GF9: Blast from the Past

From left to right: Navneet (Sardar), Anutosh (Anu or Banku), Me (Handsome Hunk), Vikash (Dedh Futiya), Sanjay Bhaiya, Shailesh, Amit and Shailesh's Legs

When Anutosh (Anu or Banku) and I came up with this plan over a couple of drinks, it sounded more like wishful thinking. After all, calling 5 working people from across the country in a room at a short notice was always going to difficult. Then Anu and his deep pockets stepped in!!! Anu offered to sponsor the travel!!! That was very generous of him. Then we started making calls and asked people to come to Hyderabad after 6 days. We planned a reunion of the “GF9” flat mates. Those of you who do not follow the lives of the rich and famous….GF9 was the name/number of our flat when we were doing MBA….ok…PGDBA. There were 8 of us staying together in the three bedroom flat. 3 of them are at Hyderabad (including me), 3 at Mumbai, 1 at Meerut and 1 at Ranchi. For the locals (Hyderabad gang), it was not difficult as we just had to come to GF9 (Anu owns the flat now). Others had to manage their calendars as well as “WAGs” and travel to Hyderabad. To our surprise, everyone agreed at once. This shows that everyone wanted to meet but no one was making a plan!!!

The six day wait seemed like six years. Okk, that was pretty filmy line….but that’s true. We spent the six days making plans for the weekend as well as in planning the logistics.

On 3rd July, we met. Bhaskar could not come as he had to attend some stupid training. Navneet (Sardar) could not reach on 3rd….thanks to Vijay Mallya. No, don’t think that Sardar had too many beers and he missed his flight. Kingfisher flight got delayed and he missed his connecting flight. So he came on 4th morning. He managed his busy schedule and life-threatening gas problems to be here with us. We appreciate that Sardar!!!

The meeting took us to 2001-03 days. We travelled back in time. Everyone was nostalgic…some of us (including me) were getting emotional…and some of us (Read: Amit Kumar Upadhyay) were really high (thanks to the bartender…that’s me). Friday night was submerged in Old Monk, Royal Challenge, Blender’s Pride, Kingfisher Strong and Smirnoff. We had loads of snacks and old memories to give us company. We also went and sat on the Ameerpet Chaurasta. We used to do that all the time.

Saturday morning, we got up early (thanks to the early bird….me again) and decided that we will go and pick Sardar from the Airport. 5 of us went to the airport in Anu’s car…wearing shorts…..pretty interesting ones too!!!! We reached early so we spent the time roaming around Shamshabad Airport. There, we came to know about Anu’s childhood dream of sitting/lying on the road. He did that!!! Shailesh did not miss a chance of getting pregnant…..he puked again….and again. The reunion could not have been complete without this historic event.

After picking up Sardar, we went back to GF9 and had breakfast. First idly, sambar and chutney (real spicy one), to bring everyone to Hyderabad in true sense. It was followed by Jalebi and Samosa. Afterwards, we got ready and went to the newly opened “GVK One” mall. We went to “Scary House” over there. 7 grown-ups (some of them…over-grown-ups) almost shitting in their pants was quite a sight. From there, we went to Hussain Sagar to relive a day from the past. Once, during our “PGDBA” days, we had gone to Hussain Sagar wearing Kurta-Pyjama. We had planned to do the same thing in this reunion. However, some of us did not have Kurta-Pyjama. Anyways, the point is that we did go there again….all of us (ya, Bhaskar was not there) and that’s what matters.

Overall, it was a very exciting and emotional reunion. All of us were under the same roof…probably for the last time. People will get busier and priorities will change. I am glad that everyone managed to come for the reunion. Thanks a lot guys!!! It was truly special.