THE PERFECT DATE

- Vittaldas Prabhu

It wasn’t the usual dull and dusty self in the next to dead city of Bangalore. For a change, the weather decided to be pleasant and romantic. I decided to keep myself as pleasant and romantic as the weather for on this overcast yet cool day I was going to meet my sweet friend. Destiny had brought us together and I was the most benefited, I must say. Little did I know that after the ordeal that I went through after "playing the game," life had now put me at the receiving end.

Just to give you an insight of what has been narrated later on, it would be only fair on my part to provide a concise description about how it all started. Tracing back to my initial days in Bangalore, I had come to the city for my project work as part of my post-graduate curriculum. One of the extended weekends that I got very early in my internship days (due to Independence Day which was just around the corner because of which the weekend extended from Friday to Tuesday), I decided to go back home and reunite with my near and dear ones. It was on Monday afternoon when I received a message on my cell phone from a lady who claimed to have read my profile on a friend finder service. She claimed to have liked my profile and the testimonials that my buddies had most graciously and generously written for me.

She asked me, "If you aren’t doing anything important, is it possible for us to chat for a while?" I was, at that moment, with my mother at a restaurant we would regularly visit, because of its most delicious sea food cuisines. I decided to strike a conversation and replied to her saying, "I am absolutely jobless right now. So, I guess I will talk to you." From afternoon till night we conversed over cell phone messaging trying to know each other, arguing and counter arguing on different issues, agreeing and disagreeing on various opinions, and then at the end of it all we wished each other, "Good night," promising to continue the conversation the next day.

As promised we resumed our conversation the next morning. We would talk on various topics; trying to know each other’s dreams and aspirations, suggesting solutions to each other’s problems, and much more. We chatted the whole day. That night I had to leave home and come back to the city. Time flew, and within a wink of an eye it was night already! It was time for me to leave. I gave my mother a warm hug and bid her good-bye until next time. I messaged my new found friend that I was going to leave for the city and would continue the conversation the following day.

There was no looking back after those two days of healthy conversation. The legend of messaging over the cell phone continued, but now the conversation was also powered by the mighty Internet. She worked for another corporate and hence we both had a corporate mailing id which we used to exchange long and informative mails over the Internet. Everything was going on smooth; when suddenly I asked her if we could meet. As if waiting for this hint she readily agreed. Now the problem was to find a very nice location to meet, a location where the friendship would possibly take a new turn and from where it would probably thrive to new levels.

After a lot of debating we decided to meet at a sacred place. Why, of course, we decided to meet at a temple. At first it would seem very vague to me why she stressed on meeting at a temple when there could be more scenic locations (like a park). Later did I come to know that we were victims of the same disease, a disease caused by "playing the game." All that she wanted was to start a new friendship on an auspicious note. We met on that auspicious Saturday (the day we decided to meet) at the location that was agreed upon. That day we would walk a thousand steps together and yet not feel the burning afternoon sun, neither would we feel hungry. We were completely engrossed in knowing each other and evaluating the new found friendship. We thought it would be nice to go to a restaurant and have lunch for it was getting very late in the afternoon and skipping lunch was not a good thing to do.

After we had lunch at a roof top "expensive" restaurant, we walk towards a mall that attracted not many people, but yet was a pleasant place to sit and talk without any interruptions. We sat there for hours looking at each other and trying to know each other, trying to gauge the intensity of the new found friendship, trying to understand why destiny brought us together. The hours flew away like it were seconds and it was time to depart. Not wanting to leave each other but still constrained by the places we needed to reach we had to make the tough decision to bid each other good-bye and promise to meet once again.

As days passed by we could clearly see what each other had in mind about our near future and also the distant ones. The days marked a tremendous growth in the friendship but not without certain minor yet heart-breaking setbacks and misunderstandings. The days definitely had a lot of misunderstanding popping up every now and then, but they would get resolved in the most graceful manner. Nothing seemed to deter us from keeping the relationship from moving on.

A series of weekend dates followed after the first one. With every date getting better than the previous one; we could only imagine how far this would go. Once when we were at a botanical park enjoying nature’s glory and the peaceful atmosphere, I decided to ask the inevitable question, "Where do you think we are heading?" The question was followed by a long silence, with none of us daring to utter a word. I wasn’t going to justify myself asking the question and she wasn’t going to answer it. Was it that we didn’t dare to picture the future, or was it that the question was asked at the wrong time, at a wrong place? I would think in the following days if it was necessary for me to ask that question? Was it necessary to be blunt while I asked the question? Did I lack the diplomacy or had I forgotten how to behave with a lady? For me the following days would bring back flashbacks of the moment I asked the inevitable question.

The thought would come to my mind every time I would sit idle. Finally I decided that it was time to let go of the feelings. It was time to take the burden off my chest. I wrote her a mail, apologizing for having been very mean to her. I had realized that off late I had been behaving irrationally with her and she had been tolerating me all the while. It wasn’t fair on my part to hurt the feelings of a lady who cared for me so much. I put out to her all my woes and apologized from the bottom of my heart. Not only did it make me feel light, it also gave me the satisfaction that I finally ended the series of constant hurting.

After all this, life took a new twist. The roads that seemed to have nothing but desert land on both sides and the scorching sun beating down on the earth mercilessly seemed to have lead me into a new territory that had its first rain of the season. The sweet smell of the earth, the beautiful sight of lush green fields, the tall trees that stood the test of time, all seemed to be welcoming me. It seemed that life like nature was at all its glory. I was enjoying every moment of life. Then on one Saturday we met. We had little hint how things would turn out for us on that day.

I should say that that was a concise enough description for you to understand the rest of the narration. Calling it concise would look more funny than logical, but I must stress on the fact that without the rather "elongated" concise description the rest of the narration would just bounce over your head. But the only thing that wonders me about the story so far is what would have been going through in her mind all the while. I could never fathom the reason behind her being so patient and tolerant towards me. Sometimes I feel that it is all natural for women to be kind-hearted and understanding, but for us (men) it seems to be a profound weakness that has to be exploited at all times. Well, I might be wrong on this one, but how much ever the world claims to be equal to all races, it would still remain a male-dominant world for a long time to come. Let’s stop the philosophy here and move on with the all important topic!

The Saturday morning finally came. It was the day of our regular weekend meet. I woke up a little late for on weekends there is a taboo (in my personal life, I must say) on waking up early in the morning! After having a refreshing bath I set out to meet my sweet and affectionate friend. The weather was overcast, and there were clear indications that it was going to rain at some time of the day. Being a very forgetful self, I forgot to carry an umbrella with me. But the weather was kind enough to me; at least it did not rain until I met my friend at our regular meeting place at a bus terminal. That day we had decided to go for small scale shopping and big scale window shopping!

We boarded a bus to a place, or should I say a market place that had lines of shops and petty shops and street sellers. There wasn’t a single item that you wouldn’t find at that place. It was afternoon when we reached the place, and both of us could hear our stomach grumble. The message was very clear. We were hungry! We went to a nearby restaurant which incidentally happened to be a place where I ate the most delicious food I would’ve ever eaten in my life. After that we went shopping. You wouldn’t want to know what we shopped, would you? We shopped for clothes and then went looking out for things that were to be bought in the near future.

We had finished shopping very early. There was a lot of time at our disposal. We thought it would be better for us to find a place where we could sit together and chat for a while. Ah! What luck! As we walked a few paces, we saw a park. At the other end of the park was a temple. We thought before we settle down on a bench and start talking for the rest of the afternoon and half of the evening it would be only courteous on our part to visit the temple and offer our prayers. After having done that, we frantically searched for a bench to perch on. After a bit of strolling we finally find a nice place, a bench under a tree. I sank into the bench as if I had been walking for ages.

Sitting on the bench, we enjoyed the pleasant weather. The overcast sky, birds chirping all around the park, a cool breeze that would gently touch our cheeks as if saying, "Thank you for coming." I don’t know what had happened to us; we would only talk about each other so much that the outside world had no relevance to us. We were in a realm of our own. Boy! Weren’t we enjoying the time!

As we kept talking without heeding to what was happening around us; it started drizzling. Seeing that it was going to turn into a rain very soon, we soon made haste to a shelter nearby. We sat there. Probably nature knew that the day could only have been made better because it was already going on good. It decided to play a part in making the date a perfect date. It rained like no other day. As it rained outside, we watched the rain drops drip from the edges of the shelter. It would seem as if pearls were falling from the sky. It was glorious! All the while it rained, I would sing songs and she would join in. The day that started good had now turned romantic. Never ever had I sat so close to her. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest with all its glory. Ah! It was a blissful experience. I would run out of words trying to describe the scenario.

Every good thing comes to an end. It was evening. It was time for us to depart. We came back to the bus terminal where we met first in the morning; after which we went our separate ways back to our domiciles. But the day had left us with unforgettable feelings, the warmth of which would be felt for a long long time to come. What started as a date ended up as a perfect date. The memories from that day shall stay evergreen in our hearts. May be it was the beginning of something beautiful. Only if we could halt life at a point and live it forever; but what good does it make if everything were to be perfect everyday. If life were to be perfect everyday then it would become nothing more than ordinary. It’s these perfect moments that happen once in a while that makes living worthwhile. Whenever we feel low in life; it is these perfect moments that cheer us up and make us feel as if we are on top of the world. We just traveled along another stretch of a never ending road; what lies ahead only time will tell. But the perfect date had left special feelings in our hearts that will be cherished every moment in our lives.

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