Miracle Express & Novomox Dinner

Lovely dinner with the Rams ( neither 'N' nor Guha, but TV of the Usha brand ) at the Italian restaurant of the Radisson ( first time -we enjoyed the food there, and thought it to be actually better than our favourite Al Fresco at the Soaltee ). It was in honour of their friend from Helisinki - whom they fondly call Novomox ( why? - that's another story - it seems that he once had an overdose of it, a la Obelix with the 'magic potion'). There were the Wadhwas ( S & R ) as well. It was a nice, fun evening and so was the company - everyone was quite relaxed, so we ended up sitting till pretty late. The conversation started of on a cerebral note - whether Nepal can ever be an off-shore banking centre (being totally out of depth, S quickly opted out to less intellectually challenging subjects - such as why men get attached to their cars more than their spouse-s. N, of course, was getting visibly tense - not sure how the others wud react to it.) but ended with the spiritual and spirits ( Sai Baba and Ghosts ). Ram who had just returned from Bangalore felt the flight should be called "Miracle Express" as everyone travelling on it are Sai devotees coming back from a Darshan at Putthapurti and full of stories about the 'miracles' they've seen or heard about. ( Another gem from him was: Bombay was renamed Mumbai so that it cud rhyme better with Dubai - to please the Dons ). S indulged himself with a roast pork - after a long time, the waiter assured it was imported from Singapore - though beyond that he was not sure of its origin . For the rest of the day S assures that he was at his 'docile' best trying to keep his "rebellious instincts" under check, as per the day's astro-warnings of his internet horoscope service. Tomorrow's predictions are of another horror story. But, we have agreed to have a "theme" dinner on Real-life Ghost stories sometime soon.