One thing I have always been grateful of, is husband having a good circle of friends right since the time he shifted his base to Dubai, 11 years ago. So fortunately, I haven’t had any difficulty finding out people who I could interact with and meet on weekends when I came after marriage. Considering my introvert nature and reserved personality, I would have been left alone (and you know how boring that can be in this part of the world) if it had not been for him. It’s been good three years of friendship with these girls who have helped me right from my shifting to Dubai to taking care of me during pregnancy to helping me heal from emotional outbursts to being there like magnets in all the seasons. That should pretty much summarize how our bond is.
Few phone calls and some conferencing later on last Thursday morning between some of us, an impromptu plan of get-together sprung up that night to spend some good time without the hubbies and children. These kind of plans are actually rare with the kind of lives that we live – someone will be busy either with work or family. And when this plan came in force exactly after 3 years of clubbing that we went to on one night in April of 2011, we couldn’t contain our excitement. We didn’t go crazy or spent hours getting ready or sent drunken texts to our exes or took bathroom selfies but what we really did was, we took alot of photos, gossiped over some finger licking food, cheered our drinks for good life that we are blessed with and sent our worries on a vacation.
Immediately after I hanged up the phone, the motherhood in me cursed and brought that typical guilty feeling to surface. I haven’t kept Little A at home and roamed about in the city since he was born. He went with me everywhere. Except for a couple of shopping trips I did during his afternoon nap times where I didn’t had a little one with me passing hangers from the bottom of the door of fitting rooms. The thought of leaving him with his dad and going out to socialise, started giving me goose-bumps. But by afternoon I reminded myself of how much of an alone time I need as a person. All the fretting over was put to rest when I came to know on my return what a good boy he had been. Hubby took him out to a play area and to meet some of his friends, hardly gave him time to realize the absence of his mom for those few hours.
One of our friends suggested we meet at Rooftop Lounge in the Royal Ascot Hotel. We had to agree because Bur Dubai has always been our favorite place to meet, mainly because of the Indian feel we get on the streets. The moment I entered there, I was so glad we chose this place. It has a typical lounge sitting, sports bar on one corner and the open kitchen on another. Tables and chairs in the center formed dining area and we were unfortunate not to get the lounge sitting because we didn’t reserve on the phone. Being a weekend night, we should have done that. What scores is the ambiance and the vibes are fresh and welcoming. They had a big screen which was tele-casting an IPL match followed by some bollywood remixes, being played at right volume so that you don’t have to scream to talk to a person sitting beside you. We are already towards the end of May but the weather was pleasant and welcoming. They serve Arabic, Indian, Chinese and Italian cuisine. You wouldn’t fall short of variety if you want to order a dish or two from every cusine they cook. Food was appetizing, in good quantity and worth every penny. Cocktails and mocktails were also moderately priced, keeping in mind the young crowd that is mostly seen at Rooftop. We ordered for Falafel plate, Hummus, Teppan Soba (Japanese style noodles) and Penne Pesto for food, that we didn’t had any complain of.
From top right – Hummus, Teppan Soba, Us, few Cocktails and Falafel plate.
Sometimes all that you need is to relax and let loose with your girl friends. If it isn’t possible, for whatever reasons, to go out every month, I have realised it is actually worthy once in a while.
