Episode 11: The fun begins

Episode 10 Click here

8 am on a beautiful sunny Monday morning Vijay stepped out of his apartment and headed towards his department which was a block away. At the same time the door at the opposite complex 100 feet away opened and Priya stepped out. Both had a quick look and their eye met; suddenly both shook their head away as if they never saw each other. Vijay then shifted his eyes towards his right to catch a glimpse of Priya and she was right there waiting for him to look. This increased his heart beat and he quickly turned away and began walking towards the department. As he walked towards the department Priya kept staring at him, he appeared smaller and smaller and finally he vanished into the crowd.

Priya was in a mixed state of emotions, this was for the first time she had caught a glimpse of Vijay after landing in US, and the moment didn't even last for a min. She felt extremely sad and angry at the same time with herself more than with Vijay. She couldn't believe her own reaction when she saw him, he was the same Vijay whom she had spent 20 hrs up in the air, laughing and talking. She felt something had changed, changed drastically. She was still figuring out the reason why she had shook away the first time and why her eyes kept staring at his path all the way till he actually got lost in the crowd. She neither had any answers to these questions, nor had anyone to discuss about it, she had only herself to figure out.

She probably began to feel something for him. She had the whole day to figure out as she headed towards the Univ Library, a place so silent enough to put you to sleep let alone attempting to read a book. She sat down in the corner read a big fat book when read Digital Signal Processing.

Marathe was looking at the scene below though the window; He had sensed something fishy about Vijay and his activities but never gave a deep thought to it. He was an idiot when it came to talking to women but had enough gray matter in his head to figure out that something indeed was cooking b/w them.

"Where can I take a print out from my email?” Vijay asked a simple question to the lib staff.
"You mean a public access computer connected to a local printer where you can check your personal email?” the lib staff replied back.

It sounded like a complex network routing algorithm to Vijay and it took him 5 secs and 6 blinks and couple of swear words to grasp and assimilate it. Vijay banged his palm on his head and walked towards the computer wondering why there people always like to complicate things. Selected the appropriate printer clicked print and began walking towards printer which was in the corner of the hall way. Sudden noise at the printer's broke the silence enough to draw Priya's attention. The noise spread to her ear drums like Sun rays hitting the ground cutting through the fog driving away darkness. She stood and began to look in the direction of the sound.

Vijay, humming his favorite Himesh Reshammiya chart number walked towards printer, suddenly caught a glimpse of Priya and in a split second quickly sat on the first available computer that hid him, like a batsman ducking at the Shane Bond's fast bouncer. Seeing nobody approach the printer Priya sat down and went back to her mark and continued processing the signals. Close, very close almost gloved the ball to the keeper Vijay mumbled and felt exactly like how a batsman felt when he survives the bouncer. Since he was in front of the PC he thought he might as well checkout cricinfo for the latest score. The game was getting interesting and so was the textual commentary, visualizing the shots Vijay got lost in the game.

Marathe who had to renew his Bio-chemistry book entered the library in his usual red Reebok shorts and white Nike shirt which made a statement yes that's right in blue. While he was at the counter renewing his book he caught Priya reading through the corner of his eye. The detective in him woke up; he was walking towards the hallway and suddenly saw Vijay in front of the PC in the adjacent row. He looked at Priya on his left and looked at Vijay on his right; three of them together formed an equilateral triangle. Looked at Priya on left, looked at Vijay on the right atleast 5 times as if he was watching Wimbledon from the first row perpendicular the net. Things became a bit clear now; he decided to approach Vijay and walked towards him.It was Monday anyways and his boss always came late to the lab, so had enough levy and reason to spy and loiter around.

“Bhimrao”, “could you please carry this book and meet me in the lab in 10 mins”, a familiar voice drew his attention; it was indeed his Boss who had played a spoil sport. “Yes Dr”, Marathe replied and he began walking away from Priya and Vijay turning an equilateral into a isosceles triangle and finally it was only a straight line that exist b/w Vijay and Priya

The geometry continues …

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Episode 10: Project Avoid Priya

Episode 9 Click here

It was 7 pm on a warm Saturday evening and the 3 idiots landed in front of the Indian grocery store. Vijay twisted his eyebrows and casually read the store name “Your brother’s”, looking at Dharmraj.
“Right every Patel is my bro, right from Sardar Vallabh bhai to Praful Patel to that idiotic cricketer Parthiv Patel”, Dharmraj Patel got furious at Vijay’s comments and it was evident from his tone and the way he pronounced the word Right. Actually the way “RIGHT” is pronounced speaks volumes about the mood of a person. Vijay had no clue what was happening and was wondering why someone would get furious about their last name.
“It’s like Khan among Muslims; common surname, do you think Imran Khan and Moin Khan were brothers“? Dharmraj added.

“Hero, get whatever South Indian Items you like” Marathe showed Vijay the section which had lot of packets which read MTR.
Vijay’s eyes lit up like a batsman’s eye when he sees a flighted ball from a spinner. He danced down the track towards the aisle. MTR was a famous brand in Karnataka, initially a famous hotel now a household name when it comes to spices and packed food items. And the sight of Kannada font which he even struggled to read on the packets made his eyes moist. Back in INDIA he hated that language, hated reading and writing it, because he was bad at written Kannada and his parents even till date doubt how he achieved 94 in that subject in his 10th grade. He began to read every printed word as if he had found a clue to the Treasure Island.

“Dude, grab the stuffs quickly you will have lot of time for reading while watching cricket”, Marathe tried to speed up the shopping but Vijay seemed confused and lost. Karnataka and its obsession with rice was a breakfast is worth a mention, VIBGYOR rice; i.e. a rice based breakfast with a color literally for each day. Vijay aimed at creating a few of them and ended up with a Puliogrey mix a Bisi Bele Bath mix and a couple of other rice mix.
Vijay got goose bumps when he sighted the green bottle of BRU instant coffee. There is nothing more to a South Indian than a cup of steaming strong filter coffee; they can literally survive on that for a day or two.
“Kem Cho”, the lady at the billing counter had a brief conversation with Dharmraj. Vijay felt jealous that he didn’t have a single person from his state to speak in his own language.

Vijay grabbed the grocery bag from the counter and suddenly his ears over heard a sweet conversation in Kannada language. He dropped the grocery bag in the cart and ran towards the voice like a batsman scampering a quick single. He was dying to listen to a Kannada voice, let alone talking to someone. Sooner he approached the voice it sounded familiar and his doubt led to clarification when he caught a glimpse of lady in red, yes it was his Priya. He awkwardly ducked below aisle to evade her like a batsman ducking to evade a bouncer from Bret Lee. His heart began to beat at the pace at which bouncer was delivered. The moment he caught a glimpse her `Project Avoid Priya` seemed to go down the drain, rather Project Seek Priya began developing. He was caught in two minds like a batsman neither playing forward nor backward.

Suddenly he felt like a batsman’s failing to differentiate between conventional and reverse swing based on the shine of the ball. Heart would say one, mind the other. Logically he had to Avoid Priya as per the Project, but her shear presence, her sweet voice eroded any ounce of logic. This was when he learned that there was a big difference between proposing a theory and implementing it. To catch a second glimpse he peeped through aisle and coincidentally she turned and got a glimpse of him. He had only .46 of a second to react to the situation, the same time a slip fielder gets to catch the ball. His heart began to beat like never before, so hard that he could hear the vibrations. He did that best he could do at that moment i.e. run away from her towards the exit following Marathe and Patel.

Priya blinked her eyes in disbelief; she was still wondering whether it was Vijay or someone else. Even though she wanted to teach Vijay a lesson, but from inside she wanted to see him. She walked past the aisle and towards exit and through the transparent door, she saw Vijay getting into the rear seat of a black Honda Accord. Vijay saw Priya staring at the Accord to catch a second glimpse; he felt bad for her, seeing her confused face searching for something made his eyes moist.

But the devilish mind had other thoughts; Project Avoid Priya is ON, like a spinner he had tossed up the ball to entice the batsman, it was upto the batsman to either scoop it in the air and perish or blast it away for a sixer. He has induced some interest in her now, either she could fall in the trap or completely go off track.

Priya stood staring at the transparent door as she saw the Accord exit out of the parking lot and enter the street. She was going through mixed emotions, she definitely wanted to teach Vijay a lesson, but she had no plan as to how to go about it. Her acts were all out of true instincts and emotions, no logic attached to it.
“Let’s get some more pickle, Priya”, her roommate broke the silence.
She picked up her stuffs and headed back towards the billing counter.

“Woh Aap Key Dost They?” the billing lady asked Priya as soon as she placed her items on the counter. “Who?” Priya had a question mark on her face and pretended as of nothing had happened. The billing lady had seen enough of these and didn’t need any explanations. I guess this is what experience is all about.

On the way back Priya began to think about Vijay, she began to recollect the conversations that she had with him right from the flight take off to the Mumbai airport. She also remembered how possessive he was, when he did his best to kick Ravi out of the scene, it was a childish act but she liked. She liked his sarcastic chirpy jokes rather poor jokes as he self proclaimed it. Even though she hated cricket she liked his passion for that sport. He had to be an Idiot to focus and talk about cricket when he was with a gorgeous young lady. She kind of liked that Idiot, and now she was missing him, missing him badly and realized it when she accidentally bumped into him twice in a day. May be it was destiny or in fact it might just be coincidence, but she felt something good about it and decided to pursue her interest.

After she went home, began jotting `Project Seek Vijay` and began working towards it in her own way.

At the same time `Project Avoid Priya` had entered phase 2 in Vijay’s notebook.

To know more about which Project would succeed and which would fail
Keep reading ….

Suggestions, Comments and Abuses are welcome as always.

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Episode 9: Project Priya

Episode 8 Click here
Vijay and Priya stood face to face for the first time; even though he was with her in the airport he never had this interaction. The elevator door was about to close, Vijay outstretched his hand to keep it open, Priya entered the elevator and pressed ground button. Vijay was stunned at her reaction, rather lack of it. She neither looked at him, nor spoke a word; In-fact he felt like seeing her twin sister, identical in looks but serious and angry faced. Vijay had his eyes wide open, his heart was beating like Venkatesh Prasad's slower delivery, slower and slower. The sound of the elevator door opening got him out of temporary coma, priya stepped out towards the mail boxes. Vijay stood silent and still like a rock in shock. The elevator door closed.

Vijay rested his palm behind his head and looked at the ceiling lying on his bed, wondering what actually happened in the elevator.
Firstly was she his Priya indeed or was he seeing Priya ever where?
Secondly if she was Priya was she suffering from short term memory loss?
Finally was she actually Priya but avoiding him? This sounded more realistic and non filmy. 'Dude she is playing a game! mind game!', Vijay spoke to himself.

"Hero come here, see how Shane Warne is playing mind games with the batsman", Marathe yelled from the hall.
"Kevin Petersen vs Shane Warne can't get better than this", Patel added.
"Both were best pals once when they played for Hampshire, but now they are rivals!, arch rivals", Marathe replied.
Analogies and parallel screenplays are good in movies, especially the one in 'Rang De Basanti' not in real life Vijay realized that.

"Hero, wanna make international debut today?, I mean cooking lunch!" Patel asked.
"OK sure, but I don't have any Ranji experience.", Vijay replied.
"Sala! it is difficult to run this house with this U19", Marathe grumbled.
"23, I am 23" Vijay asserted.

Vijay took out his notebook which read "Cooking Notebook" opened page 1, it read 'Beans Sambar'. Lit the burner, pour oil onto the vessel and dropped in a spoon full of mustard seeds, a minute later mustard seeds began to jump around, he ran away towards his room for shelter. Marathe and Patel stared at each other with a raised eyebrows, they never spoke a word but the expression told every thing.
"This is what happens when you pick an U19 player to AUSTRALIA series", Marathe pointed his index finger at Patel as if he had a point to prove.
Vijay came back and read his book 'mustard seeds would jump, take shelter, lower the flame and continue'. He continued with his cooking.
"But this guy has potential, ability to bounce back", Patel corrected Marathe.
"Yes that is what Merve Huges told about Tendulkar in 1991 Sydney test", Marathe emphasized.

"Hero, we will taste your food today and decide whether you would be in playing 11 or 12th man", Marathe raised his voice.
i.e whether you would cook or just be a cleaner. Vijay stared at the charred pile of vessels and decided to focus on getting the Sambar right. When you know what you don't want in life, life is pretty simple. 20 minutes later and after a couple whistles the selection committee sat for lunch. Five minutes into lunch he knew he would be in the playing 11, why not, he had used his mother's Sambar powder and desi ghee as part of his ingredient and it was steaming hot. It's like Raju Hirani, a great script and Aamir Khan what possibly can go wrong.
"We have a slot for all-rounder in the team, someone who can neither bat nor can bowl", Marathe gave him a thumbs up. Vijay had a sigh of relief and smiled looking at the vessels as if ridiculing it.

When your stomach is full, blood drains out of brain towards stomach, that is when all the weird thoughts sink in.
'Focus on the how to solve the problem rather than thinking why the problem occurred', a quote that he had read some where struck his mind.

Project Priya ' Vijay wrote

'Priya knows that I know where she lives, she saw my surprised face when she ignored me' Vijay began jotting down.
'Now she would expect me to follow her or contact her directly or indirectly,
what if I play the bluff.

Step 1: Make sure she sees you through her window.
Step 2: Ignore Priya when she approaches.
Step 3: Know all the places she goes daily.
Step 4: Avoid all those places totally.
Step 5: You will be in her mind, she will definitely hunt you down.

Reason: 'There is nothing more irritating to a girl when someone she likes suddenly ignores her' jotted this random sentence his friend had once quoted and decided to put it to action.

will he succeed keep reading ...

Comments, Suggestions and Abuses are Welcome.

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Episode 8: The Chase Begins

Click here for Part 7

Vijay was surrounded by 9 Priyas each depicting 9 different emotions(rasas) from Śringāram to Kārunyam to Shāntam and Vijay was trying to convince and console each one of them as to why he had left her alone at the airport. Suddenly a big strong dude with a mase (gadha) on his shoulders entered the room driving all the Priyas away.
"Hero, stop snoring we are unable to hear the cricket commentary" Bhim Marathe knocked the door which woke Vijay up.
It was 9 am and scorching sun rays had already heated up the room, Vijay rubbed his eyes and walked towards the kitchen and drank a glass of water.
"Sale Naam Arjun Kharrate Kumbhakaran Jaisa" (u call yourself Arjuna and snore like Kumbhakaran ), Marathe yelled at him.

"Which match?", Vijay stared at the 50 inch white screen hung on the wall and a projector which had property Dept of Bio-Chemistry engraved onto it. They had surround speakers placed at all the 4 corners of the hall and the sound quality enough to pick even the faintest edge. Vijay stuck his tongue out as he saw the revolutions on the ball that left Shane Warne's hand and crashed into Andrew Strauss's leg stump. He was wondering whether to appreciate the ball or the technology that these idiots had at their apartment. It was more like a ESPN studio than a grad student apartment. "Ashes!" Vijay got goosebumps and thanked the lord for placing him in the Ayodhya of cricket, apt 309.

The glimpse of a girl raising the window blinds in the opposite apartment complex caught Vijay's attention, her face wasn't visible but his heart felt she was Priya.
"Hero, look at the replay, the ball pitched 2 and half feet outside the off-stump and crashed into the leg-stump" Marathe shouted looking at the screen.
`Replays and highlights can wait but not the lady in red`, Vijay mumbled in his mind and ran to his room, took out his pair of binoculars and focused on Priya's apartment. He could see girl with long hair but before he caught her face as she turned around the her window blinds closed. "Dam no replays", Vijay mumbled in his mind in utter disdain.

He decided to chase Priya the hard way the Engineer's way, he drew a matrix on a sheet of paper, rows representing floor level and columns representing apartment number. Most of the apartments had 3 bed rooms and a hall, all adjacent to each other. This meant every 3 sets of windows constituted one apartment; it wasn't all that easy, some apartments had two bedrooms. So he ran to the leasing office and got the floor layout. 1 2 3 4 he counted her window from the bottom. So 4th floor 'row = 4' he marked on the sheet of paper, and quickly saw the floor map. 4th floor had 2 bed room apt only in the corner and rest were 3 bed rooms. After couple of minutes of calculation he came up with col = 5. A(4,5) he wrote it on the sheet of paper,`Vijay this is it!, go for a sixer he patted his back`. 'A(4,5) is apartment 407, apt 407 baby' he shouted loudly apt 407,"Hahhahah", he laughed loudly.

"Dude this guy is from Rakshas family snores like Kumbhakarn and laughs like Ravan, hope he turns out Vibhishan in real life or else we are screwed" Dhamraj expressed his unhappiness.
"Leave him, focus on this new lad Kevin Petersen, dude I tell you he would be the next big thing in test cricket", Marathe diverted his attention.

Now Vijay had two options either directly drop into apartment 407 and face Priya or talk to her first and then take things from there. He decided to take the 2nd step, called up the leasing office and asked for the phone number of apartment 407.

"Sorry sir we are not supposed to reveal the phone numbers of our residents", the leasing office hung up the phone.
'Dam you privacy bull shit rule', Vijay thew the cordless on to the bed.

Suddenly a thought struck his mind, he ran towards her apartment complex and punched in the key associated with apt 407 at the buzzer at the main door. As soon as the buzzer began to ring Vijay's heart beat began approaching the speed of Shoab Akthar's ball 100 and when the call got connected his heart skipped for a sec.

"Hello" a sweet familiar voice that came out from the speaker reinstalled the heart beat.
"Fedex, I have a package for Miss Priya V", Vijay used his commentary skills and produced Tony Greg's voice.
"Please come in" Priya replied and pressed the # button on the phone to open the main door. Vijay entered the elevator and exited out at the 4th floor and headed towards apt 407 after taking a right.

As Vijay was approaching the apt 407 the door opened, a lady in blue jeans put her right foot out. Seeing this Vijay's entire face began red, he could feel his veins busting out and in anxiety he jumped into the elevator. Apartment 407 door was left ajar, the lady in jeans walked towards the elevator, Vijay could hear the tapping of the shoes approaching the elevator. He pressed the door close button quickly.

Before the elevator door closed the lady in jeans appeared right in front of Vijay.

to be continued ...

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