Disclaimer : I have been requested/ordered/threatened by a few readers to complete this thread I started, Thanks to my laziness and writer's blocks I never got any further on the thread in the last 6 months , But this morning I got up early and decided to rewrite the story in the thread from start to finish. I hope it isn't too bad :-)
The Introduction:
I met her one Monday morning, a chance meeting, a moment of serendipity.
After struggling to shake off my sleep and contemplating a “work from home” I listened to my gut instincts and jumped out of bed, got ready and reached work. I was welcomed at work by a strange aroma… like that of the jasmine flowers that blossomed in our garden, I looked around to see the source of my nostalgia and there she stood.
Long dark hair, blue eyes and outlined lips – It all came together to make a picture of perfection and I continued to capture several photographs with my eyes. All the fables I had heard about people spotting angels suddenly seemed possible.
She was new in the office, she was in my cube surrounded by a few of my team members. I struggled to get glimpses of her through the cracks people made when they moved in and out of the cube, I dawdled to my cube and with great difficulty ‘casually’ sat at my seat and tried my best to ignore her.
“Hi, are you Badri” I came up with a start. Her voice was just like her - sublime and melifluous. The aroma of jasmines in full bloom was strong, as she stood close to me. I looked up at her from my seat and after that, I barely heard anything else save a buzzing in my ear. I know she did say something for I could see her lips move but for the life of me, I had no idea what it was. I jerked back to reality when I was conscious that she was looking at me in askance
“Are you Badri, Dinaaz from HR asked me to meet you as part of my Induction, I am Ruchira Sharma, I joined the RnD team today, our meeting was scheduled for 11AM I have been waiting for you”
A vague recollection of an email from Barbara about a new induction crossed my mind. It also struck me that it was close to 12noon. Had I known that it was this apparition I was going to deal with, I believe I may have put a little bit more effort into my 'mood for the day'! A bloody good thing I decided against staying at home and working!
I finally found my voice and just as I opened my mouth . . I croaked! I cleared my throat, opened my mouth croaked again, I cleared my throat again and tried to regain some lost ground by trying to make sense of what I really wanted to tell her.
“Hey really sorry to have kept you waiting, Well, err... Ruchira nice to meet you" I said extending my arm for a handshake. She extended a folded palm and shook hands like a Pomeranian dog would. Hah the soft palm, the smooth skin - My mind went into another blank. I shook her hand for what looked like 20 seconds when she pulled back her hand, we sat down discussed her role, the company and some related stuff for the next 30 minutes. Those 30 min ensured that I was in great mood for the rest of the week.
Getting Closer:
The next 2-3 weeks I ensured that I had lunch everyday, not that I suddenly became health conscious I just wanted to be a part of the group she had lunch with. We exchanged minor jokes as part of the group and I captured more photographs of her in my mind, during those 30 min of lunch all else used to blur from my mind and vision other than her.
I loved the way she kept adjusting a strand of hair that kept falling back in front of her ear, I thought she deliberately left it in front of her ear so that she can push it back while talking to guys like me and make us notice her model like profile, anyways I wasnt complaining.
I met her a few weeks later at the office reception
"Btw Ruchira , about the project you are working on, I read the details, its very interesting, when do you want to discuss it, any time is fine with me, I even work weekends" I rushed through my long sentence, it was important that I let her know I was working the weekend and it was important I liked her project and yes it was important that I said her name.
"Oh but I am going out with my friends this weekend, we were planning to go the select city walk mall. Can we discuss the project on Monday if you don’t mind", she said with all sincerity and professionalism. Sometimes being the boss has it disadvantages , gals don’t sense your emotions.
I took a deep breath , one last attempt , God pls pls pls "Oh ok I generally work weekends from the coffee place at Select city walk, If you are around and free , we can catch up there for a bit and get started on the project, can I have your number please, will call you if I am there".
By now I had already walked some 40 steps with her, perhaps she felt connected , she gave me her number and told me that it would be ok to catch up while she was waiting for her friends. I wished her a happy weekend, she wished me a pleasant evening and I watched her leave, it was painful, sad songs were playing in my mind and then suddenly Lionel Ritchie came to the rescue and sang Hello.
A few hours passed by , I couldn’t resist the temptation to hear her voice, I picked up the phone and called her, A beautiful english song which I had heard before but couldn’t recollect from where, was her caller tune, "Helloh...." she greeted and I forgot all that I was going to say, "hellllloh "she said again , stressing now on the l, I recovered, "hi this is Badri just checking you number, sorry if I bothered, good night" . "Thats okkk Baddriii, is this your number" Thank you god, thank you, it felt so good that she said my name in such sweet fashion and for the first time I liked my name, I did have a cool name. "oh ya it is, please feel free to reach me on this whenever u want to", "sure", "good night", "gooood nigggghhtttt" I dont know why her English words had more alphabets than mine but I liked it that way.
The First Dates:
I made sure I ‘ran into her’ at the mall that weekend, she and one of her friends had come to mall early and were waiting for the rest of their gang. And then fate intervened, for once in a positive fashion, her friend got a call and excused herself.
The next 15 minutes were “exotic”, we started speaking about work but then she pointed to some flowers in a flower shop and mentioned how she liked orchids and from then on we just connected.
My mind was taking notes of things she liked and disliked. I didn’t speak a word about my likes or dislikes, I just agreed with her or asked her more questions. I knew the time I had was limited and I had to make the best of it.
Finally when my eyes caught her friend walking toward us , I gathered all my courage and said “Since you like Thai, may be you can join me for dinner after you are done watching the movie, there is this great Thai place near here, you can find me in the Coffee Shop, I will be working there”. I paused …..I was trying to read her emotions, dint she feel excited, did she feel repulsed, she dint say a thing for a few moments and my heart skipped a few beats. “Oh that would be nice, will find you at the Coffee shop ….” She said and smiled, waved good bye and left with her friend.
I started hearing music in my ears, in my mind I had accomplished something very significant, the doors to the dating phase had just been opened.
We had dinner together that night, the candle light, the romantic songs playing at the restaurant and her magnetic looks made it extremely difficult for me to sit on the other side of the table. I felt drugged, I felt ecstatic, I felt miserable, I felt as uncomfortable as one on fire, There was a rush of conflicting emotions but it was out of this world and the only way to describe it would be with poetry and music. It was fabulous.
In spite of me being lost in trance during the dinner my mind heard and registered everything she said, the way she said it, how much her head tilted in which direction when she said it, how her beautiful hands painted through the air when she spoke, it was all music and it felt as if some great musician was orchestrating her best symphony just for me.
The dinner was a success, I say that now because within a month of the dinner we had a few more of these symphonies. We started calling each other a lot, most of our calls was her telling me how she preferred one friend to another, how many soft toys she had, what her day was like, the topics hardly varied but the conversations were always music to my ears. I listened with such diligence, that my professors would have been thrilled had I exhibited half of the same back in my school days.
Things I felt were stupid when I saw heroes do them in movies were fun now in fact I longed to do them , I waited for the phone calls to practice my mimicry, use standard flirt lines , anything that would make her giggle I would do happily and things that made her happy I made sure I did. I spent 2 hours one night, after a long day at work trying to come up with interesting names for her 12 soft toys. In fact I found 3 more names that she liked but dint have toys for, I corrected that deficiency.
Where Are We ? :
We had by now spent a few months knowing each other and a few weeks on the phone talking (I am not kidding), I had moved from being an acquaintance to a friend, to a good friend, to the best friend to the bestest friend. We exchanged smses during work hours now.
In fact if I dint get a few smses every day it became impossible for me to concentrate on work, the day dint formal and I lost my motivation. We had watched half a dozen movies together, dined at a dozen restaurants and exchanged a few gifts (the ratio was me giving 20 to me receiving 2 and no they were not from her lips).
I juggled around with words such as love and like in our calls but she seemed to be either ignoring the hints or being completely oblivious to them. I moved from gifting her yellow roses to giving her red ones when we met but that dint change her reactions either. I kept wondering if she loved me or just treated me as a good friend but dint have the courage to ask her, I was worried I might ruin the dream I was living.
But then finally one day after a dinner I blurted out
“Ruch(thats what I called her now, we had nicknames for each other) you know I love you right”
“Yes Badru and you are my bestestttttt friend”
The few extra t’s dint make me feel any better, they only scared me more.
“Is that it, only bestest” I said making a sad face
“ohhh…….” She said as if talking to a sad puppy, “don’t you realize how close you are to me ” she said patting me on my cheeks (she had broken the touch barrier before with a few pats on the cheek when she was amused and some hitting when she felt mildly upset)
“No Ruch I don’t" I said, making the sad face again , it seemed to working and I wanted to get the best out of it
She got up and moved to my side of the table, she gently sat down near me, these few moments seemed too long, my heart skipped a million beats, I began to sweat a bit, it was like waiting for exam results, I am sure some part of me was even praying for good results.
She smiled, I had seen that smile before, it was her mischievous smile,
"You are ….." , she paused knowing fully well what I was going through and having her share of fun , "You are ……." She said her smile turning into giggles
"You are my kuchiku, my cutie pie" , she said and then planted a peck on my cheeks :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
