He parked the scooter and they both went inside the eat out and found almost all the tables full. After five minutes they could get a table and they settled there. “You drive good” said Karthik.”I have been riding scooter for almost 5 years now” said Archana.”Where do you stay in Bangalore?” she asked. “I stay in HSR layout along with my friends. We have taken a room. Started out with 6 guys, two got married and moved out with their families and one guy is in Texas. So right now only three guys, myself, Andy and Shiva.” he said. “So what do you guys do for food? you cook?” she asked. “We cook at times and at times we go out to eat. Have you been to Bangalore any time ?” he asiked. “Yeah rendu vaati vandhu irukken, once in my twelfth, it was a school tour then four months back oru KT vanga vandhen” she said. “Sari aedhavadhu order pannalame?” he said.”You can order anything” she said. “Oh adhu konjam risk aache, vungakukku enna pidikkum nu theriyama aepdi order panradhu?” he said. “Paapum vunga taste eapdi nu?” she said restlessly adjusting her hairs. “Hmmm, sari self service pola irukku, naan poi order panren” he said and left to place the order.
Couple of minutes later the person in the counter called out Kathik, and he got up to get the order, when she said “Naanum varen” and went to get the order. He had ordered a plate of pani puri, vada pav, mosambi juice and strawberry milk shake. They came back to their table with the order. “Milk shake and pani puri is for you” he said. “Oh wow paravala, nalla taste” she said. “Simple to order for a girl, any thing pink will excite a gal, that is why I ordered strawberry milk shake apparam oru ponnu pani puri venam nu solli idhuvaraikum naan kelvi pattadhu illa” he said. “Vera enna theriyum ponnunga pathi?” she said cringing her face. “Ha ha, I was just kidding, I like them both, so if you said I don’t like I thought I will take it”he said. “ha ha ha, nalla samalikiringa” she said laughing and at the same time pushing her hairs back again that were resting on her left hand shoulder.”Neenga enga padichinga?” she asked. “BTech, Hindustan la panninen apparam MBA from Great Lakes, in between two years I was working with Accenture. tenth varaikum DAV, +1,+2 ahobila madam. Neenga endhs school?” he finished. “ LKG la irundhu 12th varaikum Jawahar vidyalaya – KK Nagar.” she said. “Akka thambi rendu perum sema padips pola irukku?, neenga SSN and thambi BITS. kalakuringa” he said. “Naan SSN nu epdi therium? btw avan enna vida romba nalla padippan.” she said. “Vunga bio-data la pathen SSN nu. Hobbies la carnatic music nu potu irundhudhu? paduvigala ? “ he asked eagerly.” What Bio data va? aendhan ipadi manatha vangurangalo?” she said shaking her head violently. “Ha ha naan kooda bio data va patha odane sirichiten” he said laughing gently. “Photo la, happy onam boeing account nu pathen, enna technology? he asked. “Cognos, reporting neenga? ” she said. “ He pointed to Citi written on his tshirt. “Module lead, I work on AML” he said. “Oh, what is AML?” she asked not sounding really interested. “Anti Money Laundering” he said smiling.
They discussed so many things and she had also ordered one more plate of pani puri. He found it interesting and at the same time weird to know that she was a big fan of foot ball and F1 which was very unlikely for a South Indian girl. Apparently a huge fan of Steven Gerrard and Lewis Hamilton incidentally both are English sports men. “You don’t watch foot ball?” she asked.”I am not a great fan, I like tennis” he said. He also found out she was a big fan of Ilayaraja and Pritam and was disappointed that ARR was not mentioned. When he came to know she was neither a fan of Hrithik or SRK he was totally happy and he became even happier when she said her favourite was Shaid Kapoor and Madhavan. When he said he was a fan of Kangana Ranaut, she made an expression that some one makes when stepped on cow dung. He also found out that she was interested in politics thanks to her father.
They left Gangotri at around 5.15. Outside she asked “Do you want to drive?”. He had enjoyed sitting in the pillion and did not want to ride the bike - however he took the keys from her, which she gave after searching for some time in her huge hand bag. “Idhu brakes, konjam power kammi. Left indicator work aagadhu so hand signal dhan” she said giving the KT without looking at him pointing to brakes and the indicator, he was smiling gently nodding his head. For his embarrassment the scooter did not start after a couple of kicks. “Power start pannunga, thats okay” she said trying to control the laughter that was so desperately trying to slip out of her lips. It hardly took 15 minutes to come back to Ispahani center. He got down from the scooter and she slid to the driver’s seat without getting off the scooter.”Okay then had a good time” she said. “Naanum dhan” he said smiling. She got a call from someone which she received “Ah aunty kaise ho aap?, itni saal ke bath mera yaad aayi hei kya?” she laughed for whatever the person on the other side said. “Bilkul aunty, no problem. Aunty abhi main toda busy hoon, kal subhe main call karongi.” she said and laughed again “Okay aunty bye” she said and hung up on aunty. She was still continuing to smile when Karthik asked “Oh Hindi kooda pesuvingala ? hindi padam kooda, puriyama dhan paapinga nu nenachen”. “Second language Hindi dhan and I have cleared 5 levels in Hindi” she said. “Oh great. Btw oru nimisham vandiya park pannitu aen kooda vaanga” he said. “Where are you going?” she asked. He did not reply to that and felt like scoring on her for that, only occasion when he felt he had any control whatsoever that evening. He led the way as she followed him to his black Fortuner parker in the parking lot. He opened the back door to take out the cover. “Hello Mr. Karthik, neenga paatu yaroda vandila irundho ennamo edukuringa?” she said looking a little alarmed. “Ayyo idhu aen car” he said pointing to the graphic that was stuck to the back of the car that read Karthik Shiva Shankar in gold. “Wow vunga car’a? appo aen aenkooda sccoter la vandhinga, idhulaye poi irukkalame? she said. “Neenga dhan ennoda kye’a pudichi izhuthu vunga scooter la vokkaravechinga.” he said. “In fact this is the first time I am bringing this car outside and I wanted to take you out in this. After buying this I left to Singapore.” he added. “Oh, I am extremely sorry, sari vaanga we will go for a ride” she said, genuinely disappointed. Instantly a big smile illuminated Karthik’s face. “Sure? polama?” he asked. “Of course vaanga polam” she said. He went around the car and held open the front door for her to get in. He came back to the driver’s side and entered the car. He was still holding the cover he had taken out from the car. “Oh idhukku dhan inga vungala kootite vandhen” he said and handed her the cover. “Enna idhu?” she asked as she took the cover and was smiling at him appraisingly. He did not answer again and was busy with his right hand pressing the power window button and left hand adjusting the AC flaps to point her and put the vehicle in ignition. The AC churned out just the right amount of power to instantly mix the air within the car with the flavour of raspberry cream that she might have used as a moisturiser and the strong flavour of Italian coffee bean from his perfume. He smiled at her who was still looking at him expecting an answer for her question and noticed a small bead of sweat drifting away from her temple. “Open panni parunga” he smiled finally breaking the silence. She sighed with a very cute smile that was more towards her right cheek with her left cheek almost still. She took out a medium sized pink leather hand bag bedazzled on the edges and GUCCI written on the front. The left cheek that was still till now widened with a smile too and the smile spread to the whole face and a small dimple made itself appear from nowhere on the right cheek. He was totally enjoying the rapid change of expressions on her face. She promptly looked for the price tag and noticed that it was not there and slowly shifted her attention towards Karthik. “Pidichirukka?” he asked. She slowly started to nod her head from left to right and said “I can not accept this. Nothing is confirmed, innum nadakka vendiyadhu naraya irukku. Sorry I can not take this”. “I was not prepared to get married for at least two more years. But I know this is not something that is avoidable some day I will have to get married so I have been buying gifts for my wife to be. I saw the photo of yours in Onam saree. I did not think twice about my decision on marriage. I like you, Enakku vunna pidichi irukku.That is why I am giving this to you. But no pressure on you, if you think I am not suitable for you then I will go back and tell parents that I am not ready”. This was the first time he said vunna and not vungala.
She new she had very good looks and very good character and she knew she deserves the best. She has had lot of friends who were guys and not even once did she hear someone telling her how beautiful she was, not that she complained of, nor did she expect her friends to speak with her anything of this sorts. She had never crossed any line that would make a guy to feel any different about her that would jeopardise their friendship. This was the first time a guy was speaking to her about her looks and telling her how he felt about her. This definitely made her feel good, so good. She could feel her cheeks blushing and hot blood flowing straight to her ears. Her ears became pinkish that was so obvious even Karthik noticed it and he did not miss the small ear rings dangling from her ears which confirmed his decision to marry her was indeed correct. He was waiting eagerly for her to react. Each and every second was taking billion years to pass by. He was distracted by the dangling on her ear that started to move rhythmically. He looked a little up to see her looking at him directly and nodding her head up and down and whisper “Pidichi irukku”. She was not sure how her life would be with a total stranger whose only connection with her so far was a cup of filter coffee or in fact butter milk the day before, pani puri, strawberry milk shake and pani puri again - minutes ago. But that moment was defining for her and she was acting on her gut feel. She liked him and she did not have to make any effort to say yes, instincts were there for her to do it. The heart beats that were beating like Shiva Mani’s Drums started to slow down and reached 72 beats per minute for both of them. “Don’t rush, take your time” he said and pushed the accelerator and the fortuner went forward. She was still not completely out from the most important moment of her life. She opened the bag and found it not to be empty.There were three more bags inside. She took out the smallest of the three and opened it and took out D & G sun glasses. She took out the second biggest bag and unwrapped the cover and removed a purse GUCCI again. She looked at him momentarily who looked back and raised both his eye brows twice as if asking a non verbal question. She returned back to the bag and opened the last one. It had four bottles in all, Body works Chocolate moisturiser, Escada perfume and Body works shampoo and a conditioner. “Romba naaala plan panni vangiirukinga pola irukku?” she said. He did not say any thing and settled for a smile. “Ponnunga pathi research panni iukkingala? Pink hand bag, sun glasses, cosmetics hmmm ….” she said. “Adhellam onnum illa” he said and switched on the MP3 player from his steering controls and it started to play Omana Penne from Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya. Some ten minutes back he had mentioned how he had liked her in the Mallu saree. They both looked at each other smiling;though his was flavoured with a bit of embarrassment. "You watched the movie?” he asked. “I liked Karthik” she said and giggled. Again his heart beats started to gain some speed.
Even before the song got over, he was parking the SUV in front of Dominos in Kilpauk. Even here he ordered. He had ordered for a cheese burst pizza and Chocó lava cakes and a coke. Their order came and she offered to get it for them. In the counter there was a family with the mom carrying a three year girl who was crying ever since they come inside the pizza shop. Archana made some funny faces and started to talk in kids language which only girls and kids understood and she took out a bar of perk from her purse and gave it to the kid.She instantly stopped crying and the mom who was carrying the kid smiled at Archana, and said “Akka ku thanks sollu Aishu”. He was looking at her without winking his eyes for a second and was hoping to god that this would end in a happy wedding. She returned with the order and placed the one chocolate cake in his table. “Rendum vunakku dhan” he said smiling again. Though she did not react outward she realised that vunga has slowly transformed to voon. She liked it. “Ok thanks” she said and opened the first one. Karthik cut the pizza with the perfection of a sculptor.”Hmm,sooper” she said as she finished the first of the two chocolate cakes. She totally indulged in the cake like a small school kid. Karthik handed her a paper napkin pointing to the chocolate just below her lips. She took it however without using it, she had licked it and asked “Poiducha?”. “Hmmm” he said smiling intently on how she just behaved. They finished their dinner and left back to Isphani where she had parked the scooter. He got down from the car and came around to open the door for her but she had already got down. “So shall I take this?” she asked referring to the bag he had given her in her hand.She was looking at him expectantly. “There can not be a better life for me than that” he said on a very serious tone.She smiled at him and said “thanks”.
He had followed her all the way to her house in his car citing that it was very late and he would accompany her. Just in front of her house they both stopped and were chatting for some time when she received a call in her mobile. “Amma, vandhuten. Namma veetu munnadi than irukken. Avarum irukkaru” She said. Her mom came out running and said “Ayyo aen veliya ve nikkaringa? come inside, Archu avara vulla vandhu coffee saptu po soluda” She said. “Illa thats okay aunty, no probs.Will come some other day”. She did not say anything. “fine then aunty naan kelambaren” he said and looked at Archana who was having a cute smile on her face and was waving with her four fingers with the thumb holding the bag he had given.
