The Night That Wasn't Supposed to Happen. Circa June 2016.

Unfortunate turn of events, scary memories, unpleasant experiences, all when it was supposed to be a night of fun and dance. Thank you for taking time for reading my 2-min newsletter.🤗

Hey You💜,

She loved dancing and partying till the wee hours.

And thankfully she had a partner who loved doing the same. The perfect partners-in-crime.

A bunch of new found friends in the society led to conversations around stepping out for the night and painting the town red.

What they did not anticipate was - they would literally end up painting the town red.

Delhi has a different vibe, one that every soul living there would concur.
Despite several incidences, it still holds an ethereal charm to it.

Four of them took the night off from their daily chores and met at Monkey Bar in CP. (the first time they stepped out as couples away from their household chores)

After a couple of round of drinks, they wanted to go club hopping.

Now one of the best things about CP (Connaught Place) is - it has a shit load of places to go to. Be a little wary about your drinks because those cops keep snarling round every corner. ;)

Post Monkey Bar, their next stop was Open House. They had a 15 to 20 min wait time but they finally got in.

Soul-thumping music, packed to the core, and the crowd absolutely mind-blowing. Perfect start to the night before they went to the next one.

The bar menu had a variety of options and one of them was their favourite drink - The Fire Shot.

They had had the Fire Shot on 3 different occasions before in different ways, and it was one of their favorites. This was basically cherry on the top.🎈

Their friends ordered for regular vodka and beer, the husband ordered his whiskey and the wife wanted to have her favorite - Fire Shot. 🥃🔥

The bartender served the Fire Shot in a narrow base martini glass -🍸(yea something like this without the stem)

The Fire Shot is a concoction of 3 to 4 alcoholic spirits served in a glass with the top layer lit on FIRE. Yup, that’s why the name - Fire Shot.

They had it before, under supervision of the bartender in other places, where the bartender tilted your head back, poured the drink and closed your mouth tight so that the fire douses. (not harmful trust me)

So the couple tried the same and because it was a broad mouthed glass they did not anticipate what would happen next.

The Fire Shot Drink poured out of the glass on to the girls chin, hair, neck and bit of her upper part of the chest, missing the synthetic dress she was wearing by an inch.

She was on FIRE😔

She screamed and shouted for people to help her but everyone just stepped back instead of helping, even the bartending staff did not know what to do.

Her friend used her quick-wit and took a bottle of water and splashed lots of it on her to douse the fire.

Her husband stood there frozen. Pale White Frozen. Unable to understand what just happened.

While the girl was in pain, she did not realize the extent of her injuries. Her friends and husband rushed to the Emergency room of a hospital in Delhi. RML Hospital.

She was crying and laughing in pain and consoling her friend to calm down because her friend couldn’t stop crying. (it was a funny scene in hindsight) :)

ER of any hospital is NOT A PLACE TO VISIT. The kind of injuries people come there with, is beyond imagination. They saw the most horrific sights that night.

After waiting for 30 mins, the girl was finally taken behind a curtain to check the extent of her injuries. The nurse said they had to go the Burn Ward and get her checked there.

The Burn ward was around 15 mins walking distance from the main ER room.

The Burn Ward always has full AC on because the souls over there have severe 2nd and 3rd degree burns and they must be kept cool at all time.

They were told to go back to the ER because there was no doctor on call at that moment. Remember it was almost 1 am when this happened.

They went to the ER, the nurse gave her a cream to apply and told her to visit a specialist the following day.

They all went back home. She was in stinging pain. They were in stinging pain seeing her. The husband was numb to the core. He still could not process what had happened.

Sometimes we take life for granted and these moments give us our second-chances and life-defining moments that we never forget.

The next few hours were painful. They all went back home. But never forgot what happened that night.

The following 8 - 10 weeks were full of ups and downs.

The girl met a cosmetologist specializing in ‘plastic surgery’ because that’s what the GP had suggested. The cosmetologist was a blessing in disguise.

For the next few weeks after the incidence, she was coated in Soframycin skin cream and a huge bandage around her neck. She was not allowed to go near fire because it will burn the neck more, it was the blistering heat and humidity of June and thus she was told to sit in the AC 24 hours.

The husband did not leave her side even for a minute. He did not open his mouth, spoke very less, and she could only think about what he must be going through. :’)

She went through hell and back all in one night.

She took care of herself and made it through very well without a scar on her neck or chin. All thanks to the wonderful Cosmetologist.

The biggest lesson they all learnt that day -

It takes a second for life to spin out of control. Worrying about minute things in life is like striking stones to light a fire. It’s not needed. They got a second chance to not make the mistakes again. They got a chance to appreciate life once again.

Open House was cornered on every social media platform, they wanted to make a compensation of 75k for the ‘damages’ done. The only request the girl had was - Remove the Fire Shots from all their outlets. Train the bartenders better to handle situations like this.

The review never came down. (don’t know if it is down today)

Every day in our life is a story we write. Don’t miss out on creating yours.

Thank you for staying till the end 💜.

Until later…

Cheers,
Yours truly ❤️

(PS: The girl is me.)