New Year Eve

Keerty, my friend, is a very pretty woman from Delhi, she wears green nailpolish on her fingers and loves wearing raging colours which can keep you gaping at her for sometime. Keerty and I always try to meet on weekends. It was on one Saturday that we ordered for neer dosa and chicken sukka (mangalorean food) and as we ate we chatted. Madhu had joined us from our adjacent room. Madhu made some tea for us and we rose to sit up and sip tea.

In the morning of New year eve, there was a missed call on Keerty's fan. She called back on the number and from the other side rang the magnetic voice of Raj. Raj asked her “ I am Raj, can we meet up in the evening if you don’t mind?” She was shocked but was a bit intrigued on the New Year's Eve and wanted to have some fun. She said, introduce yourself “Well I am a student of Yale doing PhD. What more information do you want?” Keerty said “Please get your Passport and university ID as well”.

Raj is a brilliant economist and was bored sitting alone in his room. He had come to Bangalore for his field research from Yale university. For the past few days he had been just randomly dialing numbers to date a woman and the fifth time the number was Keerty’s.

She asked him to meet her near Dairy Circle around 6pm and sharp at 6pm she rushed down the stairs and took a rick till the Dairy Circle. Raj called her up and directed her to his Black Ford Fiesta. Raj is a lean but muscular guy. Madhu giggled, she commented, “Shahid Kapoor”?

Raj drove her towards Banshankari, and parked the car inside a lane. While they walked down the streets they shared their previous New Year Eve stories. They laughed together and cracked jokes against each other. There was magic in the relationship, they never saw each other, never knew each other but an instantaneous bond was created, something like that brought Rishi Kapoor and Meenakshi Sheshadri together in the film Damini.

Keerty was so excited, she said “I wanna burn your money?” Raj thought for a minute and said “As you wish?” She got into Bangalore Central, scanned through all the stores she wanted to visit but she could not zero upon anything. It was 8.10 pm, she was feeling hungry and tired. She said “I am a bit confused, I donno what to buy.” Raj said “Well can I take the lead now? I would suggest dinner now."

They entered into a nearby restaurant. He was a teetotaler and a vegetarian, ordered paneer 65 and veg noodles. Keerty ordered chicken soup, and chicken Manchurian and tanduri roti.” He asked her if she wanted anything more. She said “icecream lime soda”. I chipped in, “it tastes horrible”. Madhu hated me for my intervention.

After siphoning off the last drop of icecream lime soda Keerty said “I want a cigarette”. He said, “You can have that later, now let’s finish the unfinished task of yours”. They left the restaurant around 9.00 and he led her to Joy Alukkas in Garuda Mall. Her heart was beating faster…it was all diamonds around. I remembered my colleague saying “Diamonds may be women’s best friends but they are men’s worst enemies”.

Raj suggested,“What about buying a nose ring, you had a nose ring in the FB pic. Why don’t we buy one now?” She corrected him “nose pin and not nose ring”. He said, “Oh ok. Can we look for one now?” She screamed, “Are u crazy? Do u know what it wud cost in a shop like this? Why wud u buy for a stranger”…Raj said “Look, look Keerty let me ask you, why did you say that you wanna burn my money when u donno me?” Keerty said “I just felt like, no reasons”. He said "If that’s the case is it impossible for me to feel like that too?” She scratched her head and said “we can buy other things…” He said “ya we will buy all what u want but now let’s buy what I want."

I remembered my loss. I had lost my nose stud two months back while cleaning my face but no one offers me to buy one and here is a dame for whom a guy wanna burn his money…I was envious but did not express so.

Raj wanted to give her the best gift and was searching for the best design. He chose one, and all that Keerty looked at was the price tag, Rs. 9,000, she shrieked as if she got an electric shock. Her nose pins never cost her more than 500 rupees. The next one he pointed at read Rs 12,000 now she almost choked. The lady in the showroom offered her soft drinks while drops of sweat shone like beads on her forehead.

I was all ears and sighed, “Wish I met such a guy”. Madhu too closed her eyes and exclaimed “Kash mujhhey bhi aisa ladka mil jaey!”. But Keerty had an uneasy feeling in her tummy. She could not hear anything after the purchase was made and she just sailed away with him from the shop.

I thought, "who would not feel like a queen, if given such a great treat. In my neighbourhood I have seen a woman, who has the structure of a skeleton, boobs almost invisible, a nose like a “borri” and a head full of envy and scanty curly hair and with a temperament of damsel in distress she had a top school passout so crazily craving for her that he bought her jewelry worth several laks and begged her hand for marriage and also funded part of the marriage expenses that her family was required to bear".

I cleared my throat of phlegm and started my lecture, "The world is a strange place, real life marriages and romances can actually demolish all that literature in the market claiming "Tips to hook that great guy" etc."

Madhu was not in a mood to listen to my dry piece of lecture and silenced me with her lung power, “Shut up” and with all amazement in her eyes, she coaxed Keerty to complete the story." Keerthy was so surprised with the gift that she could not walk. She sat down on the pavement. Bangalore has no such pavements, people ride their bikes on the pavements. There are long stretches of the footpaths that have been crushed by the bike riders the pavement has been levelled with the road. Madhu could not believe that Keerty could actually squat on the dust instead of jumping in joy into the air for receiving a diamond nose ring from the blue.

Madhu’s eyes stretched wide, her eye brows raised as if it would at any moment touch her hairline. She said “Keerty you are lucky" that the guy did not make any brazen proposal. But when we have proposed men, the response had been like, “I am interested in your body only.” Looking at me Madhu now asked for my support “Am I not correct?” To this statement of hers, I confirmed her and added “When a guy has no interest in a girl they say such things, perhaps an honest expression of driving the infatuated girl away (LOL).

Raj said "Do u think u are the only person who can do crazy things for no reason? I do share some of your elements too, now give me that smile of urs n bully me the way u did in the evening…" Keerty's bafflement lessened she asked him to take her on a drive. They drove in the road drenched in moonlight while listening to some of Bryan Adams, Hariprasad Chaurasia etc.

Both of them remained silent and sometime silence is eloquent. It was 12 pm and she realized he was driving her to her hostel. The silence was broken when he screeched his Ford Fiesta to a halt. He led open the door, held her hands while she stepped out of the car and took the diamond nose ring out of his pocket and placed it in her hands. When she ran upstairs into her room, he pulled open the door, switched on the music, took a sharp turn, and drove away.