The charred bacon...

Barbecue party!!! My friends sounded very excited planning our group event. As for me, I wasn’t too keen myself. It’s not that I don’t enjoy being with my friends, I love spending time with them. I was rather worried about half cooked meat destroying my stomach. None of my friends are exactly professional cooks and it was going to be our first barbecue.  I am not a health freak either but I have had bad experiences with diarrhea. Not to mention I had to take an exam the next day. So for the next hour or so, everybody was planning for that day and I was listening half heartedly. We decided to reach the friend’s house at five the day of the party and concluded the meeting.

The day of the barbecue arrived. It was a typical monsoon day in Kathmandu. It had rained the night before. There were huge clouds in the sky, the streets were wet and the air was so fresh. During the day, I studied for my exam and went to the college. I finished my work at the college and I came back home early. I was alone at the house and was too bored to study so I took a nap.

I woke up all sweaty and with a severe headache. I had slept nearly two hours and was going to be late for the party if I didn’t hurry up. I freshened up hastily and got ready to go. I went to pick up a friend and some food for the barbecue. We caught up with some of our other friends and went to the party. We were the first ones there. Turned out, others were still shopping. We started talking about our day and the possibility of rain foiling our barbecue. The last of our friends were nowhere to be seen. They were late. Later, we got a call that they had finished shopping and needed help to get everything at the venue. I and a couple

of guys went to pick them up. At last, nearly two hours after we had arrived, we got the fire going.   

Everyone was busy talking to each other sitting around the grill holding a drink. We took our turns to man the grill. I was having fun and had completely forgotten my fear of eating uncooked food. Being there with all my friends was one of the best times I had. I wondered how naïve I was to think only about bad things that could happen to me when we were planning the party. How could I have forgotten what it’s like to be around friends? That experience would always be worth any abdominal distress I may or may not have later.

We had chicken, sausages, chips and tomato chutney. One of the friends exclaimed that he had brought some bacon. Yeah!!! We all cheered in unison.

None of us were expert in either cooking or controlling the heat in the grill but we all were experts in being friends. Talking to each other, having a laugh, sharing our experiences, that was our thing and that’s what will always be in my memory. Not to mention, the mouth watering charred bacon…..