'Love' from a Kodak moment - WY4 - Part 2

Part 1 is here

As days progressed, we understood each other and started to spend time more and more with each other as we finally approached the big stage called Marriage.

Man it sounds great. I wish it was like this. But as you all can guess it was not. I was getting Romeoer day by day, doing stupid things with the motorcycle, sunglasses et al.

One fine day, Mr.Bob, my beloved pop, stopped by my street-cricket stint and told me to get in his transportation device that he calls a scooter. We went towards an unknown destination, as I was enjoying it because the path was towards her house. Within the proximity of her apartment, dad stopped his vehicle and asked me "Where is her apartment?"

"Who?" with a suddenly-developed puzzled look.

"Don't act. You know who am talking about. Priyanka!" he said.

As I realized how my beloved friends, who were there at my house last evening, found their way to appreciate the veg briyani that they had in my place, I said, "Here is her apartment. Don't worry I am not serious or anything, it's just for fun"

"I know, still I wanted to know how she looks like" he was curious and led me to spend our rest of the 10 min journey eventfully describing her, the way I saw her...yes to my dad.

Hence everyone in my family knew about her and also understood that I was not serious and I was in love. Yet again. Whatsoever, they were curious to see her.

Few days later, a pretty close family friend of ours, who lived downstairs, planned to have a Salwar exhibition opposite to my house. Naturally the billing section was few feet way from where I eat everyday. As I said already, Salwars and Dhuppatas means the world to Priyanka as well as her friends, henceforth the laws of attraction prevailed. I knew she was going to be there. Unfortunately, my whole family as well as the friends knew this. She came. She conquered. I pointed who she is from a distance, and left the place without being able to bear each one of my acquaintances walking close by and having a good look at her. It was funny to witness that. The point is that my family was approved by the way she looked and was assuming that it was important to me.

Days passed by, I grew up, went to college, found new interests. As I said, she became a part of my pastence....not history yet!

One day, as usual, I made a new friend over the train journey from Madras to Chidambaram. Needless to say, it was a She. Like I always do, I made the world smaller, and found that she knew Priyanka. I spoke to this girl as if I knew Priyanka, and the rest of the night was spent with the clan trying to explore more and more of each other.

A week later, I saw this girl again in the train. This time she was with a surprise. She said she spoke to Priyanka, and apparently she claimed to know me. For a guy who was assuming to have taken a rogue role in her life, she claiming to know me is a big thing.

"I spoke about you to Priyanka. She seem to know you from somewhere, she said that you are a nice guy. Just that you were caught in a Bad gang" is what she said.

The first thing that came to my mind was my folks. That weekend I got back to rip their lives apart. "Guys, see what's the result of us being naughty and unruly. If not for you guys, may be she would have considered me. It's all in the game, I was not serious and right now I am busy with other interests anyways. But remember I won't forget this…and I know what to do when I am serious with anyone down the line" which is the most seriously funny thing I have ever told to these folks.

Days passed by, Guna was waiting over the weekend. I still don't remember that if I heard this thro Guna or someone-else. Whatsoever, the essence of the story was in there.

"Dei, how do you think that she know your name?", he asked

"May be one of you guys shouted when she was around! Comeon da! We have our own way of finding the girls name we are interested in. May be she had her way of finding the folk's name who was interested in her. How does it matter anyway?", I said.

"Apparently, the guy she was talking about is not you!" he said as I was not surprised. "Remember, my friend Bharath, who hung out with us the other day, it was him she was talking about. She met him a coupla days ago and he found that apparently 'he had claimed to her friend in a train that he knew Priyanka'" - Oops! That was me - "And did you know who the bad gang was? Us As you always claim…the clan reflects the leadership….so do you understand the repercussions of staying in excited state for life"

I was dumbfounded. …Man I am the self-proclaimed leader, as every one of us, of this bad gang…am not even in the vicinity of being in her good books at the least! I was assuming that she thought I was put up with a bad gang ….but now it's needless to stay …that am Bad gang…the next thing was that we were rolling on the floor and laughing at this….. Celebration started…drinks all over….we all went to the bunk shop to drink the infamous "Rs.1.50 Rasna" that comes with a tag line that we stole from Pepsi "nothing official about it"

We were drinking and discussing how bad we are and how we can improve and get worser! Momentarily, I heard the sweetest voice asking for some thing in the bunk shop. Without my knowledge my jaw dropped...I turned around …and looked in to her…The voice, the eyes, the looks…for the 54th time in my life, I claimed that "I am in love for the first time".

'Love' from a Kodak moment - WY4 - Part 1

Time for some walk down the memory lane…after a series of seemingly serious posts, I thought I should take a break and post something less read-worthy but remember-worthy!

As I claimed before, somewhere in one of my previous posts, I have fallen in love quite a few times. Well, with respect to love, I am not even close to Forrest Gump, because I safely would say that I don't know what Love is. But sure I loved to tell that 'I am in love', without knowing what it is. Yes! That's what I did quite a few times, and this is one of those! Good gods, that it stayed with me and didn't take that humongous amplification, unlike some stupidities, and push me to tell it to those people involved.

For some reason, throughout my life the girls that I come across with the name Priyanka were all on the best looking category. It started from the one that I have been trying to forget but couldn't do so! And henceforth the flashback begins…

Statutory warning: There is no message at the end of this misery called a series of comical sequences in the life of yours truly.

"Dude, I have nothing to do for the next few hours? Do you want to go to the Marina beach?" Guna tried to make it sound as an unusual remark to overcome a fact that we are always jobless.

"Yeah! Let's go there! I know that one of my friends is coming there today with a couple of her friends…! Dude! She is so damn pretty da…quite lately I have been thinking of falling in love with her!" said Santhosh, indicating the motivation factors to step in and start our walk towards the coast.

In a jiffy we were along the coastlines of the Marina, trying to find the three seemingly good-looking girls. After quite a while, looking for them all along the second largest beach in the world, we found them near the waves. We were a group of six notorious young "wannabe" men, at least we thought so. So, everyone around was looking at us for the reasons that we did not want to know. But all we wanted was that one look from her and she did. "Cloud 9!" I screamed within myself!

After few following stints, it started to get monotonous. As for me, I did not find her particularly attractive. She was good. But nothing in her shook me, the way I wanted to be. So I was trying to find someone else to entertain my late-teen self for the rest of the evening, so was the other four with me…. all of a sudden…something stuck us…we thought of using the camera we had ….and may be get a good picture of her.... so she lasts longer than she would!

Now, who is going to take it…and it's important that we need to get a good closer shot…tough job indeed…. and henceforth we needed a scapegoat …someone who doesn't think about the world, rather at that time world is just those girls, or someone for whom it doesn't matter…. well we had one guy who was a perfect fit…and he was the volunteered one…Hemanand…. We went closer….

We stayed a few steps away…and he approached…as he heard the three girls were talking bout what means a world to them, the color combinations on their dhuppatas!! He stepped in closer…jus 3-4 ft distance … with the camera in the right place for the snap….

I don't know if it's the movies or in reality, a beautiful girl always hangs out with a couple of below average ones (dochus) and always stay in the right position! Not that I want to make statement about the other two, but even in this case, she was hanging out with them and sitting exactly in the middle as the side fiddles talking as I said what meant the world to them. She was in the perfect position as if she knew that we were going to take a picture.

"Excuse me" he screamed, the moment they looked at him. Clicked it. Thanked them. Swooshed in 2 seconds.

Obviously the Paprazism doesn't happen to them quite often, hence they were perturbed. They picked all their stuff and started to follow him, as he started running. We all did not know how to react and hence scattered all around the beach. This is not something that we all wanted to do, but something excited us and we followed the gut feeling that turned in to partial guilt. We ran all over the place, and finally finished the evening, meeting back at our usual joint near my place.

After an argument of developing/exposing it…we finally agreed on seeing how it came out to be….right away we paid our visit to the studio.

Few days passed by as we started to forget what happened. One fine evening, Santhosh stopped by to show us those pictures.

The picture was not perfect! But she was! For the 37th time in my life, I claimed that 'I am in love for the first time'. She was ravishingly beautiful, much better than how I saw her in person. But then, Santhosh was interested in her, henceforth as a sacrificial anode, I had to control my emotions that were overflowing.

Days passed by, Santhosh found a new interest. Never told me why he found a quitter in himself. I was more jobless…So I planned to cement my Love. I was exactly like those road side Romeos that you get to see in Tamil movies, making fun of people around me, trying to get her attention in all possible ways. And the fact that she was living a few streets away from me helped to stay within her spectrum of vision and thoughts. Finally, she knew me for all possible reasons that I don't want to know.

As a matter of fact, I asked her once if she needs a ride back home from her software center, where she was waiting on something. She smiled, which by the way shook me the way I wanted to be, and said that she would some other day as she is expecting someone to pick her up that day. I know it sounds stupid now, but then it was bliss then. She smiled!

Part 2 is here

When reality strikes!- Short story - Part 2

See Part 1 here

"Dei mama, this is too much da", he was obviously disturbed to see me reacting as if I saw a stranger.

"Machi, just because of some stupid idiotic reason like adding your name after her brother's in a horrendous fwd mail, you can't do this to her. You guys have been going out for the past 3 years. Aren’t you supposed to be more matured than this" Sriram certainly did not like himself being the mediator.

I was confused. I made sure that am not seeing her eyes, which will take away all those egoistic absurdities that I had framed for my “self”. All she did was a tap on the floor. It was like "Look up moron", for God knows what reason; I looked up right in to her eyes.

Without taking my eyes off her, which I couldn’t , I said "Dei, ask her if she is coming home for the cutlet and chutney", a glimpse of her eyes did what my mom, father, sister, brother and loads of thrashings from Sriram failed to do for the past 48 hours.

Moments later, I was witnessing her talking skills as she was discussing something that she is really bad at. Cooking!! And for my mom, nothing is better in the world than a sincere student who likes to learn the skill set from her. Certainly she had her way through my mom. No wonder she made my mom say the all important "Yes" in a jiffy, 3 years ago.

Knock Knock!

My brother entered, it took few seconds for him to understand what’s going on, the moment he knew it! He was laughing out loud! "You are so damn hopeless da. I still remember your strong face, when you said you will come to Anniyan tonight with Sriram! You were so damn sure that it will be only Sriram and none else. Now that she is here, I know that it won’t happen. You can't stay put for more than 48 hrs, can you?"

It took a piercing look and loads of thrashings from her to stop him rolling on the floor at my expense. On the other hand, I was lucky to have a sensible brother like him. He had booked 4 tickets for the night show and took appa and amma along with the much needed Sriram, knowing that we need our terrace time to catch up on the past 48 hrs.

After the tatas and see you laters, I was with her counting on the moments I was thinking about her for the past two days. I already knew that one cannot quantify a feeling, but the pleasure of trying to quantify it, cannot be explained. I know that I had been missing those eyes, palms, smell, warmth and most of all the presence. But the dude inside stopped me from being the expressive kind. I was not quite certain on what happened to me! What do I call her eyes, Gravity? Vacuum? Black hole? May be something else which is yet to be explored by the classical and contemporary physicists! I was absolutely no one when it comes to physics, but the privilege of the possessing the unexplorable certainly was getting on my head. Even if I wake her up in the middle of the night and look in to those beautiful eyes! I would witness the inexpressible.

We did not converse for the past 48 hours, even after the make up in the temple, everything was through Sriram. After sending all off, it was the three-stair-walk with the hands holding the hearts! On the terrace with the most romantic set-up, amidst the foreshore breeze and the Orion, Pegasus and Andromeda, she killed the dude in me with just a glimpse. The tiny sparkle that was glancing at me as her lachrymal byproduct evolved and catalyzed the instinctual revelations, made me say it, first. What I never thought would say, “I......."

"You've got mail....” the Celeron was yelling at me. It was 7:49 am, Cookeville, Tennessee. "Come on da its summer and… the boss…he is not in town, wake up later moron, it’s so damn nice why don’t you continue it", I was talking to myself. I was all alone in well lit up room to negate the Chandramukhi factors that was gripping me for a while now.

After a brief fight between the guilt and the dream progression, I was out of the bed, thinking that "Would it have been like this if I was home now, instead of being in this world of reasoning and adaptation?"

Well as I stepped in, the western style was laughing at me, shouting, "IN YOUR DREAMS BUDDY".

After the customary few moments with the microwave coffee and CNN headlines. Nostalgia picked up my cell phone, called my sister and said "What are you doing di? Did Priyanka started?"

It took a while for her to understand my question without realizing that the dude in me was awake and risen, trying to ask irrelevant questions and killing the real me.

After a 7 min stroll, I was in my office looking at my outlook to see those bulk mails in my hotmail folder and the unperturbed desktop icons!

"Barath, kill that dude in you, be yourself. At least tell it to her", I told myself.

I opened my desktop folder, looked at her and finally said "I missed you",

Thermodynamics was smiling back at me!!

When reality strikes!- Short story - Part 1

I'm not a great story teller/writer. But a strong be'lie'ver on trying new things. If you are used to my idealism, you would not enjoy this as much as you usually do. But wth, give it a shot!

"Barath!!" unusually, appa was not loud that day.

"Yes am up! appa!", I was up 5 mins ago, waiting on his VoIP.

It took a couple of minutes for me to get up and fold my dear old nearly ruined mat and the blanket that was protecting my dreams on the day ahead. With the few uncontrollable steps, followed by a stopover and a headshake, I was right outside the first bathroom. I always need that 30 seconds outside the bathroom, with my heads right on the door to catch up and take that dizz over.

"Allrite lets start it", I said to myself.

In few seconds, I was outside, in the balcony/washing place, multitasking! Gobbling and looking for her in the next apartment. After sharing a few glimpses of her along with her amma and making those unwanted noises to grab an eye to eye, I was ready to start my day.

"How many days do I have to tell you to wear a pure cotton saree when you are going to sleep?" the adulterated cotton sarees does not take the moisture out of the morning face wash. And it's almost impossible to start my day without wiping my face on mom's saree and the hug from behind.

"Okay doggie. I will consider it next time. Now take your foamy coffee and drink it soon and btw Mr.Rao, do you need your second one?" amma was at her best, and for appa it was just a nod without taking an eye of his keep, Hindu. I always wondered how in the world she manages everything with all those time constraints in just the two tiny hands that she has. No wonder she is managing a whole school all by herself.

After the routine viboodhis and Gajananams I was hoping to pierce through my schedule. I was answering something to amma and was trying to step in to the shower as the bathroom door drove my head through the covers.

"Dei, Buffalo, I am inside. Give me a couple of mins" my brother. It was unusual to witness him being inside the bathroom before me. Then I remembered that it was his meeting day and he needed to be there in his office by 8.00 am.

As for me, "the morning business" is like making love, not because I do it more than once a day in weird timings, but for other unaccountable reasons. The other bathroom at home was western style. Not to take anything from their culture, but I hate western style, it never gives me the feeling of completion. Especially the climax! Sheeesh! One thing is for sure, they really don't know what they are missing. Awkwardly positioned!! Impossible to carry on for the rest of the day. Thank god I am not forced to use it every day.

After flirting with few mugs of cold water and the good old cinthol, listening to amma's don't waste water slokas, I was out getting ready listening to the morning headliners with my appa's 3rd round of filter coffee.

"Dei Dog, what are you doing tonight? How about Anniyan night show?" my brother, for the past few days, was insisting on joining him

"Allrite da, will tag along with Sriram" I stressed, as he responded with a smile, right before his runaway from the morning curd rice and curry. It took few minutes for amma to realize that he ran away without even eating his breakfast. After the usual ramblings and thrashings, she was back to normal, consoling herself that she would feed him more in the evening with some cutlets and chutney.

Well, my usual breakfast was curd rice and the most welcomed hot curry in the middle of the course. It's more of a custom that I had to follow every morning. As a matter of fact, I cannot start or end my day without it. After reminding my father to call my sister and make sure that she has everything for the weekend function that she was planning to host in Adyar, I was out in my old Zen, towards my office.

In few minutes, right after the customary honks for the neighboring sexuality to make sure that she knows that I was out of the house, I was on the roads.

The morning went on with the usual coffee breaks and debugging. The afternoon was with the usual blank calls and sleep control activities.

"Dei buffalo, where in the world are you? It's almost 5:30; have to go to the Anjineyar temple and we might go to Anniyan night show? Where are you?" I was screaming at Sriram.

"Allrite, I will see you at the temple in 15 minutes" he was there with usual IST promises.

6:15, he was there. "Sorry Maaps, it took longer than I expected, Anyways give me a few minutes, I will be back" knowing that I won't mind him delaying his stay there.

I was right there, with my thoughts and eyes aligned on her. I have been visiting this temple, everyday for the past 10 years, but for the last few days this is something that I enjoyed to do. It's impossible to take your eyes off a beauty in a temple. It goes well with both the god as well as women. Especially when you know, that she don't mind you watching her, as a matter of fact she was enjoying it. I always have the Temple times divided in to Saami time (pre-prayer) and Maami time (post-prayer, looking at the beauties). As I was in my Maami time, I know Anji would not mind me paying my tributes to the goddess of beauty. She was breathtaking! "Thank god she lives next door", I said to myself.

Before I could quantify the amount of time that passed by as I was enjoying the beauty of the creator. I saw Sriram talking to her. I did not realize the reasons for the funny feeling that was flowing through my blood vessels. To add more to it, they both were walking towards me. As they approached my radius of gyration, I was not even looking at their eyes. Its not the typical me, never in my life I have given a thought before looking at someone in to the eyes and start a conversation, but today its not the same. As a matter of fact, I was shaking inside and starting to feel restless motivating myself not to bite my nails and display the nervous disorder! without realizing that I have been doing it from the moment they started walking towards me.

Part 2 is here!