First Date… At last…

From the time when you, my dear readers, logged off leaving me and Nithya at CCD, I have been thinking hard how not to mess up our first coffee. And more I think the more I mess up, just like the Engineering exams, the more we try to remember the right answer, the more we end up scribbling some nonsense!

As I took my seat and looked at her, she was holding her glass of coffee, even if it is labeled Iced Eskimo, it is still a coffee back at its heart, and slowly lifted it to her mouth and cautiously sipped it. As soon as she sipped the coffee, her eyes closed and she grinned in surprise. Her face looked so cute with that innocent grin and her tangling earrings; I almost forgot the glass in my hand. Opening her eyes, she kept down her glass and looked at me; suddenly surprised by the way I was staring at her she raised her eyebrows questioning me. I just nodded my head and sipped the coffee and looked back at her. She was still looking at me, may be awaiting the same reaction she had given.

“This is very cold” I said foolishly.

“Obviously it will be cold, it’s Iced Eskimo” she said giggling.

I too joined in giggling with her, but there was a difference. She was giggling at my innocence, while I knew it was my foolishness. When she finished her giggling, she took another sip from her glass and smiled again.

“You don’t like this?” she asked.

“I like this. Why?”

“You are not drinking, just looking at me finish my glass. So I wondered if you dint like and got to order this just because I ordered”

“Ah. No. I like this. Just drinking slower” I said and thought if only she could understand I was staring at her cute reactions and giggles. Or what if she caught me doing that and is asking me this only to warn me indirectly.

I have had to stop staring at her, but how could you resist looking at the nature’s most beautiful creation. God might have been the best chess player; he gives checkmate when we are out of strength and desperately in need of help. But I was not going to be the loser this time. I even had the queen sitting right in front of me smiling at me.

Woow! Chess! What a topic! Thank you my Lord!

“Hey! What are your hobbies?” I asked her suddenly getting out of my thoughts.

She was taken aback by sudden question but smiled again sipping her cold coffee.

“I love reading books, I listen to music, in fact everyone at my home listen to music. My mom plays old songs while she is cooking and I sit in kitchen with her reading books. I also do help her in cooking but I don’t cook that well. You know what, once I was so involved in reading a story, she asked me for something, I went to the other room, got the box out from the closet but sat there itself on the chair. After about half hour mom called me for dinner and then I went out with that box still in my hand. She started scolding me but seeing my surprised face she laughed out till I understood what had happened and I too joined her”

I was looking at her smiling, the way she was explaining, the way she enjoyed those little things, the way she saw sunshine in the darkest room, her way of enjoying simple things in life. There was something about her, her smile.

“I also like playing carom. I used to play carom for my school. What are your hobbies?”

“Oh that’s really cool. I just like roaming around in my bike. Yeah... I am not much of a hobby guy”

“I have heard you write short poems. Is that true?”

“Oh no. No. No. Who told you that?”

“It’s all over the college. Everyone knows it. Most of the girls from our class are curious to read your poems.”

Now it was my turn to blush and act a bit. But who the hell was spy spreading my secrets. May be Sid or Raunak or Naveen. Are they girls? Can’t they keep their mouth shut? Or wait, were they using my poems to impress girls? Or were they really helping me with a free advertisement?

“Come on, don’t be so modest” she said holding her glass in right hand and slowly moving back the loosened hair with her left hand. As she moved all of the hair that had come out and fallen freely covering her ears, the little earing shone again brightly. I could stand the power of that sparkle but not the twinkle of her curious eyes.

I silently picked up my glass and sipped in the coffee. I tried to steal a look at her but she was still looking at me.

“Its ok if you want to keep it a secret, but yes everyone in the class knows about it” she smiled again.

“It’s not something secret but also it is true I don’t write much. Only once in a while I sit down and write few bits.”

“That’s really nice.”

I just smiled and she joined too. We bent down our heads to drink our coffees. Just few seconds passed and the silence prevailed over us. Both of us, or atleast me, were trying to break the ice, the literal ice, not the ice in the Iced Eskimo.

“Nithya, you want to eat something? I am feeling hungry” I said, out of honesty.

“No. not now. I had my lunch an hour back.”

“Lucky, you stay at home. I had breakfast in morning and half a glass of Iced Eskimo now. Feeling damn hungry.”

“Oh that’s really bad for your health. You shouldn’t be doing that.”

“Yeah true. But this is how Bachelors live” I tried to smile but looking at her innocence I stopped.

“Let me order something to eat, what about you? What will you take?”

“I am fine. I am not hungry.”

“No Nithya. You will have to take something. Atleast another Iced Eskimo? Till I eat? Please… If I promise you a surprise…”

“Ok. I will have one more. I like this so much I cannot say no” she smiled closing her eyes.

I got up, walked inside the CCD and got a piece of chocolate cake for me and ordered another Iced Eskimo for her.

We then talked again and talked a lot. The ice that had to be broken had melted by now and we now spoke without any hitch or any pause. She kept on explaining about every simple thing, about the class, how she felt about the subjects, the practical labs, her home, her likes and dislikes. And I kept on listening to her every word and kept on enjoying her cute smile and the twinkle in her eyes every time she exclaimed about something like a small little girl.

I too shared with her many of the things that were part of my life. My home, my native, my friends, our trips, and the things we did back at school.

We even shared our numbers, though I had her number from the second day of the college, now I had it formally and also got the information that the cell always remains with her and, my dear readers, she even said “It is absolutely fine if you message me Viz. In fact I myself will keep bugging you”

When she sipped the last drop of coffee from her glass, she asked, “Viz, now this is not fair”

“What?” I asked in surprised thinking what foolishness I had done now.

“You had promised me a surprise. What’s that?” she asked smiling and raising her eyebrows twice and thrice. Her eyebrows neatly shaped as a bow, danced over her eyes and gave out little lines on her plain little fair forehead every time she raised her eyebrows.

“Ah that. Leave it yaar, it was nothing.”

“No Viz. Please no cheating. You had promised me” she now sounded like small kid and her voice itself gave me enough courage.

“Ok. But on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You will have to close your eyes”

She suddenly closed her eyes and said, “Ok I closed my eyes. Now the surprise please. Please Viz. I can’t stay away from surprises longer. Please.”

“This is for you Nithya…

When Sun rises as a bright Orange ball

A new day is in giving us a new call

Cute little flowers start blooming

The early rising birds start singing

A new opportunity runs in for all

To mend our yesterday's fall

The fresh air kissing our face

Reminds us of our half run race

It’s time to double our speed

Remembering our true deed

For there's a new chance from God

Who is watching us from his Abode

Let’s all happily join our hands

In tying together the peace bands

Making this earth more beautiful today

Than what it really was yesterday”

She opened up her eyes and they twinkled again. After a silence of few seconds, she said, “That was sooooo very nice Viz. I really liked the surprise.”

“Thank you” I said and smiled back.

As I dropped her on my bike near the corner of the road of her home, she said, “Thank you for the drop, the Iced Eskimo, the sweet poem and a wonderful evening Viz”

She closed her eyes and smiled.

Her smile seemed so true that I felt only two of us standing in middle of the road, holding our hands. She is blushing and looking down, her head against my shoulder. I am trying to look at her but see only the freely flowing hair. We take a few steps for a tune flowing in from somewhere far away. The trees standing tall, start showering their flowers filling the air with their pure scent. We keep dancing and the trees keep showering the flowers, the untiring music is filling the air and the love is rising high as we go on getting lost in ourselves… At last…

Vishal...

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