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
-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..
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.
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"
What a good friend. You will have to tell us if you see her again.
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