Contd .. from the previous post

And before you diabolical diabetics jump on the words Mishti, no this isn't an encounter with the sweet kind but a bold, confident young city woman - Miss T.

She arrived with her parents on a hot and sweltering day in Surat after my parents had invited them to our place. She wore a loose fitting light yellow salwar and had her dupatta draped over her head. Made her look like the homely girl I had expected. (Boy was I in for a surprise). Eventually, after some small talk , our parents left us alone, the moment I had been eagerly waiting for but hardly knew what to say. The spies had quite reliably established that , Miss T was a bubbly cheerful person , talkative yes but not those boring types who kept on yapping about other worldly things. I was looking forward to this.

But five minutes into our so called “left-alone” session, hardly anyone had spoken. She was looking down on the floor. I knew she liked Garfield but absolutely nothing witty came to mind and I sat quiet looking at the scar on her forehead. If the room were a tourist map, then the fan, AC , even the dusty carton in the corner would have been marked as a point of interest instead of me. In such situations my eyes usually wander and settled on a pimple just below her neck. It reminded me of Carolina, a girl we had in our batch who had this round sizeable pimple in the same spot and we named her "Push button to talk" Carolina. I wondered if the girl sitting in front of me operated by a similar mechanism. It was akin to getting the front seats of an opera and finding out that the tenor had a bad throat. Damn , me and my absolute rubbish thoughts.

“The main thing is compatibility,’ I said not making a particularly insightful statement.
‘Yup, true’ she said drumming her right hand on the chair. We then talked about a few more things but for some reason the conversation remained subdued. We were meeting for the first time , so I was trying hard to keep an open mind. But her piercing look was increasingly giving me that zebra locked in a lion enclosure feeling and after some time my mom's call for lunch made sense of the saying "saved by the bell".

Me being me is never content. I met her in Mumbai next where we decided to dine at Angethi's in Vile Parle. She came and stood outside the Mcd’s outside the station(the restaurant was located on top of the fast food chain) and immediately started to dial her cellphone hardly waiting to have a look around. A hint of impatience …maybe or just good old discipline…couldn’t say. I swooped in like James Bond with an intention to slightly astonish her. :P
‘There would be no need to trouble your fingers, darlin’ , I am here already’ . Why don’t these dialogues occur to me at that time. I settled for the safe “Hi, good evening”.

We were seated on a corner table when madam T called the waiter and complained that the music was a shade too loud and asked him to reduce the volume. As that did not happen , she requested that we change tables which we did. The foolish waiter then gave her the ala carte menu while he shoved the liquor menu into my hands with a sheepish smile. Damn you guys I thought , I am trying to make an impression here. Was I doomed, not completely. We chatted on the menu a bit and ordered an appetizer and main course.

I don’t remember all the conversation now but it was healthier than the one we had at my place. But there were a few extremely strong opinions expressed and the probability of an ego clash in the future loomed large. Would she be adjusting or just plain dominating. Hard to say. The food arrived and I let my mind get distracted.

‘Would you like anything to drink ?’ the waiter asked the both of us. He looked at me expectantly. The wine menu still lay near me.
‘Yeah , just a sweet lassi, anything for you Miss T?’
‘I will have an iced tea,’ . The drinks couldn’t have been more different or ironical. The drinks arrived promptly. One was dark but clear while the lassi although white was foggy.WTF, concentrate idiot.

‘So...have you tried alcohol?’ I ventured. Girls usually say no in the beginning and act all girly but they all usually have tried something or the other in their school days. A female friend of mine had got so drunk on a vodka that we framed one of our friends(who was also piss drunk) by putting her in bed with him. Needless to say, they woke up with a massive guilt "hangover".

‘Yes, and I like it very much,’. She deadpanned while letting her hair loose and tying it again. I caught a glimpse of her earrings which were different from the heart shaped ones she wore in Surat.
The chair under me almost slid , ok well not that dramatic but the candid answer to the question did make my eyebrows twitch a little.
'That is good,' I said having no idea whether to praise or reprimand such insouciance.
'But although I enjoy its taste,' she said squeezing and playing with the slice of lime in her tea, 'I usually fall asleep within two drinks.' She smiled for the first time since we had arrived.
'Oh yes,' I said. 'Well good for you, I usually start uttering crap when I am two pegs down, sometimes some ugly truths.' Damn! I had spilled too many beans here. Pull back Ray, pull back.

The food arrived and we ate in silence and the loud music that we were away from, assumed pole position among all other sounds in the room. We talked about a few more things during which I came to know that she was a recent convert to vegetarianism because of her spiritual beliefs.
'I used to eat anything under the sun,' she said staring at me making me insecure as if she had suddenly changed her mind and if I was next on her plate.
'Hmm,' I said as I tried to tear a piece of the rubbery roomali roti which had the consistency of well....a rubber. 'Good thing, you left it. I don't even eat eggs,' I said finally managing to tear a piece off with three fingers(some achievement I tell you) while dropping some crumbs on my lap.
'Look, Ray,' she said ,'my parents have spoken to me about this and I have understood what has to be done here.' The conversation had taken a serious tone.
'Go ahead,' I said. I wondered what had she understood , that maybe I was a clumsy eater and she needed to teach me table manners.
'I am a difficult person to handle, my partner needs to be patient with me.' I kept quiet and thought about the possible causes behind that scar of hers. Was it the mark of an impatient beau?

The waiter brought in the finger bowls along with the check. The food had been too garlicky that had set off my Vaishnavite Saatvik alarms, (not that I was kissing later but one never knows.) I hadn't even finished half of it. I had a look at the check and muttered "cheap" sarcastically.
'I have my moods Ray, tantrums and all that. This does not mean I am not the adjusting kind but...'
I looked up from the check. Tantrums eh,? I do have a whip at home, I wanted to say. But that would make things messy to say the least. Would she walk out of the restaurant in a huff. Would I have to pay the entire check which was on the other side of a thousand. Did she realize that I had only eaten half my food?
'Well then what do you want to do?' I asked
'I am certainly not cutting this off...' she said. We had now moved out of the restaurant and were walking towards SV road under the ungainly skywalk that had been built recently.
'What do you want to do?' I asked again a little more firmly this time lowering my head and looking straight at her.
'I need a a little more time. '. Time ...oh brother...time was what I never had and never would. have. My trips to India would always be short since I was adamant on getting a bride from the motherland.

We stopped and I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts.
'Ok Miss T, I wish this was more clear cut but the fact is , it is difficult for me as well because of my status in the US. We will talk to our respective parents and take a decision but seems as if even I would be needing a little more time to know you better if at all.'
'Alright, so if we don't meet each other now, it was nice knowing you and good luck with your search,' she said extending her hand forward for a handshake. And then I passed the most cheekiest and cheesiest comment of the evening. Perhaps I didn't care then.

'There is an old Chinese saying that if one can't make a decision then there was only one way to find out...a kiss tells you whether the person is your life partner of not.,' I winked(Ok I had made up the Chinese part and the dialogue had been completely inspired if not copied from the movie Apna Sapna Money Money) but my soaring rocket got shot down by her pretty nicely. It hadn't come out nicely and I think I deserved that.

In that way we parted ways and mutually dumped each other(almost). I walked back to the Vile Parle railbridge and thought about her. Before flying from America, I had actually almost made up my mind and mentally accepted her as someone I would love to spend my life with. She was excellent, not beautiful beautiful but someone smart and hip but she was also perhaps overbearing. Her projection of her own negative qualities surprised me. She was either being too honest or just throwing me off her path. Maybe she had found someone already, maybe she didn't want to leave Mumbai(or India) , maybe she didn't want to get married at all or maybe she didn't like me :(. There were too many maybe's and very few concrete thoughts.

Anyway, I started to prepare for the next bird that was about to fly my way the following day.
So that friends was the conclusion of my acquaintance with Miss T which had not made the picture any clearer but even more mis-ty.