If looks could kill...

If looks could kill....she would've wiped out an army ;)
Thmubs up! Casino Royale is rocking movie and Eve Green is real cool :)

The inComplete Man - 2

[Continued from ]
Apoorv did not get a booking for a train to home on the same day as other folks from his hometown and eventually Purva too had decided to leave a day later for some reason. By 12 midnight, they had bid adieu to almost all folks and were left with few guys on the road in front of library. And, for the Nth time, somebody brought up the topic of "future plans". Everybody had plans. Rohit was already placed with an IT firm and was going to be back to Pune after vacations.
"So, I'll keep dropping in here and keep guiding the juniors for their final year projects ;)" - Rohit announced.
"Ohhh..." Everybody exclaimed, knowing whom he was interested in guiding.
"Rehne de rehne de, kaam kariyo apna waha pe, company se bhi GPL mil jayegi nai to. Usse se to mil hi chuki hai :D" - People started pulling his legs.
"I'm gonna assist Papa in business." - Engineering had always been a 4 yr long vacation for Jeetu.
"My GRE classes will start in July at Visu in Hyderabad. Nov se pehle GRE de hi doonga." Apoorv had been busy all the thru' the finaly yr building his vocab and was keen on doing his MS in network security.
"I'll definitely bell the CAT this Nov. So I'll be back to Pune. yupiee... Pune tithe kay une? ;) I need to decide on whihc branch of CF to choose for the classes though" - Purva declared. IIMA was the dream institute for her and she was all geared up to better her score from earlier attempt of CAT.
"Are bas karo yaar, pakau giri...tell me who all are coming for Shilpa's marriage next month" Medha complained. And the discussions went on. Folks got back at respective hostels only by 3 AM.
Apoorv had been tossing in the bed for whole morning. "Is she really "the one" for me? But will she even accept me as a life partener. She seems to like me...but she never talked about this thing. Do I even need to think of this now? What if she's not been thinking of this, what if she throws a sterotype "Oh, I've only considered you as a good friend of mine always"? I don't wanna be a looser. She must be thinking of this....let her indicate something and then I'll take my step forward"

Apoorv and Purva had most of the day to spend together. They met at mama-ki-tapri as usual the next morning for break-fast. Deprived of sleep , his eyes looked reddish and face gloomy.
"Campus pe aakhri din bhi nahaya nahi kya? :P" Purva was in usual teasing mood.
"Khud ke jaisa samajha kya sabko?" He tried to lighten his own mood.
The Poha plates were finished with unsual slience today.
"Aur?" She just tried to break the silence thinking - "Duffer, it's the last day, say something!!!"
"Bass, will leave this campus forever today, feeling very giddy". And they went on talking about the funny things on campus and what they will miss. She never could give an explicit indication and he never found courage to broach the topic. The feelings were mutual...but they never quite managed to express.

And they bid good bye to each other promising to "keep in touch".Phone calls continued for few months, then emails and forwards became the only means of keeping in touch. One day, he recieved an email about her engagement. "Only a mail....she could have given a call at least" he kept wondering even though it was too late for him to talk anything.
"Mail padhke call nahi kar sakta tha??" she kept thinking.

After 7 yrs.

After working at few other locations for different clients, Apoorv had moved to Chicago and it was just a week he shifted to this apartment. On the halloween day a group of desi and videsi kids stormed the apartment. Doing "trick or treat" and collecting chocolates and goodies in their bags.
"Is this halloween getup or you're like this generally?" He was stumped by a cute 5 yr old girl in a way similar to that first day on college campus.

And the second day, he spotted the same girl holding hand of Purva in the nearby WalMart. Life had come full circle for him. "Still preying? ;)" Purva quipped on his bachelorhood when they sat down in the StarBucks cafe. "Waiting for the best one :)" He replied to her, but had actually intended to say "the second best that is.....".

The inComplete Man

"As an outsider, what is your view about homo sapiens?" (A wicked grin on her face and a wave of laughter in the hall followed)
Such was the rivalry between Apoorv and Purva that She could have rarely missed a chance to embarass him in front of all the profs and students in this QA round Mr Engineer contest.

"Whatever it was earlier, Looking at you today makes me feel that they are on their backward journey towards apes in evolution".
He blew away the nasty delivery to the boundary with charm.
Humiliated and embarassed, she actually felt for a moment that something was wrong with her face today which otherwise had an impeccable record of keeping his eyes glued at. Apoorv had fallen for her the very first day he saw her. Sitting at the mama-ki-tapri infront of the college, his eyes fell on this heavenly figure one day. She had all the features of his dream girl - tall , fare with rarefied skin that gave her face that wonderful enticing glow. The long silky hair and kaan-ki-bali gave her a truely beautiful and unique look in the crowd of Jeans and Ts.
Trying to take in as much of "EyeTonic" as possible ;), he had fumbled & picked up her notebook instead of his while paying at the counter. She too was, at first, impressed by the way he was carrying himself in the tapri. Somehow, she thouht of this act as an explicit attempt and snapped back at him saying
"Is there any special occasion today or you always show such stupidity?".

That day onwards, their paths crossed innumerable times in the campus, but everytime they ended up barking at each other. He would follow her face everywhere. He was like

"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping"

in full Aerosmith style ;) Once she found him at the door of reading room only waiting for her to come out.
And she burst out with disgust "Oh, my god".
"You can call me Apoorv (instead of calling god)
- equally irritating was his reply too. However, irritating and baffling his actions were...he appeared to be charming at times and it used to keep her thinking about him. Her roomies at girls hostel would find that faint line of smile on her face, while she would be standing alone on the corridor on a clement winter night.

[Caution readers : author taking here the superfast bollywood route ;)]

Slowly but steadily, his deewanagi started paying off and she started to melt. Like you fiddle with spoon the just-out-of-freezer hard ice cream in a bowl and it melts smoothly with passage of time.

[Okay, author is pathetic at metaphor :D].

By the third year, they were "good friends" and went on to become "best friends". Every hostel function would carry a few fishponds on them. Otherwise the livewire of the group, he started keeping aloof with the boys' hostel group. They started abusing the free text messaging service of BPL mobile ;). Sitting in lectures, doing practicals in comp lab with one hand (and smsing with other), or eating in the mess- they always had the intelligent-fluid-crispy and sometimes tangential to dil-wil-pyar-vyar conversations going on. So much so that, at times, she would hit the "A" button on computer keyboard twice to type "C" in the try-catch block in comp. programming labs :D. Watching action flicks with his gang was no more his favourite timepass. They were being spotted at Vijay, Alaka or Mangla for the romantic comedies like"Laws of Attraction". And would analyze the laws of attraction betn them, standing alone in hostel corridors. Apart from the natural young male-female bond between them, she had also emerged as the ultimate spiritual guru for him. After his Mom, she was perhaps the only female in his life to whom he would talk about each n every negligible or significant thing on earth and in his life. Fortunately ( or unfortunately as he would think of it) they din't immerse completely in this ishq-ka-samundar and went on clearing each academic year. Except when she had flunked twice in theory of computing and he had spent his night-out for her subject isntead of his paper thenext day. Thus they reached that ultimate "zindagi ka mode" where they were about to graduate and hence would be no more on the same campus. This was as if the cornerstone of their strange relationship - they always believed in enjoying each other's company for the momentand would never talk anything about their relationship after college days. Eventually, all the departmental farewell parties and hostel GPL ( G$%d Pe Laath) nights were over. And then suddenly they arrived at the inevitable moment of seperation. Taking stock of all the fun and the glorious 4 yrs stay on campus, writing those slambooks...sometimes mechanically with no emotions and sometimes with giddy hearts, they din't quite knewhow to take forward this relationship of theirs. Nobody talked anything...and eventually they were venturing out on their own seperate ways. The last night on campus was spent with all folks. They were sitting on the road in front of library the whole night, singing songs and recalling some of the golden moments. That night most of the Qualis and Sumos started moving out of the campus. Vehicles with loads of suitcases and folks with loads of emotions....

[Author weeping over last-day-in-college memories now. Bookmark the link for the second part of the ishtory. Sequels ka jamana hai bhai!]

(Dedicated to Appya, for it was his inspireshan that I thought of writing fiction on my blog for the first time)

Gupta is leaving Chennai....

As Appya has put it, "Finally Gupta's tryst with Chennai is ending" (A tryst he's having with a soul in Chennai might as well continue in Pune and even blossom :D. Ahem...that's a different ishtory...ishtory ke ishtart maich divert ho re apan, back on track now.) I'm sure he's going to enjoy in Pune as well...such a jolly person he is. We (Me, Gupta, Appya, Mridu, Bhau, Khobra, Psycho, Saket) had made this "Maitri" apartment in Chenani as our second home over last 2-3 yrs. And then there were NRMs (Non Resident Maitriites) like Tiffy, Nandini, Rajesh and Bikram ;) Everybody's moving on now. Me and Appya came to 'amrica', Mridu n Nandini got busy wid their married (with each other! ;)) life. And now, Gupta is leaving too.
For the initial months in Chennai (when I was put up in guest house) I had never thought that I will miss those Chennai days ever. And used to lament about being away from Pune. But now, sitting here in Florida, I do miss those Chennai days. Solely because of the the wonderful and enigmatic life ishtyle we followed in Maitri. Each one of us beign a "character". As I've written earlier in this post, Psycho is a character worth a study of life-time ;). For khobra, sleeping was the second best pleasure on earth. (No, you perverts...the first one was chatting in yahoo rooms :D) He would alwasy keep his ass facing the roof...easy to kick for us :D. Working in an IT tech solutions company, Bhau was called the call centre boy , for he would be on his cell phone 24x7!. And as Psycho puts it "after God their is Gupta" ;) Gupta really carries that charming persona...and delivers crispy dialogues with great timing. I left Chennai in a haste and hence did not get time to take stock of the things. Gupta's leaving Chennai and that made me nostalgic. I will definitely cherish those memories for life time. I will always remember Gupta's special chai on those lazy Sundays. Those visit to Mridu n Nandini's place and food we got to hog :D. I remember scribbling about one such visit. The new year parties at home...birthday parties in some rocking pubs like Bikes n Barrels and Savera.
Waise, I would not prefer to go back to Chennai. But for some strange reason, I hope we all get back to Maitri in Chennai sometime in future - Sipping either Aavin's lassi or Gupta's chai, jogging to the thiruvanmiyur beach with Psycho, pulling Psycho's legs and kicking Khobra's a$$, playing galli cricket on road in fron or take badminton lessons from Bhau and line marofying same-wali-aunty :D. Who knows this could ever happen or not. As kishor da has sung in his eternal voice "Jindagi ke safar main gujarr jate hai jo makaam.....wo fir nahi aate. Wo....fir nahi aate". But I do wish so...and that's what signifies ...

PS: Go thru' Appya's take of the Chennai ishtory here :)