Regular

It was Shantanu and Dharam's custom to go out together in the evenings. After the hectic work of the day in their respective departments, they would relax in the evenings with a game or two of volleyball and then go out for a cup of tea and snacks. Shantanu loved to eat. He had his favourite dishes and his favourite haunts. That meant going places that were within a kilometre to sometimes places ten kilometres away. They used to go out together, alternating their use of bikes- a Hero Honda for Shantanu and a Bajaj pulsar for Dharam.

It was on the ride back from JB's that the argument started. Shantanu was driving. He drove fast, leaning this way and that, braking and picking up speed suddenly. Dharam never admitted it, but riding pillion with Shantanu, he was always scared. His hands always gripped the bike tightly, and often his knuckles were white when the ride was finished. Given such a state of fear, Dharam thought he was justified in his request to Shantanu to stop in front of Bora's liquor shop so that he could buy some whisky. (Bora's was the neighbourhood liquor shop- the nearest authorised wine seller to their hostel- where the footfalls never reduced, coming and going in a steady pace, money clutched in clenched fists,  muted orders, inexpressive but efficient salespeople- but more about it in some other post.) 

"Don't you think that you have become a regular drinker?" Shantanu asked. "In the last one week, we have stopped there maybe four times. Hell, someone observing from outside may think that I have gone over to the other side!" Shantanu was a teetotaller though he was great at giving company to people imbibing alcohol. He used to order a cold drink for himself and attacked the snacks with gusto. 

"Oh come on! I hardly drink much. Plus having played volleyball for so long, one feels weary, and it goes with the movie you watch. Any movie is a good movie, if you have some whisky and a platter of badam on hand."

"But it's four days in a week!"

"Yes, but the quantity bought was small. I hardly drink two pegs in a day. And you know well, it is said that two pegs of alcohol have a cardio-protective effect. And the beer, most of the times, that PK (not the movie character, a guy from their hostel) barges in, and like the story of the camel and the man with the tent in the desert, he ultimately takes possession of my beer as well as my movie. I haven't had a beer in peace since a long time. Thank God he doesn't drink whisky."

"You do what you want. It's your life after all. But I am telling you, you are becoming a regular at this thing." Shantanu told him.

"Duh." Dharam replied. 

They stopped at Bora's. Dharam went in, bought his liquor and they moved to the nearby thelawala, who had his stall just outside the liquor shop, to buy ten rupees worth of badam. After the badam was made to his liking, Dharam flashed out a five hundred rupee note. 

"Don't you have change?" asked the thelawala.

"Sorry, no" Dharam replied.

"Koi baat nahi Sir, kal de dijiyega. Aap to regular ho." He said. (No problem Sir, give it later, you are a regular here)

Dharam looked at Shantanu. A smile was beginning to form at the corners of his lips. Suddenly they both started laughing.

"Maybe you were right" said Dharam. 

They moved towards the bike.