“Hi, I’m Sourabh….wanna dance with me?”, I asked to the one in yellow dress, standing with her two other friends who seemed uninterested.
“ummm…No….”, she replied and walked away.
“Dude……try harder”, Sandy shouted.
“Atleast I’’m trying……not just standing there like loosers….”, I replied.
“I mean c’mon…… it’s 31st Dec, Dandiya night…..and I’m in no mood to play dandiya with a bunch of guys…. So please…..encourage me”, I continued in a lower tone.
“you’ve tried a chance on approximately all the girls in the premises right now…..except that fatty cat and the sweeper..”, Kartik said as he came back from toilet.
“Alright,…. This is enough…… I’m gonna give it one more try”, I said, frustrated.
“which one?”, Sandy asked, looking around for my next target.
I looked around to find someone I hadn’t tried a chance on atleast once, but it was useless as I didn’t wanted to ask that fatty cat.
“Hey….. I’ve got an idea….. the first girl to enter the gate would be my next target…… how’s it?”, I said and we all turned toward’s the gate, which showed that everyone agreed to my idea….. wait a minute, who’s everyone when I’ve already introduced you to kartik and sandy……. Well its viresh, who will be in this part of the story solely to increase the count to 4 guys.
“Okhay guys, I have the visual….. 4 girls…… 1 too short, 1 a bit fat, and the other two are just average,…… nearing up towards the gate…..who’s gonna be first is the big question now”, kartik dictated… when I silently approached one of the average girls and asked the same question for the billionth time… “ Hi, I’m Sourabh,…. Would you like to dance with me …”
“Yes”, came the reply……. “I am Mausam”, she continued.
Now that I had a girl to dance with, the next step was to dance for which I realized a second later that I had never played dandiya before in my life…..
“So, Mausam, do you know dandiya?”
“What?, I can’t hear you, the music is too loud…”, she shouted.
“I said, what do you do?”, I changed my question after I realized that it would be weird of me to ask her that directly.
“I am studying Zoology……it’s my first year…… what about you?”, she continued in a higher tone as the music was still loud.
“Mechanical engg……. 1st year”, everyone in the premises heard that as the music stopped just as I shouted when someone got on the stage to brief about a contest that was being held there. “Ahh… I think that was a bit too loud”, I continued talking to Mausam, pretending to be unaware of what attracted everyone’s attention there.
After we both ended up with our introduction, we played dandiya for a while(rather she taught me how to play dandiya)…….it was fun, until I hurt her finger with that stupid dandiya stick(Although I’m a good learner, but that is true only when I’m not nervous)….so we decided to continue dancing without the sticks. Now given that I had never danced with a girl before besides my sister,(who wouldn’t care about my stupid looking dancing steps)…….striking dandiya sticks was a way too better option for a guy like me who’s not a very good dancer. But I had no choice so I made some random movements, trying to look as less stupid as I could……she was good at dancing though…..like every other girl, may be girls have ‘better dancing’ as a quality in their DNA structure.
“Oh, I think I’ve lost my clutcher”, Mausam said as she looked here and there on the ground. We all tried to find it, but no one could…….so we continued dancing…..with her long hairs jumping on her shoulder as she moved,………. they made her look rather beautiful than ‘just an average’ girl. I wonder how just a change of hair style could bring about such a change in her looks.
“It’s 8 already………too late, we should be leaving now”, the shorter one said as she took a breath out of her inhaler.
“Oh… ok, it was nice meeting the four of you……… hope to see you all around”, I said concluding our meeting when I silently handed the clutcher to Mausam…… “You look better without it”, I whispered to her and smiled…… she smiled back.
“Here……take down my number… its 9335…….”, she said.
“Hey thanks……. I will call you J, be in touch”, I said as I walked them to the parking area.
“Vijay?......... where were you…….let’s go and dance our asses out man……. Common”, I said as I saw vijay coming. I was relieved after the girls went away……. Its too hard to be sophisticated for such a long time.
“So, I heard you were dancing with a bunch of girls, who were they…… tell me all about it”, he asked curiously.
“What?....... where did you get to know about it……. I haven’t even told you yet”, I asked in a surprise.
“Everyone knows you met a girl, how is she?..... is she cute?”, vijay asked eagerly.
“forget her, lets go and dance….. it’s the dandiya night”, I said to change the topic.
*
>>>>>>>>Next day, VT(Vishwanath Temple) :
“This girl, Mausam, how was she?”, vijay asked to break the silence as we took a sip from our cold coffees, sitting at VT, bunking the last class before lunch break.
“She was OK, besides I’m not interested, it was just a “thing to do” on my list so I did it, she gave me her number too but I think I won’t use it”, I answered casually, more interested in the vanilla scoop they put in our coffees.
“What? .... then call her now, ask her to come here…….”, he said excitedly.
“I’m not calling her, we met……. Danced together…… its over now”
“Oh c’mon, she gave you her number, she expects you to call her, it will be fun, just do it”
“No”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to”
“Ahh…… just do it for experience……… and moreover in the end you will have a friend!”
“But….”
“Call her….”
“It’s not a very good time to call her, she may be busy…..”
“Call her….”
“how about tomorrow….?”
“CALL HER………….”
“alright alright………… her we go…… 9335……”
Tring! Tring!................
