Coffee??

DISCLAIMER: All characters, names and places used here are fictitious and any similarity to real people may or may not be a coincidence but surely with a parodic purpose leading to some sadistic pleasure

Let me introduce the characters here…

Prakash - Software Engineer working in Wipro, aspiring to get THE onsite opportunity for 2 years now. Lets just call him “P”.
Neha – 36-24-36, P’s granny’s neighbor. Basically doing nothing as of now. But insists she’s studying for CAT wanting to be in the IIMs eyeing big bucks. Lets just call her “N”.

Day 1: (Sunday 7:12 PM)
P’s granny has called N for some help as usual. Incidentally, on the same day, P drops in to see his granny. He had to take home some lovely uppinkai that she makes occasionally. P’s mom had reminded him a hundred times not to forget visiting granny. P barges into the house to see N for the first time. ooooooOOOOOOOOO …………………………………….you can call it LAFS (Lovve At First Sight). Any guy would fall for someone having that figure, you see. He doesn’t ask his granny who she is or where she came from. Not making it obvious, he goes on and switches on the TV. N is sitting in the same hall waiting for the granny to get something. With the remote at hand, surprisingly P doesn’t seem to be interested in any channel out of the 92 that the local Hathway guy provides. Obviously . Sud suddenly,

N: Hi, I’m Neha.
P: Hi
N: I live next door. You are Prakash right?
P: Yeah… how did you know?
N: I saw you the other day dropping your granny back and she mentioned about you.
P: Oh ok.
N: Soooo, what do you do? I mean.. you working?
P: Yeah.. I work for Wipro. how about you?
N: I finished my B Com this year.
P: You working somewhere?
N: Nooo…. I’m planning to give CAT this time. And I hope to be in some IIM next year. Fingers crossed
P: Cool. Big plans huh?

This conv goes on and on and on for an hour discussing about her CAT preparation and our P is also writing CAT this time. So, they have a common subject to speak about now. Before leaving, N asks for all his Mock CAT papers which our P readily accepts to give.

N: Ok prakash. It was nice talking to you… btw, can u give me your phone number?
P: Sure… Its 9998712576.
N: Ok then.. seeya. Ba-byeee 
P: Byeeee

It was pretty sad for our P. shud have seen him when she left. A mixture of feelings you can say. The Euphoria + the parting sorrow. But in exactly 2 mins and 27 seconds, P receives a message on his outdated 3310 Nokia. He unlocks it to see the display screen with “1 Message Received”. Assuming the message to be some flowery forward that his colleague sends day in and day out, he cursed the whole forwarding community and clicked on the message. It read…

Hi Prakash. dis is
my num. Feel free
to contact me for
anythin. Bye.
Neha

P read that message for atleast 25 times. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Somehow, the word “anythin” caught his attention for some unusual reason. He felt butterflies in his stomach. P was all smiles after that. Believe it or not, he even smiled at the angry autorikshaw fella on the road. And it worked like cheese. Was kinda “Gandhigiri” in practice

Day 2, 3 and 4 goes by without anything happening.

Day 5:

P got a message. BTW, P had saved her number as “Anon” for obvious reasons
The message read…

Hi Prakash, GM!! Can
you gimme some mock
CAT papers you have?

Within a jiffy P replied…

Hi Neha!! GM!! How r
u? I have some papers
with me now. Let me know
wen u want it.

P was all ears for the beep on his phone staring at the screen. No reply.

Day 6:

P is traveling back home in his company bus listening to Radio City when he gets a message…

N: Hi Prakash, can u gimme
some papers dis weekend
so dat I can try solvin
dem?

P: Hi Neha, sure. I’ll give
it to you. But. When and
where?

N: you tell me

P: Tom night at Sparks?

N: you booze?

P: yeah.. sometimes. Do u?

N: rarely.. but yes. I tot u
don’t booze. Does ur granny
or ur mom know abt dis?

P: naah.. you think I’ll tell
them and booze? Heheh.

P: so.. are we meeting at
Sparks?

N: wat if ur mom or granny
sees us together? I don want
to take dat risk. 

P: okay… then we’ll meet at
Barista, Jayanagar. Is that
ok with u?

N: Yeah.. will do. Ok then…
Seeya tom at barista. Bye.

P: Bye. Gn. 

P is so excited that night that it was tough to get his sleep. Next day P is at Barista (7 PM sharp) with one mock paper. Barista was filled with couples that day. “Flirting” was all in the air. P is looking at every possible two wheeler passing by. It was 7:15 when N arrived in front of Barista. She removed her helmet freeing her hair which fell on her eyes making our P even more uncomfortable.

N: Haaaiiiii…. 
P: Hi
N: Did you wait for long?
P: no.. that’s ok. How about some Coffee? Shall we go inside and talk?
N: Nooooo (the nagging “Nooooo…”) I have to meet my friend. She’s waiting near Vijaya college.
P: aawwwwww… okay. No probs. Anyways, this is the first mock that I wrote.
N: oooohhh thanks.

The conversation doesn’t happen for long. P was all tensed and was finding it tough think about topics. His mind became completely blank when N said she had to leave. Going back home, he cursed himself for being so dumb. He could have forced her a wee bit more and she would yield. He promised himself to “perform” better next time.

Before he could even meet her in Barista, he had thoroughly planned the entire sequence of scenes at the coffee table. Corner table, Cold coffee, Choc-o-vloc, rendezvous with eyes, “No, no no, nooo nooo nooo; its my treat!!”… EVERYTHING!!!

All what had happened looped in his mind while he stared at the ceiling listening to “Romance d’Amour”, the most beautiful Spanish melody.

Sud suddenly… his cell beeped. P ran to see the message which read…

Hi Prakash, Sry,
I cud not have coffee
wid u today. Btw, r u
on gtalk?

to be continued…