Wednesday, October 05, 2005

The Guy

"No ma, I don't want to meet any guy now.... Yeah I know that I know nothing about him .... Ma, everyone earns five figure salaries these days.... I don't care what Ambujam Aunty feels.... Ammmaaaa ...". Nivedita slammed the phone down in disgust.

"I don't know why my parents are doing this" she fumed. "Relax Nivi. Nobody is forcing you into a marriage as yet. And face it, you are 23 now. Can't blame your parents for trying to get you married.", drawled Preethi. "Oh what, suddenly I am old now? Is there something so unmarriageable about me that I need to play up to any stupid proposal that turns up?". "I don't know why you are so angry. That guy might be a cross between a Greek god and a knight in shining armour for all you know.". "Oh there are chances of that happening all right! It's just that I haven't met any Casanova as yet with a name like Raghavan Iyengar", Nivi retorted. "Oooh the name is alright. You can call him Raghav - like the pop star", Preethi groped out at anything that looked like a silver lining. "That's probably the closest he is going to be to cool. I bet he is going to be scraggy, attired in a floral shirt, wearing horn rimmed glasses, and sporting a thin but detectable sricharnam* on his forehead."

At eight in the night, her cell phone lighted up showing an unknown number in the pane. "Hello, is it Nivedita?". "Yeah speaking". "Oh hi, I am Raghavan.". Uneasy silence followed after the customary "Hello How are you doing"s. "Perhaps we could meet for a cup of coffee sometime" he ventured cautiously. "Sure. This Saturday is good for me.". "That's great. How about Barista at around six in the evening?". She smiled for the first time, Barista was one of her favorite places. "Atleast he didn't suggest some cheesy place" she thought to herself, mildly comforted.

At 5:45 on appointed day, she was sitting at her favorite place by the window in Barista, mildly excited and mostly bored. In a few minutes she saw a guy drive up on a black Pulsar. So far, so good she thought. And then he parked his bike and removed his helmet. She gave a quick scan and liked what she saw. He definitely worked out and his face did have a Greek godish look, with high cheekbones and a rugged handsomeness. His pants were alright - the right blue denim and not too faded or patched, T shirt was red and proclaimed "My colleague went to London and all I got was this lousy shirt", she giggled to herself reading that, and his sneakers were positively gorgeous. He was chewing gum and ran his hand over his mop of hair casually. Nivedita silently thanked her mom and Ambujam aunty and wished she had worn that black skirt which everyone had admired or that pretty green salwar kameez that Viji athai** had bought her. "God, please let our tastes match and please let him be capable of intelligent conversation, please please please. I promise I will listen to Amma and Appa and not speak back and come to the temple every week.", she fervently bargained with the Lord.

He walked up the stairs with a brisk air and an easy smile on his face. Nivedita took out her compact and adjusted her face, giving him small looks on the side. And suddenly an extremely pretty girl walked to him and started talking to him while holding his hand. Barista seemed to wobble and the proverbial thunder and lightening appeared out of nowhere just like in the movies. Greek gods are never single, she should have known that and they certainly did not depend on Ambujam Aunty to find themselves a girl.

Just then a car drove up and out came a bespectacled guy. Pretty white daisies stared at the world from his blue shirt, which flapped around his sparse frame. As he came closer Nivedita could see the orange I on his forehead. He was walking towards her and she heard him say, "Excuse me". Thunder and lightening happened with double intensity and she felt like screaming "Nahiiiiiii" and run out of the place.

"Excuse me" he said again. She wished he would stop repeating that stupid phrase. "Yes", she said, pouting. "Can you tell me the time please?" "6: 05", she said dazedly. He said "Thank you ma'am" and left. She put her face in her hands and tried to make sense out of everything. "Hi, are you Nivedita?", a voice rang out. It was the Greek god himself. She nodded weakly. "Sorry I am late, but I just bumped into an ex-colleague.", he said while pulling up a chair. "Hi Raghavan" she said coyly. "Oh please don't call me Raghavan, call me Raghav, like the pop star" She smiled and their eyes met.

---

PS : I am not Nivedita

* - A thin orange line on the forehead as a mark of religion

** - Aunt

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is what is called love at first sight. Is it ? :)

Anonymous said...

heyy g88 'story'!!;)moral of story:never judge a person by his/her name:)n dont underestimate iyengars by their names...ok?:):)
its always better to land up with a modern n smart"raghvan iyenger" than a clumsy,fat "rahul khanna" rite!...btw who is ur "raghavan iyenger"? huh huh??:):)

Rohan Kumar said...

Absolutely fantabulous piece of writing, loved the generous sprinklings of humor I sure was grinning throughout while reading that post

Preethi said...

Hi,

A cool story! It was an interesting read. I enjoyed it very much.

Vetty Max said...

Some sort of development of the theme of the 55 word short story???

Good ending...thankfully did not end it(as I had been expecting) when the pretty girl appeared on the arms of the Greek God.

Seems like guys like me also have some hope. ;)

Point 5 said...

Ambujam aunty rocks !!!

janani said...

@mukund - Yeah I guess you could call it that. But I haven't continued the story, so it could have been hatred on hearing the name, love at first sight and hatred again after talking to him. :-)

@harini - Right you are. I was thinking of some longer winding name than Raghavan, but the best I could come up was Sundarrajan! :-)
And yes I am not Nivedita, so I don't have a Raghavan. :-)

@rohan - Really? Thank you sooooo much! :-) I am always worried that my attempts at humor are too contrived.

@preethi - Hey thanks a ton.

@vmax - Hmm not really.
And yes I thought a bit about the ending. My point is always to make people say "Aha" initially but with me having the last laugh. :-)
Ok, so you are a Raghavan Iyengar posing as vetty max! :-) Attention girls and Ambujam aunties! :-)

@0.5 - Yeah you bet. Matches are made in Ambujam aunty's drawing room and not in heaven! :-)

Sidewinder said...

wow wonderful writing! enjoyed readin it

janani said...

@sidwinder - Thanks :-)

Jinguchakka said...

A good story, but I have a feeling that i have read this concept somewhere. Can't pin it down, though. By the way, dealing with spamming somehow made my comments link close down. Any ideas?

MA said...

hey, you're good!!

littlecow said...

you are the script writer for my next teenage-love story-comedy-suspense tamil blockbuster. (and don't worry about the crime part - the bar setting allows it naturally...) :)

totti said...

Nice one!the turn was kind of surprising. i wonder if point5 would come up with some alternate ending of his own!!

Anonymous said...

Very nice... liked it a lot.

Mani.

janani said...

@jinguchakka - Oh it is a very old concept! :-)

@ma - Hey thanks! Btw I hope you and your family are fine after the quake.

@littlecow - You know I have a story ready with more suspense and complications! All I need is a producer, what say? :-)

@totti - Hmm yeah an alternate ending could be something like minnale (rehna hai tere dil mein) - maybe he isn't raghavan, but trying to put on an act. Or they both could talk about for a long time and then hate each other's guts! :-)

@mani - Thanks a ton! :-)

TSU said...

kept me involved in the whole story and a smile on my face ... liked the concept of the "greek" god turning out to be "pop star".. gud one!!!

janani said...

@tsu - Thank you thank you thank you! :-)

littlecow said...

Producer? No problems. Is it in English or Tamizh(in which case, we are NOT starring a punjabi/kannadiga/ghati herione. she will be home grown and utterly good at acting.)... send me the script and we will talk more. ;-)

Celia said...

Watching too many hindi movies??

Anonymous said...

Ungala ellam 500 periyars vandhalum thirutha mudiyadhu!

Anonymous said...

nice story. curious to know if it is real.

SCRIBBLEZ TO WAKEUP said...

Its like having the cake n eating it too...Lucky Nivi:)