Skip to main content

It was not about the...

Disclaimer: The information contained in this blog is for reading purposes only, and may not be the situation you were in or you will be in.

A hectic day in office…trying to jot down my task list for the day, 2010 football world cup wavin’ flag – K’naan picked up momentum in my mobile, I realized it was time to change my outdated ringtone. But for the time being I had to pull out my mobile from my pocket so that it does not yell. Generally, my fingers would have reached out to the mute ringtone option in the touch screen, but this time around I did not want to…one of my cousin’s number flashed on the touch screen of my HTC.

The concern

My cousin, a perfect user of the phone or at least with me…he calls up if there is a necessity and that invariably makes me pick his calls. He being a professor by profession enquired about me and my work and hit straight on the topic. He asked me to jot down a number and said “Speak to her she is my colleague’s daughter, check if you guys can meet some time over the week end”. Well, I am getting old was the message and got to get married soon…and my cousin was merely helping my family find a bride for me.

My first conversation with her was more on getting details about each other…sounded more like an interview and she even joked that I sounded like a manager. (...I wished it was true though…I mean the manager part, at least not for the position but for the money…you know why?) We decided to meet that weekend; she informed me that she knew nothing about Chennai…and as always the men have no choice but to say “emmm…is it ok if I pick you up?”, “Yes” the obvious answer.

My chances of making it to Hollywood enhances  

Saturday morning, I did not want my car… (FIAT UNO) to let me down. I went to the parking lot to dust it so that it looks decent for the occasion. The engine started off at 9:45 in the morning, everything seemed to be going in the right direction…made the last min checking including the “aroma stuff” and the AC…strangely my AC blew hot air!!! PHEW…there you go, I lowered the window panes, put on my coolers and my brains functioned more than normal to find an excuse.
Couple of kilometers…and I again checked for the blower, the heat coming out of it had increased by a notch.

Me the actor: I am not a fan of AC…
Me the self: fan or AC nothing works in your car dude

Me the actor: Nice breeze?
Me the self: In Chennai?????????...U must be joking

Me the actor: Turned off the AC some time back…it became too cold u know...hope you don’t mind (smile)?
Me the self: So turn it back on…it is boiling inside

I tried rehearsing a few excuses but noting worked… but probably my acting skills and chances of making it to Hollywood would have gone up by 0.00000001% which was already at a record low…0%.

Second opportunity to Hollywood
And again the outdated 2010 football world cup wavin’ flag – K’naan on my mobile was faintly ringing in my ears which were otherwise open to a whole lot of city traffic.   

I pulled over to attend the call… she wanted to know the common point where I can pick her up. After exchanging couple of calls, I spotted her. No sooner, she entered the car her hands were waving at her face furiously…which meant her hands were substituting a fan and wanted some cool air.

Me the actor and me the self in unison, “something wrong with the AC…it…is…not ehhh working like emmm it should be”

She gave me a weird look as if to say, why the hell are you telling me that, said “well, that is fine”. Me the actor looked like the “Jack ass” and me the self was ROFL.

But then, it did open up a topic about buying cars…I was suggesting a few, “Ford Figo” was one of them she picked, telling me that her Sister has one but she said “I preferred the Hyundai i10”. Topic slowly switched to the plan for the day and I said “early lunch and drop you back”…she was fine with that. Topics about IT service industry took the top spot in the podium for the longest conversation…as she is also an employee from one of India’s best IT service companies helped in the podium finish.

During the conversation my eyes picked something unusual on the dashboard of my car, the heat indicator in my car was inching closer towards the danger level and slowly crossed it. From then on, my mind was glued to “what next?” And, my end of the conversation was more “yes” “no” and a smile.

My chances of making it to Hollywood doubled to 0.00000002%

She sensed that something was wrong but did not know what; I played down her question by blaming it on the traffic and needed to concentrate a little more than usual on the road. Me the actor took precedence and looked around the car.

She: Looking for something?
Me the actor: Ya…water bottle, I had one here…I am just feeling too thirsty
Me the self: hope she does not have one in her bag…keep your fingers crossed

I quite literally had my fingers crossed

Me the actor: Would you mind…can I pull over so that I can get a water bottle?    
She: Sure, no problem

To my dismay there was no store around…in about 20 to 30 meters I saw piled up tender coconut. That’s not a bad choice I thought…I pulled over and switched off the car as quickly as possible.

My plan was to keep my engine turned off as long as possible so that it can cool down a little which may help me reach the intended restaurant without much embarrassment.

I asked her if she wants one for which she promptly declined. I insisted a few more times not only to show I was a gentleman but also the extra seconds.

Me the self: wow… your acting skills have increased...let us see for how long?                

I asked the coconut vendor for one…but I insisted that I am going to pick one. Checked a few coconuts, tapped and shook it, after four to five choices I picked one of it that slightly sounded as if there was more water in it. I was praying the vendor would take his time to cut it, but to my astonishment the coconut was in my hand with a straw in few seconds.

After a prolonged session of sipping the coconut water, the last drops came along with a few air bubbles. Adjusted my straw in all direction but that was it, not a drop left. Took my wallet as slowly as possible to gain a few seconds and checked for a currency with the highest value so that the vendor would take his time to give me the change. Looked into my wallet, a hundred rupee note was the only one I had, nothing less nothing more (well the credit card will help with the lunch). The vendor was quite fast in just about whatever he did, the change was in my hand in few seconds. I counted...walked towards my car as slowly as possible and also placed my hands on the bonnet to check if there was any respite.

Could not find much with the hands, but left with no choice I started the car and the pointer was a little below the danger mark.

Finally I did make it to the restaurant which gave the engine enough time to cool down. And, the way back was not much of a problem with lesser traffic and she being the one to get down first, I did not mind the car breaking down after that. Never the less I did make it to my house with no break down and later on my mechanic fixed the radiator that had a leek.  

If interested…


Well nothing much with the proposal though, after a few hiccups it was shutters down in few weeks’ time as i was not willing to take it any further. Couple of days back one of my relatives asked me as to why I was still speaking with her. I was shocked and later learnt that the message passed around was “He said no, but still keeps calling her”. I was a little irritated over false message that was passed around and the “bad boy” image that was created but can also understand that the girl’s family wants to save their skin and of course the Chinese whispers – but I get to face the brunt of it.

Comments

  1. but since u continued talking to her, it meant u liked her right? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. i did not and i am not interested speaking to her, thats the whole point...it was made up to make me look like a bad boy

    ReplyDelete
  3. A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
    Ohhhh Bird,,,,Girl...me no poet to use such metaphors, similes ....AND ...better luck nextime...with the car.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My freedom ends where a butterfly’s freedom begins

A miracle needed for my train ticket to Coimbatore, it was Monday and I had to travel that evening. I got my ticket through My company's travel desk which read WL/14 and by 6:00 PM I got a call from one of the agents “Sir, A1 cabin 1”. Well...miracles do happen!!! Not only a train ticket to Coimbatore but with an upgrade to 1st class AC.... Looks like there is something with me and travel… Couple of weeks back, I traveled to Pune for an official trip….if flyin in KF was good it was made awesome by the VW Jetta that was waiting for me at the airport to chauffeur me. Well in utter disbelief, I confirmed it more than 5 times and I always got a polite answer with a “Sab” or “Sir”…which definitely meant respect and the chauffeur was more than willing to carry my bag and also held an umbrella to protect me from the heavy shower that greeted me in the Pune airport. Well back to the Coimbatore trip…cabin for 4 but only 3 turned up. One on the berth already… the other fiddling wi...

Stereotype...

For a living, I help teams to innovate. How?… is a long story with loads of jargons and justifications, but so far it has worked…and let me not drag the ‘how’ part further. But some of the jargons which are pretty much inevitable and synonymous to innovation are creativity, problem statement, best practice, reuse, benefit and $ value (sounds like $ is the only currency world over).  Pondering on the multiple calls on the day, with enthusiastic young gals and lads explaining what their team has done and articulating every possible benefit to weave a large dollar value to it…after all Innovation is to do with evangelising your solution and branding it. Well, my little grey matter pondering for a longtime and slowly drifted towards ‘what exactly is innovation…or even further what exactly is creativity?’.  We have heard it a hundred times over and often referred to the great domain pundits as ‘something different which has a benefit tagged to it’. Okey agreed, then how on ear...

Is it just me!!!

I always thought listening was an art and it just needed a spark and there on you were on your own. Determined to turn a new leaf, my thoughts were fixed on listening to the teacher. Sixth grade it was and there was something to it than the primary grades - a motivation to start listening and the making of the new "me". An imaginary fist pump to say 'yes from today' and drifting into the thought of that magical spark moment which will allow me to then stop worrying about exams - its just revision and not learning afresh. The bell rang and I realised the first 45 min had just gone by, the last thing I listened to, was my name called out for the attendance and I promptly lifted my hands and then drifting into the dream 'art of listening'. An introvert, occupying the middle benches, hiding behind the one in front and hoping the teachers would never pick me up for answering questions. It was working my way, except for the english teacher. I just did not have the ...