The Worst Night Ever

On Saturday (12-July-08), I had gone over to my Compsci batch mates house. Although it had been a while since I had been to their place, the main reason I had gone over this weekend was twofold:
1. My friend Mathi (aka Arun Mathew) has secured admission for his MS at Syracuse (or however that's spelt) and was leaving town on Tuesday. I wanted to wish him all the best and bid him farewell.
2. Another friend, a guy I totally respect, Irshad had come down from Hyderabad for the weekend. It'd been a long time since I last saw him, and I wanted to take this opportunity to catch up with him.

We decided to go to Fuga - a nightclub on Richmond Road. The party was great, and I must confess - I had a wonderful time. I'll write a in-depth blog on that later. For now, let me focus on only the parts that best describe the title of this particular blog.


Ok ... Now - For Anonimity Reasons - I am not gonna refer to people by names here. I'll just go on referring to the characters as AAA, BBB, CCC , etc.
(And please - no requests for their names. I'm not gonna let it out anyways!!!)


So ... AAA got sloshed, puked a couple of times and passed out!
Probably you're wondering why I'm stating this in such a matter-of-fact way. Well ... Its simple - He always does that!!!
BBB was ultra high. Thankfully, he hadn't passed out!
(Although, now when I think about it, if he *had* passed out, things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand!)

After a lot of haggling (also read as we *had to* agree to pay 100 bucks for a journey that would otherwise cost us only 35 buck), we found an auto rickshaw that would take us to our house. Since BBB and AAA were the ones sloshed, Me and CCC decided to hop along to take them home.

On the way home, AAA puked a couple of more times. The auto rickshaw fellow warned us that if he found crud in his vehicle - we'd have to pay for water servicing of the vehicle. His demands sounded fair enough - so we agreed.

On reaching our location, the auto rickshaw waala started claiming that there was crud on his vehicle and that he wants Rs. 175/- from us (over and above the 100 fare we paid him)

BBB, the drunken bugger, started arguing with him. Since AAA was drooping more and more by the minute, I asked CCC to settle matters with the auto rickshaw waala and carried AAA across the road to the other side. Once on the other side, I heard CCC and BBB arguing very vehemently. Not wanting to see two friends fight amongst themselves, I asked AAA to sit on the pavement for a sec and headed over to the other side of the road to resolve the fight between the duos.

What had happened during the 2 minutes I was not there was - The auto rickshaw waala wanted 175 extra and he was pointing to the crud on his carpet as well as the watermarks the vomit had left on the auto rickshaw’s body. CCC saw the mess and agreed to pay "something" (read as maybe 50, or 75 bucks) for the mess AAA has caused. BBB, drunk as he was, was looked for crud on the body of the vehicle - where wasn't there - and was vehemently arguing that there is no crud and so we won't pay. CCC was trying to tell BBB that the crud was not on the body, but on the carpet floor. BBB, drunk as he was (I can't state that enough), refused to understand or even hear what we were saying and kept repeating the same dialogue over and over again!!!

For the benefit of those who don't drink, or maybe don't drink that much (read as never got sloshed till date!) - One of the weirdest things about being sloshed is that once you're sloshed, you tend to keep repeating the same thing over and over and over again. You get angry about the silliest of matter. You might even get violent and physical.
Most people, when they get up the next day morning, manage to recollect bits and pieces of the previous night and then run around apologizing for their follies.

The way I see it, it's a disgusting, stupid and idiotic thing to do. Personally speaking, I've probably been sloshed less than 5 times in the last 5 odd years (that's for how long I've been drinking). And whenever that happens - I just shut up; lock myself in my room and go to sleep. My logic is - its better not to burn any bridges rather than burn them and then try to make amends in the morning!

Anyways, back to the story!

So, I went across to the other to resolve the fight between BBB and CCC. I saw CCC's point and tried to reason with BBB. But, piss drunk as he was, he still refused to accept what we were saying!

A few seconds later, he started fighting with me as well. I got pissed and told CCC "Dude ... Lets go. If BBB's so adamant about this - Let him solve it! I have better things to do that fight in the middle of the night!"


A few seconds after this, a Hoysala jeep came our way. The cop got out and started swearing at the auto rickshaw waala as to why he was standing on the road and asked all of us to clear off. The auto rickshaw waala took a U-Turn and got to the spot where AAA was sitting. CCC approached the cop and told them 'Sir. He's charging us excess fare. We agreed for 100. Now, he wants another 175 and he's fighting with us for that!'

On hearing this, the cop took the U-Turn as well, stopped near the auto rickshaw and then asked him to push off (obviously in an arrogant fashion). Before we knew it - the cop punched the auto rickshaw waala in the face. This was followed by 3 more slaps on his neck. The auto rickshaw waala started crying saying 'Sir ... My vehicle has crud ... I wanted money for that!'

The other cop in the car saw AAA sitting in a fetal position on the road. He walked over to him and gave him a solid blow on the back. This jerked AAA awake and he almost cried. I saw this and ran over to the cop and said 'Sir ... He's with me. He's not well. I'll take him home! Please Sir ... Sorry for everything!'

I put AAA's hand over my shoulders and pretty much started walking as fast as I could carry him.


I had reached the second floor when the cop asked all of us to come down. I had no clue what he had in mind. I was thinking, worst case - he wants to give us a piece of his mind for the whole episode!
Boooooooooooooooooy ... Was I mistaken.

I went down, still holding AAA, to find BBB and CCC standing next the cop.

Cop: 'Lets go ... You all coming to the police station with me!'

I tried to protest, but the cop raised his voice and repeated the same thing again.

With this said, he started walking toward the exit of the building. CCC and BBB had started walking behind him.
I was too shocked to react and followed the pack.

Near the exit, I saw DDD and EEE, and in the brief two seconds we got - we explained what had happened in the last 10 mins.

The cop just walked to his car - opened the back door and asked us to get inside. Trust me when I say - his tone was totally "NO-NONSENSE". Heck - It was more like a "Obey-Me-Or-Else".

I have never felt so powerless in my life. I've been caught by the cops before. But those were traffic cops. And each and every time I had been caught before - I knew what they were looking for - MONEY!!!
But this time, it was totally different. The guy didn't even give any room for us to bring up the topic of "bribing".

When I saw the open door, and I realized that Bribing was not an option, I move to "Plan B" - Begging and Pleading for Mercy. CCC also followed suit!

AAA, well, he was too sloshed. It was a miracle that he was standing straight. Thankfully, he kept quiet!

BBB, on the contrary, was yapping away something or the other in his drunken stupor. Mostly it was stuff like "He was charging us excess fare of Rs. 175/-" "There was no crud" "Can you show me some crud now?" "What did we do". And the worst part is, all these statements were made in a very arrogant fashion.

In between all this commotion some said "How much money do you want man?". (I am led to believe this statement was made by BBB, but since I am not 101% sure about that - lets leave the "who made that statement" aspect for now!)
To this, the cop reacted in a very angry manner.

Cop: "You want to give me money. Oh really ... Tell you what - I will give you money!!!"
He also started threatening to file a bribing case against us.

One thing was clear by now, bribing was most definitely not an option!!!


The next 15 mins - Me, EEE, CCC together were running between the two cops begging for their mercy and saying - "Sir ... We're student sir ... Out future will be spoilt if you charge a case ... We have to go abroad for studies ... Please sir ... Don't do this ... Don't you have kids our age ... Please ... Help us!!!"

The things the human mind can concoct when faced with a very adverse scenario is beyond imagination. Personally speaking - I never it that I had it in me to say such sentimentalist dialogues!!!

I must take a moment here to reiterate that at this point too - BBB was murmuring some nonsense about "excess fare" and "no crud" and "what’s the problem".

It was EEE who finally broke through to one of the cops. He saw a cross on the guy neck chain and said "Sir ... you're a Christian ... I am Christian ... We should help each other out ... That's what our religion says ... Please help us Sir ..."
That gambit worked like a charm - And within 2 mins, he had softened enough to start talking money (read as bribe)!

To cut a long story short - They asked for Rs. 1000/- and we ended paying Rs. 300/-. They gave us a blasting (Thankfully it was in Kannada so we didn't understand anything he said!) and left. We hurried home, lest they changed their mind.


What irritated me more was the fact that even after this near career and future ending experience, BBB came home and still kept justifying that there was no crud and so we shouldn't be paying anything. He even has the idiocy to say - "I've been to police stations before ... They won't kill me anyways ... Besides - I've been drunk before. And AAA and me - we've puked in autos before ... Its a first time for you ... That's why you don't know how to handle it ..." etc etc.

And the worst part is - he just kept saying this over and over and over again. I got so irritated, that I walked out of there!
To give him some credit, it was not the real him saying all this - It was the alcohol in him making him think and talk on those lines!

Anyways, it took a good two hours for the adrenaline in my system to subside and it was only then that I could go to sleep. Till then, I'll be absolutely honest here, I was shaking in fear!


Now, when I look at in retrospect, I just can't believe that I put everything in line - my career, my aspirations, my future, my life. All for what??? To help a drunken friend???

Somehow, after this experience, I feel, the next time I see any of my friends drunk and quarreling, or in any trouble for that matter - I might just walk away!