OLD IS GOLD

The exuberance of youth has a shelf life, that's what I thought until I saw a group of 70 plus old adults go on a boys trip. Their heads turned but at the same time did their neck sprain?

Disclaimer Starts.....

Any opinions, funny incidents, a fact of the matter, awkward situations, age-related jokes or any physical inability mentioned or referenced in this story are all my and my views only, it does not in any way disrespect any individual irrespective of age, gender, wisdom who was a part of this story.

If this story hurts any one's sentiments, beliefs, ideologies, moralities, ethics....please read the first part of this disclaimer again in a loop. This is an amusing take on a real-life incident of first time travelers and reading beyond this point makes you automatically accept that you are equally curious and crazy like me.

Disclaimer Ends........

One morning, I get a call, a very heavy baritone on the other side greets me..." hello, Mr Sameer we have heard a lot about you and your travel services and would like to meet you. We are a group of retired senior citizens and would like you to plan our travel. Well, I do get such calls for my work...but not at 6:30am. I was given an address and a specific time, 10AM. The next thing I know, I was at Mr baritone's doorstep, I knocked, I entered, I was asked to sit on a very old chair that probably was used by the Nazi's to interrogate Jews. Mr. Baritone was playing his harmonium, the moment I saw this, I clenched my fist and got flashes of my late sir and the sacrifice he had made for me. After regaining my composure I saw some other musical notes floating, some high some low I guess this was the group of retired senior citizens he mentioned. One of the high notes started singing... Mr. Sameer you are late, I looked at the watch it was 10:08, but the look on their face was as if an entire youth passed away waiting for me, probably this was a sign of things to come.

Driving to this meeting, I kept thinking about places of interest, Char Dham...Vaishnodevi...or probably the Golden Temple, and if they want to make it a little more adventurous, then probably a Goa. I took my pen to scratch my notes and very politely asked, Sir have you'll thought of a place, I had barely finished my question when I heard a note screeching from one side, "We have thought of DUBAI....we heard that the nightlife is very good over there"..... Nightlife !! I screamed in my mind!!, while my thoughts and speech wobbled, my nazi chair stood its ground and helped me regain my balance. A Hashtag-worthy city that flashes on every social platform, which is famous amongst the millennials for its extravaganza, supercars, pet lions, mansions was now about to welcome Flintstones, given the fact that this was also their first international travel, the fear of moving stairs escalated in my mind.

We agreed on terms, planned an itinerary, booked the hotels and flights, and got ready to leave. The average age of my wolves was 70, the eldest at 75 was the leader of the pack and the youngest cub at 65. The speed of a group is always measured by its slowest member walking, but over here I was with 25 people out of which only some walked, others were on a wheelchair. We had planned for a 3 nights 4 Days tour because any more Nights!! and there would not be any Life!! left. I gave each wolf a cap so it gets easier for me to spot and usher them together. A spectacle in itself, me and my entourage with red caps and wheelchairs heading towards the land of gold, glitz, glamour, and life beyond their normal sleeping hours. We landed, reached our hotel, and slept ....thinking about the craziness that was to follow.

Mr. Joshi, calls (Baritone)..at..6:00AM. "Sameer...how do I take a bath"....I quickly checked my terms sheet, hope I didn't commit bathing them one by one, he then continues, "there is no bucket and a tumbler"....hearing this I quickly got up from the comforts of my duvet and tumbled to his room to show him the functions of a bathtub and the overhead shower. Reluctantly, he agreed to change the way he washed for the last 75 years, and before he could ask me why they have more paper in the toilet and less to hold and read, I sprinted out!. All boys finally got ready after making several similar distress calls to me and got down at 7:00AM for a city tour starting at 9:00AM. The day passed as expected, crazy for me, great for them, right from having numerous bio breaks, to me frantically searching for wheelchairs as few boys suddenly decided not to walk, to my initial fear that came true when one boy misses a step on an escalator, holds two more as if to say I can't be alone and all of them come crashing down !!!..At that point, I felt that's it!! Holiday over!, but I suppose even at that crash point spirits were sky high as all of them were gearing up for the night, the moment had arrived, the moment for which this location was selected.

Dinner conversations were interesting that night, I overheard one boy telling the other, "Hey Ram, don't forget your dentures or the girls won't know you smiling at them", the excitement to step out was palpable, suddenly I realized that those on a wheelchair at the airport had already started walking and were waiting outside the hotel! A couple of them removed a pack of cigarettes and lit them over a naughty conversation, some boys changed their plain stripes to floral shirts, and some of them took a bath with cologne...were these the same cranky boys that were struggling to take a shower that morning! Obviously, I was guiding two separate groups of men, the day ones were grandfather like, but the ones that came out in the dark looked more like Casanova's getting ready for the kill. I got them in a team huddle to give out some basic instructions for the night and that's it, my pack of wolves was ready to howl in excitement !! .

In our huddle in a very hush voice, to ensure that their own moral parents don't hear them, they tell me..."Sameer, we want to see belly dancing"...well almost all my boys had a belly, but then dancing amongst ourselves would be weird !! So I understood what he meant, he wanted to see a pretty belly dance. I took them to a Sheesha lounge with a signboard that read..."Bellies that show more"..this sign was enough for my boys to run inside to see "more". We all settled around a couple of Sheesha's before the show could start. The fire in our Sheesha pot was not burning yet, but as the show started I could see a fire burning someplace else.

The curtain raiser got four dancers who displayed synchronized super sinuous movements of their torso and hip which moved in a way that perfectly punctuated the music or accented a beat. Their Percussive movements using other parts of the body generated similar sinuous movements from my boys using only their face and neck. They matched the beats with amazing precision and synched up with the dancers so well that from a distance it felt rehearsed. One neck which had complained the most on the comfort of his wheelchair suddenly got up and started dancing with the girls, his moves got other's excited and in no time we had "more" bellies bouncing then what the lounge had hired and that's when the signboard made sense to me.

The mood set that night carried forward for the next two days, all my boys started soaking in the vibe and the culture of the city. Flintstones were coming out of their cave, literally, as they loved every place I took them to, the Gold Souks, Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, Street markets, Mosques, Palm Islands, all places dazzled them. In between all of this they did come up with some goofiness, but while shedding off their own veil of acceptance, they did look curious what lies behind some other veils they saw around and wondered if belly dance was a sport as they surely had some soreness. All nights got spent in a dream world for them, pub hopping is what they did naturally now and it then seemed to me that exuberance is indeed void of age.

We reached the end of our 3 nights too soon, that's what they thought, not me. I was happy as my original life of sitting in an office was waiting for my comeback. I was told to increase the number of wheelchairs on the way back, I suppose this kind of nightlife can get to anyone. My boys were so happy with their nocturnal adventures that all other discomforts of morning routines were far forgotten. They immersed themselves with the city and thought that they could never stand out in the crowd anymore even with those red caps. Mr. Joshi's nod of acceptance at the airport was as if to say that we ok you came late on that first day, cause this holiday got us our youth back.

At the airport on our way out, the immigration officer asked one of the boys, "Hope you enjoyed your stay sir", promptly came the reply " Yes yes your Belly dancers were amazing". Dubai prides on a lot of things and the officer would have expected to hear some of them, but I suppose even he realized that heads did turn a little but the neck sprained "more".