Sunday, February 08, 2009

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

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice story, man.

Anonymous said...

haha.......... bad luck as well as good luck [:)]

Prashant Singh said...

@Tarun : Thanks :)

Prashant Singh said...

@Pragya : As they say everything happens for good :). Thanks for reading .

Arunima said...

Interesting incident.

>>God's grand cosmic design has placed girls at the receiving end....

What do u mean by this....I hope its not ur personal experience that makes u think this way
Commnon man!
Y r girls supposed 2 b like it...this is nt always the case.
Anywaz no offenses 2 ur views...

P.S So u visit Kaffia 4 ur reading dose. hmm its a nice place..i like it too.

Arunima said...

Interesting Incident.

>>God's grand cosmic design has placed girls at the receiving end.
What do u mean exactly by this???
Hope this is nt ur personal experience that says it.
But girls r not always like that...its a misconception.
Anywaz no offense 2 ur views.

P.S So u visit Kaffia 4 ur daily reading dose. Its a nice place...i like it 2

conio said...

How do you land up in places like these...

Prashant Singh said...

@Arunima
:)
(Ahem someone seems to be upset:) )

Thanks for reply .that remark was just a comical observation backed by statistically significant number of real world instances confirming the underlying hypothesis.

chill this is not to be taken seriously .

"I hope its not ur personal experience that makes u think this way"


well..your hope is misplaced .
It IS based on my somewhat personal and some parts observational experience.



"But girls r not always like that...its a misconception."



I know . I agree . they are not ALWAYS like that .there are exception but seems like none of them are single. :)

What to do . its an unfair Life !

Prashant Singh said...

@Arunima : Ya Kaffia is my one of my fave place. Do check out Lemon Ice tea there. its awesome.

Prashant Singh said...

@conio : "Rupa Frontline" . Apna luck pahan ke chalo.

trust me you won't like to switch places.

Anonymous said...

Very Funny , Tujhe daar nahin lagta aise kisse se baat karte hue ?

Prashant Singh said...

@Rohan : Dar sabko lagta hai ..Galla sabka sookhta hai. lekin dar ke aage jeet hai ;)

Anonymous said...

i agree with u rgdng indian vs nri girl thing,i dont enjoy writing it but i have to write tht majority of indian girls ares o full of themselves ,their "beauty" they cant think and talk beyond it and then thy blame us that we are after external beauty
also if that grl would have been an indian grl,she would given u that look "how dare u commoner looked at me",do uhave bank balance and other "things" to even have a look at me

Prashant Singh said...

@ Anonymous : Thanks for the affirmation .

Shesha Chaturvedi said...

Wow! curiosity helps you in meeting amazing people. This is really refreshing post and I loved his reply after knowing you were flirting with his fiancee!
Happy people propel smiles ;)