When a black cat crosses your path, it means bad luck. But when a white cat crosses your path, you’re in for one hell of a ride. Two minutes after a white cat crossed our path last night, Dang’s (a good pal, ex-classmate and present colleague at work) bike had a flat. Stranded in the middle of a supposedly hep area; dark, deserted and slushy (thanks to the rains), we could not find one garage open. Frustrated, we decided to park the bike in Taj Hotel’s parking lot. Once we parked the bike, we nipped across to the hotel’s night club for a drink (we needed it badly!). And then began one of the craziest of nights of my life.
Accosted at the entrance by a group of giggly girls, we were told that we should not go in as the disc was empty.
‘Doesn’t this place have a decent night life?’ (Dang and I of us look at each other. We’ve hardly been around the city.)
‘Are you guys married?’ (Both of us shake our heads furiously!)
‘Girlfriend-boyfriend?’ (Oh please! Never!)
‘We’re from Dubai, we don’t know this place at all.’ (Alright!)
'Are you doing anything?' (Our bike just had a puncture. Ah never mind.)
‘We’re going to TDS. You wanna come?’ (I see Dang drooling. The girls are hot.)
Some guys came and joined us then; a part of the same group, they seemed to have hidden somewhere behind the girls.
It was like we were in a whirlpool. We didn’t even realise when we became a part of this huge group. Probably children of some hot-shot gangsters in Dubai. They sure looked like it. Smart, expensively dressed and superficial, with money dripping out of their pockets. We were roller-coastered to another disc close by. As luck would have it, there was no dancing there either, but I sang karaoke for the first time in my life. Certainly a day for firsts. We were then pulled (and when I say ‘pull’ I refer to a kind of force that you have no power over.) back to the Taj disc. And then we danced till almost 2 a.m. On a weekday!
The craziest bit was that we were with a group of 15 yr olds. Fifteen year olds! That is like a dozen generations removed from us. We discovered this late in the night, by which time we really didn’t care. Dang ofcourse had a good time ogling at the kids. The paedophile that he is!
And all of today’s morning he’s been playing the same song over and over again.

Strangers in the night exchanging glances
Wond’ring in the night
What were the chances we’d be sharing love
Before the night was through.

Something in your eyes was so inviting,
Something in your smile was so exciting,
Something in my heart,
Told me I must have you.

Sinatra must be twisting and turning in his grave. I am going to throw the computer out of the window if he plays it one more time. I seem to have the worst hangover of my life (despite the fact that I had one lousy drink) and Dang is dreamy-eyed. What a night it was! And all because of a white cat.