Yeh hai meri Kahani

One fine sunny day,Anup embarked on his favourite but risky hobby of rock climbing.He had just reached the top of a mountain which provided a breathtaking view of the beautiful valley below dotted with sheep.But what kept the man rooted at the spot was not the view or the sheep, but rather the beautiful goddess who was running after a sheep.She so resembled the girl in his dreams that the man stood staring slack jawed (looked quite silly, I should imagine.)The man walked forward in a trance seeing nothing but her….
And fell headlong into a big fat hole screaming “yeeeeeeooooooowwww”….and landed on the floor in his apartment, shaken up. …..(if u still have not figured it out, then let me explain it to ur small teeny weeny itsy bitsy brain that the Goddess was me and if he dares to deny it….on his head be the consequences)

A lot of poeople have been asking abt how my Baba and I got together. Well, in spite of the fact that I think all u nosy parkers out there shud be more concerned about the Indian political situation than abt my love life,I still decided to “bare all “ (not in the literal sense, boneheads!)

Well, the very first time the poor man set his eyes on me , I had just reached LA after an endless flight ,tired and looking like a sweep(though the darling man denies it,I sure felt like one). The entire flight consisted of 11 vomiting sessions all a result of gorging on mangoes .Now I am not greedy but I was convinced that I wud not be seeing a mango for the next 12 months.
I was new to the team and knew no one except Sangeetha who traveled with me and had assured me that her ONC(Anup!!!) wud be at the Airport to meet us.He looked the handsome hunk he is (Wud not smile and looked like the angry young man with brooding eyes aka Amitabh Bachan ishtyle…made me rather nervous, I confess)but unfortunately I took him to be a passerby and since good gals do not gawp at people (no matter how good looking they are!!!) I walked right past him to greet his roommate, Suresh,warmly.It was only after getting into the taxi with Suresh I realized that the poor dear was part of the receiving committee.Cripes!!!

Now I was a woman who was convinced of the solid sense behind the idea of staying single and I gave any male approaching me with any ideas a wide wide berth and never took any favours from anyone if I could help it.In short,I was not looking for love. Period.

Hours later,back at the hotel room(which he had reserved for us),Sangeetha and I had freshened up.Anup wud be coming over to pick up Nithya (another teammate) who had stayed behind to settle us in.I was dying for some coffee and decided to experiment with the coffee maker. Fearing the thing would burst any moment, I managed to make 2 cups of very very watery coffee with hardly any sugar in it when Anup knocked on the door. (The bad coffee was not my fault considering the hotel guy was a kanjoos who skimped when he provided the sugar and creamer).Then he offered Sangeetha his mob to talk to her folks home saying it did not cost much.I had already asked Nithya to ring up my folks and let them know I had reached .Anup offered me his phone when I was making coffee and I refused saying it was not necessary.(I did not wanna be obliged to anyone)He looked at me and asked me “Why”.He said it did not cost him much and it was ok.
Drat the man.!!! Cant he just leave me alone.I did not need his help.I studiously avoided his gaze and concentrated on my coffee making and said nothing.And the aggravating man had to sit on my bed and I was forced to give him a share of the coffee which I was sure tasted as bad as it looked.The guy nonchalantly drank it as though he had never tasted anything better in his life.I felt slightly better until I tasted it and then wished the earth wud swallow me up.Embarassing is not the word for it.Mortifying is a better one.(Later on , he confessed that it had been awful and I compensated by making him a proper coffee without using any darned coffeemaker)

As such I had still not been introduced to him.His being a mallu automatically made me put up a great wall of china. Well , I cud not exactly go hide under the bed as I wud have preferred to.Having him in the room was like tiptoeing around a lion.Not that he was fierce but I was on my guard like never before.
Anyway ,sitting less than a metre away and avoiding looking at him was pretty uncomfortable when he had been kind enuf to pick us up from the airport and buy us lunch.I ventured to be polite and asked him where he was from in Kerala.By now Sang had confirmed that he was a mallu.The guy replied saying Chenganur and asked me why.God !!! Didn’t he realize I asked him cos there was nothing else to ask and having to ignore him in such close quarters was pretty uncomfy.I was just attempting to make polite talk.Boy….!
We had an invitation to lunch at Malini’s house for the following day and Anup said he would drop us there on his way back from playing cricket.Well, I did not need that guy anywhere near me but I cud not very well say that , cud I?
The next day I was woken up by the phone ringing and picked it up to hear a voice say “Sangeeta, Anup here”.I simply mumbled “Anu” .He asked if we were going to Malini’s house and I replied saying since it was already noon and we had not yet gotten out of bed, we were not going.He hung up saying OK.and a few min later I got a call from Nithya saying Anup had called up asking her to speak to us as we said we were not going to Malini’s place.She said Malini had already made lunch expecting us and it did not matter if we were late and that we were to give Anup a call whenever we were ready and he would pick us up never mind the time.Honestly.!!!Couldnt the guy leave us alone!!! What was he ? The ultimate good Samaritan .Didn’t he know when he was not wanted.Besides I wud have preferred getting some real sleep to going and meeting Malini.I needed time to collect my wits before office tomorrow. Telling Sangeetha exactly what I thought of her ONC, I dragged myself out of bed.A shower later and feeling better, I waited mutinously while she rang up the Samaritan and told him we were ready.
We came out of the hotel to find his car parked across the street.I was furious to find Sangeetha hide behind me when I expected her to get into the front seat next to him..After all he was her ONC.In between muttering angrily at her and resigning myself to sitting next to the monster, I accidentally ended up trying to open the driver’s door which happens to be on the left side in this topsy turvy country.Imagine my mortification when the man looked out at me in surprise and asked me with Sangeetha laughing in the background if I wud like to drive . I scrambled round to the other side .My skin still crawls when I think of my embarrassment. Anyway, with songs from the Dhoom blasting away I relaxed the slightest bit and decided to be civil to the ogre. I asked him if he was into hindi music and a few other questions. To everything he had this nonchalant sophisticated attitude which drove me up the wall. Who did he think he was….The ice cool dude being kind to us lesser mortals?.....Grrrr….!I decided he cud stuff his sophisticated self and that I wud not even try to be civil to him. and kept quiet in a huff.

I decided to go a bit easy on him when the boy helped us move into our apartment and carried all the heavy luggage (I bet he used up a bottle of iodex after that but to sop his ego lets say I was impressed by his musclesJ)…A tentative friendship formed but for some reason I never got really comfy with him. Maybe cos he seemed a bit reserved or maybe it was the feeling that friendship was not welcome.
Well…Now we come to the part of where and when I faltered in my good resolutions.
A month after I came to LA, we had a long weekend (3-day weekend) coming up and my friends in Scranton had planned a trip to Las Vegas which was just 5 hrs from LA.I had booked the bus tickets online but knew I had to collect them somehow beforehand as the tickets were on a first come first serve basis. With no way to do so I decided to take the risk of collecting the tickets on the day of the trip. But first I had to figure out the bus route to the boarding point and turned to Anup for help. He immediately offered to drop us which I refused stubbornly saying that we wud manage. (Huh!!! After all I was an independent woman and if I cud screw up the courage to step on escalator stairs , then I cud find my way to the boarding point ..Ah..well…with a few directions from someone)He checked my ticket bookings and asked me if I had got the tickets.I looked down and muttered that I had not.He said I may not get the tickets if I wait till the day of the trip even though I had paid for the tickets.I told him I wud take care of it(rather haughtily) and asked him to tell me which bus wud take me to the boarding point.He said we cud find that out after lunch .

After lunch , the man was not in his seat and I got busy with work.All of a sudden , the man was sitting on my desk and holding out bus tickets.That simple act shook me up no end.I did not know what to say.I sat blinkng at him stupidly .It had taken him close to 2 hrs to go and collect those tickets and trust me, I was touched that he had done it for me. I asked him why on earth he had done it .He shrugged and asked me how else wud I have got the tickets. He acted casual enough as though he wud have done it for anyone but I cud not help feeling special then.(I dunno why men think they have to act like cool dudes all the time)It was a bit tuf to believe that the man wud have driven 2 hrs for just anyone.

My work required keeping odd hours and my normal workday ended at around 10 or 11 in the night leaving me half starved.Anup wud drive down to pick me up and drop me home.Once or twice the man bought me a sandwich and wud sit listening to me chatter while I ate.(It was bad enuf having to stay late without having to go home to horrible dinners cooked by my well meaning roomies.So in order to spare their tender feelings,I wud gobble the sandwich sitting in his car)Soon a habit was formed.He would buy me a chicken sandwich and I wud sit in the car gobbling it up and chattering abt everything under the stars.When my work hours became more regular, w chatted on the phone.

So it went on for sometime with him one day telling me I had the freedom to bash him up if I wanted.(I suppose that was a green signal but me being the egghead that I am , it never occurred to me.)A few days later during one of our nightly phone calls, I told him it was late and he shud go sleep. The man replied saying he wud go to sleep if he got a ….um…ah…eh…a good night kiss. Needless to say, I was stunned. Well, I was not sure if it was a proposal or if the man was merely playing games with me….Anyway I hemmed and hawed and finally hung up. The next day I nervously waited for him to say something abt it but lo! The man behaved as though nothing had happened. As usual , when he dropped me home I said bye and then he said “Wait a minute.! What abt my good night kiss?”
For someone so reserved, I tell you, he was pretty bossy. I hemmed and hawed. He said “Answer with a yes or no”

Well, now comes the great confession (author drawing circles on the floor with her big toe and twisting the ends of her duppatta around her finger)…I did not wanna say yes…(Cos I really was not sure) but then I did not wanna say no( cos I really was not sure)…So I told him”None of the above options”.(smart of me,ha?)
He said “Nothing doing.It has to be a yes or a no “. Well…. we carried on repeating the above 3 lines some 15 times, before I screwed up my courage and asked him what after that.He replied saying “Lets see where it goes.” My stay at onsite was for 6 months and so we decided to test the depth of our feelings by making a commitment for 6 months…It did not take 6 months…
Less than 2 months later, I had no doubts abt the fact that I am the luckiest woman alive….:-)

Most women are lucky if they can find someone who can make them laugh….but only very few are blessed to find a guy whose world lights up simply cos u smile at him.
I am !!!!

And to all you perverts out there who are more interested in what finally came of my boy’s request, well….Like we wud tell you…HUH !