Had fun being out of place!

I had mentioned in my previous post about the FH&RA and the people who had come for it. It is the *****( 5 star) and ****(4 star) hotel owners and delegates from all over India! Definitely, a down- to-earth software professional, a cool college student, and an orthodox housewife can never fit in the scene! But we had fun!
The college student (read my brother) asked the s/w professional(read me) for a suggestion on his attire for Sivamani's concert. 'Should I wear formals? or casuals?' I, with all the knowledge acquired over the years on dress-code, gave a sly grin, and said, 'Formal? are you kidding? Go casuals dear brother!' My brother, surprisingly, for once, thought his sis was right, and chose to don his favorite hardly washed jean and a denim shirt to go with it. We reached there and voila! All the men folk were in designer suits!! The most casual attire in the crowd was 'khakis' with a solid color shirt - the business casual in the s/w world!! My brother burnt me down with his stare! Thankfully, two other men were dressed in casuals as him, but they were fellow drummers in Sivamani's troupe! The only soothing factor for my brother is that, his sis was the only gal in salwar, plaited hair and plain face! All the other young women were in trousers with their hair left lose and painted face! So we did quite stand out!
At the doorway, a few gentlemen and ladies, were chatting and smoking! First cultural shock for the orthodox housewife (read my mom). She saw them, raised her brows and exclaimed 'Don't we look out of place?!' But, I could hear her pray to her favorite Gods - 'Don't let my kids get influenced by this!!' followed by a worried look.
We went into a silent auditorium and Sivamani's drums was a real treat..Again, I had mentioned enough about the irrelevant audience in my previous post. For the kind of music - typical 'kuthu', be it a college student or a s/w professional, we wanted to get up and dance... But the audience would sit still as if they were listening to Pandit Ravishankar's sitar or Hariprasad's flute!
After the show, was the most funniest part! the dinner! A well-laid Buffet from Radisson - Obviously veg and non-veg. My mom, already had butterflies in her stomach! She was so scared of mistaking a non-veg dish. Her loyal lieutenants assured to help her out. As soon as we entered the buffet lounge, to the left, was a neatly laid table with colorful glasses of drinks. My cousin, an 8th std. kid, went to the stall, turned to us and asked, grape or apple nectar? Just then, we realized she was asking us to make a choice between, wine and beer. Told her, we don't drink fruit juice on Saturday evenings and brought her from there.
The theme of the dinner was 'Tamilnadu dishes' and on the menu, was Meen kaara kuzhambu, kozhi varuval and eraichi masala - items to be avoided by the veggies.. Mom kept repeating these names in her mind and cross-verified it with the name boards. Then, there was a 'Paalkatti kootu' It was a dish out of grated paneer which looked like grated egg.. After having a mouthful of it, mom had a doubt if that was egg!! to add to the irony, my brother, to have some fun, suggested to my mom, it looked like egg.. She almost threw up. She wouldn't trust my analogy with the name. She went to the waiter, to confirm that it was indeed vegetarian.
There was Mr.Strongs juice bar(BAR??) and they came around giving small pints to sample - color of grape and apple nectar again - Mom refused. On further enquiry we realized it was indeed grape and apple and took the pints. Got reminded of a famous tamil proverb - "panamarathadiyil..."
My brother and I had some fun with a game - The goal of the game, to identify the type of the 'madhubaanam' in people's hands and if possible, infer the 'round' the drinker was indulging himself in, by the way he holds his glass, by the way he behaves silly or walks...
After the dinner and the customary goodbye, we were ready to leave. At the exit, Mr. Strongs, were giving promotional gifts to everybody - A bottle of chamagne, red wine, whiskey :-) My brother and I were thrilled. Mom sighed. After we got it, we realized that they were just look-alikes!! It said Old Secret - COLA, Red Wine - Non Alcoholic, Chamagne - 0% Alcohol. Mom was thrilled! We sighed!
But the evening was indeed good! Was a treat to eyes, ears and mouth!