The four of us took a swig from our respective glasses. The whiskey tasted liked yesterdays fish twice rotten. The chicken was good, made to perfection. There were three kilos of it. There was enough food to feed a battalion. The music blared from the cell phone but nobody was interested in the music. There were more important things to do.

As the drinks disappeared the inhibitions disappeared. The voices rose until we were shouting at each other. The galis flew bouncing off the walls in gay abandon. The cigarettes were lighted and the smoke rose to the ceiling hanging there for an eternity.  The boss had to go back home and he took his leave at two in the morning. The rest of us wanted more. The streets were empty except for an occasional call centre cab rushing to somewhere with a lot earnestness. The shutters were down. And there was this sickly sweets smell in the atmosphere, the kind of smell that hits the senses after a wedding banquet. There was staleness in the air, decadence. The four of us were dead drunk and we staggered along the road to nowhere. Finally we found an auto that would take us somewhere.

The auto sped along the smooth road. The driver had seen a lot and he didn’t argue or mess with us. The big trucks roared past us the red taillights flashing. The trees swayed gently in the early morning breeze. The roads stretched on for miles crisscrossing each other at regular intervals just to stay in touch. Sometimes they curved, sometimes they fell sometimes they rose but mostly they remained straight. Roads have a personality of their own just like human beings.

The street lights went out one by one. I didn’t notice them. One moment they were there and the next moment they were gone. The sky changed color and took on a bluish hue. I realized that I had come the wrong way. The auto driver sniggered and offered to take me back from where I had started. I refused the offer just to spite him. I had run out of cigarettes, money and patience. I took the next auto home.