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Enter a room full of people, no actually all men, and me a female. Not again. How do I get myself into such situations. Muttering under the breath with a smile on the face. One teacher in school says – shit happens, and here we go again ! Keep the smile going , it will get better, talk to the person next to you, get the mobile out and start the endless scrolling, get some papers and act intelligent and finally learn never to reach so much before time. No wonder the screen time gets so high every week.

Awkward moments are funny to reflect on. I am sure we all get into one of these sometime or other. At the time though it is very embarrassing. The thing is one can develop immunity to such situations and laugh it off with a -here we go again . Don’t shy away from attempting – that’s no good. Go for it. Nobody remembers in any case. People remember Trump and May , who am I . Normal people need to Keep Calm and Carry On and enjoy the experience.

One Friday evening four of us ladies decided that we were having a sleepover. Kids have it, husbands go on different things including whiskey tasting so its our turn now. Superb, for once we all Indian middle aged females were going to have fun. Mind you its not a big number but not too small either. Of course a meal ,then a movie and endless gossip were planned. But at 10.30 pm we decided to go to a nearby cocktail bar- ha ha, we had never done this before. We were feeling very brave and a mission complete mode. Never have I actually sat on a cocktail bar stool and requested a shot. In fact, none of us had. Seen it all the time in these western movies. Bollywood is getting there.

Right then, one lady is not going to drink and will be driving. She can have a mocktail. Lets go. We reach this bar, it was packed with only English people. Loud lovely music coming through. Ouch ,what are we doing. Get in or not. Look through the door,oh no, nudge nudge,go go, may be not. Hey come on ,what the —-, move it. Ha ha get in. Once inside everybody was so courteous, they probably felt our nerves, some men made space on a table. We decided on our little sweet fruity cocktails . Paid money, got them and settled in with the crowd. Phew, all that hastle for this friendly and welcoming atmosphere.Yeah, good on us. Another round of drinks and then we had some selfies and some photos by a man sitting on the next table. What a great time, we had. Ok time to go home and have another movie – Bad Moms.

You have to imagine though, four Indian women in their forties entering a cocktail bar full of English people. It still brings a smile on my face. We had so much fun and made such memories that day. Girls out there, please enjoy life. Have fun. Dont be coerced into any stereotypes. There are good people around you all the time and they will support you. It is never too awkward.