  lavish washroom and also a huge terrace was attached to the other side of room from where Sonal had once upturned a bucketful of water on us as we had entered her house.  We had had many night-stays in this place and that was why it was home away from home.  

The stereo was already on and a soft English song by Enrique Iglesias was playing in the room. Sonal switched on the AC as we threw our bags on the floor and flopped onto her low bed.  

“AAAhhhhhhhhh!” I sighed, lying on my back and closing my eyes. Sakshi immediately kicked me hard on my knee.

“You are so  lazy Maalu!” she said, lying next to me flat on her stomach,  with annoying expression on her face “if you fall asleep early today and spoil the fun, then I am going to strangle you with my bare hands!”

“Don’t you worry,  Missy!” I said, yawning widely and stretching “I haven’t forgotten the kind remarks you all showered upon me when I fell asleep ‘early’, pardon me… at 4:30 am during our last nite-stay. Today, I will be the last one to hit the sack. We will chat and chat and chat!” I promised, crossing my heart.

The knock on the door immediately made us sit upright with sensible expressions on our faces. Pratishtha who was closest to the door, opened it. The servant, a young boy of seventeen or eighteen entered , carrying a tray laden with four bowls of steaming, hot soup and mini pizzas, all crowned with melted grilled cheese. Setting down the tray carefully on the side-table, he left, asking Sonal to summon him using the inter-com  if we would need anything else.  We all began to devour the delicious lemon coriander soup and pizzas which Sonal had  prepared herself.

“Sonal you are so lucky!” Sakshi said, taking a bite of the pizza “you won’t have to learn anything before you get married. You are already fully trained!”

“So are your Sakshi!” Pratishtha said, keeping a straight face “Didn’t we congratulate you last month when you finally succeeded in lightning the gas stove with a lighter without any mishaps?”

We roared with laughter as Sakshi threw Sonal’s bulky teddy bear (which we had christened ‘Salma’ , a couple of years back, after seeing a commercial of a flop B-grade bollywood movie- ‘Salma pe dil aa gaya’!)  at Pratishtha.

 Sakshi’s family consisted of her parents, a brother who was ten years older to her and a bubbly and chirpy bhabhi, whom we called ‘Dolly didi’. Sakshi was the baby of the family and had never made as much as a cup of tea in her home, about which we constantly teased her. 

As the evening proceeded, the four of us lazed around and chatted about school, board exams and our favourite topic- Boys!  We went downstairs for dinner at around eight pm and greeted Sonal’s father and brother, both of whom had just arrived home from their office. Her dad was a shy and a polite person who always asked all of us about our families, studies and health. Sonal’s brother ,Saurabh Bhaiya was also an introvert person to whom we usually just said ‘Hello Bhaiya!’ to which he warmly responded with a smile.   

Sonal’s family was strictly vegetarian but as always, the supper was delicious! There was Pasta  in red sauce, Chilly paneer with just the right amount of gravy, Fried rice, a typical ‘Jaini Sabzi’ consisting of various veggies like cauliflower, potatoes,beans, peas and egg-plant ( which to our surprise, we all loved!) accompanied with ghee-smeared Rotis and for dessert- Custard with both ice-cream and home-made strawberry jelly! The three of us enjoyed the dinner immensely which having a pleasant conversation with Uncle and Aunty (Saurabh bhaiya was having dinner in his room). We shyly nodded and allowed the servant to serve the second helping of everything on our plates but grinned  at each other knowingly as we refused, one after the other, for the third helpings, knowing well that each of us longed for more. Pratishtha  leaned towards me on the pretext of reaching out for water jug and whispered in my ear- “The Mid-Night Feast! Don’t Worry!”

After having our Dinner, we returned to the room and changed into our night-wears. I was wearing a brand new night-suit which consisted of a long white t-shirt with a picture of an apple on it, paired with half pajamas also printed with red apples all over. My new purchase fetched me many compliments today from my friends! Sonal was dressed in an elegant,full navy blue satin night-suit which suited her to perfection  whereas Pratishtha, in her tom-boyish manner, had opted for a white-collared dark- blue  t-shirt and full, light-blue and pink printed lowers. Sakshi, as usual had decided to stand out. She announced that she would be sleeping in her jeans  as “she didn’t look good in pajamas” but switched her sleeveless red top with a comfortable and a loose haldi-yellow coloured one instead.

“So whatdo we do next??” Sonal asked, smirking and wiggling her eyes-brows.

“FORTUNE!!” the three of us yelled ,jumping onto the bed.

Fortune was a silly card game for which the boys of our class would have rather opted to jump in a lake than to agreeing to play it with us, but we absolutely  loved it!

 This game is played with two deck of cards. One deck is distributed equally amongst the players while the other is kept in a heap in the middle of the players’ ring. As the game starts, the first player asks a question for example- “Who will score maximum marks in tomorrow’s  Math test?”.  He/She then picks up a card from the deck kept in the middle. Who ever amongst the players  has the same matching card from the other deck which was distributed, wins the question! Then the game proceeds in a clockwise manner with each player posing a question before picking up a card. We knew this game was childish and foolish but we always ended up having a ball while playing it. Our today’s chosen topic for ‘Fortune’ was- ‘Our Future Husbands!’ .

“Okay, I’ll start!  Whose husband would be the most romantic of all?  ” Sakshi said, having distributed the cards amongst us and the second deck kept carefully in the middle of the bed,around which we sat in a ring.

Picking up the topmost card and looking at it, she said- “Ace of Diamonds!”

We all scanned our respective cards eagerly till…..

“Meeeeeeeeee!” Sonal gushed, taking a bow.

We threw envious glances at her as this game was really going to decide our fate.

“Okay, my turn!” I said, hardly able to supress the laughter thinking about my coming question, “Whose husband would beat his wife up?” I reached out and picked up a card from the middle- “Three of clubs!”

“UUUrrrgghh!” Pratishtha moaned as she extracted the card from her set and threw it aside “Disgusting person!”

We laughted as Pratishtha herself asked the next question.

“Whose husband would be most jolly natured one amongst all?” she said “Eight of Spades”.

“That would be meeeee!” I said, grinning.

“If he’ll be as jolly as you,” Sakshi said “then the world will come to an end before your honeymoon!”

I stuck out my tongue at her as Sonal asked “Who, amongst us ,will get the most dominating husband? ….Two of spades!”  

“Noooooooo!” I said , grimacing and throwing aside my offending card.

“Whose husband would shower his wife with presents?...Queen of hearts!” Sakshi said.

“Yaaaaaaaaay!! Finally my kinda guy!” Sakshi squealed herself, jiggling her hands in a funny dance.

“Most charming husband”- Sonal

“Most miser husband”- Pratishtha

“Mosr daring husband”- Sakshi

“Most Shy”- Pratishtha

“Most snobbish”- Pratishtha

“Most short-tempered”- Pratishtha

“WHAT THE HELL!” Pratishtha bellowed, as we howled with laughter at Pratishtha’s bad luck tonight, “THIS GAME IS HELL BENT ON GIVING ME A LOSER FOR A HUSBAND! STUPID GAME!”

As usual, we had a great time playing ‘Fortune’ for the next three hours. Our questions proceeded to get naughty and then to being downright sleazy, which would have given our respective mothers, a mild stroke each in the  least. We finally wound up the game and went to the terrace to get some fresh air and to stretch our limbs, which had gotten stiff because of our sitting for such a long time. I glanced at my watch to see the time- 11:46 PM. It was almost midnight! Sonal would be turning seventeen in just another fourteen minutes!