A "Night Out"

I was really tired and driving when one of them said, "Take the next left turn, that is a shorter route". I put the left indicator and steered left. After driving for a while, I noticed it was a really secluded area, and that is when one of them said, "What do you think, we brought you here for..... No one will hear your cry even if you scream your heart out".I......

This is not a scene from any movie. This was one of the best days or rather night in my life in Singapore when I got to hang out with my best friends for a whole night. Yes, a guy's "Night Out", and of course a decent one.

The day was so hectic, as usual, with the afternoon cricket match under the angry equator sun, followed by the gruesome 3 hours of weekly volleyball enjoyment for another 3 hours. I was dead tired, and just wanted to go home and fall down on my bed. I reached home, had a cup of my favourite tea, and then went for a quick but refreshing shower. My darling wife served me my low calorie dinner, and I sank into the sofa eating it and immediately got disappointed to see the TV News reading out that Manchester United had again thrown away a match, a draw against Everton.

"Ok, whatever. Why do I have to bother so much?", I tried to drag myself out of that disappointment which I anyway knew was impossible. The very thought that a Heaven was waiting inside my bedroom, a comfy bed and the cooling breeze from the fan was already running through my mind.

It was almost 11.30pm and I was just enjoying my eyes becoming heavier and heavier when all my dreams shattered with the ring of my phone. My daughter ran to me and said, 'acha, acha.. phone phone', and gave me my phone. The voice from the other side said, "Have you slept?". It took me a while to understand who it was, but soon realized that it was Satan in the form of my friend, Mr. Pramod. He asked me about the night out which I had suggested while we were returning from the cricket match in Sajith's car.

Myself, Sajeev, Benny, Pramod, Suraj and Sajith were returning back from the Cricket match, it reminded me of a similar outing we had two years back. I had rented a car then, and had gone to Sajeev's house where all the other geniuses were waiting.

Well, coming back to the present, I replied in a tired voice, "Not today anyway, I am really tired and can't even walk properly. I am feeling so sleepy. I am.....". After listening to all my excuses, Pramod said in the most sentimental tones I have ever heard, "Ok, it is your wish. We thought you wanted to go, and we were all anyway ready. Anyways, it is totally upto you". I don't know what was wrong with me to fall into his trap, and then immediately told, "Ok, let's go. I will be there soon".

The Night started then, I reached Sajeev's house around 12 midnight. Sajeev's wife had prepared a big dinner for Pramod, Benny and Sajith (all "in"-eligible bachelors now). I grabbed a plate, and took a few pieces of fried fish and joined them. They teased me, calling me an insult to Vegetarians. I prefer to be known as a Vegetarian because of the fact that I am extremely choosy when it comes to having Non Vegetarian food. In case of fish, I usually make sure that the flesh is not visible, there is no skin, and the piece of fish actually doesnt look like a fish. Funny.. he he... I call it my love towards animals.

We chatted until 2:30am and decided to go shopping for fish in the Woodlands Fishery port. Sajeev and Pramod very frequently visit this place, and this is the place where the fishes are brought from the Sea and are distributed to all the retailers in Singapore. The price is really cheap compared to buying it elsewhere, and the most interesting part is being there, in the middle of all the fish, fishermen and the dealers. And the smell of fish is too strong that it will be there with you for another two days. But still enjoyable, once in a while :).

We reached there, had to exchange our identification cards for an entry card at the security post in the entrance. We parked the car, and then Sajeev realized that he didnt carry enough money to buy the fish. We checked all our pockets, and no one had money except Benny. He said he had around 70 SGD. Sajeev and Pramod immediately said that it wont be enough. After a short discussion, we all jumped back into the car and started our search to find an ATM. I think it was Admirality MRT where we finally found an ATM, and Pramod stacked his pocket with lot of money, I guess. We returned back to the Fishery Port and to our dismay, there were not enough fishes in the market. We thought hard and realized that it was because Hari Raya was on the previous day. Finally, we bought 15$ worth of mackarel and left the port. All the drama of not having the cash and searching for ATMs finally was useless. But what was really useful is the enjoyment we had while doing all these.

On our way back we had a plan to have some Pratas but all the shops were closed. Who will open a shop at 4:30am in the morning. I knew a 24 hrs prata shop, but it was on a different route and was a 20-30 minutes drive. So, we decided to drop the plan and go back home. We reached Sajeev's house and we asked Sajeev to keep the fish in the freezer and come back. Everyone were really tired but also didn't want this night to end, so we made up our mind to go to the 24hrs Prata shop. It was around 5 am in the morning, and I was driving through the Yishun Main Road.

I was really tired and driving when one of them said, "Take the next left turn, that is a shorter route". I put the left indicator and steered left. After driving for a while, I noticed it was a really secluded area, and that is when one of them said, "What do you think, we brought you here for, we are going to molest you. No one will hear your cry even if you scream your heart out". I started laughing along with my friends enjoying every minute of such stupid dialogues we cracked the whole night.

We parked the car next to the shop and walked to the Prata shop. We saw a cyclist in professional attire cycling through the darkness. At first we thought he might be crazy driving in the middle of the night, but the fact was that we were the crazy people roaming around the whole night, and the cyclist was probably doing his routine morning exercise.

We ordered some Pratas and tea, again cracked some stupid jokes which we all normally enjoy :). After spending around an hour in the Prata shop, I dropped all of them back to their house and drove back home to finally get the sleep I desperately wanted 7 hours back.

We took a wonderful snap in the Prata shop which says it all. "We just want to sleep, we can't take it anymore".