Frictional story

Every day, after school, I did the breakfast dishes before my parents got in from work.

I was that shy girl who never knows what to wear and is slightly out of synch. The only boys who fancied me were shy too. When one worked up the courage to ask for a date, I said no. All I could imagine was an evening of awkward silence.

Most other boys thought my only passion was for books. Their eyes veered towards girls who could have looked attractive in a bin bag down a coal mine in the company of spiders. They told me I had mousy hair and eyes the colour of mud. And expected me to laugh.

David was different. David was good looking and kind. But he barely knew I existed and spent most of his time dodging the pushy girls as if he was a gazelle and they were a pride of lions.

After school, I went home and did the washing up. I looked out of the kitchen window and searched my mind in vain for something to say to David. But what could I talk about? Unlike me, he was into science and I knew nothing whatsoever about his interests outside school.

Then one afternoon, I stood scrubbing a plate and looked down the street for inspiration. What on earth could happen in our little village to prompt a conversation? There’s the mobile shop, late again. There’s Mrs Price crashing gears. There’s Mr Owens walking his chocolate coloured dog. I’d missed him for a few days because by some miracle my sister had done the washing up.

Something nagged at me, but try as I might, I still couldn’t think of one thing to say to David.

The next day the bell was ringing as I arrived at school. Rushing, I crashed into someone who was obviously also late, but being more dignified about it. It was David. As we collided, his bag slipped. Books, pens, lunch spewed everywhere. When a big slab of chocolate skittered across the floor, something went click. Before I could stop myself, I exclaimed:

‘I saw a ghost.’

‘What?’ said David.

I cringed, expecting mockery, but when I looked into his face, I just saw eagerness.

‘Last night. I-I saw a ghost. You won’t believe me but…’

‘Go on.’

‘Mr Owens in our village. Walks his dog every afternoon at exactly the same time. I saw him yesterday. Only… I just remembered, Mr Owens died last week.’

‘Can you…’ started David.

Before he could finish, the teacher leaned out of the classroom and said ‘sorry to interrupt your tryst, but I feel the urge to take the register.’

Blushing, we stood up to go into class.

‘Tell me at break,’ said David.

‘OK,’ I answered, handing over his book which I’d picked up from the floor. It was a book on the paranormal.

I smiled and he smiled back.

Who’d have thought doing the washing up would lead to love?

And then she exchanged a smile!

June 9, 1990 10:00 AM

I was having a very bad day at work! Not that my tasks was tedious. My day was bad if getting shat on by a crow during office hours counts as work. I cleaned myself up and walked into my cubicle. All my colleagues who seem to have lost their sense of humor way back before their birth were sitting stiff faced. I tried hard to not to lock eyes with anyone of them. That would be awkward because we were too proud to be polite.

June 9,1990 12:00 Noon

My friend didn’t turn up to office that day. So I had to have my lunch alone. To make things worse, the food court at office was so full of people that I still doubt that it was open for outsiders that day. A perfect ploy by God after knowing for sure that I was super pissed. That’s that. I stood waiting for food in the queue which was pretty longer than our train ticket queue. For a long time, I stood there ranting and cursing almost everyone that passed by (flurry of in-house mental abuses, obviously!), I brought out my exquisite grumpy behavior.

June 9,1990 12:45 PM

And then I saw a girl observing all this and chuckling. With hunger in my stomach and anger in my veins, I looked straight into her eye to confront her. But she winked and pointed towards the counter. Now that was a response you wouldn’t get that often. I obediently got my meal and on my way back, I saw her again.

And then she smiled!

Years 1990 – 2015

She is not a person who believes in grant gestures. The high on booze birthday parties, the expensive gifts, the mandatory selfie after a foreign holiday; none of these things ever mattered to her.

She tells me that these planned celebrations seems fake and the fact that it is orchestrated makes it predictable and boring. Though we always have a great argument on whatever topic we discuss, I have never questioned her on the philosophical front. Since she always seemed to make sense.

She is the one that most of us would never meet. She would prefer an unanticipated kiss on the forehead rather than a diamond necklace, an honest on the face criticism instead of a well worded diplomatic one. She led me into believing that those insignificant moments are the ones that matter- That offering a seat to an elderly person on a moving bus! That door you kept open for a stranger! That time you called an elderly person ‘Sir’ irrespective of their economic status.

She told me and I believed.

June 9, 2015

Today is our 25th anniversary and I am going to fall in love yet again. No fancy gifts, no candlelit dinner, no expensive liquor. Just the two of us and her favourite snack I made for her. I carefully place a greeting card below her favourite snack expecting her to find out sooner than later.

She entered the house with that killer smile of hers and hugged me for that extra second. That extra second was all that was needed for her to convey her wishes. She was evidently delighted to see the effort I put in.

Like she had already read my plan, she grabbed the snack and started munching. I just move to the next room to wait for her until she found out. With utter glee in her eyes, she came running. She has spotted the greeting card. She kissed me and held me tight.

‘ And then a girl made me smile.’

PS: Your loved ones are just a smile away!

“I had crush on four girls in past” Ajay smiled shyly, blushing little.

“Wow, interesting. May I know all the stories?” Rishitha’s eyes lit up and her mouth curved into a smile.

Cappuccino’s aroma was spreading around the table, raining outside, wind disrupting the tree leaves and they could see the rainbow in sky from glass walls.

Ajay and Rishitha were software engineers. Ajay was working in Infosys and Rishitha was in TCS. Both were appointed at Hyderabad offices. They were asked to meet by their parents as a part of match-making process. They talked about jobs, families, career plans, and habits. When they discussed about their past relationships, Rishitha admitted that she had one love failure story. She explained about her unrequited love story, how she had fallen for her crush, how she was unable to tell her feelings to that guy, how much pain she endured when that guy got married recently.

Now, it was Ajay’s turn. Ajay took one sip and started telling about his past.

“I had crush on four girls in past. At least you know about your crush. But, I don’t even know my crushes’ names. When I was in 10th standard, I participated in state-level science exhibition organised in Sangareddy, Medak from January 9 to 12, 2008. A dance competition also had been conducted by the organisers on third day at MNR medical college’s auditorium. My friend and I sat in the 4th row. Then came this girl, with Indian flag colours applied on left cheek and right cheek, wearing dress similar to what Kajol wore in “Des Rangila” song. She performed the very same song. God! She nailed it. Her expressions, dance moves, ending and what not. Entire auditorium applauded her performance with a standing ovation. I really fell for her smile. There was something special in her smile. I haven’t had that sort of different feeling until that day. I couldn’t see her face clearly as her face was covered with colours. She disappeared immediately as soon as her performance was over. I wanted to follow her, but I couldn’t as my teacher was sitting next to me. That day was the first and last day of my crush on her.”

“I haven’t got same or similar feelings on any other girls afterwards until I saw someone in Araku. My family went to Araku during December 2009 when I was in plus 2. Generally, the temperature is very low during winter season in Araku. On second day morning, I woke up early as I was unable to sleep due to low temperature though I wore wool sweater and covered with two blankets. I went out for tea. Then came a girl, sat opposite to me, covered entire body with sweater, feet and hands with socks, face with scarf. I was looking at her eyes when she was waiting for tea. She turned towards me and our eyes met.

continued....

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