On a hot summer afternoon

The afternoon brunch hosted at Shiro by drummer and percussionist Roberto Narain had his friends, relatives and of course, the most regular P3Ps in full attendance. Yes, as usual there were some P3Ps who couldn’t make it and did send their regrets through their friends, lest they be forgotten.
There were those who started warming up for the afternoon by lavishly gulping down chilled beer and the delicious starters. “Hey, you must get drunk today. One bottle of beer is nothing,” said one friend to another. “You must never be without a bottle in hand,” she added.
As the afternoon wore on, Roberto on the drums, and Vasundhara Das on vocals took centre-stage and belted out some real headbanging numbers that had the crowd, with hands up in the air, swaying, snapping their fingers and tapping their toes, keeping pace with the beats of the song.
While couples cosied up, unmindful of their surroundings, others went around socialising, catching up with old friends and on gossip they missed out. “In get-togethers like this one, we meet new people and also I think it’s a perfect weekend afternoon out,” said Nirmala Matthan, a theatre-person and former news reader.
Aslam Gafoor and his wife were seen just lazing around and meeting people. “We work so hard through the week and rarely get to let go. This is an opportunity to unwind. There must be more such get-togethers,” says Aslam.  
       Those gathered were in a high spirits literally and figuratively. Socialising was at its best. Hugs, kisses and of course bottles of beer were passed around. “I am so thoroughly enjoying myself and so drunk that I just don’t know how I am going to get to work,’’ another young lady was heard saying. We empathised with her, with another bottle of beer that is.