“Tall & Handsome or Smart & Dashing?” He asked playfully
“Tall & Handsome” came her reply.
She never chose the answer He wanted her to.
“Thank god, it’s not Smart & Dashing else I had to oblige”
“Hello, Mr. not-so-smart, not-at-all Dashing, don’t forget we are just good friends.”
“ohh puhlease, I was also offering as a friend, what you think of my taste, you are not even close to my type”
He – Dreamy, clumsy and self-satisfied
She – Practical, organized and ambitious
He – likes coffee
She –Ice-creams
He – enjoys trekking mountain
She – a walk on the beach
He – listens to Gazals
She - Rock Music
He – Won’t admit that he loves her
She – Won’t admit that she loves him
Now
He – 26, male, single, Mumbai
She – 28, female, ??, ??
Scrap or Message? He asked himself.
He had been bitten by the Social networking bug around 6 months back and it had been fun ride catching up with old friends, meeting new interesting ones, getting into debates over trivial topics in communities.
But, today, as he typed her name in the search box, he didn’t feel any of the fun and a strange fear gripped him. He felt as if holding the door to a dam and didn’t have in him what it takes, to face the fury that lied on the other side.
With a deep breath, he hit enter. He felt his heart beat synchronized to the page loading bar, increasing ever so steadily as the next page made its way over the sluggish Internet connection. On the next page, crowded with strangers, it didn’t take him too long to identify that one familiar face. How couldn’t he, he had seen her so vividly in his dream last night or is it every night? Collecting his thoughts, he clicked; one step closer to her or maybe to being disappointed. As if having a mind of their own, his fingers crossed and his eyes shifted to the left corner of the page.
Still Single, cool (he high fived the CPU). In Pune, great!
His mind veered to their first meeting, 8 years back in Bangalore.
Back then
He – 1st year Engineering Student
She – 3rd year Medical Student
He cursed his friends while walking away from the pulsating crowd.
“Bangalore Med School Rock Show, it’s the coolest fest in town, you will enjoy it” his friends had assured. The only outcome, everything above his shoulder were damaged goods, the neck paining from his amateurish attempts at head banging and the head throbbing from the grating voice of the band vocalist.
He headed towards the college gate, the crowd was still pouring in; He smirked at their foolishness. Just then he saw her, being pushed, jostled by the crowd. He ran to her rescue. Pushing his way through, he pulled her out. She didn’t appear pleased.
“I am from the show organizing committee and in-charge of crowd control; I know what I am doing “she said before running back towards the gate.
“What a day”, He thought disappearing into a dark corner.
“Thanks for trying to help” he turned, she was back “Sorry I was a bit hard on you, the crowd really gets on your nerves”
“Its ok, btw I am … the introductions happened.
“That’s a nice T-shirt, who’s he? “ (Pointing at the Rock Artist on his T-shirt)
He had bought it last day from Fashion Street; he had no clue about any rock artists leave alone this one. But he didn’t want to come across as an un-cool guy. He remembered something his friend had said, let me try my luck, what are odds a girl will know anything about Rock.
“This is Red Zeppelin, he’s my very favorite”
She broke into a smile “Actually, it’s Led Zeppelin and that’s the band name, this is Jimmy Page, the lead guitarist of the band. Anyway, I was just pulling your leg; I guessed long back that Rock concert isn’t your thing”
Their laughs resonated.
As they walked together, time was running. They didn’t realize that it already was time to leave.
“Coffee or Ice cream?” He asked
“Ice cream”
“Seriously, in this winter night, you want to have Ice cream?”
They had Ice-cream and he enjoyed it too, though he acted otherwise.
Trying his luck “So this next weekend or next?”
“What for?”
“Our next date, I mean just going out types”
“I won’t be so optimistic” She smiled and left with a teasing look in her eye.
They did have a next date. Post which, though both claimed “they had better”, they went to have many such “friendly dates”, mostly along with their friends and a few times, just the 2 of them.
But, somehow as they grew close as friends, Love moved away from them, was it because they were unsure about their feelings for each other or they felt a sort of guilt for even having such feelings for a friend or perhaps for them the prize of Love wasn’t worth gambling their friendship for.
Finally, Destiny made the decision for them when she left Bangalore for her town after completing her studies. Though their friendship continued, the strange arithmetic of long distance relationships caught up with them, I was the one who called last 3 times, why can’t he call. I was really busy, what’s the big deal if I wished her Birthday a day late. They moved on with their lives, their separate ways.
Now
Now, 5 years later, as he was looking at her profile, he experienced an emotion of different sorts.
“Hotness rating just 70 %, LOL, mine is 80 %, I always told her I am hotter than her
And just 170 Friends, whole 35 friends less than me, she really should be doing better”
Scrap or Message? He asked himself.
Finally he sent a message, thinking it to be a safe bet, so even if she fails to recognize me; at least I won’t be publicly humiliated.
He didn’t realize the kind of ordeal he had put himself into. That night, He tossed and turned so much restlessly in his bed that by morning he was wrapped like an Egyptian mummy in his bed sheet and blanket. Office was no different, all animations he designed turned out to be Heart shaped. Later half of the day, he spent regression testing his office web-nonsense software. This software was put to prevent employees from accessing “interesting” sites at work, but somehow he felt it would fail and he could get to the networking site and see her reply there. Well it didn’t and finally at 5 PM (a rare feat for someone who was notoriously famous for staying late in office), when his patience broke all limits, he bolted from the office amidst catcalls from his colleagues
“Have you taken half day off. If you leave now, who will lock the office? ”
“Have you taken half day off. If you leave now, who will lock the office? ”
Huffing and puffing, when he reached home; his Mom might have misunderstood it to be a bad case of gastric pressure. But it was more than relief that it felt after seeing a scrap from her.
And then the series of scraps started, from the mundane “what’s going on” questions to taking friendly digs at each other to the more intimate of conversations happened online, but would it be the case of history repeating itself. Will they ever tell each other what really is in their hearts?
Finally, after 2 months of scrapping back and forth, they decided to meet in person.
They met in a restaurant in Pune.
Seeking the right moment, he played his card.
“Friendship or Love?”
With a naughty gleam in her eye, she said “Both”
Taking the hint, he decides to play her further “So, what happened to your Tall and Handsome prince, gave up the hope of finding him”
“Well, that is still the 1st choice, but you never asked me my 2nd choice”
“What will be that?”
“Clumsy, silly and cute”
“And you found somebody like that?”
“Of course, you”
They had a good laugh over that.
“Finally, for once, you gave the answers I wanted to hear from you”
“Finally, you asked the question I want you to” there was an underlying pain in her voice.
Seeing him taken aback by that reply, she said jokingly
“Before you ask me, marriage or live-in, let me answer it, marriage is the only option”
Later
He – Wants to go to Europe for Honeymoon
She – Wants to go to Mauritius
Friendship sometimes is just a symptom of a bigger ailment, Love and for once, let us wish, the epidemic spreads and we see Love all over the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment