New Chapter (Prologue – I can hear the bells’ ring)

Hi guys!!! All these days I was very busy with work. In software industry, every day we may get to learn a new lesson. I did recently and will like to share with you all. The secret of success here is not how much hard you work, rather knowing who to blame for your failures. Anyway, I am out of those blame games for the time being and taking a sigh of relief, and thought will put down something which happened in between these days. I can’t jot down everything as I am neither as great as Ved Vyasa to write a new Mahabharata, nor I have got someone to write on my behalf, like how Ganesha did for him. So, in short, I AM BACK.

Everything was going on smooth till one call came. Now don’t think like Chetan Bhagat’s novel, call came from God. The call was from my uncle, my cousin bro’s marriage had got fixed, and he had invited us to attend. My bro is 2 yrs elder to me. Suddenly, my parents, who were seeing me as a kid till the call had come; could see me as a grown up boy and a potential bride-groom. They started telling since they are law-abiding citizen. They have got a daughter, and now they need one daughter –in-law. Oh my god!!! How can a call change your life, I realized it today. I did a lot of retaliations, but all in vain. They had answers for all the questions I had, and they never asked me those questions for which I had genuine answers. Experience matters. Finally, I had to hang my boots, and I asked them to carry on, thinking this enthusiasm will fade away soon. But that was not to happen. It started to burn like the Olympic torch, and they were determined to get a medal; if not gold, at least silver or bronze.

It’s not true I had never tried to fulfill this dream of my parents during my early years. But my dumbness (literal meaning not disability) came as a road block quite a few times. I never had an inferiority complex, but used to think that I cannot be counted as smart or ‘cool dude’ type. Later only did I come to know I am viewed as handsome as Abhishek Bacchan and Spiderman (without mask obviously) by few people (don’t read as my parents). I still remember in my school days, when I was in class VII or so, I had liked a girl. Even the girl used to like me. I had come back from hostel, and after gathering a lot of courage I wrote a letter for her and kept. I thought of giving it to her on the last day, so that even if she gets angry, I will be too far to get scolding’s, and I will be back again after around 5 months, so things would be cool. But there is always a twist in the story. Before the movie could release, it shattered as the biggest flop on the box-office. Yes, my mom caught the letter and showed it to my dad. I don’t want to insult myself by telling you all that I got 2 slaps, along with stack of scoldings. If Mirza Ghalib would had faced the same situation in his life, he could had written a sher on this something like this –

“Likhe jo khat tujhe, wo teri yaad me,
Saare ke saare PAPA ne padh liye!
Sawera jab hua to JUTE pad gaye,
Wo FASHION wale baal hawa me ud gaye!!”

This incident was enough to keep me decent for another 3-4 years. I concentrated more on sports and studies than girls. But every day is not a rainy day. When I went to my +2 school, the sleeping ghost woke up again. Not my mistake, my school mates (girls only, errrr) were too beautiful (poetic depiction). I thought enough is enough, searched for a girl (single), gathered more courage than the last time (after the slap gate incident) and proposed her. My god! What a shocker. I used to think as I am a dumb guy, but she came out be a deaf girl. Now I can’t put her in front of my parents even when she is deaf, just because she was beautiful.

Me : Ria, I love you.
Ria : Today only I bought new sandals.

Second time my heart was broken, but I was feeling more pity for her. She was such a young and beautiful girl, but deaf. I was little angry on her parents also, thinking why they are not taking care of her. Gradually that story also faded away. Only positive here was this chit-chat between a dumb boy and deaf girl never became public, and so there were no degrading incidents. Negative effect was; I was not sure if I will be able to gather that much courage again in future.

In between that last day and today, what all I did, let it be hidden in the bag. Lets come back to the present. Few weeks post that call, suddenly I heard on a Saturday evening, tomorrow, on Sunday, we are going to see a girl. It was something as good as SQA before a release from both sides. I protested, but it was of no use. What an irony!!! Few years back, who had scolded me for writing a letter to a girl, they only were forcing me to come and see a girl. This human life is so strange. I was more worried about the F1 race which was scheduled on the same day, and had told them whatever it is, we should be back before it starts.

We were supposed to meet at Lalbagh gardens. Last time I had gone there was around 3-4 years back, as a part of trip Bangalore Darshan. I was again heading there, almost with same aim, or to be little more specific, ladki darshan. My parents were more excited than me. Whether to wear this sari or not, or which shirt to put on was their main topic. I was wondering if they were going to see a girl for me or something else. We reached there around 11 AM. It was so mush rush there, being on Sunday. I could feel little bit of excitement with a blend of fear. What if they ask me to sing, dance or do something there, and if I am not able to, then ‘Pappu can’t dance sala’. We reached there before those guys and obviously the gal did. I and my parents, and the girl with two of their relatives (sister and brother-in-law) were gathering. They came after around 20 minutes, giving excuse that girls always take time to get ready and Bangalore traffic is so bad, bla..bla. Then started the inspection procedure through eyes, like some silent movie of old age. My parents’ eyes were fixed on her, their relatives’ on mine, mine on her and hers’ on ground. She surely could have counted the number of insects roaming around her high heels by then. Then we divided into 2 groups of the Gentlemen and the Ladies. This continued for another 20 minutes. Then we came out of the Lalbagh.

Story is not over yet guys!!! Then we went little ahead till Vision theatre and found a nice coffee outlet there. We six went there to have tea/coffee. Bollywood influence or what I don’t know, those four sat on a table and asked us both to sit on a table and talk. My god!!! Finally I realized what the pressure is. This is surely more crunch than an interview, or when you are batting when your team needs you. Anyway, I ordered for a coffee, and she preferred to have a tea. We sat there for around 5minutes without a word to share. I looked at my parents, and they were not at all bothered about me. As if we were complete strangers. I looked at her and saw the smile on her face. We both were sensing that same estrangement. My old habits were haunting me. Every time I was trying to start, the first words were coming as “Abe kamini! Oye moti!”. Finally I opened my mouth, and asked her name. Let’s call her Miss V. Initially, she was very reluctant to speak. Whatever I was asking, she was replying and that was all. Later when we started to speak about our work, it came out little better. She works in HP, and also in banking domain. Hufffff. These banks are not gonna leave me or what? She is a big fan of daily soaps, doesn’t like cricket or politics, early to bed and early to rise, likes to fight with auto drivers and many other things. At the end when I counted, our taste was matching only in 2 cases: both working in banking domain, and both like to fight with auto drivers. I was not at all sure if this was sufficient for a proper match. ;-) . We chatted for around 20-25 minutes when fortunately/ unfortunately our coffee got over.

We came to a conclusion that if we would had met somewhere else, not in this situation at least, we could had spoken little more, but the current scenario was forcing both of us to be decent and exhibit the best qualities, and it was not at all natural. I asked for her number, and she gave me. I never gave her mine. ;-) (Value-adding technique). Then we came out and parted our ways. I wished her happy Diwali and she got my number then, and she wished me back. The story ends here.

One satisfying thing was I didn’t miss the F1 race and reached back home around 1 hour before schedule. Somehow this process doesn’t look good once we come out of it. What if we don’t like each other, or either of us, then this whole thing looks like some drama. Feeling sad for the girl. Once we came back, believe me, not even once my parents asked me if I liked the girl or not. I was feeling little shy to tell anything about her from myself. But they had hidden the cat in their bag. And even I was silent. When I couldn’t control anymore, I started searching for people with whom I can share this experience. Then I remembered of you guys. Hufffff. Just forgot to ask her one thing – ‘What’s your Raashee?’ :)