Un-fate-ful

I have no grievances with fate and he has taken care of me quite well throughout. But then, what is life without some cribbing.

The Thursday last, there was a Dinner organised at the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) - an opportunity to meet graduate students from the US and to discuss possibilities, research and otherwise. This was especially important because of the 'Free food', something that graduate students cannot do without and famously illustrated by Mike Slackerney of Stanford's strip - PhD comics. There was also this likelihood of meeting some hawt chick - not technically meeting, lets just say ogling at from the corner of the gathering. Anywayz, this made it a must-not-miss event.

That is when Mr.Fate intervened and deemed otherwise.

I had French class on the very evening for the very duration of the AAS dinner and I could not afford to miss it (in addition to the lofty fees I was paying, we were deciding the location for the next class - a class with 'French dinner' and I couldn't just not be there).

Horns of a dilemma if I have ever seen one. If I do attend the class, I will miss the dinner at AAS and if I didn't, I would miss the dinner next week.

Against better judgement, I decided to attend the class. Told myself that AAS was just pizza and it wasn't even sure if they would provide Vegetarian ones. Also, my friends (who did not have any French class and the total support of Mr.Fate) were attending the event and I had impelled them to get some slices of Pizza 'parceled' for me. (They can be very persuasive and deep down I believed they would convince the organisers and get me Pizza).

As I had already RSVPed to the organisers, my beloved persuasive friends decided to recruit one of my other colleagues to take my place and present himself as Mr.Karthik Ram (decided without even telling me, grrrrr).

They arrived on time (15 minutes late and there would be not one tiny slice of pizza left - what with a hall full of scheming graduate students) and made small talk over pizza. Like- "Is Dominos better than Pizza Hut?", "Do you think Hawaiian is better than Pepperoni?", intricacies of Stuffed crust, flavour and brand of instant noodles consumed, etc. etc. You get the idea, right?

This is when Mr.Fate decided to get nasty. A steaming 'hawt' American chick emerged on the scene transforming the bunch of gossiping geeks to ogling, drooling machines. And what should Mr.Fate do but take her right to the middle of my flock and the new Mr.Karthik Ram there managed to introduce himself and make some conversation. The chick did fly around, making others stutter and stammer on the way and deriving much glee from the process.

Anywayz, Mr.Fate, it seems was hell bent on making me repent not attending the event. He conspired thus by making the new Mr.KR hit on that hottie. Grad students, as a rule are very strong-headed and can never take 'no' for an answer. So began a game of cat and mouse. And Mr.KR and an entire entourage of my beloved friends decided that they had to do something and induced all attendees to party at a nearby pub and continue the small talk.

Right then, I had reached home after finishing my class and after waiting in vain for the pizza, cooked some Semiya Uppuma to appease my growling stomach. Wondering whatever happened to my flat-mate (who is a part of the 'beloved persuasive'), I watched TV until drowsiness overpowered me and hit the sack at about 10.

While at the pub, my Alter Ego was making much progress with the hottie, who was now called the Intelligent, beautiful woman from the States. He induced her to a dance- for a Gwen Stefani number. He also managed to extract a telephone number. A remarkable achievement with a lot of future scope.

This was getting too much and I would be hurling abuses at Mr.Fate if he had not realised that things had gone far enough and ended the night there. It was past 2; the Mr.KR was dependant on friends to get home (he had no car)and the last of his friends was leaving.

I would still be accusing Mr.Fate for spoiling a good evening (and for the lost possibility of flirting with a gorgeous dame) had he not in an effort at reconcilation, made sure that the impostor KR had a piece of hell. The friday night, when he called the dame, to ask her out for dinner and disco, he heard "The phone number you have dialled does not exist" in a lovely automated tone.

Thats when I knew Mr.Fate is my mate. Always.