April 1st, 2008
The Beginners Guide To Zero Dollar Dating In Bombay
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You’ll recall that, ever since I have gone off consumption, the number one question I have been asking myself is: what can you do on a date when you are off consumption?
Friends, readers, well-wishers: I’m delighted to tell you that, in spite of my fear that my year of abstinence may spread to more areas of my life than I had planned for, I had two perfect zero dollar dates last week.
The first date was on Thursday, when she came over to my house in the middle of the night and stayed till the wee hours of the morning. As you can imagine, we didn’t spend much money, and the taxi fare to her home and back at five in the morning can be safely passed off as a necessity.
The second date was on Sunday evening, when we went for a walk on Juhu beach. In spite of living in Bombay for many years, neither of us had been to Juhu beach on a Sunday evening before, and we were shocked by the sea… of humanity! The main stretch of Juhu beach was a mind-numbing mela (carnival), with tens of thousands of people clustered around hundreds of snacks stands and dozens of rides for children.
We eventually found a relatively clean stretch of sand some distance away from the crowd and sat down to eat our bhuttas (corn-on-the-cob). It was rather romantic, actually, with only a few hundred crying babies between us and the sea, and the stars dimly visible in an almost smog-free sky. She insisted that the pole star was her star and the star nearest to it was mine. We kissed in front of a gazillion gaping children.
When I dropped her home in an auto-rickshaw, she insisted on paying for the date and forced a hundred rupee note into my pocket.
On the four rupee second class train ride from Bandra to Churchgate, I tried, and failed, to remember the last time I had so much fun on a date without spending even one rupee.
