My First Mistake
Day: One among the days I wanted to propose
Time: Time for ROMANCE
I was excited to see her and I reached on time to the bus terminus so as to get her glimpse before she would get into the bus. When I stopped my bike’s high Horse power revving engine, I had gotten everybody’s attention except her. I was rushing towards the platform with a typical love’s symbol a single red rose with a greeting card. I didn’t even read the lines in it and never forgot to write my name beneath it. My eyes were filtering the crowd in order to find my angel. At last, there she was! She was looking stunning in her green salwar. But the weird thing was whenever I saw her, she was wearing the same. It would have been her uniform I guessed. I didn’t know anything about her even her name. She used to be available only on Wednesdays. I took all my guts and moved towards her. When I was about to have my words with her, the bus 716C had reached the terminus at correct time. She crossed me like a whirlwind so that she could catch her seat. The way she looked at me while crossing was like a wealthy angel was looking at the beggar on the sidewalk. I was very conscious not to miss her today. If I missed her, I would not see her till next Wednesday. But my guts were not up to the criteria to propose her. She was looking at my side till the bus disappeared from my view. But never responded just like in the past four months. My face got drooped but the rose brought by me was not. I kept back my proposal antiques inside the bag. I had been storing the herbarium as in botanical garden. Suddenly I saw the seconds running in digital clock and reminded myself that there would be review meeting in office. I rushed into the parking area and started riding my horse powered vehicle.
Day: The same day
Time: Time to work
I was bit afraid about review though I rehearsed twice in bathroom mirror. This inbuilt character of mine might be manufacturing defect. In my interview, I prepared well. The moment I had seen my boss’s face, I became spineless. My boss understood me in a min that I needed minimum an hour of ice breaking session. Back then, I had become easy going and we discussed many things related to my working experience. He was impressed with my knowledge and recruited me. He was much helpful till the day of review. I entered the board room. I was about to start my presentation as I finished greeting everybody. Switching off all lights sent shivers down my spine as if I was alone watching the horror movie. I started presentation with stammering of words and ended quite well. I could do well but I didn’t have confidence to show off.
Everybody applauded for my concept. We all moved back to our seats. My boss called me over phone.
‘Raghu...’
‘Yes Sir’
‘What have you done!!!!?Come to my room’
‘yes sir’ I hung up the call. Sudden panic ran through me. I had gone for loo before I entered in to the boss’s room. I powdered my nose and saw myself in mirror.
‘What will happen?’
My inner words,’ you will be gonna get scolding’
‘For what?’
MIW: ‘When did you get appreciated from the boss so far?’
‘I am panic’
MIW: ‘If you say you are not, that will be weird. Why are you afraid unnecessarily? See this is your negative. Don’t’ be afraid’
‘Please stop your advices. No time to listen to all these craps’ I refused to accept the fact
MIW: ‘Yes. When did you listen to it previously? If you had followed, you would have been perfect. GO! KEEP YOUR BABY FACE AND STAND IN FRONT OF YOUR BOSS‘
My replica vanished in the mirror and saw the reflection of mine. Then I knocked the door.
‘Come in ‘
‘What have you done? All of our clients got upset because of you. ‘
I puzzled and started very slowly, ‘But sir... Everybody applauded na...’
‘Sometimes Applause doesn’t mean that we have done well. It means consolation prize indirectly’. Suddenly he stood up and came near me. His eyes were red.
‘Do you want to know what they have commented about you & on your project?’
I kept looking at him without much reaction.
‘Well done my boy! They are very happy about your project’ His face became like a yahoo messenger icon☺
‘Sir... I was so dumbfounded. Don’t kid me like this. You know how I feel?’ I was feeling resurrected just like a phoenix. ‘But why they are upset sir?’
‘They feel that they missed a good resource like you so far. They want you to work in their Sydney office. Don’t miss this onsite opportunity man!’
‘Sure sir, I will not. You know what? Sydney is my dream destination.’
I was very happy . This one was what I always wanted. My phone rang and I looked at the name flashed on it. I said,’ Excuse me sir....’ I shook my hands and moved out
‘Ok my boy. All the best’, he shook back.
I swiped the green button,’ Hello john....’
‘Hey dude, when will you go room? I will be late today. Krish will be too. You know where I do keep the key right. ‘
‘Yes john, in usual place only na. I will take care of it.’
‘ok, see you dude tonight’.
‘c ya’, I hung up the call. Johnson was my roommate. He was very brilliant guy and macho man. He would not leave any girls nearby. He shot them either by love or by make outs. The former would mostly end in later. Another guy was krish. He’d known almost all the bad habits. He could guess all the names of liquors. He could have introduced a new dictionary in this. If they both were together, they would start bullying me. I had a very inferiority complex. I didn’t oppose them from the day I saw them in college days. Not only for the fact that they were muscular men and I bony.
Day: Still in same day
Time: Time for planning
I reached the room soon and start preparing dinner for trio. After an hour, They both came together with bottles of champagne and chambords. They were already intoxicated.
‘hey dude, what’s up?’ John came into the kitchen without removing his sneakers. I couldn’t bear the bad smell from his sneakers and his mouth. The later was more poisonous than the former one. I turned in the way so that I could create distance from him in order to stay away from Bhopal’s poisoned gas.
‘hey john, I got an onsite opportunity. I will be off to sy soon’
‘Dude, that’s great. Where? ‘
‘Sydney. Waiting for the confirmation call yaar’ with a pride feeling
‘Sounds good. But I doubt’
‘what?’
‘With less talent, you are going abroad. We people have full of talents. But we didn’t get any opportunities like this’ John Insulted me
The statement stabbed on my heart. ‘I don’t know ‘I said with embarrassing look.
I looked at krish. He was a brand ambassador of marijuana weeds. It would be very weird if he was in normal state.
Krish,’ leave it john. Start boozing and let’s celebrate this moment. What do you say?’ looked my side for my agreement.
I said ok. John agreed with it too. We made all the side dishes ready and started boozing.
John, ‘you have to give us a party. Not like this. We are expecting something bigger’
I finished a peck,’ yes, sure. Shall we go any nearby place anywhere just like a picnic’
‘Nearby place??? ‘
‘You are giving us treat. Your choice is ours’ krish showed his soft corner on me. Was that a time to show the friendship?
‘Ooty or conoor?’
‘Ooty is the best’
‘Let’s pack out... Err sorry...Let’s pack up our things. We will start tomorrow morning .My friend is there. Let me book the hotel’ the plan was fixed.
Day: The Next day
Time: Time for the mistake
We started to ooty at early morning 3 am since it will take another 3 hrs to reach ooty from Coimbatore. We were sight-seeing through windows in the dim light though. I puked twice whilst crossing hairpin bends. They gave a very bad unpleasant reaction towards me as if they tossed their cookies. I myself many times cleaned their effects of being too drunk. We reached the bus terminus by 6.30. The first thing we did was lighting the cigars. After puffing through all our breath and reached the resort. We threw all our luggage on the bed and fell in the bed with our sneakers. We took some rest and had a fresh tea which was prepared from tea powder manufactured from tea factory. We took bath in pykara river and roamed the places like botanical garden, Avalanche lake and ooty lake. We finally went to doddabetta peak. I suddenly thought, ‘if I am with my green angel now, I will imitate titanic pose, start kissing her lips in order to achieve an award of longest continuous kisser. Back then we three got some homemade chokkies and returned to the room. We kept on talking and kidding each other. It made us feel boring after certain time.
‘What yaar? It is boring. We almost finished seeing everything. What to do next till evening. This boredom kills me’ Krish started with irritation.
‘Shall we go cycling near lake area?’ I suggested.
‘Bad idea! I am sick’ john pouted his lips. Hands down☹
We suggested many things. Everything was rejected like opposing party proposals in parliament.
‘Shall we book any call girls?’ An idea like a dawn from john’s mind. What an idea!
Sudden silence after the storm. ‘No’ I opposed immediatedly.
‘Hey Raghu, Be a man, Are you incapable?’
‘Don’t want to intercourse doesn’t mean that I can’t. Don’t talk this. ‘, I got sudden angry.
Arguments went on. Somehow they convinced me. ‘Let me call... ‘John searched his phone contacts. For these kinda works, He was an encyclopaedia.
He found it in few seconds. The Broker name must be starting with A or B?
We three sat in the corners of triangle where the centroid is telephone. John dialled XXXXX XXXX46.Might be I could see the last two digits clearly. I was panicked
‘Hello Bhaiya, How are you?’
‘Acha, I am fine. To become very fine, need your help. Hope you understand’
‘Only want a new piece, two more persons are with me’
‘Yes, The same resort’ the call was hung up with john’s sheepish smile. Hands up ☺
From his side of conversations, I and krish were able to find out what the other end would have said to him. John,’ she will come in half an hour’ said with relief.
My Heart was thudding triple time faster!
I felt the drop of sweat that was crossing my cheek as if I was defusing the bomb. I didn’t know what would happen next. 25 Minutes passed. Even clock’s tick sounded as noise to me. I was sweating.
Knock... knock...
We turned our head towards the sound due to knocking the door and saw all our faces for one last time as if it would be police.
John took all his guts and shouted,’ who is this?’
A girl with her sweet voice, ‘1408’
John‘s face glowed like 100W bulb and gave green signal to us. This might have been code word. A chill spread from the base of my spine through my body. John stood and moved towards the door.
I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. "Ten, nine, eight, and seven...”
When he opened the door, a shadow was urging to come in with mask. As she came in, she was trying to remove the mask. She had perfect body. She was wearing the sexy red saree and her nails were polished with same color. When I was about to see her face,
Shock!!!
It was her who used to wear green salwar on every Wednesday; My first love; The girl whom I wanted to propose ; The girl whom I wanted to spend my rest of life just like happily ever after.
What could I do now...? Whether to tell the truth to my friends,
Would they believe me and make us live so?
Would they simply reject my request and hunt her?
Leaving the rest to readers!
#Loveholic
Dedicating this work to my Multitasker (who inspired me to pen my thoughts)
