Smirnoff and Rockview 63B

Akhil was the vaccation co-ordinator in Delhi for the longest time - he was in a college in Delhi for 4 years marking up notches on his bed post furiously, turning online poaching into an art form and attending college every once in a while. Anytime Robert or I would be home on vaccation Akhil would get all 7 together without fail - those were simpler days - most of us were earning and could well afford night clubs / pubs but these were yet to become as popular as they are now and in any event we always had a party house - Rockview 63B Air Force Station Palam. Akhil's dad was posted out to Patnitop and his mum was away teaching in an international school in Indonesia so it was just him and his younger brother, Mochu in that house - well it was more a liquor storage than a house with some sort of party happening every second night of the week. I remember one such party - we had all gotten together with 4 bottles of Smirnoff, one bottle of lime cordial and one bottle of coke - who did the math - I have no idea but we started the night - the first casualty was the lime cordial bottle with Cassy shattering the top in an attempt to open the cap - and he was even proud of his, "grip". Now, anyone who drinks would know that you want to have that drink just the way you like it - so the glass in a bottle - no problem out came a milk strainer and we started straining the lime cordial - and ofcourse were soon driking up glasses of mostly Vodka which was embellished with some coke. After 2 bottles had been used up and we were all certain we would literally bleed from the glass we had consumed (i mean a strainer...) we decided to make things a little more interesting by taking a walk around Palam - this was a residential colony for the Air Force personnel and had AF police patroling at all hours - but none the less we set out in pursuit of nothing. The AFP stopped us as expected and I have no idea what we told them then or the countless other times we were stopped but they always let us go - must have been me doing the talking or Cassy - most certainly not Abhishek (he still remains a one drink wonder). Our aimless walk took us to a water tank - a kind that I have only seen in India and old (70s) American movies - really high staunchions with a rickety ladder and a cylinderical tank on top. The prospect of climbing it seemed very interesting that night (and many other nights when we set out from 63B after that) and we all climbed up - the interesting thing is that we all made it up in one piece. Once up there Akhil and I started talking of the girl in his life (can't remember which one it was then - one of the famous 8) and Cassy and Abhishek wandered off, after a while we heard a rather loud discussion - it was Cassy and Abhishek perched right at the top of the tank (no support railings around - nothing) discussing the motion of a pendulum - one an IITian the other an idealist who delves deep into any subject that catches his fancy; the result of the discussion was lost when I dropped my watch from the top and Abhishek a ring - the fascinating thing to note though is that it was pitch dark and we were 30 metres above ground not to mention drunk, but both saw the objects right from the top and reluctantly began the descent to collect the items. The walk back to 63B was longer as on the way we all stopped at various points to relieve our bladders, cassy though didn't he simply let go in the middle of the road walking BACKWARDS, a funny sight as you can imagine, but wait he had an explanation - " If you pee on the middle of the road you will not loose orientation as you have the white lines to guide you, you have to walk backwards otherwise the pee falls on your shoes and you have to walk to save time - my first break through as an IITian" - needless to say the paper on that thesis never got completed. We have all since changed a lot especially when it comes to drinking with most opting for beer / rum,Abhishek Whisky and cassy - well he drank enough in those days to wreck his liver for life and now sticks to "white wine please" but Smirnoff it was then - we had all sorts of concoctions around it - one particularly lethal one was called, "Bloody Hell" - a glass half full of Vodka, quarter white rum with 3 spoons of Glucose and water - terrible taste but an instant hit - getting drunk the fastest possible way - that was the goal. The only regret is that we used to all drive back home after those nights luckily nothing untoward happened then but it was still a very reckless thing to do, maybe not actually because the one time I was stone sober going back from Akhil's house I hit the main gate and destroyed the front right side of my car - stayed back for a smirnoff ofcourse.