Ah! feels nice to be back home. I have written notes about each day which I
originally intended to to post as back dated entries but have now decided
to use LJ cut instead… …
The related pictures are here
Date 2nd October 2002
Landed in Mumbai yesterday evening, with nothing else to do decided on catching
up with an old colleague from my Forensic Medicine days. He is now an Associate
Professor in JJ Hospital. As per his own confession and my observation he has
chosen the obvious path of corruption. We spent the day catching up with past 5
years and though I can never bring myself to do what he is doing I still do
appreciate his openness about it. Returned to the hotel and started the lonely
wait for the early morning flight.
Date 3rd October 2002
WOW!! One of the most exciting days of my life. The flight was on time but I was
at the airport since 12:30am, The first surprise of the day was, in flight, I
had seated besides me Mallika Sarabhai, a very warm lady to talk to, but more
surprising was some heavy duty smooching indulged by her in flight with someone
!! Me scandalized? guess there are still limits to what
I can expect 😀
This time getting a visa was a breeze but it still took 90min. My Cellphone
in
now International roaming but for some reasons I was unable to dial to a land
line – mobile to mobile worked fine but is anyways damn expensive. Also
discovered that you get a substantially better exchange rate at the Thai
National Bank counter and the cab outside costs just B150/- Like our previous
visit I was booked at Sofitel Central Plaza, Member of the Sofitel group. My
client (he is the CEO, and hence forth referred as CEO) was himself there to
pick me up.
Then the biggest adrenaline rush of the day CEO had got his Ferrari WOW!
WOW!! ZOOOOM!!! 350HP, 12 Cylinder, Twin turbo… The acceleration really pins
you down to the hand crafted leather bucket seats, if you get bored of the car
there is the DVD player and 8 channel satellite TV.
Nothing much to write about the project – They loved the work, were suitably
impressed. The bills were cleared, the next two phases awarded to us… …
The evening was fabulous Italian cuisine at Sofitel with the chef himself
coming out to meet us. Meat – thin slivers of various kinds in a variety of
spices and dressings accompanied by appropriate wines all of them 20 years or
older vintages. Over dinner we discussed all topics under the sun, plus future
projects and projections – Looks good.
Date 4th October 2002
The car for the day was a Mercedes. CEO calls it a woman and his Ferrari a
stallion. The suspension on this car was so good that it felt like riding on an
air cushion.
The morning passed by fast and I got all my work done before 12 noon. Lunch
was
grilled chicken at a roadside eatery. I have never seen a rich man who can so
comfortably blend into any surroundings… To quote “If it is good – you take
from anywhere” I am sure it does not sound so crude in French. I have been
strongly recommended that I learn French, at least the understanding part, and
I do intend to, specially if we are to meet almost every other month.
After the lunch I ventured out alone for shopping armed with a lots of do’s
and
dont’s and a bunch of phone numbers in case I got lost. Well I did not get lost
and also managed to shop for Aasim, added to his Lego collection is Wato’s
Junkyard Complete and 4 Bionicles. Also got for him Hasbro’s “Ottobot” for
about Rs1100/- it is a fascinating toy with unexpectedly good interactivity.
Bought some small jewelery for Swati with dolphin motif and lastly I surprised
myself by buying 2 shirts – even the international brands like Lee, Arrow, AB
are cheaper here and have a wider range.
6:00pm the same day
CEO proposed that they show me a glimpse of Bangkok night life. Ever
adventurous I agreed, so we swapped the Merc for the Ferrari and headed for
*Patpong* Soon we were joined by the COO. From 7:00pm to 1:30am I was given a
sampling of all grades of Adult entertainments in Bangkok.
We started off with “Vinai’s Cosmos Club” a spot for high class
businessmen
to
meet and pick-up and I have some business cards to prove it. It was crowded
and loud. Full of TV screens running everything from CNN, ESPN, to FTV.
After a drink we had dinner at a small French joint – again fantastic food.
Then on we went to the Queen’s Show Bar. It is a striptease joint with girls
performing “only read about in books” acts like shooting cigars to pop ballons
and picking up eggs, breaking them, pouring them out yolk intact!!! No hands
foots or mouth involved. It was crowded and loud. I created a sensation by
asking for water to drink 😀
Around 10:00pm we settled into King’s Disco Bar. Apparently this place CEO
has
patronized for since past 10 years, so all the senior staff knew him and we
were given a nice place to sit. It was crowded and it was loud. The stage in the
center had about 2 dozen black bikini clad girls dancing and they would be
by a different set every 20 odd minutes. Those not on the stage
mingled with the guest. I was shocked to see that while of all ages (15 to 50)
and shapes, all of them (well almost) were beautiful with flawless skin and
complexion. While my hosts entertained themselves I found myself talking to one
of the club host, a lady of about 45, the responsibility for a club host is to
see that All the guests are properly taken care of and since I was a guest of a
valued patron she was feeling very worried that I was persistently (and
politely) turning away every girl that came to me. She then proceeded to educate
me on the workflow of the place. I was absent mindedly messaging the crick in my
neck when she noticed it and right away gave me a very expert 5 minute neck
message. Sometime among all this she called over “Bea” a girl who knew leettle
Inglish and there she was perched on my lap sipping water with me talking …
… suddenly she exclaims “Ah! now me get – you like boy?” I laughed so much
that she fell off from her perch. Since she was much less of a bother than
other girls I let her be by my side and told her to shoo everyone off. I later
realized that this had put me in a fix. Bea would loose money if she did not
convert this into business and me being CEO’s guest might also mean trouble for
her!!
What followed next is perhaps what only Swati will believe and that is what
matters to me. In the room I showed Bea some pictures of family and friends on
my digicam. She showed me a pic of her family and some from her home town, her
college I Card and that she expects to graduate next year. She repeatedly made
me promised that I tell the club host that she was good and I repeatedly told
her OK as long as she did not insist on doing what we were supposed to do.
It was 1:00am when we went back to the disco/club/bar – I slapped a
grin/smirk
on my face as a response to all the hoots and whistles from other girls. Bea
whispered something in another girls ear who gave me a long strange look.
We left 15 minutes later. I think I saw a tear in Bea’s eyes or may be she
faked
it for my male ego, after all she is a pro… …
1:30am the expressway was empty and we let it rip at 180mph (yes that is miles
not kilometers) next thing I knew was I was in my hotel room writting this.
P.S. For a certain curious person – No my client is not from
Porn
Industry