Chapter 52

March’ 2004,
Starbucks, City Center, GCP, Nassau County, NY.

There she sat alone. Such a beautiful woman in cashmere golden complexion. She was wearing a comfy but stylish gored long skirt, ending in a frisky full hemline. It has a plain front with supple sides made of a woven polyester. She was wearing a top made from a fine gossamer chiffon; beautiful sheer top drapes incredibly to create a perfect profile. Spaghetti straps and a splendid slit, finished off the effortlessly beautiful look. The whole aura of her dressing combines just the right amount of sexiness yet it’s incredibly feminine sending you the romantic vibe surrounding her.

“Sir, your coffee”, the vendor has intervened the man’s thoughts. He walked straight towards her table with the coffee mug. While he was in the midst of talking to his heart, to fathom out from the dilemma of talking to her. Howbeit, his insanely not so wise mind has taken the lead.

“Excuse me!” He said.

“Yes, what is it?” She replied in a perplexed tone.

With a lot of courage, after a lot of struggle to garner the same, he asked her, “What if I tell a woman that she’s beautiful, do you think she would slap me?”

Raising her eyebrows and lowering the corners of her lips on either side, now in a more confounded state, “She shouldn’t, if it’s only a compliment and nothing else”, she replied.

“Well, thank you so much and by the way”, with an optimistic gut feeling and in firm voice, he said “You look beautiful”.

She slid the book in her hand on to the table, letting herself lean towards her front end of the table. She then composed herself with serenity but this time her lips raised and apart revealing an unforced genuine smile, there came the most pleasing reply, “Thank you but you just stole it from me”.

“Excuse me”, he replied momentarily while he was quite astonished with the response and he was excited to confirm on what she meant.

“I meant, that you are looking handsome and strangely smart too”, she confirmed.

The man recalled, this doesn’t usually happen with a girl, accepting what you said, responding positively while suggesting you her subtle interest. When there is an opportunity that is the moment where you should probably be ready to nail it down in the next session of talk with her.

“Are you waiting for someone”, he asked in cock-a-hoop.

“Not really”, she said, “You can sit, if you wish to”, motioned her fingers to the vacant seat in front of her on the other side of the table.

He placed the mug on the table. he pulled out the chair and made room for himself in order to sit comfortably, leaving his hands free with his palms each touching on either side of the mug, loosening calves and legs crossed but before that he asked her, “Would you like to have coffee or something?”

“No, I am absolutely fine and thank you”, She answered and continued, “So what is it? Is there anything that you would want me to help?”

He didn’t really know how he should be answering her straight forward question. I should make something out of this or everything which has been reached this far will be going into vain he said to himself.

“Oh no, there is nothing as such”, he replied, “but you know what, a random guy from nowhere comes to a girl to strike a conversation with her. Don’t you discern what could be the possible reason” he continued, “I am sure you do, so my answer is the obvious but let’s not talk much about those odds. My presence here is for completely different purpose but the purpose kept changing with our talk”.

“Is it”, She said and breathed out.

“Yeah! So, my purpose is variable, it’s not defined yet”, he said, “by the way, I like the book. I read it, maybe 3 or 4 times”.

“Uh-huh”, She said nodding her head up and down, “what part of the book, did you like the most?”.

“When the male and female protagonists meet for the very first time”, he said.

“Fair play, boy”, she said, tucking her hair into the left ear evincing the long golden dangle ear rings, “Did you come prepared?” She asked.

“Sorry, What? I missed out”, he responded and then he took the first sip of the coffee.

“Never mind”, she said. She kept looking at the diagonally opposite table couple of feet away from them. He hesitated to barge in but then in sometime she helped him hop onto her boat.

“Did you look at them?” She pointed at the pair sitting out there on the table and kept saying, “It’s so crazy to see each of them being busy with their phones while they have actually come out to spend time with each other”.

“Oh, Yes! I must agree with you.” He said, “With advancement in the technology, life has become more of mechanical and it has been a commonplace to see such people”.

“Whatever, it’s unrelated to us and we should not even be talking about them”, she momentarily felt disgraceful, “You know, it’s not a right thing to do, is it?” She asked.

“Yes, but no worries”, he tried to make her feel better, “don’t feel bad about it”, he said.

“I wanna ask something”, she came a bit closer to the table now, “Why do you think people fall in love?” She asked. He could see the curiosity in her eyes while she was looking for the answer to this question.

Phone Ringing…

“Excuse me”, she said before answering the call.

He thanked god for the uncanny break in the conversation. While she kept talking for a few minutes, he had enough time to compose his answer.

“Okay, I am sorry. You know, its family” She continued while checking her call list and consequently deleting junk, “Yes, so tell me why would one fall in love?” She recalled the question.

“It is going to take a while if I have to give you a true sense of it,” he said narrowing his eyes.

“Let me tell you”, she said resting her back on the backrest of the chair, “I have come here to meet somebody, to be frank with you, today I am supposed to meet would be of mine”

“Oh! Great.” He said instantly but lowering his voice.

“Yeah! But he hasn’t shown up. I have been waiting here for more than thirty minutes”, she said, “That’s why the call from home, to do a check on this. I don’t think he is gonna come anyway. So, I have lot of time, don’t hesitate, please go ahead”

“There can be many reasons why people fall in love, what I reckon is there are different cases at the least eight percent of them fall in to these categories.

The first one, Boy and a girl, they have been friends for a long time, they know each other very well. Ones fear of losing ‘the other’ in the long term is triggering a feeling in ‘that one’, which is asking to build a stability on the relationship leading to an intrinsic feeling of not able to live without ‘the other’ and that’s why ‘the one’ is assuming that themselves is in love and is falling in love.

The second type, Boy or a girl, it might be either of them. Who do not want to live a life alone and yearning for a support, a kind of partner who is there to talk, share and feel free with ‘that one’ special person completely dedicated to him/her especially from the opposite gender, when these people look at the person of their interest. That’s leading to think themselves is in love and eventually falling in love.

The third, Boy or a girl, it might be either of them. When they are desperately looking for a date or say trying to get into a relationship to just taste it as part of life, they feel like they are in love with the person they are interested in and are falling in love.

The last type, Boy and a girl, be friends for a long time but one never felt the fear of losing the other because their friendship exists even if the conversation between them has stopped for a longtime. If they feel that they are interested for a long time commitment. They talk their hearts out, understand each other’s world, check if one supports the life of the other, be clear about their happiness in the others presence, they get decided after having answered the reasonable questions and then they fall in love, which I believe is the true love. If they are discomforted with the long term commitment they still have their friendship living because they never had a fear of losing the other.

“That’s my understanding of the philosophy in love”, he said after devouring lot of her time with a long lecture.

“I am flattered with your detailed answer”, she said to the hilt exposing her apparent joy with her smile and contentment through her eyes, she continued saying, “I have seen people answering naively to this question and for the very first time, I now see someone who’s thorough in understanding the feelings in love. I am truly impressed with what you have made intelligible”.

“As you like it”, he replied short and crisp.

“And now I can fathom out the cliché ‘all the brainless are in love and the rest are single’ ” She said nodding her head up & down by slowly turning right uncovering her left cheek with a little cute dimple.

“True but the quote needed an amendment”, he muttered.

“Oh! What change?” she asked with all the agog.

“Actually people who are intelligent are in love or are interested to be in love,” he paused and sipped coffee for more clear thoughts, “and those who are too intelligent tend to be single”, he made his statement.

“Enlighten me”, she said with a veritably puzzled look on her angelic countenance.

“This might seem funny but it is what it is and this is what I believe”, he said, “People need moral support, care and love, a girl, in more concrete sense it should be a wife, she is just the genesis of all the three and more. Maybe that is why, there is a woman behind a man’s success On the other hand; the too intelligent people don’t intend to seek any such need. They are stronger and they knew that they could tackle all by themselves. This is why, maybe, we see an exception where there are people who are successful even by being single”.

“Nice cut”, She said, “and what about the brainless?”

“I don’t know but when they are eventually married, wives turn them into responsible and wise men”, he answered, “So there are no brainless men as such. All men are brainy”, and they both laughed.

“By the way, what about the would-be? Are you going to get married soon?” he asked, despite his tautness, with a lot of curiosity and traction while taking another sip of coffee.

“I don’t really know much about him except the fact that he is the head of R&D at JAPMI. In fact, I haven’t seen him before. I’ve naively come here to meet and know more about him in person. So, I am not certain of the marriage”, She said looking right through his eyes.

“Gosh, absolutely far-fetched. You look so beautiful yet committed to an arranged match?” he said after he felt mildly inebriated although he had no bevvy, “So, is it that you are interested in an arranged marriage?”

“Oh! Hell yeah”, She replied with her mouth wide opened while placing hands crisscrossed on her belly and making herself feel cozy in manner.

“But you know, it is plausible that you might had or have a boyfriend. Don’t you wanna lie please”, he shot back.

“Ah no! No way!” She replied instantly.

“Alright! I get it. You do have followers, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah and a few proposals too”, She said.

Ah! Her innocence while answering the question was insurmountable. He said to himself. “There you go, so what was wrong with them?” he asked.

“Lameness”, she replied with a cute smile on her elfin dolled up lips.

“Aha! What do you look for in a person or in your man”, he asked waiting no more.

“He should be intelligent and caring”, She said.

“That is all you look for?” he asked with much of dubiety.

“Yes, I don’t go by looks, neither by how he dresses up. At the end of the day, all that matters are how much love and care he shows upon you. In effect, that is what drives the relationship”, she delineated, “and when one is intelligent, I believe he understands his woman.”

“I don’t know if I am Intelligent, we could talk on it later but I am darn sure that I am a caring person”, he tried to talk his heart out.

“No doubt about it. I can see it through your eyes and how you carry yourself while talking to me”, she said.

He was lost in his thoughts and could not construct words to carry forward the conversation. Silence prevailed in the ambiance for more time than it should usually be, time flowed by as they exchanged looks. He was able to read through her mind, it felt as If he was engaged in telepathy which ensued in succoring him acknowledge that her heed knocked the door of endearment. She hesitated to break the ice and continued gazing intermittently while he tried to aid the state at his best.

As they were in the swoon of blithe, the moment had been obstructed with the invasion of off-comers into their beatific territory. Damn! You usher he thought.

“So, why don’t….. We….. Let ourselves…… take this forward?” he asked recessing in between.

“But I just know you mentally and not personally or professionally”, She said, “I would like to know how the grass looks on the other side”.

“I assure it is greener on the other side of the fence”, he said, “I love my mama and I respect women. By virtue of it, I will forever be in true-blue to my partner and I can just hope, but not expect, for her fidelity in return, as it is her way out how she wants to lead her life”.

“You won’t mind of her past, is it?” She asked.

“Absolutely”, he replied in a staunching voice, “I will accept and love her as who she is and for what she can be”.

“I admire the way you perceive things”, She said, “What do you do? We haven’t talked anything about it yet”.

“Make a guess”, he said winking an eye.

“Do you work for a firm? A consulting firm maybe?” She said, “Because you are wheedling in your way”, with a tongue in cheek.

He grinned, “No, I don’t work for any consulting firm but”, he said and had his last sip of coffee, “I try to help build products”

“Oopsy Doopsy, it was a goof”, She said in a coltish tone swaying side to side, “Are you an innovator?” she asked.

“Sort of, you could just assume it that way” he tried to get her as far as possible from the subject before he would get caught in the middle of a revelation of his true identity.

“Amazing”, she said, “where do you work?”

“Alright, I’ve got to go but before I take leave, I would like to say few words. I understand that you just know me. Well it is unlikely for you to think or relate me to that one person, you know who it is. While you are very true in this aspect, I am asking you to talk to me for few more times and I leave it on you to choose how many more you would want. Eventually, you will have a choice to make when the right time comes, meanwhile I will keep waiting for that auspicious moment. For now, and forever, I intend to tell you to have hope and faith”, he got up from his chair, slid down his right hand into the right pocket of his jeans, drew out a card, “Here it is, my visiting card, you can call me if you would like to and there’s the number personal number”, he said and proceeded to leave.

“Excuse me”, she took the card without a glance, she called out in most possibly gratifying voice, “one quick question”, She said. 

“What is it?” he asked.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” She asked yet again in dubiety.

“Substantial question”, he said and smiled, “you better go home, you might figure it out by yourself, trust me, try getting down to brass tracks and you will love seeing the big picture” and he walked out.

Soon after he left the place, she pulled her tote to put the card in her pochettee but she caught glance of text written in ink in the card. It read, “To my love Shalini, will you be my fiancée?” she was utterly flabbergasted when Shalini read her name on the card, she flipped the card to look on the other side. The content read, “Justin – Head R&D USA, JAPMI”