The sun was shining hot and hard on the residents of Chennai. Our hero is no exception to this. He has a job that requires going out in the sun. By the time he returns home in the evening, he is quite beat up and can think about nothing other than sitting idly at home. Today also, its quite hot and our hero is standing waiting for the bus. He is sweating and wonders if his life will ever change for the better. He looks at the passing air conditioned car with longing and heaves a huge sigh of despair. The bus that he is waiting for arrives and Dilip gets onto the bus and to his relief it is almost empty and he easily finds a place to sit. The bus starts out towards Dilips stop. Just looking around, Dilip finds his roving eye stop quite suddenly at a point within the bus. Sitting close to the exit is a girl who seems to be engrossed in the music produced by her I Pod. Dilip has not seen such a girl in so far that he is able to remember. His stuck roving eye refuses to resume its journey. He lets out another sigh of despair. Now Dilip thinks he is best sales man in the entire world but has a complex about marketing himself to the faire sex. The product is way to complex to explain and the potential match probably has no reason to be convinced.
Dilip inspite of his reservations about his own ability continues to look at the girl. He notices her every action and it is like a goddess herself in his presence. Just a casual flick of a strand of hair stands magnified for Dilip in slow moving frames. Suddenly the heat of Chennai is lost on him. He hopes that the girl would get down before he does. And as if listening to his thoughts, the girl get up from her seat and in a moment of coincidence,(Dilip calls it destiny) looks at him. Now Dilip is probably finding his heart hissing within him and we shall just leave him savour a few seconds of his joy/misery in complete privacy.
Dilips stop arrives. But Dilip is not to be seen. In my moment of being gentlemanly, I ve let Dilip go out of my sight. He is nowhere within the bus. A harried enquiry with the conductor reveals that our man alighted at the previous stop presumably in tow with that girl. Making a beeline towards the previous stop, I find Dilip following the girl at a safe distance. The world is a complicated place but somehow Dilip seems to be oblivious to the fact. He is quite the clown. Darting in and out and keeping pace with her but not quite catching up with her. He wants her to look at him again and you can quite clearly see the anguish the poor soul is going through. The girl disappears into a flat with the inescapable security guard outside. Dilip follows only to be stopped by the security guy.
Where are you going? Sales people not allowed.
No sir that girl…. I m not here for sales… I just want to..
What nonsense…!! Get out of here before I have to do it the hard way..
I ll go sir.. Just tell me her name..
Get out right now..!!!
And so our dejected hero is seen walking back to the bus stop. Clearly he looks like as through he swallowed a big marble. Maybe its his pride. Looking downward and being listless. He reaches the bus stop to catch the bus to his real destination heart totally not in it. He has suddenly brightened up. Maybe the girl comes everyday in the bus at that time. This means that he could meet her tomorrow.
Oh brother.
to be continued..