An island… and a man – 2

Genuine apologies for the second part coming in so late. But I really couldn’t help it… it’s been a pretty hectic week, whew! Over this week I’ve seen over a thousand snaps of our vacation, reminiscing the great week at Andaman! The places, the water and the beauty of the trip is surely recorded in its own limited way, but the other side to it, the good times with my fellow vacationers isn’t that easy to remember. But here goes my feeble attempt, the much awaited sequel to part 1.

A bunch of 21 XLers in a faraway land, with little else to entertain them, decided to play something. But what could you probably play with no skills and no equipment… just loads of people, an empty hotel room and a lot of time to kill? MAFIA!! (If you didn’t know that… well, go drown yourself!) An addiction that followed us everywhere at all times, we played mafia in crowded little rooms, on the beach, in the car, even on a volcano site! Pretending to be innocent, strategizing, accusing friends, killing enemies.. surely, this is the most fun game ever !

For the ignorant, here’s a crash course. A bunch of people sit around, preferably in a circle. One guy is appointed God, the rest of us live in a ‘village’. We start the game at ‘night’, when everyone is asleep. Some of us are appointed Mafia (by God or by chits) without the knowledge of the others, the innocent villagers. Hence, there are two sides, the villagers and the mafia, each trying to eliminate the other, those who manage to stay alive, obviously win. There are also two parts to the game. During the ‘day’ everyone pretends to be villagers and they ‘discuss’, (accusing and defending) and finally vote out one person, by a majority of votes. This brings the ‘night’ where the mafia kill one person of their choice. And then it’s day again. So basically, the game depends on how the mafia fools (or fails to fool) the villagers. Certain complications include, ‘Vampire’ and ‘Doctor’, played by choice.

When there are 16-18 people playing, one game takes 2 hours or more and it’s exhausting! People are surprisingly talented, loud, intuitive, vociferous and attentive. The seriousness of the game is hilarious in hindsight. Stupidity is immediately punished, silence is misunderstood. The most tactful players eventually survive. This game teaches you to talk, listen, defend, summarize and be strategic. Nowhere else have I seen such appropriate GD practice! And RG’s points, Mafia 101, Sushant’s plight and mostly Reddy’s brilliant moves, made the infinite hours we spent on this game, great fun!

The rest of the trip was always spent in Mafia’s shadow. The post-game discussions went on for hours! On the last day, when the volcano had brought down our spirits immensely, I thought to myself that only a game of mafia could cheer us up. But one man proved me wrong! Standing tall, with a cowboy hat on his head, sipping a drink and looking at the water in deep thought… what was running in RG’s head then, we don’t know. But a certain someone sure found his butt pretty attractive. ‘Slurp’! In front of a sizeable audience, ‘consult boy’ got his butt licked, by a beautiful black cow! The wet patch might still be evident on his pants. Starved for entertainment, everyone seemed jump on this momentous occasion to pull this great man’s leg! A series of jokes.. everyone laughing our heads off. A small part of me felt sorry for him, but it did seem like it was a part of Great design! Just a sample of what we came up with…

Qn : Which bike would RG ride?
Ans: ‘Cow’asaki!

Qn: What is RG’s favourite Indipop song?
Ans : ‘Bull’a ki jaana main kaun

Qn: Why is RG scared of cows?
Ans: Because he is a ‘cow’ard

Qn: How would RG greet all of us?
Ans: “Hi, Gaays!”

This list is never ending, but it sure brought the trip to a great end. With everyone headed off in different directions, it seems pretty unreasonable that we’ll ever get a chance to have such fun. But, as a great man once said, “Such is life”! Thanks for making it a great trip, guys!