"Where are we going?", Nithya asked as I took a pass instead of a ticket in the bus
We were in an MTC bus. She was sitting beside me. I fought with her for window seat and I won in the game of 'rock, paper, scissors'. Usually a bus pass is a thing which is used like a universal visa to travel, but till anywhere around the city. If we once take it, we can roam the whole city for a day. I didn't have any plans, so I took the pass and then wanted to decide where to go.
"Don't know", I said bluntly
"O-k-a-y...", She prolonged and her face showed everything
"We are friends right? So why don't we do some crazy things?", I said
"Like?", She replied in short
"Like anything crazy. We'll go to a pub and order something non-alcoholic... Crazy right?", I asked her and she was like "what's wrong you dumbass?"
"Chalo na yaar... It'll be really fun. I don't drink alcohol and even you don't. Then why are you worrying?", I asked politely
As all girls do, her reply was "no"
"Why? Oh come-on I won't do anything to you. You don't trust me?", I asked
"It's nothing to deal with trust and all. The thing is I'm not in a mood and it's daytime, there won't be anything opened by now", She replied and I was just bored listening to those excuses.
"Fine. Okay. We'll figure out something else..", I said and thinking about my stupidity of 'daytime-pubs'
"Hmm. Better.", She said
I was thinking what Plan B was. Actually I didn't have any Plan B or A, I was just speechless.
Bus was completely filled by then and most of them were standing in between.
No idea came to mind until our bus stopped suddenly and the jerk made some random guy fall on Nithya. She just yelled at him in English. He didn't understand that and he was like 'what did I do?'
"Calm down madam", I said looking at her fiery-face
She didn't say anything and grew silent.
"Okay, we'll swap our places", I said
"Okay", She replied without any hesitation and didn't even think about how bad I would feel giving away my window seat.
I love window seats, I never mind fighting for them. And now it was like 'I'm giving back my trophy just to compensate someone who's in a bad mood'
We swapped.
"So where are we going?", She asked
"We'll go to some movie..", I replied
"Which one? Hey wait, not a Telugu film, okay?", She ordered
"Fine, I know you are a Mallu. We'll go to Sunny's film", I winked saying that
"Sunny!! who?", She enquired
"Sunny Leone! You don't know her? She is so famous..", I was kinda excited explaining it her.
"Shut up! You mean 'famous'? In what way? Stripping her clothes?", She yelled at me
"Woah wait... I'm really sorry I was just kidding...I thought of changing your mood, that's it. But that didn't quite go well", I apologised
She smiled
"Even your jokes are like you", She said with a baby-face
"Like me?", I asked
"Ya of course. They are dumb", She laughed
"I came here to change your mood from Janu-the dog and you are changing mine....wow", I thought
"Where are you sir?", She asked waving her hand in front of me
"Ya, I'm fine", I replied getting out of my thoughts
"So which movie?", She asked
"Premam (a malayalam film). Heard that, it's good", I replied
"Ya, I forgot about that movie totally. How can I miss Nivin's film? I love him. He is so cute...", She was narrating and I said "Who's Nivin?"
"Idiot! You don't know?'', She asked
"Of course I don't. What's the big deal?", I said
"It is a big deal. He is a famous actor and the lead actor of Premam as well", She replied
"Okay, got it", I said
"Which theatre is the movie screening?", She asked
"Escape cinemas", I said checking my phone. I was shocked to see the number of seats left . There were only 3.
"Okay. Which mall does it belong to?", She asked
"Express Avenue. And I'll book them online. There's some fast filling going on", I said to her
"Ya sure. But why isn't this bus moving fast?", She asked me
"How will I know? Ask the damn driver?", I almost yelled
"Ya sure", She replied and got up to ask. I made her sit down.
"Madam please, don't create a scene here. We don't even know their language. Look at them, they look like man-eaters. We'll get down at Koyambedu and then take another bus ", I whispered in her ear
She nodded
It's so cute when you see her nodding like a baby. She puts her eyebrows to the top and a small smile comes across her lips when she does that.
"By the way, why am I her observing her so keenly? Focus Maddy!", I said to myself
I booked the tickets by then. The movie was gonna start at 11:20 am.
"We are there!", She shouted in my ears
"Finally", I exclaimed to myself
KOYAMBEDU BUS-STATION
We got down at Koyembedu. It was the first time I went there. I was kinda confused looking at it. It was a huge bus station. We went into an enquiry office and got the numbers of the buses that went to express avenue.
"That's our bus" She spotted.
The bus marked '25G' on it. It wasn't crowded as the previous bus as this was the starting point. We boarded the bus.
"It takes 30-45 minutes from here", I said checking my phone
"Oh", She replied
I don't why but I badly had an urge to ask her about her life in Kerala and other stuff. So I directly came to the point without any hesitation.
"My life is normal as everyone's is... My dad is my superman. He is a Dentist. My mom is kitchen-queen", She said with a happy smile.
I love her face when she's happy. She gets a dimple on her right cheek but doesn't on her left cheek. And her voice turns out so sweet that even a nightingale may feel jealous about it. "Oh boy, I'm lost in her", I said to myself.
After sometime we reached our stop.
EXPRESS AVENUE
The mall was built on 10-acre site inside the historic Indian Express Estate and has four floors of retail space, a building for corporate offices and a hotel. Out of 10 acres, about 3.57 acres has been taken up by buildings. The rest have been used for car parking, drive-ways and landscaping. In all, the mall has 26 lifts, 34 escalators and 4 travelators. This isn't my knowledge about this mall. 'Google baba' helped me.
We went in. Nithya took her mobile out and did what girls do all the time. Taking selfies. She even pulled me in some of those photos. To be frank I wasn't person who would pose great in photos. But most of them complimented me on having a photogenic face. The most irritating thing was I was dressed up in formals which I hate the most.
'How the hell on earth would I think I'll be bunking my college to change someone's mood. And that too in formals'
"Life sucks man", I thought to myself
The mall was totally filled up. I was surprised because it wasn't weekend. I thought Chennai was busy city having no time some entertainment. I was wrong. Most of the ladies there came for window-shopping. Couples came there to spend some time alone with their partners. And boys kept this place for chick-spotting. We got to admit that. Malls are the best place to find beauties for free. Even I used to one of them long ago. I smiled at them.
Some of them looked at us in a weird manner. "Maybe because of our attire", I thought
I saw some of the boys commenting Nithya while we were taking selfies. I gave them a rough look and ignored them. Thought that they were just some random assholes and won't do it again.
"Nithya, it's almost time. We'll move now. Enough of your selfies", I requested
"Ya, okay", She replied
We climbed up through the escalators. Looking around what was going on at ground level. We reached the top floor and still there were fifteen minutes for the movie to start. So I went near the bars and began to look down. Nithya was beside me.
"What are you seeing? Girls huh?", She winked
"Nah, I'm not interested in them. I was seeing that stupid competition that's happening", I replied
"That's not stupid. It's fun", She said
"Woah, you call that fun. Doing some useless dance in front of many people?", I asked
"Huff... You won't get it", She replied
"Maybe", I said to myself and said "I think it's time now. We'll go in"
She nodded
"Kites!", I said to her
She didn't understand what I meant
"That's the name of the theatre", I clarified
"Okay...There it is", She spotted
We went through the big doors and sat in our seats.
"I don't understand Malayalam. You have to help me out", I said
"Ya sure", She smiled
"Actually you don't need to", I said again
"Why?", She asked
"It's another language movie. So there might be subtitles in it", I said
"Yes. Anyways I won't have any heachache translating for you. I can see my hero freely", She laughed. I smiled too.
The movie started. As per my wish there were subtitles in the film. We laughed, we cried, we were enjoying everything in that film. Though the film was from another language. As we all know love has no language. I badly had an urge to catch Nithya's hand in between. But somehow my inner potentials made me not to.
The film's first half ended with a beautiful note. We came out during the interval. I had to pee badly. I was controlling it for a long time. So I informed Nithya and went to finish my leftover business.
By the time I came out, there was a small mob in front of the Nachos counter. I first mistook it as a Q waiting for snacks. I was searching for Nithya. I couldn't find her and went into the mob to check if she was present over there. I was surprised and literally shocked to see Nithya indulged into a quarrel. The gang who commented Nithya were also present in there
I straight away jumped into the scene and enquired with Nithya 'what had happened?'
The moment she saw me, she just cried out loud and hugged me.
I understood that the situation wasn't going great...
