“Go Bananas” the name of the bar/ restaurant that was recently opened in our neighborhood. I expected men and women (most importantly) partying, boozing and dancing their shoes off ,that would give these eyes some congeniality. Instead, I found a bunch of kids celebrating something, two elderly couples and a middle aged man eating his gloomy supper (from the look of it).
It was a long,sad and an uneventful day and I was eagerly waiting for the food on this typical 'Tiring Thursday' and they provided me a table at the center so that everyone could look at me and deride me. I looked at my back side and saw a girl and a guy was also waiting for the food. I looked again at the guy and remembered he was my tuition friend Prateek. I thought of approaching him but then gave up the thought because he was with a girl. I looked at him one more time to see the girl but this time he waved at me. I smiled and walked to his table very slowly. We both were very delighted to meet each other. I was avoiding looking at the girl so that he would not think that I’m still a jerk.
“Enjoy your food!” I told them when their order had come on table and I stood-up to go back to my table.
“No No! You should eat with us!” He insisted.
I reluctantly agreed and told waiter to shift my order from that table. I looked at the girl when she was giving me Matar Paneer. She was looking pretty and very decent. My friend saw me noticing her and asked me about my elder brother to distract me. I answered and then I asked him about his younger brother to save myself from abashment. He was in 12th standard , Prateek told me. Then there came a long pause between conversation and I blamed myself for that. I wanted to ask so many questions. My head was going haywire. Who is she? What is her name? I s she single? Should I introduce myself to her? Is she his gf? Maybe she was the one with whom he posted that picture last week on fb?
Suddenly, some words popped out of my mouth What are Matar(peas) doing in my food??
“I think you ordered Matar Paneer”, she said.
“Unknown girl=1 me=0. And damn! She is good”, I said in my mind.
“What is your cousin Mili doing these days?” I asked him in haste. And the jeera rice came out of his mouth when he heard my question and then I remembered that once he scolded me for talking to his cousin who used to live with his family. She was 2 years junior to us, little nerdy but used to look cute in open hair with black spectacles on face. Suddenly, I realized that was now double blow to raise the awkwardness between us.
“She is doing great and also studying here in XYZ Engineering college” he replied normally after drinking 2 glasses of water.
“Okay!” I replied sheepishly.
“Oh, How rude of me!! this is Naina, my friend from Delhi”, Prateek said. She smiled but looked at me with no interest whatsoever.
“You used to like her, don’t you?” Prateek asked me with smile on his face.
“What? Na na nope” I blushed.
They both smiled after looking at me blushing.
“So tell me what did you like in Mili?” Prateek asked me this time with great ardor.
"Come on,it was years ago.Spill the beans."He continued.
First I tried to refuse that I used to like her but after some time I finally confessed
“Yes, I used to like her. She was great in studies and even my mumma always used to complement her for hardworking. She was cute and had some alluring charm”.
They both were continuously smiling when I was confessing about Mili. I went on and on for another 15 minutes and they had a mysterious smile on their faces that I was unable to decrypt. After the dinner, we asked waiter to take our photo. I was standing near Prateek to avoid contact with the girl he came with.
That night when I logged on facebook, I had a notification. He tagged me in that photo which we had taken in restaurant. I looked at the persons tagged in that photo. It was showing me, Prateek and Naina with a tagline: “HAD A FUN TIME WITH AN OLD BUDDY AND MY LOVELY SIS NAINA (MILI)”
“Mili? What? she can’t be Mili” I told myself. I opened her profile, browsed through her pics and it was really Mili. I laughed whole night and there was a question in mind for the whole time “who secretly confesses his feelings for a girl in front of same girl?” and my mind was answering continuously the same answer, “It’s you.You juvenile IDIOT!”.
Sometimes you don’t have to try to make your day special. Life is full of fun, keep patience and that day will come.
