Dil Ka Jo Rishtaa (Book 2)

It's a Date

An agitated Rekha paced up and down her room as she dialled a number into her smart phone with limited facilities. She could not face time as a result else she would have done that and shown her new best friend how she was looking.

She was ready and prepared to enter the club and enjoy her night, however she realised she lacked something important. She lacked a date. She wasn't in need of a date per se but it would be fun. As a result she believed if she did not invite her new friend to the club with her, well she wasn't a very good friend. He could be her date and she could interrogate him for further details concerning his girlfriend Sheila.

As she waited on the line she let her eyes wander over her board. She had taped a massive poster of Katrina Kaif in her Sheila avatar and then stuck post it notes around it with details like actress, familiar and beauty queen on it. She did note that she was low on verified information and she would require more information if she wanted to pursue her objective. Inviting Jai to the party would be the perfect opportunity to do both: enjoy a party while investigating him. 

On the other end of the line, Jai was walking through the dark streets with his headphones on. His head was bopping lightly to the calming track he was listening to. He wanted to listen to some sad music today - but for some reason even though the music was sad, it didn't make him feel sad. It made him smile as he watched the soft street lights pass. It also spoke his heart out much better than he ever could.

He had spent the afternoon in the office crouched over a pile of forms for tax purposes. As he was compelled to because of his boss' usual behaviour, he made sure he calculated the correct figures and entered the details so the man paid the maximum amount of tax due on purpose. Sure he would complain about the government being thieves and stealing his profits in the form of tax, but that would fall on deaf ears. For the way the man exploited his workers, Jai felt he should pay every single rupee of tax he was entitled to pay the government. The accountancy firm they used would pick up the forms the day after so for now he was a free man albeit with several bags of shopping hanging off his arm. All he had to decide was what to do when he got home and answered the call of duty.

His shopping saga had begun with him deciding to pick up pani puri for his mom. She seemed a bit down in the morning and he wanted to surprise her. He added ice cream for Tara because that was her favourite ever since she watched it being made with liquid nitrogen in a science demonstration. Then while passing the market he saw a great offer on okra and decided to get half a kilo of that. It was too good a deal to pass on. He didn't have much cash left but it would be enough and also an additional nice surprise. But then he noticed some really good tomatoes over the shoulder of a woman in a green sari and decided he should buy extra tomatoes, since they were low on tomatoes at home. This led him to have a very in depth conversation with the woman. She began by asking if he needed any help choosing groceries for his mom since men apparently weren't usually well acquainted with shopping for vegetables and getting the best price.

His childish and somewhat lost expression as he was going through the pile of tomatoes had prompted the lady to help. What she didn't know was that was his usual expression when he was searching for the right tomatoes. He was trying to get more tomatoes for his money. If he got the smaller ones he would be able to get more for the same weight he had figured out some time back.

However by the end of the conversation he had managed to gather a small group of women of various ages. They discussed, reviewed and shared knowledge of where the best deals were and he also taught them a few tricks of his own. The women nodded and agreed with him when he mentioned a certain stall that was unfair and heavily priced. A long line gathered around the stall as the news spread and others listened on.