Apache moments

We rocked, the whole place rocked. There wasn’t anything special about the evening. It was the last day with one of my best buddies, Chetan. He was gonna leave the next night, back to Germany. I had promised him a nice head banging nite, and not only me, but everyone else present there ensured that he had his share of fun.

We have been here innumerable times, but never been bored with anything. The lounges, chairs, tables, lamps, music, cocktails ……. the list is endless. Lot of intellectual talks to laugh on, lot of frustrations to drown, lot of stress to relieve, lot of celebrations to remember and lot of memories to cherish ……. thatz how I define da place, Apache Fluid Lounge (aka Nomads to a few regulars).

“So I called up the captain,
‘please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place”

The evening begins with slow rock songs by Bryan Adams, MLTR, and Creed etc. Eagles Hotel California is the much awaited one. Shanker, our favorite bartender comes to us for the order. Well, to be candid, he already knows the order. A beer for me, Go To Hell for Amol, Vodka with sprite and lime cordial for Rohit and chicken platter for all of us. There hasn’t been much change in our likes for a long time. The waiter diligently places the order on our table and the evening picks up. Howz the gals doing, howz the new movie, howz you, me and them are the general things that we talk about.

“Someday we gonna rise up on that wind you know
Someday we gonna dance with those lions
Someday we gonna break free from these chains and keep on flyin”

Lovely song by Flipsyde - Someday, we have memoirs of some harsh facts of our life. The way we screwed up things, the way things screwed us up, as if to take revenge. We curse, we swear, we gulp a bottoms up.

“I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you”

Someone is in love. Lowers our hatred, boosts our spirits and we chat on how and when and where and why. Its really nice, the smile on his face, the way someone blushes when asked a personal question. With vodka, I believe, it hardly takes few seconds to teleport to your loved one. At times it reminds us of someone special. Plans are conceived, strategies revised with one goal “We would like clinking our Go To Hells on your engagement rather than a bottoms up of vodka to drown your disappointment. For heavens sake, Don’t botch up !”

“So close no matter how far Couldn’t be much more from the heart Forever trust who you are And nothing else matters Never opened myself this way Life is ours we live it our way All these words I don’t just say And nothing else matters Trust I seek and I find in you Everyday for us something new Open mind for a different view And nothing else matters”

We drift back to into the lounge again. We talk about our long term plans, investments, financial stability etc. We dedicate a song to our group by singing with James Hetfield, “Trust I seek and I find in you ……”. We talk about our friendship, some of the best moments we had together, a few best odysseys undertaken.

Bring me to life - Evanescence, In the end – Linking Park, Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down … puts us in the head banging trance. The beer flows from the pitcher into our mugs and then into our throats tranquilizing adamant, latent tensions. The whole lounge is packed and Shanker and his buddies see to it that there isn’t a single table empty. As the evening progresses, everyone seems to enjoy the music as if it were a karaoke nite. Lots of requests flow to the DJ, at times on a paper napkin or by shouting in front of him.

The last song is the best part of the evening. B.C Sutta by Zeesh or Bandeh – Indian Ocean for Black Friday are the favorites. I cherish my last b’day when we celebrated it at Apache. We had a blast the whole evening, lots of Go to Hell, beer and vodka with lime cordial, chicken platter, chicken sandwiches and finger chips. The best part was the Tequila shots and a request by my cousins to play “Who Lamhe – Zeher”. The DJ announced the song being dedicated to me on my birthday; the whole crowd shouted birthday greetings and each of my bro greeted me with a hug. My b’day eve, still makes me nostalgic, still fresh in my mind as if we blew up just yesterday.