Rumble in Brick Lane

So the four of us (JP, Jess, Stefan, and I) went on an uneventful trip to Brick Lane. We got to the street and for some bizarre reason, before we made it to our usual frequenting of Monsoon, we were accosted by hawkers from all sides, especially some from the restaurant across from Monsoon, Saffron. As the Saffron hawker was talking to me, I went like deer in the headlights and zoned out, while the Monsoon hawkers were poking fun at Saffron. I thought nothing of it, as I snapped out of my daze and we walked into Monsoon as usual.

We sat down to dinner at a window by the door and all of a sudden on the street we saw two hawkers raise their voices and then start throwing punches at each other. Out of nowhere, tons of Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis descended on the street and other hawkers tried to break up the fight or join in on other sides. One of the hawkers ran into Saffron and took off his jacket, while the other guy tried to follow him in and everyone was holding them back. It seemed as though things had come to blows between Monsoon and Saffron across the street from each other and a Cold War had begun. For the rest of the night, everyone was watching everyone stealthily from the windows of the respective restaurateurs.

As we were eating dinner and noticing the street still looked pretty fierce, we worried about our precarious and exposed position in the restaurant. I mentioned that someone could throw a brick through the window and hit me in the head. Jess admonished the peril of a body coming through the window. Always the optimist, I made the best of the situation by saying if flying debris hit me in the head, I would at least be able to wake up from my coma in time to greet my parents when they arrived in London. Stefan even improved it by saying I could write a book about all the weird dreams I had when I was in a coma and people would buy it to read that shit and it would be a bestseller. He said even if I didn't dream anything, I could still make shit up because people would still love it and eat it up.

Nice.