My Little Pre Valentine Encounter - Part 1

I  love to catch up on my book readings on weekends  .I wake up at around 8:00 -8:30  grab a cup of tea , depending on mood and weather I take a shower , stuff two books in my "cool dude bag"  and rush to some cafe in Sec 18 Noida . Like a Bloke I love spending  next few hours reading  and sipping tea . I prefer to go early because you can beat the rush and all the noise which follows after lunch . Cafes becomes too crowded ,Music turns too loud and people come, drink, pay and go like zombies .I drop in early  in order to  escape all that .

But things were little different yesterday . in fact it was like that for whole of last week. It seems that this year Valentine day seems to have arrived a couple of week before its due date and As it happen in all cases of premature birth .while  rest of the family ( family as in Vasudhav kutumbkam , "whole world is our family" ) rejoice the early arrival of metaphorical "bundle of Joy " its a little painful  for some . for example  sometime in last week I received an SMS offering me 20% "Valentine " discount on Mattress. I was in awe of marketeers ability to understand "futuristic " needs of customer and design a offer "ahead of time " ;). But unfortunately he choose the wrong man to pitch .Looking at the current state of my romantic life that offer was like selling Hajmola to someone  starving in Ethiopia . An unintended but cruel joke. 

This Saturday on my way to cafe I noticed that  A gift shop in Great India Palace shopping mall had an offer on some Heart shaped soft toys " This Valentine Buy 3 Get 2 Free". That made me  wonder about who in these times of recession can afford 5 Girlfriends . Curious to see such people I walked in to the shop and started browsing through the cards . Man those cards  were BIG and not to mention  expensive . after a minute or so of browsing cards I proceed to check the soft toys section. There I saw a very pretty  girl checking out those stupid "Winne the pooh" and "Hug Me " teddy . I was intrigued. What is she doing here ? Is She "Buying "gift?  that's anomalous  .

God's grand cosmic design has placed girls at the receiving end of gift food chain. who is this creature challenging the cosmic code ? since  its not everyday you "spot"  girls buying gift  and finding a pretty girl in gift shop around valentine day is next to impossible .  so I thought of  exploring a little  more . Curious (ya I am very curious by nature  ) I walked to her casually and started thinking about how to start the conversation 

[Me ] Nice Stuff here . isn't it ?

(she looked at me and scanned me from Head to toe like an MRI Machine . apparently she didn't  find anything wrong so she choose to respond).

[Girl] Ya and this time they are not so expensive . 

( This time ?? do she had to buy gift every valentine .How unfortunate ? what a shame for masculine of human species ). 

[Me ] (tactically not looking at her) This time ?? So you gift yourself this stuff on every valentine day ? 

[Girl] (suppressing a smile and raising eye brow ) Excuse Me ! What made you think I am gonna gift it to my self ?

( its such pleasure when a pretty girl have a sense of humor to understand my joke . whenever it happens my first reaction is "She must be a firang NRI " . Outside of one exceptional indecent this assumption has always proven right  )

[me]  Oh  I don't  mean you don't get  gift . I am sure you do . 

[Girl] (chuckling  and  thinking of herself like Kareena Kapoor ) You bet I do .

[me] ( damage control mode ,switch to plan B) I agree.I just thought You are gifting it to your self because....umm lets say you are holding on for Mr Right . Right ?? (This always works )

[Girl] ( No effort to hide the smile ,this time ) Very Smart . humm .you use this trick  often ? 

[me]  Well not often . Only during Valentine season.

[Girl ] (Laughing out loud ).

(apparently her wind chime like laughter drew totally unwarranted attention from store attendant and he walked to me and said " Can i help you sir? )" 

[Me] Ya I m looking for something .

[Attendant] What ? 

[Me] (thinking hard )  Well I am looking for a teddy bear with "Marry Me" written on it 

[Attendant] Sir woh tou mushkil hai ..abhi tou season ka maal he stock mein hai 

[Girl] [Me] (laughing loud again.)

(attendant  walks away feeling embraced)

[Girl] (controlling her laughter ) Oh My God that was  funny .

[Me] (gigling) and honest too . BTW  I am Prashant 

[Girl ]  Hi I am <I am not gonna tell you her name >

[Me] Nice meeting you .

[Girl] same here . wait my fiance would love to meet you . he is in next shop.

[Girl] (understanding fully and enjoying it ) What happened ? disappointed to hear that ? 

[Me] No . Come on . Of Course not . (smooth under pressure..That's me )

[Girl] sure ?

[Me] YA sure ..and .Why would I ? . You just saved me cost of two coffees .

[Girl] ha ha ha . you have a great sense of humor .

[Me] ya I heard that before  

Few min later her Fiance enters the scene with three shopping bag . He was a dusky ,south Indian guy of medium built  with glasses but Handsome nevertheless . Together they make a nice couple .

[Girl] Ravi , this is Prasahnt , Prashant This is Ravi , My fiance . The Mr. Right 

We shook hands .

[Ravi] and you guys ....??

[Girl] We just meet. He was flirting with me.

[Ravi] (smiling ) Bad Luck Dude . you are six month too late .

[Me] (smiling ) Ya but looking at your shopping bags .I guess it happened for the best  .

[Ravi] (Laughing out loud )... Thanks for understanding Man .But atleast I am paying in Rs now . it was worse while we were in  UK.

(See the NRI Theory was right )

[Girl] Excuse me.  I don't do much shopping . its only that  stuff which  I need . You guys are so mean .

[me][ravi] (looking at the BAGS)  right ...(laughter)

[Girl] so I see you two ganged up .. good.

That followed up by a casual "get to know " conversation .Ravi insisted for Coffee but I refused . I wished them luck for married life  and  bid adieu . they promised me to invite on their wedding . I took their permission to publish it here and they said OK as long as their identity is not revealed (Ravi is not full name).

After a long time I meet some people who are not closed shell  and had good sense of humor .  It was refreshing to see that there are couples who don't let the whole relationship stuff get in to their head . I wish them Happy valentine and a happy married life . At the risk of sounding rude I would say that going forward their biggest challenge of living in India will  to remain as open minded like they are now . I wish them good luck for that too. :)

Anyways So back to whole Sec-18 Market and my weekend book reading rituals. so after this funny encounter I walked my way to Kaffia , a Cafe in Sec-18. I was hoping to finish reading latest books in my collection. But fate has other plans  because another interesting indecent was waiting for me there . It was no at all like the previous one and I was only a silent spectator to it .  I will tell you about it in next post .

photo credit :jamminjj