Margazhi pookkal...... Paagam - 2

Vijay woke up to the sound of his neighbors tv. He was not sure what time it was or whether he had gotten any sleep. Feeling lazy, he pulled the sheet over his head but he could still clearly hear the title song of 'kozhangal'. The sudden realization that it was late-evening made him spring up on his bed. What a waste of a day..He thought. The gurgling sound in his tummy, seemed to jeer at him for oversleeping...or oversleeplessness..watever. He slowly moved into the kitchen and raided the shelves. There was nothing but a single packet of maggi, he humored himself into thinking bachelor lifela ithellam sakajamappa.... After slurping down the hot bowl of maggi, he turned on his tv to watch some random serial. He knew that his entire schedule had been overly skewed now, he will not be able to get any sleep that night either. He was still in the formal shirt and pant, that he wore to the office yesterday. After changing into something more comfortable, he decided to take a walk and probably roll his bike back home.

As he was rolling back his bike home, the morning memories started rushing through his mind. He couldnt prevent himself from stopping at the place where he met her. The house looked a bit old and the paint had worn off. The name plate outside the house seemed to proudly boast its owners name as M.Sambasivam. The iron gate was locked with a padlock and the light inside the hall revealed a small TV. He took some time admiring the nice kozham that adorned the entrance to the iron gate. It portrayed four peacocks, one in each direction, in colors of red, blue, green and yellow. The proud kozham seemed to torture him into guilt and made him feel all the more bad.

It happened in a split second, she came out to her balcony probably searching for some fresh night air. His eyes met hers and she rushed back inside. He could not control staring at the empty balcony. Suddenly he came back to his senses and rolled his bike back home. He was sure that he was not going that night, partly due to his skewed schedule and mostly due to her. After browsing for god knows how many hours, he fell asleep on his chair. He woke up to a distant melody which sounded like suprabhadam. He got up from his chair and walked towards the wash basin.

He looked at the wall-clock and realized that it was 6 in the morning. He was Puzzled by the fact that he had woken up so early. It was a long time since he woke up this early. Probably since his high school days, he had never woken to the sound of suprabhadam and had to turned into a night owl. His IT job dint help him either. It felt really good to wake up early in the morning. After washing his face, he felt the urge to go out for a walk. He was drawn by some unknown force towards the same house. It seemed to him like the only house in the street. It was an odd feeling of guilt that he had never felt before. He had not done something bad, it was just an accident but yet he was continually getting drawn to the same house.

After stealthily hiding behind a tree trunk, he watched the house with keen intent. She came out of her house in a few minutes, holding the same silver bowl, dressed in a beautiful white saree with a small sandhana keetru in her head. He couldnt control his eyes from looking in her direction. Her beautiful strokes were imbibing life into fishes of different colors. After what seemed like hours to vijay, she finished her kozham and went back inside her house. Vijay came back to his senses and it triggered a mental war within him. He was not so cheap, he cannot fall in love with a girl without even talking to her. Besides he did not even know If she was married already. Although he tried very hard, he could not convince himself to stay away from her house.

Vijay walked back to his house and took a nice cool shower to calm down his senses. He tried to come to grips with the fact that it was just impractical to have love at first sight. Besides, he had hurt her feelings the other day. There was no way that she was going to fall for him. Pushing it deep down into the bottom of his heart, he got dressed up and hung his laptop bag on the back. He had forgotten completely about his busted bike until he leapt on its seat. Ridiculing himself for being so dreamy,he pushed his bike to the mechanic shop next street and caught an auto rickshaw to reach his office.

As usual vijay started checking his emails, there were mails from nandhu, varun and his manager. The subject of the manager's email said "SURPRISE", he opened it hurriedly and glanced through its contents to get the gist of it. He was being sent on-site for the deployment of the final release.

(one year later......)
Chennai airport was bustling as usual. Relative and friends bidding farewell to their loved ones. Parents eagerly awaiting to see their kids after a long time. Vijay's flight reached chennai international airport on the dot. After collecting his luggage and making his way through the customs, he was greeted by his friend nandhu. It was so beautiful to back at home sweet home. Singara chennai seemed to him like heaven on earth. He directly went to the new apartment that nandhu had booked for him and freshened up. There was an auto stand right opposite to the apartment, taking an auto he reached his office and walked straightly to his old cubicle. It was like visiting an old friend, this cubicle had witnessed his sleepless nights and victory celebrations. As soon as he sat on his chair, sweet memories of his chennai life strolled through his mind one by one. 'Hi...', he turned back and there she was, standing right next to him. 'Hi' she repeated, expecting him to reply. He was startled, he never expected her to be there. More than startled, vijay was completely confused. 'Hi..', he replied in a puzzled voice. She extended her hand and he shook it. 'I am Nalini, your new cubicle mate... I was told that you will be reaching today and moving into your office tommorrow...'. Vijay could not stop the thunderstorm of thoughts that were going through his mind, 'Had to do finish some last minute work for the release', he replied. She smiled and it accentuated her already beautiful face. Pulling her chair, she settled down before her computer.

Probably his eyes were playing tricks on him. He pinched his arm, just to be sure. No this is real, she must have probably joined the company when he had gone onsite. Was god playing tricks on him, Is this the girl with whom he is going to spend the rest of his life... Too many questions, too much excitement.. He decided to calm himself down, If she was the girl in his life then things will automatically happen.

She accompanied him during the lunch break. In a 'CASUAL' discussion, he gathered that Nalini was 23, D/o Sambasivam (a retired bank manager) and more importantly 'Single'. It seemed to him that she did not recognize him from their previous encounter. Or probably she did not make that big a deal out of it. He was relieved that she did not appear to recollect his face.

It was the best december in his entire life, he felt recharged everyday on seeing her smiling face. She seemed to never have a dull day and was always excited about her work. Lunch meetings extended for almost an hour and coffee breaks became his most important work in the evening. He spent every weekend waiting to see her blooming face again.

Christmas was fast approaching and his team-mates had already made plans to go to munnar for the vacation. They were persuading him to join the tour party, but he avoided the trip by giving some mundane excuse. He thought that it was time for him to express his feelings towards nalini. What If she says no? He would not be able to digest that answer. She was the first girl that he had ever wanted to talk about something other than work. It would be too precious a loss for him. Mustering every bit of courage, he dropped in an email inviting her for a dinner at Taj that night. He hoped that the venue would convey his intent and that she would be ready for the occasion. 'If only she would say Yes', he repeated to himself.

E-mails were convenient, he could just type it out and send it across. He was not brave enough to pick-up her calls the whole day, 'I am a coward' he said to himself. His heart seemed to beating so loud that he couldn't hear anything else. Reaching Taj an hour earlier, he started his long painful wait for her.