A Proposal (Pt 2)

…. Continued from A Proposal Part I

5:15 PM

I’m waiting outside her place waiting for her to come down. I waited for a while, I was getting a little impatient and restless…. And Lo! Time just froze, my anxiety, restlessness, the sounds around, people everything, I mean everything just faded to little nothings, reduced to an insignificant existence. All I saw was her, I know its a bit hard to believe, but there I was experiencing that very emotion. She was beautiful, elegant and charming. She was wearing one of the tops I had gifted her 2 weeks back. I wonder if she feels the same…..

“Lets go”, She said.

She has already perched herself on my bike. I felt stupid that I had become oblivious to what was happening around me.

“Right!”, I started my Bike and started heading towards Koramangala like a pre-programmed bot.

“So, where are we going today?”, She asked.

“What?”, I’m a little distracted now, I’m praying to all Gods that I don’t crash into anything, but I couldn’t stop staring at her thru my rear view mirror. She is so Damn beautiful.

“I said, where are we going today? Did you bring the Uno Deck?”

“Yeah”, I replied, remote and disconnected. I was beginning to feel the gravity of the situation.

“Ok, so where ARE we going today?”, There  was a tone of ultimatum in that question. My brain pre-empted all the thoughts to tend to that query. I’m convinced that brains of any guy is hardwired to respond to such queries immediately.

“Hmmm.. How about… CCD at Indiranagar?”, Was my preferred place, isolated and chances of bumping to anybody I know was remote.

“No, its too far off, lets go somewhere closer, How about Boca Grande?”

Damn! Boca has a very high risk of bumping into known people.

“Hmmm…How about we go to Gloria Jeans instead?”, It was a nice place, We get good coffee, and I very badly need one. I’m a disaster waiting to happen…

So off we go to the Gloria Jeans. To my disappointment, half of Koramangala was there. It was crowded and only place I got had an old lady sitting facing us. I was not comfortable.

“Lets go from here!, we will go to Mocha”, I said, irritated and bugged.

She was not happy either(with the crowd, that is).

“Okay”

We took our stuff, and left the place. I was lost and dazed…. I was lost in a sea of memories, all the time I spent with her….

“……. Are you listening?”, She asked, I had no clue what she said.

“Err… Sorry what was it again, I was a bit distracted”, I said, since I could not come up with a better excuse.

“What happened? You seems to be pre-occupied since the time you picked me up, Everything Ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine… just some stuff at office”, I reacted, yeah! right! Im sure she could smell the B*ll Sh*t from about a mile away. ( Paranoia is kickin in big time!)

So we hop on my noble steed and head out to the next watering hole. I was distracted. She is normally the reserved type. However, with me, she is normally  a bit chatty and we usually engage in incessant small talks. She would talk about how someone will come and give her a bunch of red roses and sweep her off from her feet. Or about her fans in her neighbourhood…  She needed a “Knight in shining armour”, she needed someone to elevate her from mere ‘existance’ to living. Will I be able to live up to her expectations? She is intelligent and beautiful and I can be best described as ‘Oink!’…..

“Are you done surveying the junction?”, a bit irritated, and a very sarcastic tone of hers snapped me back to my senses.

We were on my motorbike, stuck at the signal. My head was automatically performing a radar sweep for babes (When a guy is not fed with instructions from higher intelligence, he automatically initiates a radar sweep). I’m sure there were a lot babes on the road that day, but most of my interrupts were masked, including SIGBABES. So, nothing registered. All I could think about was her. In a strange way, she was sitting right behind me, and all I was thinking was the stuff we did together so far.

06:30 PM

We reached our intended watering hole. I park my noble steed in the stable. We walk into the place. All the seats inside were taken, besides there is absolutely no privacy there… So I find us a spot at outdoors, it was nice and isolated. “Perfect!” I thought to myself, “If she slaps me or walks out on me then I will be spared of all the embarrassment ”.

“So, where is the Mystery gift?”, She started with her attack.

“err… Lets order first.”

“Okay, anymore hints?”, she asked.

“Nope! just a little while longer!”, I replied. I have been dropping her with hints throughout the week. I guess she has some idea.

“Okay….”

Somebody took down our order, and I run out of time again… she is going to start banging on me for the gift again, I need to figure out a way to….

“Okay, NOW can you give me the mystery?”, She was eager.

“Any guesses? List out all the hints I have given you”

“NO! Why should I guess for something I will be getting now. Just give it “

Oh oh! Now she is eager to know what is it. Her patience is running low, she is smelling something fishy is going on. Situation is getting more and more hostile.

I reach for my pocket and take out the Uno Deck.

“This is my gift?”, She asked.

“Nope, I will give you the gift after our coffee arrive”

“Okay!”,she said pretty calmly.

Now, this is interesting, all of a sudden her eagerness vanished. I did not know how to interpret that! My brain was going haywire at this sudden twist.

Our Coffee came pretty quickly. Now I’m out of time!

I tuck back in the UNO deck in my jacket, next to the letter I had written for her.

She is going to ask again, I knew it.

“So?”, She looks at me with a hint of excitement.

“So??”, I asked her back, as though I knew nothing.

“So, what is it?”, She asks, almost too eager to contain herself.

I give her the Key chain and rambled,  “There you go, I did warn you that is nothing important!”

Now I have my hands in my Right Jacket pocket, Within it is a piece of folded paper and a deck of Uno Cards. I have make a decision, I have make one right now! Which one will I draw out? How is she going to react? I’m sure she has seen this coming, or will it be a complete surprise? Is this the end of the our little friendship or will it elevate to a new level? “Now isn’t the time to think of that, Just do it man!”, I thought to myself.

I initiated a countdown in my head “5…..4…..3…..2…………………………….1………..0.5……….0.4……..0.3……..0.2…..”  , I’m chickening out, I just took the letter and placed it on the table, next to her.

“What is this?”, She asks, Shocked and surprised.

“I want you to read it!”, I replied.

Patience is not her virtue. So she opens it and starts reading from some random location, trying to figure out what is it.

“Read it from the beginning please!”, I plead with her.

So she flips to the first page, reads for about 10 seconds and placed it back on the desk

“Oh my God! I don’t want to read this!”

“Please! I want you to! I might fumble if I speak about it.”

She picks it up and starts reading again. I thanked all Gods I knew.

She reads the whole thing, she had a very solemn expression. Situation was fast turning into a disaster, I need to gear up for a firefight.

“Why? Why did you have to do this?”, her question had no anger, just a mild disappointment.

“I had to, I thought this over and I’m sure of it. Besides, this is the only way forward”, I said.

“How so? We could have remained as good friends”

Ok, I have to react to that quickly.  “Well, we cant be this good a friends if you get married off to someone, can we? Can you justify the number of SMS ’s we exchange in a day to him?”

She is thinking now, Good!

“Besides, accept it, knowing you, haven’t we crossed lines of friendship at times? you know it!”, I was scoring big time!

“Yeah!”, she answered, her HDD still whizzing.

“I need time to think about this!”, She said, still thinking.

“Okay! take your own sweet time”

I felt relieved. I could sleep again. However, she has to worry now. She asked me for time, I will give her that. Besides I need to recharge myself for the next volley of questions she might ask.

We actually finished the coffee, and believe it or not, went for a walk followed by dinner and then dropped her back to her place. It was a good day. I just hope that her thought process ends up with something positive…

Technorati Tags: Romance,Fiction,Love,Life

Image Courtesy : “love is in the air….” By Vittal

A Proposal (pt 1)

Saturday 24-Jan-2009 06:50 PM

“So?” She looks at me with a hint of excitement.

“So??” I asked her back, as though I knew nothing.

“So, what is it?” She asks, almost too eager to contain herself.

I give her the Key chain and rambled,”There you go; I did warn you that is nothing important!”

Now I have my hands in my Right Jacket pocket, within it is a piece of folded paper and a deck of Uno Cards. I have to make a decision, I have to make one right now! Which one will I draw out? How is she going to react? I’m sure she has seen this coming, or will it be a complete surprise? Is this the end of our little friendship or will it elevate to a new level? “Now isn’t the time to think of that, Just do it man!” I thought to myself.

“How did I end up in this predicament?” me again to myself……..

Friday 23-Jan-2009 11:30 PM

It has been almost a week since I slept… My brains firing in a million direction. I have a sick feeling in my tummy. Butterflies in my stomach would be an understatement, more like Rhinos and Hippos in my tummy. I have already prepared a draft on my laptop. Now all I need to do is write it down.

Right, err… where is the pen? A quick search revealed an old unused gift in one of my cupboards, a pair of trusty Parkers.

So, I sat down to write the letter. First thought, what if I screw up half way down? There is no backspace option, or undo option. Then I realized that it has been quite a while since I last attempted to write in neat handwriting.

“****! I’m gonna write a love letter, and imagine if she can’t even read it!” I thought to myself.

So, first I try some random writings on A4 sheets that I borrowed from my office. I realized that my handwriting was as steady and straight as a piss drunk doing a rope walk. It was almost as though my writings had no bearings… “Ok, there has got to something better”. A quick search revealed a nice empty book containing ruled papers. So I start writing the letter. Most of it was a Copy/Paste from the Screen to paper. It had a nice structure to it though. A 4-lined poetry stating my intention, a small write up on why I wrote this as a letter. And then I poured my heart out.

“Well, Writing looks crap, but it’s the best I can do, given the circumstances…” I consoled myself.

Right now, the Hippos and Rhinos have started tap dancing in my tummy!

Saturday 24-Jan-2009 04:30 AM

The D-day! I was up way too early, I cannot sleep. I was excited and nervous. I’m about to take one of the biggest chances! I have known her for a while now, and she is one of my very good friends. As against the common advice to subtly put it across, I have chosen a more direct approach. If things did not work as planned, whatever friendship we shared will also come to an abrupt stop. But I had to do this, I was certain.

Time was 08:00 AM.

I took a bath and heads out to one of the temples I frequent often. After that I head to one of the Cafe Coffee Days for breakfast. I start living in past, nothing is going to be same after today.

I still remember, the first time I met her. I thought she was beautiful, but never thought we could even be friends. She kept a dignified distance, and I respected that. I was amused at where we are, today, about take the next step from good friends.

“Can I take your Order sir?”

“Yes, 1 Mocha and a Spinach and Corn Sandwich”, I replied mechanically, dry and slightly irritated.

“This isn’t working! I need a distraction!”, I thought to myself.

I called up my mom & dad. They have always been a guiding light and a beacon of hope for me. Dad was bright and sunny, his usual self. He was the “Chandler” of our family . Spoke to my mom too, who kept me informed of all the happenings back home. She was the like my portal to our family.

I headed out of CCD and rode back to my place… I was feeling cranky and drowsy; I don’t remember when was the last time I slept well.

Up comes her call, my heart skipped a beat or two.

“Hello”, I said.

“Hello, when are we meeting up?”

“How does 5 Sound?”, I asked.

“Ok, Let me know when you are starting from your place….”

“Sure”

“Bye…”

“Bye”.

Hmmm, Now I need to push a couple of hours… I need to sleep, but I can’t because I was too charged up! I spent the next couple of hours in half asleep state….

We started hanging out and meeting each other over weekends. Initially, I used to call her out just because I had a feeling that she could use a good company. But as I started spending time with her, I realize that there is more to her than what she appears to be. She was very intelligent and sensible. She understood and voiced certain aspects about me that I wasn’t aware of. I have been out smarted and out witted by her a lot of times. I’m lucky that I could keep company of such a person…..

4:30 PM

Phone alarm starts buzzing, I finally got up after what seems to be an eternity, I was not very happy because I couldn’t sleep well, coz I was too excited, and I was too sleepy to do anything else. And it felt like T-Rex’s in my tummy. Exhausted from excitement, Insomnia and anxiety, I got ready a little slow… She had messaged me earlier, asking me to get the UNO card deck. So I carefully tucked in the letter and UNO card deck in my jacket.

Now, I have been giving her hints that there is going be a mystery surprise/gift for her today. So I needed a backup plan (in case I drop my balls, and not give her the letter). I scourged around and found a nice keychain that I got from Singapore. Perfect! I did hint her that it is very inexpensive gift.

I start out from my place, slowly, with a prayer. I will not return as the same person. I felt like I’m going on a mission where my return was not guaranteed. I felt like a suicide bomber….

To be continued…

Valentine’s Day Story

So there I was, with a bouquet of assorted flowers, most of em red, and most of em roses, standing outside my class waiting for her…. People with inquisitive looks passed by me, no one dared ask me for who, they just looked at me and smiled. Some kept a watch, they like to know which size sandal will end up on my face.. . “How did I end up in this mess?”, I thought to myself. I’m normally quite sensible, but for some reason the love fever caught on, and well, here I am outside my class with a bouquet, hoping that she would turn up before the professor does.

Rewind back a few days earlier. I was in love with her, as usual. Being 16(Ok, 15… )  can be overwhelming. Also it was frustrating that you like someone for a year and do nothing about it. You know that she will be gone soon, and heat is on us for the 12th boards. I was getting desperate.. I need to do something to get her attention. I was approaching point of no return, if I don’t act now, she may never know.

“Hey dude, give me some idea for the Valentine’s day, We have been going out for a few months now, she will most definitely expect something”, My friend hopeless at love friend interrupted me .

We were at the SIES “Underground” canteen, a place that reminds me of mortuary, thanks to absence of windows, a place I rarely visit, this was one such rare day.

“uhhh, Say what?…. err, get her some flowers and choclates, chicks dig em”, I replied, half here, half in my frustrations.

” “How cliched”, that will her responese! Im sure man. She is expecting something better, if there is one thing about her, she always expects something outside the ordinary! I cant think of anything better, HELP!”, he blabbered.

He is even more hopeless than I thought him to be…

“Common dude, u will think of something! “,replied the other friend, in a vague attempt to calm my hopeless friend.

Here I’am at war with myself on how to tell her, and this bugger is only worried of how to impress his girl friend. To me, his issue is trivial. Im sure he thought likewise about me, everyone thinks his issues are the greatest, everyone else’s is solvable…

“Wait a minute!” I exclaimed, a bit louder than I intended.

All my friends at the table, all 4 of em, stopped dead at their tracks, whatever they were discussing.

“You got a plan better than flowers and Choclates ???” , the hopeless friend, with wide ‘n’ bright eyes.

“No, I will tell her, with Flowers on Valentine’s day!” , Eureka, just about every guy on the planet gets the same solution for the same old problem.

“Oh, its about u and ur chick”, hopeless friend, lost all hopes on me.

“Do you have the balls to do it?”, asked another.

“I have seen her look at you once or twice, I think she might actually say yes!”, said another.

“She likes me! She is waiting for me to make a move!!!”, I thought to myself.

“Yes, but guys please dont howl or make a scene” I pleaded.

“I will not be there at college that day, We might go for a movie and hang out Bandra or somewhere “, Hopeless friend, doesn’t look all the hopeless now…

“Yeah we promise”, said my friend on the behalf of others.

“Wow! they agreed to it, there is something fishy about it, Im sure they are gonna mess it up! “, I thought to myself.

So anyways, I started my careful planning for what has to happen in another 48 hours. So I was decided on flower, A single red rose… Naah! thats to cheap. A bouquet of flowers. I first thought up on a bouquet of red roses. “But what if she doesn’t like red roses? what if she doesn’t like roses??” I though. Well finally decided on an assortment of flowers.

“So do I just give flowers? What the hell am I gonna say???” Thought to myself, “Forget what u r gonna say, the real question is will the lower part of the face even gonna function?”, she, afterall made me go “Pzzzt,ffdasa zzzmogfl”. “Shit!”, I just realized that my plans are gonna go in water.

So the rest of the day went on feeling disappointed and upset that the plan maynot take off.

That and gawking at her and going “pzzzzt, ffdasa zzzmogfl” at the class.

So its already night, and Im at hope, just done with dinner and at my room. Sitting and looking out of the third floor window out to the road in the night. Looking for an inspiration or an Idea…. Then the obvious struck me…. “Why dont I write it? If I can say it, I will say it, else I will just read it out… Or if my tongue decides to dance to a different tune I can hand it to her, she can read it herself, taking advantage of HER 12 years of education !!”, I thought to myself.

Great now I have a plan and 24hrs. I was so busy making a plan that can work, I forgot to account for one factor, ME! I forgot if to check if I had the guts to pull it off. I don’t know, I never thought about it till about 2 hrs before the actual plan.

So what do I write ? Its got be good, its gotta be poetic and sophisticated, Great! Only one problem. I never wrote single piece of anything that remotely resembles anything like literature in my entire life.

So I got cracking on it, I had about 18 hrs left for the plan, and zero experience on it. So clueless on how to write 4 lines to represent my love, I powered on….

So, how do I approach this? One thing I knew I was good at was the way I can visualize things. A vivid and creative imagination was (and still is!) my prized possession, So why don’t I use it to my advantage ?

Ok, so I got flowers, interestingly her name represents a flower in her language. Perfect! So after some thought and effort I finally got 4 lines that I liked.

Like the flowers, that add colours to the greens,

You add colour to my life, filled with grays.

Like the bees that are drawn to the nectar,

I’m drawn to you, mesmerised by your beauty.

Yeah it was all “flowery” and childish.But thats exactly what you would expect from a kid.. . Plus thats the best I can do with Math professor yapping about, and no inspiration…. coz she bunked the math session for whatever reason. Something scary struck me, what if she doesnt turn up tomorrow? I know for sure that she was single, but what if she doesn’t turn up ? I can be screwed then! I got snapped out of that thought, thankfully, but I cant recollect for what reason, it was due to the Math professor, but cant remember what he did!

So now that I have something written, which of course I will never have courage to tell it on her face, I thought I will write in some decorative paper. Got that from Archie’s. Now all I needed was a bouquet of flowers, which I will have to get it on 14th.

So, everything was ready, now just need to follow it through. I was already at home, so I wrote out these 4 lines from my Math book, to the nice Archie’s paper, very carefully in my best possible handwriting (which means legible, thats about it!). So now its all set, just need to get a good night’s sleep and look fresh tomorrow.

Needless to say the night was restless, barely got some sleep. It wasn’t butterflies in the stomach, it was freaking jack rabbits in there.

So dawn next day, got up, got ready, Loads of Deo and off to the college.

So once there, I get the first bad news, Thanks to other youngsters, all raging with the same emotions as I do (Hopefully not for the same femme as I’am) has emptied the all the neighbourhood flower vendors, who are not complaining.

So what do I do ??? I mean, I planned on a nice bouquet of flowers with various variety! Now I cant even find a single flower in the neighbourhood. So I run towards some place away from my campus and managed to get some 10-12 flowers in various colours, most of em were roses, coz, well roses sell the most on this day, and his collection was full of em.

I had huge sigh of relief, just about then all da rabbits in my tummy made themselves felt! I thought I was gonna be sick, I got the stuff, now I need to pull this off! Where am I gonna grow balls for that now? I was too deep into this now to pull away.

So now, I wore a brave face, and marched back to the campus. I hoped nobody noticed me, but the day belonged to Mr.Murphy! Just about every guy and girl I knew spotted me, most of em guessed for who all this is gonna be for, a few who never knew thoutht it will be a good idea to find out, so they positioned themselves in places where they can “Observe”. As though  it was not enough that I have to face her, now there is an eager audience to find out what I was up to!

“How did I end up in this mess?”, I thought to myself. I’m normally quite sensible, but for some reason the love fever caught on, and well, here I am outside my class with a bouquet, hoping that she would turn up before the professor does.

Those rabbits are now multiplying in my tummy! The term “reproducing like bunnies” made a lot of sense at that moment. Seconds felt like hours, this is getting more and more embarrassing. I was making an Ass of myself and in front of whole freaking college! Where is she now?

Well, I waited, it was getting dangerously close to the lecture, and she is nowhere in sight! One of my buddies ran up to me, Dude, prof is on his way.. You can do this some other time, the day has just started.

Disappointed, relieved but still worried, I walked into the class. Must have been a major disappointment for my audience. Anyways, prof walked in, and a lil later there she was! with her gang… a lil late for whatever reason. I was relieved coz she is here today, so all my efforts wont go to waste. But I was a nervous wreck, coz I now need to do this.

So all of a sudden, some of her friends started talking to some of the ppl in class, a few were giving me stares, “Oh Shit!”, I thought, “I hope they didn’t find it out, if she gets a wind of this, this may all go very very wrong!”. The ones who gave me stares didn’t tell her anything, I think, coz she never turned back..

Now I definitely need to pull this off. If I don’t she will think I’m coward, coz her friends will tell her eventually!

So after 40 excruciating minutes lecture was finally over, and our English ma’am walked out. So this was my chance!

I picked up my flowers and virtually non existent guts, walked up to her.

“Hi!” , I said, breaking her attention from her friends.

“Hi?”, She with a pleasant smile, Guess she didn’t see the flowers in hands!

All her friends had their attention squarely on me. So did the people in the neighbourhood.

“I just wanted to give this to you! I think you are as nice as them”, I said, almost about to faint….

“Nice? ” I thought, “Nice? WTF? Thats the best I can do??? Nice… wow!” , I was pissed at myself, “Atleast you didn’t go pzzzt,zdfsd,mmmogf, That was my optimistic side kicking in….

She was bit ovwewhelmed, you can look at her and tell that this is the first time somebody has done something like this for her…

“Thanks!”, she said with a lil blush…..

“God, she is damn beautiful! I can keep looking at her all day!!!” , I thought to myself. “Hey, looks like no sandals for me!!”

“You are welcome”, I replied and walked away, having no clue what to do next.

“I should have stayed a little longer, figured out what to say next!” , Dawned upon me, very very late.

But I was still on the verge of a blackout, however now I’m relieved, I finally did it, and with no sandals on my face! I could hear a few giggles from that end of class, but I didn’t dare look at that side. My friends were patting my back, for the courage to pull it off. I was more or less prepared to go home and sleep.

The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful, or I didn’t care to notice what events were going on..  She didn’t speak a word, I guessed it was due to the shock. As we were leaving from the college she looked at me and smiled. The enchantress smile, the smile that makes the rest of the world and its burdens fade away. Suddenly all the efforts that I put in was worth it. If I die today, I will die as a happy man!

I realised that she smiling meant that it can be a yes tomorrow (because she cant call me today, she doesnt have my telephone number!! ).

I was all excited, and ready to jump up and down in joy!

So on 15th, I was all ready and at college unusually early, in case she turns up early…. She did no such thing. She came at the usual time. I looked at her and smiled, she smiled back, but something was wrong! It looked like a forced smile… this is not going good..

So after the first lecture, she walks up to me with a solemn face , or was that a sad face, I dont know, I cant decide.

“Hi”, She said,

“Hi”, I replied.

“I need to have a word with you, can we step outside for a second”

“Sure!” I replied.

We walked outside, not knowing what to expect….

“Thank you for all the flowers and beautiful words…”

I just smiled, I was at loss of words….

“It was wonderful, no one has ever done anything like this before, it felt good…”

So it worked! I thought to myself.

“But….”

“Oh.. ohhh”, this is gonna be bad!

“We are in 12th and exams are right around the corner, you know we cant afford to be distracted during our 12th” , She continued, ” I love my parents very much, I dont think I want to disappoint them at this point of time, you are a nice person, But I want to make sure that I get good marks in my 12th”.

“Sure, I understand!”,. What else can I say? I felt like burying myslef, I should have told her in 11th itself.

“Thank you!”, Thats the last thing she said, and headed back to the class.

I was stunned and shocked, there was nothing much left to say… I didnt lose her to another guy, I lost her to the 12th boards….

It took me a few days to recover, we smile at each other whenever we pass by. And eventually after 12th, bot of us part our ways. Both of us knew that things could have been different if only I acted sooner!!

 

Disclaimer: Some of the characters in the story was fictitious. And the story itself was also fictitious. However the If I had a little more courage then, I would have done this for her. Too bad, I didn’t.

Technorati Tags: Valentine’s Day,Fiction,Story around my first crush