Smalls, Pat and Apple

yesterday morning i was awakened by my brother really early (11:30 am)...that's really early for me....i think during the flight across the Atlantic or Pacific or whatever, a strong east wind blew standard goan sleep pattern time into the plane and it affected me...so naturally i need at least 15.5 hours of sleep a day!!!

anyways had to go help karl take some equipment from his office to the studio adele had gotten (arty people call it studio..don't ask me why)...to my brothers defense he did give me the option of not helping :)

first i head down to adeles apartment to get the big wood thing (remember the one we found on the street)....and carry that by subway to karls office...we leave that in the lobby after spending 5 minutes convincing the security guy its only for a few minutes.

we head up to the third floor and wait for the girl who is in charge of the stuff to come.....before that karl tells me a moving van has arrived downstairs...im like a moving van??? why?? we have to carry that much equipment....karl sends me down to put the wood board thing into the van...i reach the lobby and find it full of ppl on some tour of the school.....so being Indian i pick up the board (it is big) and with Indian accent scream excuse me....EXCUSE ME PLEASE MADAME.....and i walk out the door....i love being Indian!!!

i meet the van guy who is this dude named pat.....he plays drums for a rock band so was chatting with him...he asks what stuff is there...i say well 2-3 computers max.....when out comes karl wheeling a freaking load of computers and monitors and stuff on a trolley....i am stunned but help load in the van....i get into the van to leave and karl says wait...there are two more trolleys to go.......woohooooo!!!

so after all is loaded and done....off we go to the "studio"...its in one obscure place i may never be able to find again...we unload the stuff and take it upstairs to the "studio"....by now i am pumped with that workout and also very parched.

We head back to the school picking up some juice on the way...i spend some time replying to my many imaginary female admirers when i decide i want to do something....had planned to go for a jazz show in the night...but that started at 10:30 pm...it was 5 in the evening so needed to kill some time.....karl was busy so, despite my better judgment, i decided to go see Times Square for the heck of it.

believe me when i say it is just like Bombay...totally crowded with ppl all around you jostling and pushing.....i saw hard rock cafe....the David Letterman place and Broadway thing and other such stuff that any tourist seems so keen to look at for some reason....after an hour or so of walking around i got bored and decided to go back to karls school...(note - to anyone wanting to go to Times Square, just stand for half an hour at churchgate station...its cheaper)... i got back to school at 7:45 and karl was hungry so we decided to go get dinner....we walked around for a bit just checking places...then we thought of trying Spanish cuisine...went to one restaurant called Sevilla (yes like the football club).....and ordered our stuff...karl went for some chicken, seafood mix in rice and i went for a chicken, Spanish sausage curry type thing with rice.....i was disappointing with the service....they never gave me a glass of water...though they did give us a free salad (consisting of lettuce and some other green plants i don't recognize covered in a thick mint sauce...delicious)...and bread with butter.....im glad we had that on our table cause the main course took over 35 minutes too come...not something i'm used to in America.

the wait kinda killed the mood (plus the salad and bread kinda filled us) and we couldn't eat it all so decided to parcel the remainders.

it was 9 ish by then..so to kill some more time karl took me to a place called "Fat Cats".....nice joint....its like bowling company at phoenix mills without the crappy lights, the stupid loud noises, the crowds or the bowling :)

we played shuffle board....they had chess and table tennis and other such stuff there as well.

we were busy playing when suddenly we hear some Latin American music....i look up and see a band had come out of no where at were performing....so karl and me go to listen...it was amazing...a couple starting dancing as well......and the band was superb...lost of energy like Latin Americans :)

by 10:25 we left the place for "smalls"....that's the club where i wanted to check the jazz show. karl decided to go home as he was tired.

much like its name...its small...the owner named martin...is a short white man who stands at the door and sings old jazz tunes.....i waited outside for 10 minutes just listening to him.

i finally went in....the band was a quintet with sax, piano, trumpet, drums and double bass.

they started and it was like listening to Davis, Coltrane, the Duke, Mingus and Grupa.....great old school stuff...all of them were mind blowing...with runs and phrasing that you cannot memorize.....they followed a common format with each song.......play a few bars of the melody together and then each one solos....that's right each song...each member solos at least once.......then they all come back together and tie the groove to end it....it was outstanding

they finished their set at around 1:00.....i went up and talked to them....then made friends with the drummer.....who sat me down and gave me a few lessons....it was unbelievable!!!

i started home for the first time on my home so late in the night.....i was worried cause unlike Indian trains, the trains here don't have fixed timings...they just come. Plus i was going back by a route i had never taken.

i got my first train easily enough....it took me nearly home and then i had to change to another train....i climb a few steps here and there and finally find the platform i had to catch my train from...and whoopdedoooo...the platform is deserted....no one there.....and its dark....and a rat on the tracks made me jump with the noises it made while flitting around the plastic bags.....when suddenly i hear the echo of voices from the ticket counter upstairs...they sound like rowdy hooligans...the stuff that movies are made of....im wondering whether to just scream and run.....or be a man and fight...i decided to scream and run......but just as i open my mouth to release my superb almost tenor voice off terror...i see a light down the tunnel.....and since i wasn't dying, it had to be the train......i pray for it to hurry as i hear the voices moving down the steps towards me.

the train arrives and i jump in and close my eyes and open them only when i reach my stop...i hop off and amble very very quickly to home.

have a bath and go to sleep...