It took me ten minutes to to get to malvika's house. In that span of time, I contemplated what the call was alll about. Did she fall again? Was she being robbed? Was there that wild possibility that she'd confess her feelings, and we'd end up making out? Or Did she watch RGV KI AAG and just couldnt get past the tripe she'd just seen, all alone?.
I brought the car to a halt outside Malvika's apartment, when that lousy watchman showed up like Batman from the shadows, scaring me half to death.
"Saar?", he coughed. It was obvious the nut had been drinking.
"Saar. No parking in front of the gate saar. Apartment rules. The madam, she will throw me out, if she finds out."
I didnt have time. What if Malvika was really in trouble??I had to hurry. And so, I decided to use the situation to my advantage.
"But kind sir, the car is parked twenty feet away from the gate. cant you see that?"
The watchman stared at my face and then at the car, for what seemed to be an age and went,"But of course sir! Forgive me, I am slightly off color, as you can see, huhuhuhuhuhuhuh", he laughed. If Micromaxx had cast this bugger instead of Akshay Kumar in their ad, they would've sold a lot more phones.
I dashed up the stairs and banged Malvika's door. After a minute she opened the door, looking all sullen and worried."What happened?", I said, completely out of breath.
She stared at me, for a whole minute,(I could feel her eyes pierce right through me) and said,"I want Ice Cream."
*******************************
For a moment or two, I had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on. She couldny even say "April Fools!", cause it was the middle of June, and it was pouring like hell.
"Ice Cream?? You woke me up at half past two, made me drive all the way here, to tell me that you want ICE CREAM?? Do I look like the guy in the hero honda ad?? No!! This is bloody crazy!!", I stated incredously.
"I know! I'm sorry! But , uh I had this craving, Oh this HUGE HUUGE craving for Ice cream and I wanted it so so badly, I didnt know whom to call, a-an-and I saw your number on the table, and just picked it up and gave you a call... What happened to you??", She stared.
Throughout her explanation, I hadnt said a word. Picture this. You have this super hot girl, standing in front of you, explaining how big a craving she has for chocolate, and suddenly, her tone changes. Drastically. (I know that I havent put up in the whole conversation, because its too long and too bloody inappropriate for children below the age of 14. But let me tell you this. There was lots and lots of moaning and groaning).
I snapped back to reality. "No, its nothing!", and for the second time in 10 hours , I found myself trying to change the topic to avoid embarrasment. "Well. there's no parlour open, at this time of the night, but there's the royal orchid just down the road, and I'm pretty sure its gotta 24 hour coffee shop. We could go there. If you like.", I added.
"Hmm. Okay. Lets head out."
We spent a good hour in the coffee shop, chitchatting away to glory. She was originally from Delhi, but she'd moved to Bangalore for her +2. And she decided to finish her undergrad here as well, and eventually ended up working as an AD in Nirvana films. I told her about my job, my boss and his obsession with the word(She laughed her heart out, but only after I told her what it meant.), about Nihal, and about dad, and how I'd inherited his trait of making an utter fool of one's self in front of girls. She laughed and said," haha. That is in a way, true. Was your dad worse than you?"
I scoffed."Worse? He thinks I'm ten times better than him! And from what've heard, I'm pretty sure I am. You know once, when my dad was still in college, this really funny thing happened which involved him, this girl and an umbrella....".
By the time we got back to her place, it was way way past four. The elevators were luckily functioning, so getting her back up wasnt too big a deal. I tucked her in, said my goodbyes and I was on my way once more.
A month just flew by. Malvika's condition improved. Neha got pregnant. Nihal was over the moon. Satty was still taking Narayan's case, and still barking "Shaata!", at everything that moved. I got to know Malvika a lot better, and we became really close. I'd visit her everyday and'd take her to the physio, every three days to check on her leg. She'd often laugh and say how lucky(wait for it) I was to have her. Which, to be quite honest, is true.
One Saturday morning I finally decided to tell her. Nihal came over and eased me through the situation. My nerves were past breaking point when the phone rang. Nihal answered. His eyes went wide. Without another word , he handed over the phone to me.
"Ello?"
"Hello??", I had an instant head rush, when I recognised Malvika's voice on the other line."Hello? Araan?? Listen, could you please come over for a bit? there's something, I want to talk to you about."
"You want an ice cream?"
She didnt laugh." No. Its something else. Meet me in half an hour or so. Bye." She put the phone down.
"So what'd she want?", Nihal asked curiously.
"She wants to meet me. Didnt say why. I'd better leave now. Sorry mate, but I'll have to leave you hanging just for a little longer. Bye.", and with that I was, gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment