Am Still Waiting For This Lady-Part-Five

                   "If you are in love...
                           Love like you'll never be hurt, 
                           You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,                                               
                           Sing like there's nobody listening, 
                          And live like it's heaven on earth." 

It was not as easy as I thought to come out of the shock that I have received on that day.

I was loosing confidence in myself as my mind was vacillating between quite a lot of negative and positive theories and calculations.

Spent most part of the night sleepless.

Woke up in the morning but decided not to go to college that day.

My friend who came to me was shocked to hear my decision.

I convinced him and in the name of college both of us went to a popular Hindi film”Deewar...."

We don't remember how many times both of us have seen that film earlier as we lost count of it...

Whereas I watch it any number of times for the great Amitabh Bachchan,my friend shall watch it for the vivacious Neetu Singh.

(While narrating a script when I told the legendary Mr.Amitabh Bachchan that I watched his “DEEWAR” in my Sixth class he smiled and said”you are reminding me my age”)

With the passing of the day I started mustering courage that gave me enough pep to go to the bus stop the next day..

My friend reminded me that as decided on that eventful Monday I shall go to the bus stop all alone and that he shall come to my Nizam college during the lunch hour to get the updates from me.

And on the morning of that Wednesday...
I woke up and for the first time prayed to God before leaving for the bus stop all alone...

Slowly reached the bus stop.

Went and sat on the iron bar.

And exactly at 9.10 A M...
I saw Ms.Gorgeous coming towards the bus stop.

As usual she came walking very slowly and settled on her throne.

There was a terrible silence in the bus stop at that  time.
Even the sound of the gentle breeze was clearly audible along with the sounds of the vehicle horns blown miles away.

Soothing my thoughts there was a mild fragrance gently circulating in the air.
I know that it was from the perfume Ms.Gorgeous uses.
Five minutes passed like that in all silence.

Only two of us were there in the bus stop.

As she was sitting behind me I have a feeling that she was watching me from behind.
I thought It is not as easy as we men think,to portray that bold look when we are actually alone in front of the girl whom we are trying to impress....

I was fully tensed up.
My mouth was drying up..
But I know I have to perform and impress her with my singing....
Counting ten to one on my fingers I tried to gather some courage and slowly started humming a song.

I thought I was humming but the tune was refusing to come out of my vocal chords.

I started motivating myself like fast bowler Sreeshanth does while bowling...

Just within myself... 

"Chalo one,two,three…

Once again…."

Once again the song refused to come out of the walls of my voice…

"Hatterriki…"

I tried again..

Vooohooo...tune not coming out..

"Iski maakaaa bosh…..."

"No.No.No.

No gaalis..I should be decent…

Have patience…try again…"

I was motivating and counseling myself

"Once again..one….two…threeeeee…"

I did not complete…

Her bus came and without paying even a milligram of an attention to me she ffff..errr..went off….

@#%$&^*(^%$#..
I kicked the ground very hard.

Suddenly I heard someone laughing at me very loudly.

I also heard someone saying
”You idiot,a good for nothing fellaaaa”

I got up crossed the road and went to the opposite side of the bus stop.
From there looked carefully towards the bus stop.

No doubt....It is confirmed...The bus stop laughed and gave those compliments to me.

”Let me grow I shall definitely bombard this bus stop”.

With that statement I boarded the bus to my college.

In my college
We had a Persian Lecturer by name Zainab Arastu,who used to teach us English literature.
To say the least she was a Statue Of Venus made of marble stone.
Only after seeing her I could understand why Persians are rated as the most beautiful women in the world and why King Shajehan married a Persian beauty called Arjumand Banu Begum(Mumtaz Mahal) in whose memory he later built the famous Taj Mahal.
Attending her class and listening to Romantic poetry from her was always a pleasure and on that day it gave me some relief too.,,
And..
During the lunch time...

My friend who came rushing to my college with all the excitement to hear some good things from me was disappointed with my narration..
He had to bear with my frustration by paying for the samosas and teas in my college canteen. 

Later my great friend offered me a cigarette. 

I have seen many heroes in many films lighting a cigarette in moods of frustration. 
I thought am no less than a hero.

Took it from my friend's hands.
Lighted it with as much style as possible and inhaled the smoke very deeply using all my physical energy...
Goshhhhhhhhhh..
That was the first and the last time I touched a cigarette in my life...

I almost died with that strong and pungent smoke of the cigarette traveling through all the holes of my body burning me alive..

And after that..

For a few minutes I was a laughing stock to all the other notorious gangs in the canteen.

One of them even said
”..Abey o dakkhan,..marjayegaa re…cigarette phookhna aata nahin toh humse poochte..khud ko kyun jala rahen ho..”

Since I was a very popular guy in the college, no one could dare to laugh loudly in front of me but I definitely heard a few giggles and a few in female voices too.
I....c..o..u..l..d not take..t...h...a..t..tt

Still coughing I shouted’’,,Tera baap ka kya jaara bey bose d k..chup baith na..."

He kept quite..
But can there be anything more brutally precarious situation than this for a popular teenager that too studying in a college known for educating the most beautiful and gorgeous girls of the city.

I thought my saga of problems is endless.

And as a result my friend had to pledge his gold ring to take me to a movie.

The next day I went to the bus stop as per my time.

She did not come. I waited for half an hour but she didn’t come.

That really surprised me.

Next day too she didn’t come.

That shocked me.

On the third day too she didn’t come.

I was terrified to say the least.

For the fourth consecutive day she didn’t turn up.

I started smelling something fishy.

As per the understanding I had with my friend I was going alone to the bus stop all the days. 
My friend used to come to my college.Hear my disappointment.Pacify me.And go home 
That is all.
He had done enough and what else can he do.

On the fifth day..
I was not interested in going to the college,but my friend literally pushed me out of my house.

Before leaving for the bus stop I offered prayers to almost all Gods of literally all religions in the world.

Then started walking slowly towards the bus stop.
Reached the bus stop.
Sat on the iron bar.Looked around....
No signs of her coming.
I was disappointed...Depressed..
I know that he who sings scares away his woes

At that point of time I did exactly that.
Very involuntarily started humming my favorite...

“Hai apna dil toh awara,na jane kis pe aayega”
Humming that famous Hemant Kumar song deep from my heart,I went into a world of my own.

Continued for a good two minutes.
I was alone in the bus stop enjoying the song.

With a sudden jerk...
I came into the normal world as the sound of a bus coming and stopping in front of me disturbed my rhythm...
I fully opened my eyes...
And..

With some doubt knocking on the inner walls of my mind...

And with some familiar fragrance literally hugging me...

I turned my head..

And received the biggest..
Shockingly bigger than the biggest shock of my life...

I don’t know when she came.
Ms.Gogeous who was silently listening to my humming till that time,
Just got up from her throne..
Turned her head towards me...
Gave a very gentle smile...
Definitely in appreciation of my singing..
Still looking at me..
Slowly walked towards the bus,gently boarded it..
And after boarding..
Turned her head back..
Looked at me again,..
And again has thrown at me that invisible Monalisa sort of a smile...
Went inside and settled down in her seat..
It all happened in a few seconds...
As I was still looking at her in utter disbelief..
The bus slowly moved on and finally vanished out of my sight...
Oh.... My.......God...
I looked at the skies..
Found around thousand Moons and ten thousand Rainbows smiling at me..
Looked to my right....
Found foam filled waves of the Arabian Sea coming towards me..
Looked to my left..
Found Bay Of Bengal greeting me..
Looked down...
And found the beautiful Valley Of Flowers of the great Himalayas kissing my feet..
Oh God...
Whatttta feeling..
How to bear with this...
Then William Shakespeare appeared before me and described my feelings in his own inimitable style...

Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
under the blossom that hangs on the bough..

Continued in "Am Still Waiting For This Lady-Part-Six"

Am Still Waiting For This Lady-Part Four

                                           For it was not into my ear you whispered, 

                                           But into my heart.....

                                           It was not my lips you kissed, 

                                           But my soul.
                                                                 -George Bernard Shaw

“Today is the Day”…

That was the millionth time I told myself after waking up on that Monday morning as I was fully geared up to exhibit my singing talent before the great Ms.Gorgeous in the bus stop that day.

My friend is more tensed up than me as he could not sleep the whole previous night despite both of us consuming two bottles of beer each. That of course was with his money that was very successfully stolen from his beloved father’s purse.

My friend is a spiritual beast too and frightens Gods every morning with his boisterous prayers..He normally offers prayers to around a million Gods everyday, and on that particular day he must have definitely offered prayers to another ten million Gods of almost all religions in the world.

On the dotted line I was ready to leave for the bus stop and at that time he hurriedly came with his forehead adored with chandan and vibhuthi as if we were going to write our annual public exam.

I could not hide my laughter and told him..

“Abey saaley,we are not going to write any competitive exam..you bloody look like a cashier in an Udupi hotel..Remove it all and come normally..or else stay home,am not going to allow you to come like this”

“Do you know re idiot..how tensed up am,..???This is a bigger exam than a competitive exam..we can write an exam after a year again,but this is not like that..Listen to me..I prayed to God for your success today..”..

He tried to convince me but I searched around the whole room and lifted my cricket bat from a corner..

He obliged and we ended up in the bus stop on time.

Ms.Gorgeous was yet to come as our waiting began.

In the meantime my friend asked me..

“Arey,what is the song you are going to sing today re..???”

“Jeevan se bhar teri aankhen”,I said quietly.

He said”oh that’s a good one..i too know that”

At that moment I was not aware of the disastrous consequences that were to follow as a result of that statement.--

“I too know that”,

And by the time I realized, it was too late and everything else later ended up in a flop show.

A completely terrible  fiasco.

As we were eagerly waiting in the bus stop,Ms.Gorgeous came on her time and as was her usual practice,decorated her throne in the bus stop-quite majestically.

I was sitting on the iron bar with my back facing her.My friend was standing diagonally opposite to me with his face towards me directly and towards her indirectly. 

I could see her movements through the bifocals my friend was wearing.

Time was passing too heavily as I was with a great difficulty resisting the temptation of biting my nails..

She was looking into the direction of the bus.my friend was looking at her and I was looking into my friend's glasses.

After a few minutes…

My friend looked at me and gave me the hint to begin singing.

I paused for a moment,recollected the song and after a while slowly began humming my favorite..

“Jeevan se bhari teri aankhen”.

I began in a very low and mild tone..My focus was completely on my singing..

And to my utter shock..It was at this moment that the most unexpected happened…

As soon as I started humming,my friend too started humming the same song along with me in his typically loud voice completely out of sync with my voice.His singing was so dirty and unbearable,any music fan would have bombarded and killed him on the spot for spoiling such a lovely song.

It was so nauseating and God knows what must be the reaction of Ms.Gorgeous...

With my eyes popping out,I stopped my humming suddenly,but my friend continued for a while... Then looked at me with a lot of confusion...And then decided to put a halt on his bulldozing voice..

Many of you must be knowing this famous Kishore Kumar song from “Safar” and almost all of you can imagine what sort of an idiotic comedy of errors that our combined singing must have turned out to be.

Must be a definite beggars show for sure...

That was not the end of my agony as it was at that moment that I received the biggest shock of my life that put all my hopes and dreams on Ms.Gorgeous in complete jeopardy.

Ms.Gorgeous,who was sitting silently in the bus stop till then,suddenly stood up and started walking towards the next bus stop called the engineering college bus stop.

In a great fit of shock I just remained watching her going away and vanishing out of our field of vision...

A big..big..bigggggg FFFFFFFFFFFFFF..

Could there be anything more shameless than this for me…????

Went dumb as my mind became completely numb for a few seconds.....

1…2…3..4…5…6…

Seconds were passing..

Suddenly the whole bus stop and the trees around it heard that loud sound....

“pachakkkkkkkkkkkkkkk”

With my whole frame shivering with anger,shame and frustration I slapped my friend........

Really really slapped my friend......

And slapped very hard too.

“Abey D K Bose,who asked you to sing along with me.See how she ran away.It must be definitely her favorite song and unable to bear with your donkey singing she ran away.What a shame damned.”

Slapped again as I could not hide my frustration.

My friend,who was already shocked with her walking away is now more shocked with my slapping and I found tears in his eyes......

Holding my hands tightly,he said“Arey,sorry ra Balu(my pet name among family members and close child hood friends)........as we were used to singing together like this before too,I sang along with you..but how do I know that she will run away”

There was a lot of honesty and pain in his voice.He was very apologetic.

Trying to control myself I said “ok.ok..leave it …..you have spoiled everything..idiot..”

Almost weeping he was giving blank looks to me..

“And what if she doesn’t come to this bus stop tomorrow....and what if she goes to that engineering college bus stop every day” I said with still a great amount of anger in my voice.

Almost stammering he said“Aa..aaa..aaaa..why willllll s…h….eeee go that faaaar everydayyyy...It is impppppossibleeee...You see she will come to this bus stop tomorrow and I bet on it.Let us wait and see"

“Abey listen to what am sayinggggg…She must be very irritated with us,gimme one reason why should she come to this bus stop again..”my argument continued...

“What is the big deal in that,we are any how shameless..we will go to engineering college bus stop”he said-this time with a wry smile.

That looked like a justifying conclusion for me.

After that..I remained silent  for almost ten minutes with many wild and link less thoughts crowding my mind… 

I know that men and women think differently at all times.The big difference is that- men forget, but never forgive while women forgive, but never forget....

My great friend has no guts to disturb me and remained silent looking at me with a sort of a suspicion..

After all that heavy silence he suddenly came up with a brilliant idea..

“Arey Balu,we shall do one thing..I will not come to this bus stop from tomorrow for at least a week or ten days..I will some how come to college directly..you come here every day alone and then--only you will be visible to her..only two of you will be there in the bus stop and that privacy may be helpful to both of you..I know she is only irritated with me and definitely not with you..and if she finds that am not here she will definitely come to this bus stop again,which again is beneficial to you and you can still impress her with your singing..what do you say..????”

With a question mark face he was looking eagerly into my eyes for a reply..

Oh my,My,My..Whatta a friend I have..
Which friend in this world shall say this..

“Itz brilliant” I said happily.

I was filled with joy and thrilled with his idea...
Enjoyed that moment silently for a while..
Later I looked at my friend....
And looked deep into his eyes.

First thankfully,then sadly,then emotionally.

And finaly apologetically.

All my tension fizzled out as I smiled at him.

How lucky am to have such a friend who thinks so much about me and only about me…

By offering two beers that evening I have apologized to my friend very sincerely..

Beer bill was mine…Now please do not ask me how I could manage to pay that bill.

After that I was ready with our new plan and thankfully God this time was kind to me.

Continued in "Am Still Waiting For This Lady-Part-Five"