Of Musicians and Love!

“Mozart”

“Beethoven?”

“Well, all musicians are alike! They seem to have the romantic inclination and a painful experience which seemed to echo the cries of their lonely hearts through their music!”

“Yeah!” – I replied as I pulled the strings of the guitar a little harder.

“Bryan Adams! Wooh!”

“Well, the closest heaven on earth is through music!”

“Pass me the cigarette!”

“Boss, Games up!”- said he as he turned the empty cigarette packet spraying the ash down.

“Shit man! It’s a bloody store-house of ashes!”

“Well in the absence of ashtrays it is always handy to use!”, I replied.

“Well do you know all very famous musicians die at the age of mere 27?”-I said that.

Anupam quipped, “You are not even 27 so there are three years to live and became famous!”

We started laughing at this.

I said, “I am missing Anuradha!”

“She wouldn’t be back until July, that’s what she told, didn’t she?”

“Yeah!”

“The best part that I like about her is her wit and jolliness!”-he commented.

“I seem to miss her too”, added Anupam, before he vanished in the cover of darkness, just before the rain broke free. I drowned myself in the tunes of my guitar. Well, I let go the fluctuating fortune of my emotion afloat with the relative minors and majors.

The Delhi Electricity State Unit suddenly robbed the locality of power. As the darkness enveloped the environment the knocking became evident. The rain came down on the plateau of the still atmosphere with the flow of the mosaic of relative ups and downs of the tunes and the night became alive!

I got up and with the guitar, hanging on my neck walked to the door. As I opened the door the drizzle drifted in but then a sudden gust of wind took away the drops of the falling rain! A sudden urge came over me which carried me out! I carefully left my guitar and locking the door barged out into the rain. The dripping flow of water washed the earth of the filth and washed my face too! The sense of complete freedom enveloped me!

Suddenly a voice startled me- “Enjoying the rain!”

As I turned around, I saw a slim figure standing still under the umbrella.

“Guess so!”

“Well, Hi! Hope I am not disturbing you?”

The voice was strangely so alive and so very familiar!

“Well, I hope you can recognize me!” she enquired.

“Sorry!”, It was then, that I realized that it was none other than she herself.

I was stunned. I swallowed hard before I could search my voice to say something.

“You! What the hell are you doing here? It is so dark that I can barely see you.”

“Well, just wanted to surprise you!”

“Well, a hell of a surprise!”

“Just a routine check, to see whether you found someone new or not.”-she quipped.

“What about your, Mr. Right?”

“Can we go in?” came the reply.

“Do we need to?”

“Yeah definitely, I don’t want to spend the entire night standing in the rain with a guy like you in such a romantic atmosphere!”

We laughed and I took her hand as we went in.

“I am still not wet so will you keep your hands off me!”

“You haven’t changed a bit!”

As I opened the door she slid in. I reached for the Emergency light, but before I turned it on quipped “Well, You are probably about to receive the shock of your life!”

“Well, I was anticipating it!” came the reply.

“Well this is probably the worst mess after World War II, you should have invited Spielberg to make a movie out of this!”

“And name it ‘Saving Private Shamik!’” she retorted back.

Unfortunately, the power supply was restored and it exposed my den in entirety. It made me feel unclean.

“Phew, at last!” she said.

She looked around and asked, “Where is her photograph?”

“What Photograph?”-I asked.

“Oh! Her photograph!”-getting the point.

“In the fridge!”-I said.

“In the fridge?” came the astonished reply.

You forgot the advertisement the one in which the mom pays a surprise visit to her son and he hides his sweetheart's photograph in the fridge” I replied.

“Yeah! Yeah got your point.”

“And how about your, Mr. Right?” I enquired.

She ignored it.

“Well, if I was in your position I would surely have installed an antenna on my head to catch the right frequency emitted by Mr. Right!”

“Then why don’t you?”

“Would you permit it?”

“Ask your sweetheart!” she retorted back.

“Well, I wish your words are true!”

“Do you ever care to grow up?”

“How can I, do you let me!” I quipped.

Suddenly she realized she was standing on the ashes of the cigarettes. She angrily asked, “What the hell are these ashes doing here?”

“Well, all my hopes have turned into ashes!” I replied.

“You and your sweethearts-the dumb and the dumbers!”

I laughed and said, “Well I consider you to be one of my sweethearts too!”

“Can you ever become a bit serious?” she asked.

“Aren’t we all?”

“You are incorrigible.”

“Really! Thanks for the compliment!”

“I am famished!” she said.

“Who is not?”

She glared at me and replied, “I am supposed to be your guest tonight!”

“Really! You should have mentioned it earlier! So being the chef I would invite you to cook something really good and tasty!”

“What a welcome!”

“What do you expect, a red carpet to greet your dirty shoes!” I retorted back.

That was it. She yanked up a pillow and hurled it straight at me.

I slide aside and it missed me by a whisker and crashed against the new fragile vase and it crashed down.

“Shit!” we both yelled simultaneously.

“Now what do you suppose I give her?”, I disappointedly blurted out.

“Who is she?” came the surprised reply.

I said, “Why, Sin..”

Somehow I had controlled myself from blurting out and involuntarily placed my hand on my mouth before baring my teeth.

“You have fallen into Cupid’s trap too?” she said.

Why are you in love too?” I enquired.

She smiled back.

I had got more than I had expected.

“Always, after you madam!” I said.

“So you lost the challenge!” she added.

“You didn’t win it, did you.You are in love too!”

“But you were first to admit so you better cook!”

We laughed heartily.

“I can’t believe it!”-I added.

“Nor can I!” came the curt reply.

“Now don’t ask me who he is please, I am too tired” she pleaded.

“No, No you can’t disappoint me now!” I fired back.

“Who is he?” I asked.

“A guy!”

I said, “Now, can we be a little serious, how is he someone tall, dark and handsome?”

“How is she?” she fired back.

“Well,” and I blushed and suddenly the words simply refused to come out.

She enjoyed it and said, “Tomorrow, right!”

“Yeah”, I answered.

It was a challenge that both of us seemed to have loved to lose.

“But, I am hungry!” she said.

I enquired “Should we go out to eat?”

“Who pays the bill?”

“I have a real surprise!” I said.

“Yeah, Yeah I know of your real surprises!” she retorted.

“Why?” I asked.

“Do you remember the real surprise you gave me on your last birthday?” she asked.

“That was a real surprise wasn’t it?” I defended.

Then someone knocked the door.

She rushed to open it. As she opened it there stood Anupam fagging away to glory. He was too stunned and practically coughed up a gust of smoke and threw away the just lit cigarette. We both laughed at him. She asked, “Anupam surprised?”

He scratched his head and stood helplessly staring at her as if he was seeing a ghost. We both drew him in.

She said, “Don’t look so stunned Anupam!”

“We are planning to go out to eat!” she added.

“What are you doing here? You are supposed to come in July!” said Anupam.

“Well, she arrived early smitten by Cupid” I added.

“Really…” said Anupam.

She blushed and looked away. Anupam enjoyed it too.

“Are we supposed to eat out?” she said directly looking at me.

“Who pays?” asked Anupam.

“Well, that’s the most debatable topic of tonight” she replied.

Then she added pointing to me, ”Well, we were talking about how he took me to his birthday bash to give me the grand treat only to find that he had left his purse behind at home. And I had to pay to bail us out of the situation.”

“Well, I had paid you back after that.” I defended.

“Not before the waiter threatened to throw us out on the pavement” she retorted.

“Nothing of that sort happened. You have the liberty to say anything but nothing is going to inspire me to give you guys a treat at least for the time being!” I countered.

“What about the lost challenge?” she asked.

“How do you decide who fell in love first?” I enquired.

Anupam asked, “I really cannot really comprehend, what challenge you are referring to?”

I said, “Frankly, speaking we had decided that who so ever would fall in love first, he or she would give the other a real treat”.

She said, “Why don’t we both tell Anupam when we fell in love and let him be the judge!”

Then she gave Anupam one of her ravishing smiles and he smiled back mischievously.

Anupam then what he said we won’t forget. He said, “Now, now I love playing the monkey when two cats fight over a cake!”

Instinctively we both added, “That’s why you are a real monkey!” We all laughed.

Anupam then added, “Don’t call me a monkey that’s a racist comment you know!”

Then he went on to add “By the way, let’s not waste time here otherwise you guys would make me go without dinner. Let’s go somewhere and then I will decide who gives the treat.”

She said “By the way, please ensure he takes his purse this time!” pointing at me.

I shot back “By the way, you should also take the big ugly purse of yours!”

She angrily shot back “You call this ugly, do how know how much this costs? At least, it had the essentials that saved us a couple of times when you left your purse behind.”

Anupam literally pushed us out not before he ensured that I had my purse and debit cards in that. The rain had receded and it gave rise to the sweet smell of freshness of the earth. Anupam drove while we sat behind. We teased him referring to him as the “Royal Chauffeur”.

He retorted back saying “At least I driving the princess!”

“Buddy, you coax her a bit longer and she will definitely pay for you.” Then I added “the Princess with the dirty shoes!”

She literally started hitting me with her purse.

Anupam initiated peace by saying, “Come on you twins will never grow up will you? Even though I hate to interfere but please maintain peace because the guys in the other cars are staring like anything. It would be a case of domestic violence don’t you think.”

“Who cares?” we retorted back.

I retorted back saying “Anupam, what would happen to the poor guy who will marry this princess? Even though I enjoy these, but will he be able to cope up with these monstrous tantrums?” and winked at him.

It had an effect like rubbing salt in the wound, and she hissed saying “Why you have the big scope to fight with your wife and mother-in-law?”

Somehow we reached and Anupam managed to usher peace between us. The place where he took us was quiet and candles greeted us. This the first time I had come to this place and when I asked him how he had located this place behind my back, he just answered, “Well I intend to go on dates once too often!”

She twitched up her eyebrows and said, “Really…”

I said, “Anupam and dates…ha!”

By now we were comfortably seated on those long chairs. The ambiance of this place was great. The waiter didn’t keep us waiting for long and promptly brought us the Menu Cards. After peeping at the Menu cards we placed the order. I and Anupam preferred Chinese while she insisted having Continental.

Then Anupam asked, “Why you don’t you tell me who fell in love first?”

“It was last Wednesday” I promptly replied.

They laughed since it was a Friday.

Then he looked into her eyes and enquired, “And you?”

I really can’t say” she replied shyly.

By now the waiter had brought us the dishes and the food and it was so sumptuous that the topic changed and it drifted to good food. Once we finished dining I asked her again, “You didn’t answer the question when you fell in love?”

She said, “Let the waiter bring the bill then I will answer it truthfully!”

“That’s really not fair” I countered.

They both said “Everything is fair in love and war!” and gave a high five. We all laughed and it was then that I realized that Anupam literally grabbed the bill that the waiter had brought. She protested vehemently insisting that I should pay and then insisted that she would pay when Anupam disagreed to give up.

It was then what Anupam said, “Jokes apart, to tell you the truth I was the first person to fall in love among the three of us so I would have to pay.”

I said, “What a joke! Firstly, let me have a look at the amount of the bill then you can pay!” thinking to trick him so that I could pay the bill amount.

However, he insisted, “Believe me Shamik, I am in love for the last one year and I had proposed her last June!”

“He is kidding as usual!” I said to Anuradha.

But the look I his eyes said it all.

I said, “That’s not fair, you have been in love for the last one year and you have told me now. You had even proposed to her in June, and you have hidden it from me? I really don’t believe it, buddy!”

He continued slowly “I really couldn’t tell you because I didn’t know how you would react!”

Then he slowly took one of her hands and kissed it gently and said, “Thank god she has agreed and if you will allow us to marry we will since after all you are the elder sibling by two minutes and since there is no one else in her family, I thought it would be better this way!”