Thursday 10 November 2011

Game day and gender wars

This incident occurred about 6 months ago and only came to my mind yesterday during a chance conversation. The husband and I had been invited to a game day type thing at a friends house. The Indian cricket team was in the quarter finals and things looked rather promising. The cricket match was held overseas, started at 5 am local time and stretched into the afternoon. It was us and four other couples in the house with the best cable package. We had all trickled in starting at 4:45 am on a work day to watch match.

After a few hours the Indian team's chances looked very good and it was decided that the drinking should commence since it was 5 pm somewhere in the world.And in fact it was close to 5pm in the stadium where the match was being played. So the margaritas were rolled out.

Tequila!! My nemesis!! I like drinking as much as the next boozer but I have more than met my match in Tequila. Tequila and I are not friends. We eye each other warily, pretend for the sake of company that all is well. I will take a tentative sip and smile. The Tequila for its part will slide down my gullet, warm my insides and pretend like it will make me feel better. But I know better than to be fooled. Well, I know better now. Since the couple of nights I did not know better, are remarkable in that I do not remember large parts of them. What I do remember are the mornings after. So to cut a long story short Tequila and I are not friends.

So after a couple of sips so nobody was the wiser about our tenuous past, I decided to call it a day. My husband not suffering from a similar experience with tequila (his nemesis for a while was brandy) polished off his margarita with much gusto. Day time drinking on what should be a work day while the Indian cricket team was doing everything right.. it was the stuff that dreams are made off.

The wives and husbands still in various makeshift beds, since the early hour that the match had started at had warranted blankets, comforters and pillows. All this and more were piled in front of the TV. The mood was one of contentment and cautious excitement. The sun streamed into the room as the day progressed. The early rising coupled with the margaritas and the afternoon sun was making everyone just a little drowsy. The Indian victory seemed imminent.

Watching my husband put his glass down, I thought I would volunteer to be the designated driver on the way back. So I poked him with my finger to get his attention and said "Feel free to drink up , I can drive us back today".

The husband looked delighted for a moment and then probably realizing that it was still only 11 am reluctantly said "It's fine I think the one was enough for me. "

And suddenly, just like that, all hell broke loose.
"See she lets him drink when he wants to. Even drives him home after."
"He knows when to say no. I don' t see you turning down a second one."
"I don't see her nagging him about it."
"He probably doesn't drink at every given opportunity."

I and the husband, sidelined by this time just gaped at one other. I, for one, secretly felt just a twinge of pride that our degenerate ways coupled with enabling each others vices was finally paying off, even if it was for only a little while.

And well, the rest of them cheered up soon too after the pizza arrived to soothe our Tequila tummies and the Indian team delivered a much anticipated victory.

4 comments:

balai said...

and by posting the incident here, u did damage to that image of the understanding couple ;)

stringOfPearls said...

Unless you are talking about me and the husband the other exchange was between three couples not one. And they are grownups they will be fine :)

balai said...

yes, I was talking about the image you two had bult up :)

stringOfPearls said...

:) but balaji even in this story we were the understanding ones I thought. We were being supportive of the each others afternoon drinking habits.

A Woman Second

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