The idiot

Real life Vs Reel life

Life is not a movie; at least not mine.

CHAPTER-20

Superstar Shahrukh Khan (SRK) once said in his movie- They say that if you love someone from your true heart then the whole world conspires to get you close to him/her.

I waited for the kind world to help me. I waited for the world to lead me to her. Nothing happened. I waited a little longer. Still nothing happened.

My thought that keeping myself busy at work might help me from sinking into her thoughts turned out to be completely wrong as next few days at office were worst than the last night. She was all over my mind. From news reader on canteen TV, to receptionist at ground floor, to girl at bus stand, she was everyone. She was near my work station, coffee machine, fax machine, Printer machine. I could not concentrate on my work. I was retarded. But then things started getting worse as my boss started having a go at me. May be he had not seen that SRK movie or maybe he was not from this kind world. So after a series of encounters with my grumbling boss over my reduced efficiency at work, I decided to dump SRK and go after her with a vengeance.

I took out the paper from my pocket and unfolded it. It was the same paper I tore off the visitor register from Jindal Hospital. I checked her entry in which she had mentioned her address. I read out her number squint-eyed.

I must have stared at the phone for the ten long minutes, before I got the nerve to dial her number. "Hello," a female voice answered the phone call.

"I am calling from customer care and this is a routine call. I would like to know your name and address for random verification work." I reeled lie off.

"Myself Ritu Verma," she said. "Wait...where are you calling from? Which company?"

I panicked and didn't say anything. I occurred to me that I would lose my chances if I came off as a stalker. So instead of trying covert methods of getting close to her I told her the truth. I told her that I got her number from hospital and was pursuing her from the day I saw her for the first time. She said she liked my honesty and neglected my thin cover for drawing her attention.

Following the best advice I've ever received about dating from Arjun, I moved for an in-person meeting quickly before investing too much phone time getting to know each other. We set up a date later today before I finished my call and everything seemed hunky-dory.

***

I arrived 15 earlier than our mutually agreed time. The woman who walked to my table had all the physical attractiveness of a meth addict.

My first thought was "Oh God!" and second was "What I am going to do now?!"

I cursed Raghav for getting me into this.

To say she looked like KFC girl would be like saying Tiger Woods has a small infidelity problem. She was at least 5 years older than the KFC girl, and the only passing resemblance to her was that she was a female.

She started by explaining how her sister was worried about her going out on a blind date so she dropped her off at our date. The unspoken implication in her eyes was that she was so sure this was going to be great that I'd be taking her home tonight. Not being a terribly rude person, I decided to go forward with the date.

Have a drink, some conversation and bit to eat, and then politely let her know I would not be interested in pursuing this any further.

With that attitude, I settled in and tried to make conversation. I smiled through her tasteless jokes. I was polite as the waitress gave me the most sympathetic looks every time she came to our table to check on us.