Kidnap

Arun, born 13th October, 1981, in Gods own Country, could have never imagined what lay in store for him.

The place where I work at, Skyscape, brought an AMC from one of India's reputed organizations. Arun was chosen the resident engineer and was to be "on-site", in our company, maintaining our machines, so that we could continue to produce world-class software for the millions of medical professionals around the world who are also our loyal customers. Incidentally, Arun and me happened to stay in the same locality and soon were good friends. Or so he thought.

We would ride home each evening on my bike and sometimes hang out on weekends. On the 3rd of October, Friday, I was supposed to go shopping for my b'day gift. My b'day is on 6th Oct and if I was able to produce the bill of the purchase, my company would reimburse me.

No points for guessing that Arun accompanied me to the store. After a lot of window-shopping we decided to go for the real thing. Soon, it was closing time at the mall and a t-shirt with a hood (if that’s what it is called) was selected and we were on our way out. having nothing better to do after that Arun suggested that we watch the movie Kidnap, because althought the reviews were poor, the lead actress was supposed to be doing some hot numbers. I had a better idea.

I told him that we would play the age old game "kidnapper- kidnapee", just like "chor-police". "WHAT?" was his response. Anyways, I could not sell him the idea but still wanted to do something that I was planning for quite sometime now; Ride thro the Khandala-Lonavala ghat in the dead of the night. So I put on my jacket and helmet and off we were. The time was 10.30 pm.

The whole thing was pretty insane and frankly I was scared to do it alone. The "bakra" was sitting behind me. Now there’s a rule of my bike. The pillion rider has to keep singing. Its almost as if the bike accelerates because of the song rather than the fuel. We reached our destination at around 12.15, not because it was so far off, but because we went along at a slow and steady pace, enjoying the chilly night and wide open roads. We literally too a u-turn at the center of the town and headed back, stopping only for a small post midnight snack: 2 aanda bhurjis, one omelet, two cuttings and a cream cone. The small meal cost us Rs.80. On a normal day in Mumbai, all things considered, that would have cost me no more than Rs.40. But that is different story.

One the way down, I cheerfully asked Arun if he was enjoying the "midnight adventure". This was the chance he was looking for and screamed at the top of his voice "You're riding like a fool, have a helmet and a jacket and are comfortable protected against the cold, I have nothing and you ask me if I am enjoying the whole thing?”. Needless to say, I did not have any more questions for him, but I must admit that he had a point there.

I guess he was feeling "kidnapped" after all.