It’s never too late to pack your bags and go on a trip, a vacation with your bros, or as I would call it, a bro-cation, even at the ripe age of 44.
Sure, you might be busy juggling work deadlines, or running your own hectic entrepreneurship, or managing your kids' homework or college fees, or even trying to figure out why you're having a dad bod even though you're not a dad yet. :P
But sometimes, you need a break from all that. A trip back to a time when you were innocent and life was easier and simpler and without any responsibilities, a trip... back to school days. And that’s exactly what we did recently.
The occasion? Our 25th class reunion. Yes, it was time for our Montfort batch's Silver Jubilee! 25 years! 25 freaking years had passed since we graduated from school.
How did time fly by so fast? Weren’t we just running around the basketball court in our tiny shorts, scribbling love letters while pretending to take notes in class, and sneaking into the mess to steal some bread slices just a few weeks ago? Ah, the passage of time is cruel yet poetic.
When the reunion date was announced—4th October 2024—our Mizo batch was excited. There were 11 of us from Mizoram in our batch.
Four people couldn't make it: Francis passed away in 2005 (may you always rest in peace brother), Shuvojit had lost touch with everyone from our batch, despite numerous efforts to reconnect with him, and Byron & Notea had medical issues. The remaining six of us confirmed our participation.
Sadly, Paul had to bow out a month before the reunion due to ongoing treatment, leaving just Tlawmlova, Azuala, Hminga, Rempuia, Stephen, and me ready to take this trip down memory lane.
Still, a 50% turnout from our Mizo gang wasn’t bad at all—especially since other batches barely had one or two Mizos show up for their respective reunions. Clearly, we had a reputation to uphold!
And so, the task of booking our flight tickets and multiple hotel accommodations landed on me, given that I’ve been the one racking up the most travel miles recently. In this post, I’ll walk you through all the fun, crazy moments we shared on this epic trip. As for the actual reunion event, I’ll post that later. For now, it’s all about the bros, the banter, and the good times.
Leading up to the reunion, our Mizo gang had frequent WhatsApp group calls and occasional meetups to plan our trip, just so that we would all agree on the dates, flights and hotels.
And, of course, Tlawmlova, being the Mizoram State Protocol Officer (now the current DC of Mamit), brought his official flair to the process. He charted out the itinerary using phrases like 0800 hours, Halt at Bangalore, and Hydration station established, etc., turning our group chat into something like a military operation, lolz.
We decided to meet up in Bangalore two days before our reunion to have the wildest bro-time imaginable. After all, we knew the reunion events would sap every ounce of our energy, leaving no fuel for partying on our way back. Yeah, we may be wild but we are 44 too. :D
On the day of our rendezvous, 2nd October, I took a flight from Pune to Bangalore, while Tlawmlova, Azuala and Stephen descended from Aizawl, and we coordinated our flights so perfectly that we both landed at the same time. In fact, I waved to Stephen from my plane who was also on a window seat of his plane as his pilot swerved just in time to avoid colliding with my plane. :P
A few minutes later, we reunited at the luggage rolling equipment, whatever that thingie is called, exchanging epic bro-hugs like soldiers returning from war.
Luggage in tow, we booked an Uber to our hotel, grinning like kids on a field trip. Ah, Bangalore, it was so good to be back, so many memories here!
The sad part about landing on the 2nd of October was that it was Gandhi's birthday—A dry day!
But worry not, we had everything planned in advance! Hminga—our Bangalore base commander—was already at our hotel, waiting with open arms and, more importantly, a fully stocked bar, lolz.
But alas, things don't always go to plan in the grand scheme of things. Rempuia had to cancel his flight from Mumbai at the last minute due to a sudden change in his shooting location. Sadly, this meant he’d miss out on both our bro-bonding sessions and our class reunion. We toasted to him later that night, wishing he could have been there with us, as well as our fallen brother Francis and the rest of the Mizos who couldn't make it.
But the five of us had an absolute blast on our own. We had a fantastic reunion inside our hotel rooms, swapping stories and laughing nonstop (though we did have to switch to a new room twice because the ACs weren't working properly, lolz). And once we were feeling sufficiently high on life and spirits, we headed out for dinner.
Here's the thing about Bangalore today. The traffic is horrible! It's not like the good old days when I used to drive from Bannerghatta to Kammanahalli in half an hour. Today it would take more than 4 hours to do so! And so we all decided to chill out only around our hotel vicinity.
Our classmate Anthony Paul and his wife Becky had invited us for dinner too, but they stayed all the way at Whitefield, which would take us 2-3 hours just to reach there. And so we had to regretfully decline their kind invitation.
Hminga had planned our dinner at "The Fisherman's Wharf", a well-known restaurant famous for its mouthwatering seafood and authentic Goan cuisine. It was just a few meters away from our hotel, and so we walked over there.
When we reached the place to have our grand dinner, we discovered that it was closed, lolz.
Yup. Genius Hminga. He assumed "dry days" only meant hotels and bars wouldn't serve alcohol but still operate, when in reality, most of these establishments remain closed on dry days since alcohol is their main source of business. Wah wah. :D
We spent the next half an hour frantically searching on Google Maps for the nearest eatery. We walked into a few roadside restaurants, but they were super shady. Then we saw this grand-looking place called "Global Dhaba" with really good reviews and thought, yes, this is the one!
But the place was super-packed and nobody came to take our order even after we were seated for more than 5 minutes, so we strutted out (with elegance). The hostess apologised and we told her not to worry about it.
Finally, we decided to head to the nearby "Phoenix Mall of Asia", figuring a mall that massive would have some good food options. I booked an Uber and we paid the driver extra because there were five of us.
The mall was nice, but it was crowded since it was a holiday. We roamed around a bit but didn't buy anything because the next day was our planned shopping day. We walked up to the third floor where all the restaurants and food court were located, only to find that all the good joints like Chilli's, Sally By 1522, Plaka, etc., were all closed because... Dry day.
Only the Food Court section was open and there was indeed a wide variety of cuisines to choose from, but all the tables were occupied and it was noisy as hell and so, we finally decided to head back to our hotel and eat at their restaurant. I quickly called the reception and placed our dinner order since it was almost closing time for the kitchen.
Our luck was really running out.
And as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. It was literally raining heavily when we were about to exit the mall, lolz! What an experience indeed. None of our Uber or Ola bookings were getting accepted because our hotel was too close, as every driver was busy making a killing in the rain surge pricing.
Enter Tlawmlova, our Protocol officer, who found an auto-driver and settled for 500 bucks to drop us back at our hotel. On a normal day, it wouldn't even cost ₹ 50, but we didn't really have a choice and we were really hungry by then and our hotel kitchen was almost about to close.
But we had so much fun in that tiny auto. Absolutely madness. We were also all drenched, lolz.
Finally, back at our hotel's restaurant, we ended our wild food hunt with the most satisfying meal—soft, buttery naans and rich, creamy butter chicken. After all the struggle we went through that night, every bite tasted like victory. :D
We couldn't stop roasting Hminga on how disastrous his planning had been and that we were firing him as our chief planner, lolz.
But honestly? It’s moments like these that make a trip truly unforgettable. If everything had gone smoothly and we enjoyed a perfect meal as planned and gone back to our hotel without a hitch—what would there even be to talk about? "Oh yeah, the crab was great." End of story.
But instead, we had the full adventure package—wandering down empty, dimly lit streets, frantically checking restaurant reviews, walking in and out of shady joints and jam-packed places, circling a food court like hungry hyenas, getting completely drenched in an unexpected downpour, paying an auto driver 10 times the usual fare just for the privilege of squeezing five grown-ass men into his tiny rickshaw, and finally, making it back to our hotel's restaurant just 2 minutes before closing time—something we could have easily done right from the very start itself without going through ALL that chaos and drama, lolzzz.
Now that is a story we’ll be telling (and laughing about) for years to come.
Oh, and just a thought—even if our original plan at The Fisherman’s Wharf had worked out, we probably would’ve ended up soaked anyway, considering the sudden downpour, as most of their seating is open-air. So yeah… disaster was inevitable for us that night. :P
Thankfully, the next day was much better and we did finally go to The Fisherman's Wharf for dinner, so I hope you come back to read my next post. Until then, cheers.
