Love or Arranged?!!

It was a bright sunny day just about perfect for a good outing and the icing on the cake was that it was a Sunday….She not being that adventurous a person was first time set to go on one and was a little nervous…with a few inhibitions in mind she walked towards the lunch area of the pre-decided restaurant……pre-decided as the adventure was planned…a blind date…and as she was the kind who never believed that such adventures were of any good the adventure’s set out had to be planned by the common people in the game…yes a game that is what it seemed to her…an adventurous game…

Yet she tried to walk confidently not showing her nervousness….trying to camouflage her inhibitions..she had yielded in to their arguments and had decided to willingly give it a chance sportingly…and there she was dressed in white…not her favorite color but it kind of provided some solace and calmed her ….her urge to just become invisible or disappear from there….She just took a deep breathe and then her consciousness of her racing heart beat seemed to subside and she walked right over to the place he was seated….leaving the formalities to the common people…..

A round of introductions and the niceties exchanged…her eyelids however strangely seemed too heavy for her to raise and take a look at her blind date…she sat there silent her long eyelashes grazing her blushing cheeks….was she blushing….the questions seemed obscure….

What seemed like ages she sat there with her head down…a light sound playing in the background and she conscious of every little thud that her fork seemed to make on her plate…..swallowing food seemed so laborious by the minute…yet the few giggling cheerful known faces sitting close by still provided immense strength…..why had she ever yielded in to their arguments…it felt like she was paying the price to all that now…..as she was waiting for that dreadful moment when she would be left alone with her date…..how come all this sounds so romantic in movies was something that she cudn’t comprehend…

And the dreadful moment arrived…the familiar faces left and she felt as lost as a drop in the ocean…she noticed that the background track changed to her favourite score from the movie Amar Prem and just when she noticed she heard him say “Is this your favorite song?” and taken aback that she was she could only mutter a “yes”…”Even Mine” he said….And she wondered what would they converse on next..what in world they could talk about……and she awaited for that boring familiar answerless question “So, tell me something about yourself”…..but what came was “ You know once when I was on a tour sailing to one of the ports in Korea the same song was playing somewhere from one of the cabins in the ship “…..”How come? A Hindi song”…..”Yeah that’s what puzzled me so I just followed the tune and walked towards the cabin only to discover an African cleaner boy listening to the tune”…”African?”…”Yeah, when I asked him he explained that his father was an Indian and his mother an African and his father always used to play the song for his mother while cooking”…”So, did he understand the song”….”I don’t think he understood the meaning…but probably he understood the essence of the song”….”Nice”….”Have you got a chance to watch the movie”…”Yeah a very memorable and intense movie to say the least….a movie which depicts so many nuances and angles to the word so commonly quoted that is love”……”The best part that I liked in the movie was the way they portrayed the female cast…her character…the strong will power and emotions…the selflessway in which she carried out things…..”

She wondered how easily they talked….is this what is called frequency match….And he interrupted “So what was your take on the blind date thing”….”Well, frankly I was not game for it”….”Ok, taken. So, now u r cursing me for giving you a bad time or are u comfortable”…..”Oh no no ofcourse I am comfortable”…”So what makes you think a blind date is not a good idea”…”Well, I feel blind dates don’t help you know someone”….”And why is it so”…”Because one day isn’t enough to know a person”….”So a few hrs from now when we part you wouldn’t know me”…..”Ok well not as much as I would like to”…”Hmmm …so would you like some coffee”…”yeah sure”….

Coffee seemed so right for the occasion…….hot steaming coffee…just the smell of it seems to revive any discussion….And just when she thought this he said “ Yeah even I love the smell of coffee”…she smiled wondering that how easily he seems to read her mind…and she allowing him to read her mind too…she realized that she had shed her earlier inhibitions already by then…smiling, laughing, talking didn’t seem like an effort now….probably time is that’s why regarded with so much esteem…time indeed sets everything….And he smilingly said “You know what coffee reminds me of”…”College nightouts and friends hangouts”…”Yeah exactly”……”It was so much fun then…it was in college that I had my first coffee”….”Oh! I used to have coffee at home but coffe got redefined in college”…..”Yeah especially the night canteen coffee in the cold winters….we used to just take a cup each and sit on the verandah and our imaginations and discussions just soared high with every sip of the coffee”…..”Yeah big career discussion, life , partners, dreams what not we used to discuss”…”Yeah and heated masala gossips too…and cursing lectures, exams, profs…just abt anything”….”Girls love gossips isn’t it”…”Oh c’mon it’s a good source of entertainment…just like guys who like discussing abt girls bio datas all the time”…”Ha ha yeah that’s true…it sure is a good source of entertainment for guys”….

“So did you go on any coffee dates”….”I told you I don’t believe in dates”……”yeah yeah I was just kidding….”….”But its strange how books always need coffee to go with it…as in if u r studying u require coffee to keep awake and if u r reading coffee just seems the right thing to go with it”….”yeah now that u have said it even I realize…but then the purpose of the coffee here in both cases differ…one is for a boring purpose and one is to rejuvenate you”….”Ha ha yeah”……”But any day I would prefer a good novel with a coffee than a movie which come to think of it doesn’t require any coffee…even then”…..”yeah me too…especially the non-adventurous fiction books…like say the Fountainhead types just goes so well “…”yeah even I was thinking of the same book”….”Yeah it’s a great book but a little complicated to take in all at once and you require some rejuvenation in between…”….”Yeah, all Ayn Rand’s books are like that…but at the end of the book your whole perspective changes…you feel like a transformed person”……”Yeah the best way to describe her books….the complicated way in which she puts across subtle things is what is the essence of the book” …….”Yeah like the Fountain head…the essence is to just strongly believe and stick to your ideals without any regard to how others want you to be or perceive you….a simple message but put across in a maze of complicated personalities like Dominique and others…..I guess what Ayn Rand wants to put across is the most simplest things in life are the most complicated when executed and followed and are made to look unachievable by the society”……”Very well said….”…She smiled and thought to herself oh God did I get carried away and looked outside the window of the restaurant and realized that darkness had already set in….time had just flown past and she had not realized…..

He smiled again that reassuring smile and said “Yeah, even I didn’t realize the time…I think we should get going now”…….”Yeah, you have a flight to catch today isn’t it”…”Yeah, I should just make it to the airport if I leave now”…..”Yeah it will take about an hr from here”…”I got to pick up a magazine on the way too…flights are really boring…I really miss the good old train days of childhood when I could spend the entire day just looking at the scenery outside”…”Yeah travelling then meant the means and not the destination unlike these days”….”Yeah it does sound ridiculous when people say they are on a break to travel and look for flights to save on time and spend as much to see the same scenery at the end of the say which they could have very well seen on their way itself”……”Ha ha yeah I am realizing it only when you said it now”……….

“So nice to meet you then….sorry you are…” he said

And she realized for the first time in the entire conversation of the day that she never asked his name…she only knew his nick name…..and neither did he…..it struck her for the second time in the day that he was a stranger...but was he still a stranger...

….I see many people posing the question of whether its an arrange marriage or love marriage these days to others….And more so if the answer comes as arranged a dismayed look on the opposite party’s face…It really puzzles me as to why an arrange marriage is considered less adventurous or less romantic ….aren’t all arrange marriages just blind dates and love at first sights come to think of it…..so doesn’t that make it score higher…