July 9th, 2008
Mid Day Story + I Miss Being a Host
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At any time, there are about twenty posts queued up in my mind, waiting to be written. Sometimes, I do write them, but days after they were meant to. Sometimes, I tweet them instead, use 140 letters where I should have used a thousand words. Sometimes, I end up not writing them at all.
This is a post I almost didn’t write.
I was recently profiled in Indian daily Mid-Day for a story on how online and offline relationships have merged for young people in India —
I had given the interview almost six weeks before it was published, and, as I read through the interview, I was reminded that being a host is at the core of my social life, both online and offline.
The thing is, I’m not really naturally social. I’m often uncomfortable in large groups and I’m terrible at small talk. Over time, however, I have realized that I like being the host, that my preferred social style is to connect with people on a one-to-one basis, on my blog, or at my house parties.
I was also reminded that I haven’t thrown a house party for a really long time, in fact, since the middle of May when I threw a house party for my friend Rana.
I have written before on how being off-consumption has taken a toll on my social life —
In the beginning, I compensated by inviting my friends over more often, but now that my wine collection has run dry, and my stock of munchies is over, even throwing a house party isn’t as much fun anymore.
Well, this was the house party that’s responsible for the dry run. It was a house party I threw reluctantly, because Rana insisted on it. It was the house party that reminded me how much hard work house parties are, because, in spite of promising to help with the cooking and the cleaning, Rana didn’t even lift a finger. It was also the house party when my wine collection ran dry, and my stock of munchies got over, and I broke my off-consumption rules by serving (and, before that, buying) ITC ready-to-eat dishes, instead of home-cooked food. Incidentally, it was also one of the best house parties I have ever thrown.
I have learned that sticking to a movie marathon theme is more difficult than coming up with one, when GK is around. Like always, GK brought along a bunch of DVDs and we ended up watching The Red Violin, Confidentially Yours, and The Mafioso, instead of the movies we had planned to.
About ten people turned up for the movie marathon, and we started at three with ‘The Red Violin’, which was brilliant. I was getting into Truffaut’s ‘Confidentially Yours’, when the photographer from Mid-Day turned up for the photo-shoot. So, I spent the next half hour posing for photographs around the house, while my guests watched the movie in my bedroom. Rana, and his actor-model friends, turned up in the middle of ‘The Mafioso’, so I missed most of it too.
By ten, the movie marathon bunch had left and the after-party was in full swing. In the end, almost thirty people turned up in all, and we managed to run through almost ten bottles of wine and champagne, apart from a few bottles of miscellaneous other alcohol. The party ended at four in the morning, after a marathon jam session by dear friend Mohan, who is the lead vocalist in the Indi-Rock band Agnee.
After the guests had left, and Rana and GK had fallen asleep, I sat up and watched July Delpy’s 2 Nights in Paris all by myself, before falling asleep almost at seven in the morning.
So, it was a great party, and I haven’t thrown once since, and I miss being a host, which is why I’m looking forward to my next house party, which is a going away party, an open house and a movie marathon, all rolled into one.
