Episode III

Adi the hopeless!

Back to holidays, 2008

Coming back to the holidays now, as soon as I reached Pune after the sem end, I was sure that this is the right time no matter what. So, I told Aditya aka Adi, I’m going to tell Tanvi everything. ‘Adi the hopeless’, that fellow just started laughing when I told him, said, “Ya, ya, I’m sure you will. I’m with you my friend.” I’m telling you, I felt like killing him at that moment.

Let me introduce Adi to you guys. This idiot was my bestest friend for as long as I can remember. Same playschool, same kindergarten and then same high school till 10^th. If that was not enough, his dad and my dad were friends from their college days and his mom and my mom were the closest friends. So, obviously this guy knew everything about Tanvi. Right from the beginning. We used to talk about her all night. I mean, I was the one doing all the talking and he was the listener. And the job of this guy was just to laugh at me all the time. Useless fellow. I hate him, but, undoubtedly he is my best friend.

See the coincidence. Adi and Tanvi are in the same college and hence are now good friends for almost a year now. Wow! World is small. Another coincidence to mention here, Naren is also in the same college.

So, back to Adi. One thing about him, he is a kind of person who’ll do anything for his friends and that too in a weird way. And by weird I mean WEIRD.

I did decide to tell her, but how? That was the biggest question in front of me at that time. It was like Lagaan. Remember Aamir’s dialogue? ‘Cirkit khelna kaunu badi baat naahi hai, Chiku. Bachpan se khelat awat hai. Hum ise gilli-danda kahwat hai aur ee gore Cirkit.’ Don’t know what Cricket is, but we’ll play the game and win it to make our lives better, that should be the way of life. Comparing Lagaan with this situation gives me satisfaction as in the end our hero Aamir Khan did win the game.

Trying to figure out ways to tell Tanvi about my ICU condition, I felt that I’ll really need to go to the ICU soon if I don’t find a way. I was sure that I have to tell her face to face. But meeting her alone somewhere was as difficult a task as going on the sun for morning walk. So, the place has to be her college. Secondly, whenever I see her, I’m

dumbstruck and confused. So, I either keep on talking or forget all the words in the English, Marathi or Hindi dictionary and start to speak a new language, something like, “Uhh… Me… like…. Hmmm…. Na…. So… Ah…. Like…” FUSSSS!!! And, again if you remember, Naren is in the same college. So, option one cut.

“How about calling her?”, suggested Adi, the hive of ideas, but probability of that idea being useful is not so impressive. And that might be the worst idea he has ever given me. I was supposed to tell my dreamgirl on phone what I feel, when I used to speak some alien language whenever I heard her voice. Secondly, from what I heard from others, her parents were not as easygoing as my parents and kind of really strict. So, calling her had its risks and hence option two was certainly out of question.

“Then only one option left. Write a love letter like old days and start singing ‘Kabootar ja ja ja, kabootar ja ja ja…’ That’s the only option now.”, said Adi.

Well, I agree, that was the only option. But kabootar & all is not required nowadays. You see, Google has put Microsoft as well as Kabootars out of business.

So after a lot of humor, from Adi’s side, and a lot of serious discussion, from my side, I decided to write a letter to my sweetheart Tanvi. And my friend gmail was going to deliver every word of mine to my angel’s heart. But, letter… Isn’t it the worst way, I thought. I mean, that was obviously my last choice as how can words express what eyes or expressions can? It’s like, ‘paani nahi hai, to sharaab pi lo’. Not a good one, but simpler way. But I did compromise to this sharaab. So, to cover it up, I decided something more in my mind.

Work in progress!

Holidays, 2008

Friends, let me tell you some facts or some signs which suggest you are in love –

· Excessive staring at unmovable objects and thinking about what if they are alive

· Your words start to rhyme & you actually start liking something as boring as poetry, in extreme cases of Lovaria, you yourself become a poet

· In every form of any stupid art, you start to see meaning and understand it’s beauty (Not at all boys kind of thing)

· You forget about the 3^rd standard Geography textbook and start thinking about sunrise and sunset as something unearthly

· And most importantly, being a boy, I’m very sad to accept it, but you start to believe in love.

So, as a last stage case with all these symptoms, I decided to use some of these symptoms as my weapons. I decided to make some sketches of my angel and make a small pocket diary with some of my poems that I used write whenever I used to think about her at sunsets.

Yes boys, a cautionary note for all you guys, your girls do change you completely. But, believe me, it’s for your own good.

So, as it’s my habit, simplest things first. I sorted out my best works with poetry & got out on streets to find a diary. Oh god, after 2 hours I was still finding a diary. Have they stopped producing simple, lovable diaries or what? Isn’t there a single diary on this earth that will suit my sweet innocent angel?

Continuing my exercise for a couple of days, I finally found something as innocent and as sweet as my angel. A Disney diary. Mickey mouse, Mini Mouse, Goofy, Donald duck, Pluto, etc. I made my own diary by cutting that diary from anywhere and

everywhere. And finally the poetry book was ready. I read all those poems again and felt like telling her right now, “Tanvi, my angel, this earthly soul of Mihir Doot is yours forever. I love you with all my heart.”

But wait. That did not happen. For those who have a habit of reading while feeling sleepy, let me remind you, that sketches that I was supposed to make were still not ready.

To be honest, I’m not Picasso, Da Vinci or even M. F. Hussain for that matter. But, I was determined to beat them as I had one thing those velle people did not have – A heavenly inspiration.

And with that inspiration I was on the mission. Sadly, I was not even a competition for a 5^th grader in sketching. I needed some reference for the sketch. A photo would have been just perfect.

‘Where can I get a photo, where? Where? Where?’

And yessss. As if my brain mistaken the mango mood that I was chewing with mentos, my dimag ki batti was lit like a 200W bulb on the street.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .