Pass and Aggregate : Chapter 16 Prayers Heard

Chapter 16: Prayers Heard

Beginning in Ahmedabad began on a sad note with Anushka departing and the amazing journey coming to an end. Still there was hope of meeting her again. Although it was premature to predict a romance while I just had embarked on a friendship note yet something told me that the journey has started. My prior experience with love was not a very remember able affair but that had not dither me from reentering the world of ardor with new zeal and enthusiasm.

My thoughts of romance were cut short by the accountant Jignesh who came to receive me at the Bus Stop.

“So how was your journey?” asked Jignesh.

I just answered “Good” (remembering Nagendra Rao’s instruction to behave in an ‘appropriate manner’).

Ahmedabad was not a big city like Mumbai or Delhi but there was something charming about it. The sun shone brightly and it signaled the mercury that would be reaching during the day. I was exhausted and although I had the best journey of the life time still I was tired.  I kept on thinking about Anushka during the passage to the guest house from bus stop but that never provided me the respite from the blazing sun.

After reaching the guest house I thought maybe an hour nap before beginning the work would be good enough for me, but ‘Employee proposes Boss Disposes’. My boss called me within fifteen minutes of my reaching the guest house. I was taking the bath while the phone rang; I thought it might be Aakshya asking my whereabouts in her city but no my boss was more concerned than my sister and they say blood is thicker than water.

“So have you reached the guest house?” asked boss in his eternal rude and dominating tone.

“Yes ….Sir, Good Morning”. I replied while I was drying myself with the towel, yet still soaked in the fresh droplets of instantaneous infatuation.

“Now go and start the work, remember I want you to complete the work as soon as possible and please do not procrastinate.” said Gupta.

“Yes Sir, I will try”, I meekly replied.

“I want to see the results, do you get it”, he told and then disconnected the call. It was his usual way of talking over phone. I mean he never realized how rude he was and most of the times he lacked the basic etiquette and manners of a telephonic conversation.

The day ahead was busy and tiresome, learning the process of the company for the audit and then trying to figure out the way in which I could start the same, I was lost over and over again in the labyrinth. I continued going over the audit documents of last year and the instructions I got from my office.

“Sir we will have the lunch at the Canteen (to be read as ‘Kaen teen’, in total Gujarti accent) before I show you the rest of the documents” asked Jignesh closing the files on my table. He was visibly hungry so I agreed for the lunch at the canteen of the company.

It was during the lunch when Akshyaa called up.

“Where are you Anna, you should have called me, I am waiting since morning………” and Akshyaa continued with one way traffic and without punctuations till I interrupted “I am Sorry, but now I have to go and I will come to meet you in evening, and then you can give me sermons of do’s and dont’s ”.

The food was edible yet excessively sweet and I almost felt that I was gorging on the dessert instead of the main course. Although Jignesh was jingoistic about the Gujarti food, at the table he almost convinced me that the Gujarti food is the best in the world and in near future it would overcome the popularity of Chinese and Italian and Mexican gourmet. It was his attempt to convert me from a Tam Brahm to a Gujarti, although that is a task impossible since Tamils are too proud to even consider that yet Jignesh’s sweetness was overpowering than the sweetness in the food.

I was meeting Akshyaa after a long time; she was the same yet appeared different.  She had transformed her looks and appeared more trimmed and smarter. She took me inside the temple of the highest education in India, IIM Ahmedabad. It was a normal place although I seriously believe that they should get their wall plastered and coated but according to Akshyaa the brick structure gave more aesthetic appeal to the institute.

“Anna, Thank God you are here now you are going to help with the Accounts and Finance stuff, it is so boring I cannot do it”, Akshyaa remarked while showing off the book in her hand while I was at the guided tour of the world famous institution.

And for me this moment was once in a life time situation, the dinosaur was finally scared of something and she asked me for help. The feeling that surmounted me was in no way lesser than the feeling one could get after winning an Oscar, I knew that never in life this moment would ever occur again, and I wanted to seize the opportunity before she changes her mind.

I said “Yes dear I am here to help (in a tone of triumph), Accounts is like part of me, and I will help you out. She smiled sarcastically and I was handed over the book there itself. Looking at the book my over the top reaction disappeared and I said “Now please let us go for dinner, I am really hungry”. Both of us went out for the dinner in perfect cordial way although that was unusual. We talked of everything right from her classmates to my officemates, my work to her assignments, her infatuation to my fascination. I realized that Akshyaa was now more of a friend than of the irksome sibling. She was more understanding and less critical of me. Maybe someone has rightly remarked that siblings are the in house version of friends.

Leaving her to the hostel and returning to the guest house, I thought of Anushka. I decided to call her up to say a good night but my ambitions got a jolt soon since I lost the paper on which she had written her number. My whole thoughts from friendship to dating and then may be to a happy ending came to a standstill. My carelessness cost me dearly; I was flabbergasted and kept on blaming myself for the recklessness. In just few moments I became upset and I called up Akshyaa as she was the only one who knew of my latest craze about Anushka.

“What you lost her number, wow! You are such a pathetic creature, a girl handout you her number and you in the feeling of ecstasy lost the only contact you had of her” she exclaimed.

She was right but her approach was not. I fail to understand when confronted with a grim situation the fairer sexes always want to evaluate “What happened wrong in the past”? But not “What can we do in future”? I neither liked this thing about my mother nor about Akshyaa. May be even during an earthquake they will try to analyze which seismic activity lead to the earthquake rather than running away from the affected place.

“I know”, I said almost crackling up under the intense pressure of losing the number and my sister’s scolding.

“Now please try to search her on Facebook” she suggested.

“Hmmm, ok I will, good night and take care”. I said cutting the conversation.

Facebook is not a bad idea, these days almost everyone from our age is using the social networking site, “but what if she does not exist in the networking world”, I thought. And even if she does, how would I search someone with the name ‘Anushka Patel’, I mean it is a common name these days, and what if she wants to search me, even ‘Adithya Iyer’ is a pretty common name these days I thought. My parents should have kept a more uncommon name for me and even her parents were at fault I thought. But I was determined to search her and with so many questions in mind I logged on to Facebook. As predicted there were 500+ people with that name on Facebook.  I tried searching few profiles but being much tired I slept only to hope that I find her by all means as soon as possible.

The next day at work was even more demanding, the end of my work was not in sight and my search of the perfect soul mate was now lurking somewhere behind, with every passing day the searches on profile were not yielding any result, I kept on refining results but she has disappeared without any trace. I had lost all hopes on finding her. Days just flew by and it was ten days after which I landed in Ahmedabad that I got Facebook friend request from none other than Anushka, I could not believe my eyes, after so many frantic profile searches and endless wait I finally was able to reconnect with her.

I added her as a friend and while I was viewing her profile I got a message from her on the Facebook Chat 

Anushka Patel: Hi Adithya

Where d hell r u?

I thought I will get a call from you on d same day…..

Me: Hiiiiiii, Sorry but I lost the number L, bt hw r u??

Anushka Patel: No yaar, I dnt believe u, u were avoiding me L, even I searched and found you out, you could hv done same.

Me: Trust me Anushka, plz trust me I tried and on daily basis I searched profiles but I could not find u, u can go over the history of my laptop.

Anushka Patel: No, hw can I trust u, who loses a grls number dese days ?

Me : Plz forgive me dis time, can I take u out for Coffee and we make up. It is a date. (I was praying so that she says yes, but somewhere deep in my heart, I knew she will not refuse).

Anushka Patel: Ohkay, yes, I wud pick u up this Saturday where and what time???

Me: Funny.

Anushka Patel: And what is so funny abt it???

Me: I mean a guy and grl on date and girl picking up d guy……

Anushka Patel: dat is such a Chauvinist comment Adithya. I m rethinking on my decision to go on a date wid u.

Me: No, plz I am sorry again, okay pick me up at 6:00 clock, Saturday evening from Law Garden.

Anushka Patel : okay now give ur number to me rt now, bcoz I give u who knows u might lose it again.

Me : no plz, my number 98*******4, and plz give me a missd call.

Anushka Patel: Sure and now I am going off to sleep it is late.

I saw the time and it twelve at the night, she gave me a missed call and I saved it on my mobile. I was ecstatic after the Chat and now I had to wait till Saturday, and today was Thursday. A sense of anxiety surrounded me; I could not believe what was happening around me. But somehow Shruti reappeared in my mind, maybe I was so hurt that I needed a closure and though time had elapsed but the wound remained. I always thought that I would never fall for anyone again but I constantly prayed to God to heal me of the ill feelings that I bore and carried. I was in two minds, on one hand I became unsure of my decision to date Anushka, I thought maybe I am just rushing into things, on other hand I wanted to give a try. Finally I tossed and it said ‘Heads’ which meant I was not going on a date. But that is not a rational way of thinking so I had to go, and so I went. No risk no gain was the last thought that came to my mind.

That day Anushka picked me up, I was not so sure of sitting behind a girl on a two wheeler but then I hardly got time to think, I was taken to this posh urban café which has replaced the old places of romance. The cafés these days have certain homogeneity about their interiors, their menus and the crowd which come to enjoy their lattes or espresso. When we entered the café it was the same stereotyped setting with an uninspiring environment but thankfully the August Company was a respite.

“You know, Aditya (Bang on pronunciation), I simply like this café.” She said, trying to figure out a good seat for us. “There” she said pointing to a corner; it was a secluded place comparatively. We sat there talking endlessly; I don’t remember what we were talking about but it was one of the finest conversations that I had in my life. She appeared so calm and composed yet excited enough to have the spark while she spoke and I was mesmerized rather enchanted with her aura, with every passing second I liked her even more, I wanted to possess her. I know it sounds rather lecherous but I confess that I just wanted her to be with me. Our conversation had silences too but I guess the eyes talked when the lips were silent, and then it was time to leave. I felt a piercing pain while we were leaving the café, the place which according to my standards was an over rated place suddenly was pinnacle of romance. My fable for that night was nearing to an end and now I was in a dilemma to kiss or not to kiss. Kiss is a small word but it implies a lot. It is the worst kind of predicament a guy can ever go through but I guess almost every guy would have gone through it. My mind was working at a blazing speed but heart had stopped beating.

“Should I ask her? No a kiss has to be spontaneous, girls like it that way, but what if she is not ready as yet, and then she decides never to see me again, after all it is our first date, and what if she wants a kiss but if I back out she considers me as a spineless loser, good for nothing fellow but then again girls are complicated souls we are new friends and being friendly is different from sharing a kiss because you can seldom return to being just friends” I was philosophizing all this while we were walking towards the parking.

“So why are you quiet? Say something” she said.

“Hmm, nothing it was my one of the best evenings of my life, but sadly it ended” I replied in rather quiet and somber tone without actually revealing about the whirlpool of temptations going inside my mind.

“So are you going to end your finest evening like that?” She asked.

Looking confused I asked “What do you mean, I…”, before I could even complete my sentence she stood on the tip of her toes and kissed me on my cheek. The whole world around me stood still, “Was this the green signal, should I now kiss her” I thought.

Returning back to her normal elevation after the small peck she was looking away from me, just then I held her hand and kissed her. No it was not on the lips but on the forehead. The moment was magical and it was exhilarating too. But after the kiss she hardly spoke, the silence killed me; I kept on wondering what went wrong, she just said ‘bye’ while leaving me at the guest house.

My anxiety was not sparing me, I felt so low, and when I got a SMS from Anushka, my heart skipped a beat, with trembling hands I picked up the mobile and read the message.

The message just said “Thanks, your kiss on the forehead was least expected but most memorable, you have swept me off the floor with your chivalry, I think I like you more than a friend”.

Love once again knocked my door and I was there to welcome it whole heartedly. Few feelings cannot be explained love is one of those feelings; it can surprise you, shock you, stun you and change your perspective towards life for positive. After being dejected in love once I never thought I would trust anyone with my heart and it would only be leap of faith for me to ever look out for love. I always prayed to God to heal me and finally God started hearing my prayers.