'Someone new' :)

Don’t you think that sometimes life becomes so routine and mundane with the same things and same people day in and day out? The afore mentioned are vital to my existance, but it’s like we get accustomed to a particular pattern of living. In all of this, we often forget the joy of meeting new people.

Take yesterday for instance. A bunch of friends and I were all watching the World Cup final match at a friend’s place (India won... Yay!) when another friend’s friend came visiting. A little confusing I know, but I would ask you to focus on the friend’s friend = Mr. K... So, my friend is busy with her round of introductions, telling Mr. K about us and trying to make him remember who’s who. The poor man tries his best to recollect, only to confirm the same an hour later. As the evening progressed, we got talking. We spoke about some interesting stuff, sharing information about ourselves, general insights and the like. And that’s when it struck me how a simple conversation with a stranger could actually feel like a breath of fresh air!

India went on to create history as they won the cup that counts. In the meanwhile in my head, I was still analyzing meeting Mr. K. I attempted to brush aside the fact that all my friends in the room were aiming to play cupid and hook us up.  I found the entire situation rather amusing, if I may add. They were on a mission.

Eventually, all of us landed up on the streets of Mumbai, where everyone was celebrating the most awaited victory. The taxi driver was also high on the festivities, as he charged us a bomb for a measly ride. Our dear Hyderabad-bred Mr. K almost got a cultural shock to see so many people out on the roads (boys and GIRLS, mind you) at that unearthly hour. We let him ponder over the surroundings as we continued to rejoice with the nation. All I said to him was, “Welcome to Bombay!” grinning wide from ear to ear.

After gallivanting on the streets, posing for the shutterbugs, blasting the cab speakers to the loudest possible, sitting on each others laps to fit in 6 people in one taxi and getting caught by the cops... we found our end destination in Taj Lands End, Bandra. To our utmost surprise or should I say shock, we were promptly stopped at the gate by the security guards who refused to let us go into their 24x7 coffee shop. After a lot of arguing, validating and reasoning we were allowed to go in. (I still don’t understand why they were not permitting people to enter in the first place!) This was followed by a thorough thrashing of the ‘Manager’ as we expressed our disgust at the way we were just treated and not to forget, conveniently took the opportunity to boast about the powers of the profession we are in.

When we were finally led into the coffee shop, they took hours to serve us. So Mr. K and myself set up a little bet for ourselves. He had to approach this unknown foreigner who had just come into the place and get me the Indian flag he had with him. And if he succeeded I had to drink a few drops of their fountain water at the lobby (it doesn’t sound even a fraction of how bad it actually was). Needless to say, we both triumphed at our respective tasks and as an afterthought, laughed over it all as well.

Our ‘fun outing’ came to an end at 6 in the morning... As I said my polite, "It was nice meeting you, stay in touch,"... He responded, "I'd love to stay in touch, but I'd need your phone number for that!" (smartypants) So after doing the needful, Mr. K headed to the airport to catch a flight to Bangalore and I took a cab back home. As my head hit the pillow all set to slip into a deep slumber, I couldn’t help but grin... beam at the sweet fortune of my transitory rendezvous with Mr. K... Momentary though it may have been, I found myself smiling at the thought of meeting ‘someone new’.