Hookah, Teen Patti and Gaurav

So last night was fun. Gaurav, Bhushan and Mehul came over for hookah and time pass. A game of cards followed. I watched the whole thing bored. Bhushan learned a valuable lesson. To win a game of poker, get all the players drunk. He won for the first time making the most of Gaurav’s state of temporary brain damage owing to an excess dose of JD. I let him know I was proud of him. The game paved way for more drinking and the opening up of hearts that usually follow. Today was Gaurav’s day. Losing money on poker hit his gambling ego hard. He had fun on Bhushan and Megha’s account for a while, then talked about how Rohit, his close friend and ex roommate from Delhi stabbed him in the back, front and all over for the sake of meagre pounds. Gaurav had kept a lot to himself for quite sometime and I think opening up really helped him come to terms with the betrayal. We all had made up our minds about Rohit from the start. Gaurav had to find this out the hard way. I felt bad for him, I’ve had similar experiences and it isn’t pretty. But it all goes right up there with the list of life’s valuable lessons. Mehul opened his wounds up as well, old stock of lies and feelings of betrayal. Manish and I participated in full on discussions on trusting friends, seeing through the invisible yet opaque masks that people adorn and valuing friends over money. When the air cleared in the end, all was good and it was 7 in the morning and high time we all got some sleep.

The whole episode got me thinking, who are my real friends? When will I know, or more importantly how will I know? We move on from one group to another, some of them stick, most of them don’t. Nonetheless, each person you come in contact with touches your life one way or another. Gaurav ended up saying that the only mistake during his time in London was not being able to pull off Rohit’s mask. But I feel he shouldn’t have regrets because in the giant scheme of things, Rohit is just another step in the stairway to the person he is going to be. I think Gaurav is going to be just fine. So are we all.