A Date - your love story

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Go grab that hand that has been extended to you; go grant that hug which your lover awaits; go smile at that stranger who is smiling at you. Don’t think; act! Life is beyond thought ~ Anonymous

***

When Krishna met Meera

It was turning out to be one of most boring and uneventful journeys back to the BITS-PILANI Hyderabad Campus for me. Here I was standing alone in the Thumkunta bus bay sipping a cup of coffee, waiting hopelessly for an auto for a freaking thirty minutes now.

“You won’t find any autos today, sahib”, the guy in the tea stall announced. “They are all on a strike”

“Gone are the days when this place was untouched from the auto strikes. This time around the Telangana agitation found its way into a place as far as Thumkunta”, he said.

Suddenly I realized he was true. I had read about the bandh somewhere in the newspaper.

Meanwhile a 211 pulled over a couple of feet away and a girl got down. I knew her. She was Meera. In fact ‘knowing her’ is an understatement. I had a crush on this girl a couple of years back. I still remember the day I saw her for the first time: it was in Sumithra Mam’s tutorial for Chemistry-1. I never dared to go and talk to her. She was a beautiful girl, to say the least.

Back then, the mere thoughts of Meera robbed me of my peace of mind. It was the time when I had to shut it off, let it go, and said it's not going to happen. I had learned to unlike her. It was tough, but not impossible. And I was successful; well almost. Little did I know that once you have feelings for someone, those feelings will always be there. 

I could notice the dismay in her face when she reckoned the absence of the autos near the bus bay. She then looked around hoping to find a familiar face. Around a couple of feet away she found a guy, who looked strangely familiar, stealing glances at her. That was me.

I threw a weak smile that came all wrong. I cursed myself.

Emotionally, I’m done. Mentally, I’m drained. Spiritually, I'm dead and yet physically, I smile..!!!.

Unexpectedly, she returned the favor by letting a faint smile dance on her lips. It was like a symphony with a million pianos, playing in the background. I instantaneously turned back, half expecting to find Beethoven along with his crew giving a live performance on the streets of Thumkunta just to celebrate my imaginary love story. I couldn't make out what she was wearing. She looked like a princess to me, though: A Princess, who alighted from her Palanquin just to bless Thumkunta with her very presence.

I took a few fumbling steps towards her.

“Hey; hello!” I said trying to start a conversation.

“Hello” she replied, trying hard not to make an eye contact.

An uncomfortable silence followed.

After a while I couldn’t bear the silence. I had to say something.

“How do you intend to get back to the campus now?” I asked.

“I have a contact of an auto wala. I’ll try and call him”, she said, sounding nervous as hell.

“Don’t bother to call him. Apparently they are all on strike”

“Then how are you planning to get back to the campus?” she returned my question.

“I’ll walk all the way. I don’t see any other option”.

“You can join me if you wish”, I offered.

She bore a blank expression as if doing some deep calculations.

“Have you tried asking for lifts?” she suggested.

“Yes, but no luck. There are hardly any vehicles travelling”

“Hmm…okay then, let’s walk”, she concluded.

I was about to cross the road, but she objected.

“Can we avoid the shortcut? I have heard it’s not very safe after sunset”, she said.

“Sure. Let’s take the highway then”, I smiled.

It’s going to be one hell of a memorable walk for me.

***

A walk two-gether

None of us spoke in the first five minutes of walk. I kept looking at her “casually” like every 7 seconds. Meera was conscious of me staring at her.

“I am Krishna, and friends call me Krish”, I said.

“Meera… Meera Sharma”, she said with a faint smile which vanished immediately.

I noticed that something was not right in her otherwise flawless face. It was her expression. She was not smiling. Let alone smiling, she bore an expression which I related to that of a child who was denied a chocolate at a candy store.

Frown never looks good on a girl. A smile suits them better.

“Is anything bothering you?” I asked.

“Everything….Absolutely everything, about this day”, she retorted, still not making an eye contact.

“It all started with me losing my purse on the way to Thumkunta. I had all my cash and phone in it”, she exclaimed.

I’m sorry…were you saying something? I couldn’t help but to see how beautiful you really are!

“Hey do you mind if I make a call from your phone to mine?” she asked.

When I gave her my phone I noticed how beautifully manicured her hands were. While she was dialing the most beautiful permutations of the ten digits, I found myself envying my phone in her hands.

“No one’s answering the phone”, she said almost personifying the sad emoticon which we use on facebook chat.

It took us twenty minutes of a rather uneventful journey to reach Alankrita.

“Are you hungry?” I asked.

“Not quite”, she lied.

“But I am starving. Would you mind giving me company?” I asked.

She agreed.

Wow! I am about to dine with a Princess.

***

Sugar, spice and everything nice

“Is this like a date or something?” I asked myself as we took our seats in the restaurant.

I had butterflies the size of dinosaurs in my stomach.

“Do you come here often?” I asked.

What kind of question is that? I hate myself.

“Not quite often”, she replied.

I felt that she looked at me for a second (and maybe she really did).

I am going to heaven just because she saw me.

We finally placed the order and I noticed that Meera ordered the cheapest item on the menu: a clear soup.

“I can afford a dinner,” I teased her.

“Order anything you like”.

She blushed, beet root red.

“Thank you, but I’m not really hungry.”

Suddenly, I felt my heart vibrate, quite literally.

I am falling in love. Maybe this is how it feels when Cupid’s arrow strikes you

I half hoped that Cupid had two arrows and he aimed the other one on Meera.

Much to my dismay I discovered that it was my phone that was vibrating. I had received a text from an unknown number.

It read: Meera’s phone is with me. I’ll ask her to call you back as soon as I meet her – Shruthi.

I couldn’t make the head or tale of what the person was trying to convey.

It must be a silly prank by one of my friends. But how on earth would anyone know that I was with Meera.

Suddenly I realized that the message could have been from Meera’s lost phone. I crossed checked the number with that of the last dialed number and it matched.

I was proud of my “detective-like” brain and wondered if I could give Sherlock Holmes a good run for his money.

After redialing, Meera realized that her purse slipped into Shruthi’s baggage. Shruthi was apparently her friend who accompanied her to the city earlier this morning.

I could make out one thing from Meera’s expression: Her purse was safe and she would get it back as soon as this girl called Shruthi returned to the campus.

The night of dismay finally abandoned Meera’s face, paving way to a new dawn of smiles.

Man! Look at that girl…I have never seen anyone more beautiful…and so smart too…a combination to die for…..she is just my type…I didn’t even know I had a type.

My breath went out of me at the sight of her smile. She looked like someone who just escaped from a fairy tale. Meera watched my reaction to her with amusement.

He fancies me. But he is oblivious to the fact that I like him too. He had me at “hello”. Why can’t he see it? Boys are so naïve. Meera thought.

“Still don’t want to eat anything?” I asked.

“I am starving”, she confessed.

“Let’s place the order”

I believe when you are dating a Princess; you let her choose what she wants to eat. I thought and passed her the menu card.

“Don’t bother with the menu card. I can eat anything…I am a vacuum cleaner when I am hungry”, she winked.

As we were waiting for the arrival of the food, I covertly studied Meera. She was a hauntingly beautiful girl, pleasantly innocent but cautiously smart. I wondered how many guys must have asked her out. The very thought of imagining Meera with other guys was disturbing…very disturbing.

Love should be like Volleyball. You call “mine” and everyone backs off.

But apparently my life was neither written by Mills and Boons, nor was it a movie directed by Aditya Chopra.

When the food arrived, we closed in on our feast.

Before the dinner was over, I decided that Meera was much more than a beautiful girl. She was intelligent, had a sense of humor and was skilled at making me feel at ease. I had a feeling that she was genuinely interested in me. She asked me questions about myself that no one had ever asked before. Calling what we just had, “a conversation” would be an understatement; for me it was a “conver-sensation”.

I was having mixed feeling. I don't think I ever felt that good and that bad at the same time in my life.

Good: for I was dining with the most beautiful girl I had ever known.

Bad: for I knew she was too good to be called mine.

“It was absolutely scrumptious, Krish”, she said. I wondered if she was referring only to the food.

“I’ll visit the washroom and be right back”, she said and left.

***

Alone in the restroom, Meera studied her face in the mirror on the wall. She had no illusions about her look. She found herself staring at a disturbingly tired face. The hectic day had sucked out the entire glow in her face. Nevertheless she felt she was interesting-looking. Nice eyes. A good figure. She drew nearer to the mirror.

“What had Krishna seen when he looked at me?” she asked herself.

Do you really like me or are you just flirting in good faith?

If you want me, show me. If you need me, tell me. If you have me, show me off. If am worth it, fight for me.

***

The greatest battle lies within.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting” Meera said after returning.

No issues, I have been waiting for a girl like you since 20 years.

“Never mind”, I said by default. We then ventured on a walk which turned out to be both exciting and interesting.

A scrumptious meal and a memorable walk have nothing to do with the food you eat and distance you walk; it depends on the company you keep. In my case the company was Meera, the girl who was turning out to be the most important and interesting person I had ever met in my life.

Meera told me about her family and her schooling life in Ahmadabad.

She is a Gujarati girl! Are all Gujarati’s so beautiful? I wondered.

It was by far the best walk I had ever had. I could feel her trespassing into my world. A world which was peaceful was now infected with the virus called love. It was an unfamiliar emotion.

I want this walk to go on forever; I thought as we walked past DOMUS.

I fancied Meera in my first year, but at that time she was just a crush. She was just another descent looking girl, who managed a second stare from a guy. Now she was growing into something more malignant. I had never known anyone as bewitching. I wished I had befriended her much earlier.

There's always that one girl... no matter how long you don't talk to, no matter how long you don't see each other, and you always come back to her & fall in love all over again.

Meera was saying something about her life at BITS. The way she enjoyed it and all… but I didn’t pay any heed. I was lost in my thoughts.

I looked at Meera who was walking a couple of feet ahead of me.

Who is this - this amazing creature before me? She is like a butterfly: she goes wherever she pleases and pleases wherever she goes.

Just as they say: “Good things in life always come in small packets”. The walk was inching towards an end as we were just a few minutes away from reaching the campus.

Tell that girl you love her. Life is too short to keep everything to yourself because one day you’re going to wake up and wonder, what if…

“But how do I let her know that I like her?” was a million dollar question.

How can you fancy a girl so much that you don’t know how to tell her?

The thoughts in my mind reminded me of a line from one of the Spiderman movies: “The greatest battle lies within”. It was finally making sense. I could have sworn Peter Parker was referring to the feelings he had for Mary Jane Watson.

Meera is a Royal Princess who deserves an equally royal and handsome Prince Charming but I have to ask her out before she finds one. After all, you need not be a Prince to get a Princess.

Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. The only way to catch an uncatchable woman is to go on your knees.

Meera was walking a couple of steps ahead of me. I stopped walking and called for her. She turned and looked at me square in the eye. It didn’t make me feel any better. Her stare had brutally murdered my confidence.

“Meera; I absolutely and utterly adore you and I think you're the most beautiful and interesting girl I have ever met and more importantly; I genuinely believe and have believed for some time now that we can afford to know each other more”, I blabbered.

Don’t say we aren’t right for each other, the way I see it is… We aren’t right for anyone else. I thought of saying, but the words didn’t materialize.

Meera was left perplexed.  

“Meera Sharma; are you free this Saturday?” I finally asked.

Geez it’s easier scheduling Arab-Israeli peace talks than asking a girl out for a date!

Meera found herself thinking: Are they any more beautiful words in English dictionary than: “Are-you-free-this-Saturday?”

Yes! I am free for the rest of my life. She thought of shouting.

An affirmative nod with a half smile was all she could manage.

The pure happiness of that one moment when you act your heart is simply bliss! I looked up at the girl standing before me. Dressed in a drab tee and matching denim, her face bruised with sweat and fatigue, Meera Sharma still looked beautiful.

“I promise, the next date won’t be like this. I’ll arrange for a better transportation next time”, I winked.

***

an art, by Shashank.