Safar

Last week , as I sat at my desk , tapping away on the keyboard and trying to look as involved as if I was three keystrokes away from finding the cure to Limfusarcoma of the intestine , a colleague walked by.

Noticing me , he exclaimed in a rather cheerful tone generally reserved for pretty secretaries..

"Hey Neo , I hear you are getting married !"

Now as u people would have noticed , I am a very shy boy , steeped in tradition and "samaajik maryada". Hence I merely let out a coy smile , lowered my eyes till my eyelashes brushed the keyboard and nodded a delicate yes .
At this point of time , I was expecting a little congratulatory pat or something . But the colleague shook his pumpkin head sideways , murmured a "Yakeen nahi hota" and walked on.

Now , people would believe it if I said I ordered a tomato soup last night and found Himesh's cap floating in it , but nobody has been ready to believe the fact that I am getting married . My underdeveloped brain , which has helped me flunk many maths exams , offers possible reasons: and it is that ki i look too young to be a married man . I just ambled past 26 , and to make things rosier , I have been told by perfectly sane people that I still retain a bit of the boyish charm which deserts a normal indian male in the early twenties . Some have mentioned that I am a male version of the santoor girl , who captured our imaginations with "meri twacha se meri umra ka pata nahi chalta".


My canine instincts warn me a lot of readers would like to raise their left eyebrows , smile a slanted smile and pose the "Who is She" question to me now . This time it irritates me(yaar plz let me also who is she, hvng such a brave heart to say yes , to a person like me). Anyway it was just a rumour that has been spread all in the office without any sense of truth in it.Yeh u can call it a prank. Infact , the same has been done by me sometimes when I feel like to do it. On the last valentine on the way to my home town, a 'hi-society-well-dressed-confident' types a young guy, of mine age was sitting besides me . I had noticed him boarding the train with a lot of luggage ( A travel bag , a backpack , and a cardboard carton carrying the V day gifts .So some fifteen minutes into the journey , I asked him ..
Me : lot of luggage..eh ?
Guy : Uh..yeah..a lot of stuff for family n freinds..he he..
Me : friend or girlfreind?
Guy : gasp..oh no..I was trying to be a little amusing..never mind
Me : What's in that cardboard box ?
Guy : Oh that ? Well..actually it contains all the gifts I bought for my fiancee..
Me : I see..that's sweet..
Me : So , you are going to buy her things next valentines day too ?
Guy( proud as a soldier ): Of course ! I am quite a handful when it comes to out-of-the-box surprises for the people I love !
Me : Trust me , dear . Next V day , you wont do it .
Guy ( with a simmering rage in my eyes ) : Oh no man , I wont change !
Me : No . Its not about you . Next V day , after an year of taking her out for shopping and eating out and movies , you wont have any money with you to buy all this.
It was then when he realised that i was in the process of doing great damage to the confidence of a dreamy to-be-married young guy. I did not encourage any conversation with him for the rest of the journey.