| “No.
You want, you buy it”
“You are the one who usually wants
it when we come here” She was walking
fast towards the beach. As if she doesn’t
want that conversation.
“OK” I thought. One more fight
in the offing. But somehow, this time
I felt more confident of myself. Not in
the “I can do attitude” type
of confidence. Confident that I’d
win this argument. It must have been at
least hundreds of arguments we’d
have had in the past 2 years of our love
life. Right from the last day of our college
(the day I proposed to her) till this
moment. Today I feel much more confident.
Don’t know why.
“Why are you running?” I shouted
at her. I can take this liberty. Why not?
There are not too many people at this
hour. 3 PM. The time considered “un-romantic”
by the general public. But you must ask
lovers like us to know what that “time”
actually means. See, you take her to the
morning show. And then to a non-vegetarian
restaurant. Then, to an ice-cream parlour
(probably near the beach). She is, by
all means, drugged by a romantic film,
biriyani and an ice cream.
She didn’t answer my question. She
was walking fast. I tried to catch up
with her. In vain.
And then she stopped, looked back at me
and sat.
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I
heaved a sigh of relief and shouted again “What
happened to you?”
Silence again.
I reached her, gathered my breath and just when I
was about to sit, she brought this ultimately angry
look in her eyes and asked “Why did you whistle
and clap in that Silambarasan Trisha break up scene?”
“What?” I was absolutely taken aback.
For a second, I couldn’t even get what I was
hearing.
“What are you talking about?” I asked
her in absolute disbelief.
“You heard me” came a stern voice.
And then it struck me. Loud and clear. Everything
started to make sense. She didn’t order an extra
plate of Chicken 65 which we usually have. She didn’t
talk much in the second half. She didn’t press
herself against me in the bike. And to top it all,
she didn’t want an ice cream.
Everything started making sense.
I didn’t know how to react. The first reaction
which was about to come on my face was a smile. But,
No! Smile is dangerous right now. Cannot risk it.
But I do not want to fake my emotions. I don’t
feel guilty. I mean, what did I do wrong? That was
a very good scene, right?
“I asked you something” She wasn’t
looking at me anymore. She was counting the number
of ships in the sea, probably.
“Eh, hmm, umm, huh?” nothing English came
out of my mouth.
“You liked that scene right? You have that kind
of notion about girls, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about? That’s just
a scene in a movie”
“It is not. I know about you. May be, for others
it’s just a scene in a movie. But for you, it
is never that way”
This angered me a bit but still I didn’t show
it in my face. I am yet to get today’s quota
of her kiss. So in a controlled manner, I brought
this pleasant look in my face and said “See,
I know what you are getting at. First of all, you
are not Jessie. She is a confused girl. You are not”.
“But you said in the first half that I am like
Jessie” she shot back.
“See. That was in the first half”
“But, that’s the same girl” she
looked at me this time.
I was shocked. She was crying. “Hey, come on”
I said, trying to hug her.
“Don’t you dare touch me” She shouted
back at me and wiped her tears away.
“OK, I won’t. See, you are not as bad
as Jessie. Jessie is an ultimately confused girl.
How can you even think of comparing yourself with
her?”
“I did not. You did. You are the one who said
it”
“Enough” I said to myself. I was getting
irritated. “Yes, I told that. There is nothing
wrong, OK. I said what I felt like saying. You are
free to form your own views”.
A gap of silence ensued.
“You know what? I don’t even regret clapping
on that particular scene. I didn’t tell you
what happened to Vikram. That ECE guy. Shakthi dumped
him the exact same way” I didn’t want
to say this to her. But I said.
That’s it. She stood up and said “OK then.
Good bye”
As expected, she started walking away from me. Angered
by the fact that I didn’t have today’s
quota of kiss and also by the fact that I have to
spend around 5 hours in the night talking over phone
to bring her back to normalcy, I had nobody but one
guy to curse for everything that has happened in this
afternoon.
Gautham Vasudev Menon.
“Why did you do this to me, Gauti” I was
pleading.
“Hey stop!” I shouted amidst the sound
of the MRTS train in the Triplicane station. And then
it struck me. Like a Flash. As if Gautham himself
told this to me in my ears.
I ran towards her, held her hands, took her to my
side and looked at her eyes.
“You are as beautiful as Jessie” I thought
of telling her but in the end, I didn’t.
“I love you, you know that” I said to
her as if a whisper.
She looked at me. The look for which I am ready to
fight innumerable arguments with her. “I am
sorry” I said. “I am sorry too”
She smiled back at me after a few million years.
Right then, I had nobody but one guy to thank.
Gautham Vasudev Menon.
For providing both the problem and the solution.
Sivakumar T
siva.storyteller@gmail.com
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