If I had only known what was about to happen, I would probably have preferred to stay at home today... or maybe not.
After Nolan's last movie "Oppenheimer", I thought that the first day first show would have to be a necessary watch and booked a ticket at AMB cinemas. I woke up early in the morning (earlier than I would have intended) and in my excitement, went 1 hour before I actually had to, to watch the movie. Probably should have stayed home a little bit longer and who knows? The awkward situation might not have arrived.
I reached the theater 1 hour early and decided to roam the mall by myself. I tell myself that I went alone because no one is a bigger Nolan fan than I am but in reality, everyone was busy in their own life. Being the only bachelor in the friend group gives me a lot of time to explore alone because other people are busy being boring.
I went to the food court to get myself a chicken roll and that's when I saw her. I had not seen that face in a long time and she was facing me as well. Yup, I was spotted and there was no use sneaking out now. Reluctantly, I went towards her and said, "Kya bawa scene bol"! I could see that she was taken aback by that said in a cooler tone, "bol bol scene bol". We both laughed awkwardly at that and then I asked her about her life.
She said that she was happy in her life and that she had recently moved to Hyderabad. I nodded my head and there was a little bit of an uncomfortable silence with her frantically searching for someone. I asked if she had a husband now and she nodded yes. She was very happy with him and wanted me to meet him. To that I gave my zeher face and asked if she had the three kids that she always wanted... and that might have been a mistake. I realized that this was a sensitive topic and mumbled an apology but the situation got diverted by a hand on my shoulder.
I looked back at the person whom this hand belonged to and froze for 2 seconds. It was him. It was really him.
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He and I were in my car after a session of football. A friend of his called Harlu had called us to a society because that friend wanted to talk to us. There we saw two other random girls whose names I later got to know were Imarit and Kalmial. The group vibed really well that day and we got called a another day to meet with the same group. There was another new face in that group. Slowly but steadily the group size increased to a huge number. I did not think that I could make this number of friends ever in my life but hey, I won't complain if the number of friends increased for me. I knew Him before any of them though and at that time would bitch about every one in the group with Him.
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"Kya bawa scene bol", he said in a sheepish tone and I took a second to process the entire situation before I recollected myself enough to say the same thing back to him. I asked him if he was the husband she was talking about and he nodded an emphatic yes. He held her arm and pulled her towards her while doing this as well. I did not have this information and firstly congratulated them on their marriage. It was technically 2 years of them being together but hey, better late than never. I, then, told them that it was nice meeting them and wanted to take their leave not because of the movie but because I wanted some time to process everything and for the life of me, I could not talk to them now.
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Durga Pujo of 2023 had just started and it was the most fun I ever had during Pujo. She came to our society everyday during the Pujo and the society aunties were very confused if she was my "close friend" or his. She did not care for it and was very amused at that prospect. I would playfully pair them at any moment I got and they laughed it off. I could see from my rear view mirror that they were holding hands or playing with each other at the back but would always think nothing of it because He said that this was nothing and that they were just friends. One day before going back to Hyderabad after Pujo, all of us were in my car and we were listening to "Baunduler Ghuri". Kuttush and me in the front, and them at the back. They were both cuddling each other in the back and again, I just thought that they were very close friends.
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"Achcha, dekh le", he said and started walking away but she looked at me and said that I need to go with them for at least one lunch before we go our own separate ways. I do not believe in the concept of closure but sure, one last meal with them before going my own way seemed a good deal to me. They took me to their Tesla and I sat at the back while they sat at the front. I was looking at both of them from the back and started laughing internally. He could still understand when I was thinking of something funny even though it had been a long time and asked me to share what joke I had brewing inside me.
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"Mama i papa, i mama i papa", I said to Him while I was sitting at the back of his Altu after which he cussed me out. "Ye sab kya bol raha hai bhai", he said while she asked to make her understand what I meant by this. I, of course, wouldn't tell this to her because, you know, fun but I had a good laugh at their expense. I would constantly put my head out of the car to give them their private space to talk to which both of them would ask me to stop doing this zeher.
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"Kuch nai bhai", I said to him while his Tesla started the auto-pilot mode. He wasn't convinced of that but changed the topic. I was right in guessing that they had three kids and all of them were in Primary to High School now. I made a mental note to buy them some gifts, of course, if I ever saw them but apart from that the car ride was relatively silent with the tunes of "2441139" song playing in the background. We passed a Maggi shop and this time I could not contain my laughter at all. Both of them turned towards me and demanded to know the joke this time.
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"Mere saath date pe chalogi Varkala mein", he said to her while putting her in a headlock in his kitchen. Both me and her were surprised to the max by his statement to the point that I had to leave the Maggi being prepared in his kitchen. I went to the Living room where Hoursv was standing and could not even tell him the joke. Hoursv wanted to know the joke as well but He denied me from repeating it so I did. Later, He called and told me that he meant this all in fun and that he meant nothing by it. She, on the other hand, was not so sure and wanted me to figure out if he actually liked her... to the point of telling me that if he proposed, she would say yes. Of course I did not believe this at that point but maybe I should have.
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"Are kuch nai bhai, tum road pe dekh ke gaari chala na", was my answer to him which he did not believe of course but he did not comment further on it. The rest of the trip but relatively silent and after sometime we reached the place where they wanted me to eat lunch with them. The name of the place was "Nizam from Bangalore". I looked at them and went, "Seriously!!!" and looked like none of them got what I was trying to say. "What happened?", they asked and I was sure that this was some kind of sick joke they were playing on me. But looking at their faces for some more time made me decide that they actually did not have a clue about the irony of the situation.
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"Bhai, tereko ek baat bole bura nai maanega na", I asked him and he prodded me to go on without stopping. "I believe she is a player and this is the news I got from Bangalore", I said to him. That's where it all fell apart for the both of them... or so I thought.
Thanks everyone so much for reading and I will put out the next part as soon as I feel like it.
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