The AGM

The annual general body meeting, supposedly the first time in my life and the most disastrous one had me all in rags! It was supposed to be in some five star hotel, in another city. We were told to represent our students’ club. So, we were all high! Big people, big place and a befitting dinner. We did not take the financial liberty to take a luxury bus as they don’t refund so much and took the usual type. Our bus broke down on the way! All the nice fellow passengers, our neighbors, got down to take note of the situation and later to push the bus in an attempt to get it started (we were not really in mood so stayed inside only)! We or rather our bus reached the Bangalore outskirts by 6:45. Meeting was to start in another 15 mins. But the traffic of that eventful day was more ominous than our own intentions. We were not able to enter the heart of the city, that was where our hotel was situated. We were inside the bus for another 2 hours! The boredom and the numbness in my limbs crept out of me and went out to the city. The traffic got all the more static. Big cities are a big deal, more so their Saturdays. Eager people and their slow cars and all sort of vehicles , honking away, crawling like those turtles in the zoos weak due to eating nothing! In my fight to keep myself alive and my heart still pumping, I watched all the shops. I thought of window shopping. I watched the restaurants on the way. I thought of dining out there sometime just to increase my shoplifted (and branded) napkins. These happy feelings were not helping.
I wanted to jump out of the bus and run till my hotel. But there was no room left on the road for me to run there, so I stayed back! I watched every possible thing in sight. I even saw the guy at the last seat playing with his half chewed chewing gum. I could almost smell it, orbit gums I guessed. We reached finally and to our relief were on an auto, on the way to our meeting.
The meeting had started ages before. They were out of seats and out of those invitees’ kits (I was told I’wd get a coffee mug of good quality). I grabbed a glass of water to somehow console myself that I didn’t get the kit. The newly elected chairman was delivering a speech. He was telling how the student organizations under the Bangalore section were so un organised. We were in such a chaos that we don’t have the courtesy to reply back at their invitations to tell them to reserve those seats and kits and food for each one of us. He pointed at the late comers, precisely to me, just to cite an example! I started praying. Don’t make me seated, don’t gift me a memento but do not dare deprive me of that good five star food. Of course, the whole episode was very disturbing to one of my fellow friends who came with me. He felt it was our fault if we dint get food and begged the rest two of us to go and eat somewhere outside. I begged him more to stay. I was already in the long line for the buffet and could already smell the cuisines and feel the cold of the dessert! Food was not that great so I lifted a huge towel from one of the tables where the roasted chicken was being served. I am not really a kleptomaniac but just a napkin/souvenir collector! We were told to leave our names and addresses so that they send us our mementoes. I included my phone no also, just in case (just a napkin not really befits as a five star hotel-annual general body meeting souvenir)! We took pics too, for the showing to my friends and proof part.
Finally I found myself on an another bus for the return journey. We were a bunch of first timers, two of us greatly amused, the third all humiliated. We were all happy at the end, we were finally going back! I was the happiest, not because I had a roasted chicken smelling napkin in my bag, but also because I had a great experience!