Chennayil Oru Mazhai Kaalam

“Can you come to T.Nagar today evening by 7?” she asked me in that sweet sweltery voice of hers. ‘T.Nagar….I can even come to the end of the world with you baby…just say yes’…oh this was my heart speaking. My mouth said “T.Nagar?? Let’s see… I have some work in office…will try my best”, “Thankyouuuu”, ‘there she goes again…don’t kill me girl’.

Since I had a lot of work at office I was present in T.Nagar by 6!!!!!! I don’t know why, but I don’t get interested in other girls, even though they are very beautiful, when she is around. But now since she was not there, I started devouring them like a hound… of course with my eyes.

I was half way through a girl in red T shirt when I heard the familiar voice “Hi, you reached early?” I turned around and as soon as I set my eyes on her, my feet turned to jelly. ‘Concentrate man…concentrate…be a man…you have seen her a thousand times before’ …but she was dazzling today. She wore a light blue chudidhar and she wore her shoulder length hair untied in a way which I liked…her face was really glistening…oh ok may be it’s from the lights of LKS Jewelers…but still it was glistening. Who the hell said that girls who are dark skinned are not beautiful…this one standing in front of me is killing me…Oh man now she is smiling…She had one of the best smiles I have ever seen and I started melting. I can even feel my body melt and fall to my feet. Hey wait a minute that was not my body melting… they were rain drops…Its raining in Chennai!!!

“No, I just reached now… I told you na… I have lots of work in the office” this I said with a not so friendly face. “Oh thanks a lot for coming… that’s so sweet of you” Her face still has not lost the smile. The combination of the lights, the heat, she and the rain were driving me mad. “So why did you ask me to come to this junk place??” “I want to buy a sari…can you help me to choose one?” ‘You want me to select a sari…how about a life partner??’ “You know very well that I am not an expert in selecting dresses for girls” In the background my brain has captured her still image and is doing a mini fashion show with all kinds of saris. “Come on, I know you can…see its also raining we need to get into someplace soon” She took my hand and pulled me along. I followed her like a leashed dog running behind his master. Inside I could feel my blood going through a whirlpool, in the place where she had caught hold of my arm.

We reached Pothys and got into the sari section. She asked for some type of sari and they pointed us to a particular corner. The attender pulled out lots of saris and spread it on the table. Now my brain was doing another high speed mapping of the saris with her. In the mean time, she slipped away to see some other sari collection in the next counter. The attender who was standing in my counter asked me “Sari yaarukaavadu present panna pooreengala sir?” (Are you going to present this saree to anyone?) “Err..aama..illa” (Err..yes…no) “Illa sir, present panna pooreenganna avanga vayasu sollunga.. adukku yeatha maadiri collections kaaturrean” (If you are going to present it to someone, then tell me her age so that I can show you the appropriate collections) “Avanga vayasu Tw” (Her age is Tw..) “Sixty eight” she chirped from behind. I was speechless. “Next week is my grandma’s wedding anniversary, the sari is for her” The same killer smile on her face.

Booom!!!! The tire of a bus burst outside… or was it something inside me that burst???!!!