Friday, April 1, 2011

Encounter with the "Geek"

10th September, i remember the day was a great one. it was Id, my brother's anniversary and a baby's birthday. throughout the day i had only been eating and making fun with my 'peoples'. i came home and my mother reminded me, "today is kiddo's (lets call that baby kiddo here) birthday. we have to go there in the evening." "ok..." i replied, thinking how i was going to manage eating more food that day (i already had 2 lunches). we reached there. unlike a two year old kid's birthday, i could find only old people. ah! i thought, whatever i am going to do here.!
occasionally i saw a boy roaming aimlessly around the house. say, he looked around my age.. wearing a loose over-sized t-shirt that belonged to his uncle (which i got to know only later from him), dark specs, unshaved, sole handler of the camera.. one glance and he looked the quintessential geek.
the cake was cut and we sang 'happy birthday to you...' and he was standing behind, spraying the party snow on everyone present there. ok, this geek knew how to have fun and he was laughing too! i decided to sit in the hall and started checking out the pics in the cam. suddenly, he came there searching for it.
me: here, take it..
he: no no! its ok. u see the pics, i'll come later..
what a nerd i thought. i gave him the cam and went out. he suddenly came in my way and said hi. i was flabbergasted! what do i talk to him? i managed another "hi".
he: what do u do?
me: im doing my SYJC. what about you?
he: just done with my engineering, working with Patni computers. my results were out yesterday.
Omg! i thought. an engineer? in 10 minutes i knew he had graduated in EnTC from Atharva college in Mumbai, a PG in pune, went to kalrashukla classes, had biology in 12th and had a bond with his company for 2 years (which he was not very keen on completing)... he went on to explain everything and i was standing there listening to him, hoping some interesting conversation would pop up as i had nothing much to do there.
me: aapka naam kya hai? (as he was elder)
he: mujhe 'aap' mat kaho. 'tum' bolo. 'aap' bohot ajeeb lagta hai. my name is nitin.
me: ok sure. i am vaidehi.
he: nice name.
me: thanks.

ah, what boring people we are! the kiddo's dad then introduced him. "this is my niece... oh i am sorry, my nephew i mean."  nephew??? such a big nephew??? so the two year old kiddo has a brother who is a graduate?!! ok, maybe. both of us didn't bother to tell him that we already got ourselves introduced :)
we spoke a li'll more and then i left. i didn't bother to even say bye. i just wanted to go home and sleep as my tummy was on the verge of bursting with all the biryani  and the birthday cake.
a few days later i thought of searching him on facebook, the greatest 'friend search engine'. 'Nitin' i typed in...     oh wait! i didn't know his surname! what disappointment! that made me want to hunt more for him! so i put in all possible malayalee surnames i could think of : nair, pillai, menon, panicker, prasad, mohan, chandran, etc. etc. all in vain..!
and one day in my friend suggestions, i read, "Nitin G", one mutual friend and his pic was there too (though he looked a little different with his straightened hair)! i sent him a request and a message too, trying to remind him how and where we met (i really didn't expect him to remember me).
andd the rest is history... i used to be his BBC regarding all possible news related to the kiddo and his famliy when he was in pune (now happily working in mumbai).
Eg: me: hey congrats! ur chechi is getting engaged.!
he: huh? really? ok.... i don't know, i'll ask.. thanks btw!
 we spoke about everything from food and drinks to exams and 'guys', with him telling me how guys are and warning me to stay away from them (the bad ones).. :)  its been great with this friend, philosopher, guide and the quintessential "Big Brother" at times! he has promised to find my Mr. Right for me and i have been heavily bribed to write good things about him ;) (bribe: sponsor my wedding! to do so for a malayalee wedding, and that too from the girl's side is definitely a brave decision for sure!)
LOL! but if i'd have to describe him, he's the nerd, one who pays nearly 25,000 bucks for gymming (which i don't really think he needs- all thanks to his size zero physique) the guitarist of his band 'decibel breakdown', a fantastic friend and going by his 'choice', a great taste!
just a couple of months of knowing this fabulous soul, and we have still never met as yet...

Onasadya...

last year i probably had the best onam ever. it all started with a silly conversation with gelato (or abhi). 
we were chatting late at night and i told him it was onam tomorrow. ok, now being a maharashtrian he knew about the festival but didn't know of its significance and he wanted me to tell him about it. and there i was, in the middle of the night, explaining to mr. Deshapnde why we south indians celebrated onam. a lot of 'but y...' doubts, but i finally pulled it off! the next thing he told me was, "im coming kal khane pe" i think i mentioned about the delicious 'onasadya', the daawat made for onam ;) and then he went on with his all-time non-stop 24/7 nonsense like wat gift do i get for u? tell me wat u want, et.al. he is the biggest flirting chalta firta romantic on earth. so can't expect anything less either! anyways i told him to shut up and went off to sleep, thinking of my 'onakodi', my new dress for onam, onasadya etc. etc.

the morning was good because i was already thinking of lunch. i ate little, very litte breakfast because i was making space for rice, sambar, dal, papads, pickles, sabji, avial, bananas, chips, payasam, etc. i also made a small 'pookalam', rangoli with flowers outside the house. just then motu texted me, "happy onam vedu". i sent the "thanks motu". and the next text was "abhi n me coming for lunch"... WHAT??? are u serious??? and she gave me numerous affirmations untill it finally sank in. the main reason i wanted a REAL confirmation was beacuse, mom had prepared lunch just for the 3 of us (achan, amma n me) and she had left for office as she had half day. so if they were goin to come, i had to make more rice to fill all our big fat potbellys. 
dad was at home (great relief) and he asked me how many will be coming. "maybe 2 i guess....." . i wasn't really sure who all would make it. anyways, we cooked rice for around 5 extra people! all set now! they came around 12.30 i guess... four people. motu, apu, abhi n trisha! ah, dad, what an estimation! and mom came home around 1.00 pm. thank god! no more tensions now.
we sat chatting for sometime until hunger was at its epitome. lunch was served in my room. mom n me laid the banana leaves, dad helped in serving. with every serving, followed an explanation as to what was what and how it was made :) apu ate very less i remember. ahh, what a ful'filling' lunch! :p
we decided to settle down in the hall after lunch. lying down like "so tired of eating", we occupied two couches and a bean bag, unaware of the whereabouts of our hands and feet. 
then some usual talk that we do (silly, philosophical, serious, futuristic, relations, academics... blah blah blah) with some 'usual' phone calls (abhi's aai) and yes, ameya also rang up that day. aai was curious to know were abhi was. and he said, "aai, don't worry, i'll be home in sometime. i am at vaidehi's place for lunch. today is onam..." aai: vaidehi nair? (no aai! all malayalees are not necessarily nairs!!) hehehehe
he was the only guy that day amongst us 'peoples' (almost always like that) coz somebody else couldn't make it. so all us girls in the background, "aai, don't u worry, he's safe, he's with us, your bahus!" LOL i don't think she heard that... not like she'd have a problem. but she should've been worried that he was the only guy amongst four girls! hahahaha
and in sometime they left. in the evening, my neighbour in the opposite building told me, 'i guess your friends were here in the afternoon. i could hear the noise..."
all i could do is manage to bring up a (weird) smile thinking, that aunty didn't hear of all the crap we were blabbing of... in spite our decibels being high...ummmm low.... :)