Bangalore diary

Day 1 – 29^th December, 2012

The moment I saw that smile, I knew coming to Bangalore was worth it. Never mind that I saw it first through the glass doors of a ‘Mast Kalandar’ outlet (I was inside & she was outside) – the smile has this otherworldly allure that.. well, that makes me want to see her smiling. Always.

Let’s hope the hourglass doesn’t come apart again..

Luggage dumped, sweatshirt pulled on. [Yes, unlike Bombay, it was rather pleasant there & the hilly region was expected to be cold.]

Very happy that she liked the few pages document. Very happy. Had been smiling to myself when I had been making it, but had thought that the end-product was somewhat juvenile.. Very happy that I made her smile.

‘Enigma’. Couple of beers each, & the masala peanuts. Nice lighting. The light drizzle outside. Engaging.

Cab booked for Nandi Hills. [Still couldn’t believe I was actually in Bangalore & we were indeed going to Nandi Hills.. Felt like a dream.]

A stop at her PG so that she could get into something warmer, & we were off.. A cab, a packet of cigarettes, money & an open road. The Sobhon-story; one of my favourites.

Putting her head on my lap in an attempt to sleep for a while. Cute. Poking was fun.

 Day 2 – 30^th December, 2012

Cold. Not very, but pleasant enough. Deserted café. Only one tent outside. Hookah, with maggi. Order taken down by a really sleepy kid. More people. A change of seats. Sleepy kid now fully awake. A beer each & onion pakodas. Intermittent smoking.

Okay.. Quite cold at the sunrise-point. Biting wind that carried the otherwise light rain pretty well into hair, moustache, beard, eyelashes. Some really nice photos., that I so want to put up. Not if she doesn’t want them to be. Will always be in my memory. Coffee & cigarettes helped against the sudden onset of sneezing; thank her for that idea.. Walking around in the fog. The sun didn’t come out to play; only saw the light clearing once we were on our way back. She had a dream; was a little scared by the expression on her face when she woke up suddenly after that.

Morning coffee at a Costa Coffee outlet. Kurkure to go with it. Planning the day.. Sleep dismissed. I knew she was very sleepy & so was I, but I’m glad we banished it.

Dominos for lunch. Her game. MIB classmates revisited. Girl for each guy. She’d always be the one for me; reasons are self-explanatory. For me, at least. Movie options looked up; decided against. A little fiasco regarding the tendering of change after the payment of the bill.

Street side shopping. Loved he star-earrings. Loved the other ones too, but for the defect in them.. Nose-piercing. She has a little star with her now.. Truthfully, was a little anxious that it wasn’t a gunshot, but very glad she got it. Once again, as always, the smile was worth it. Looking for a dress.. Purple skirt. My choice. Stupid shop with no proper arrangement for trials. Very thirsty. Bottle of water & two glasses of watermelon juice. Drew a face on her right arm. & wrote ‘Monkey’ beneath it. & the wash-your-hand-with-your-favourite-soap game. Fun! Also tried to sketch her eyes, nose & lips. Agreed to my earlier opinion of a failed attempt at sketching a flawless depiction; crumpled the tissue paper. Took what is no doubt one of the best snaps of her during my stay. The smile is so enchanting..

UB City. Talking about Presidency elections.. The water-spouts & the kids..

Met Shaunak. Talking about the recent India-Pakistan t20 matches. Memories of the cricket matches during the hostel days.. Games. MIB classmates revisited again. Whyte & MacKay on the ‘banana beach’.  The what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-moment: Shaunak assists with the number, & she calls up Sunita to suggest that I wish to meet her & what not! I mean, what the hell! She was laughing a lot, though, so I was happy..

Auto back to hotel. The frantic deciphering of unclear directions.. The walk to her PG.. & she came back with me.

Day 3 – 31^st December, 2012

D Day. The end of the year. Noone’s supposed to work, right? Not true, apparently.

Couldn’t sleep after she left. Watched ‘17 Again’ on her laptop. Horrible speakers. Some random surfing on the Internet too.

The biryani for lunch was decent. “Probably the first time I’ve ever had veg biryani..” said the owner of the smile. 10 good & 10 bad things about 2012. Walk after lunch. The dreaded phone-call that she’d have to go back to work, sooner or later.

Chetna.. I wish I had a Bengali friend called Chetna.. She’d never have heard the end of it from me!

Mall. Shopping. She was gorgeous in the red dress & ravishing in the black. She really wanted the red one, but then someone seemed to have beaten her to the L size. So, black it was. & yeah, I picked up a tee. White. Contrasts well with black. White & black, black & white. True colours.

Okay. I know she looked good in the dress outside the trial room, but then there’s good and there’s “ekghor”. Stunning, jaw-dropping, sexy. Loved the loop-earrings too. “In MIB, who would’ve thought that Andy & I would be going to a New Year’s party together..” the lady in black said in the auto-rickshaw. I certainly wouldn’t have thought. [Yeah, ever since I had been there, I had had to pinch myself now & then to ensure myself that it wasn’t all one very happy dream.]

Loved the setting in Black Pearl. Nice skull-stamp too. Was reminded of Depp of course. “Today is the day that you’ll always remember as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow..” One chair less at the table. Damn them for arranging it! Other prospect seemed.. interesting. Liked the music. Mostly. There’s a wonderful sense of abandon in the way she dances, much like in other things. They played her song too.. “You’ve never seen a girl like her before..” WTF moment 1 – 2 kids (one looking drunk) running around & playing in a corner; later spotted trying to take the camera off a cameraman. WTF moment 2 – Baby-girl-in-mother’s-arms seen at next table. Back to hotel.

Day 4 – 1^st January, 2013

Who works on both 31^st December & 1^st January? Nonone, right? Wrong. ICICI Wealth management does.

The walk back to the hotel after dropping her at her PG was a loooong one. As expected. She’d just gone off to work, & I knew an empty room awaited me.

Bangalore-time definitely flies waaaaaaay faster than everywhere else. Hadn’t I just reached the city? How could it be that January 1 was already here?! Didn’t want to pack.

Was very happy to hear that she could choose to not go back to office & instead could go home & rest.. Looked & looked & looked (& looked some more) at her as she related the ICICI HR meet incident. [Yeah, I can just keep looking at her..] The “Your heart is beating really fast..” She was right there; why would it not?

The rush-across-town to get to the departure point of the bus in time.. [We’re in India, after all; a touch of the ‘filmi’ is bound to be there!] I half-wanted to miss it.. The two lines of ‘Shopno dekhbo boley..’ she hesitantly sang.. The end of a wonderful 3 days was drawing near, & I somehow wanted it to go on..

‘filmi’ reminds me, apparently saying ‘palat..palat..’ silently to oneself as one sees the girl walk away works only in the movies. She walked away without as much as a turn & look.. my own Richard Parker.. which made me go, if I may be permitted to borrow one of her trademark expressions, “Huh!”

Note to myself: Going away was difficult. This girl is addictive.. Very.

p.s. Did I mention I love her bottom-lip? And her hair? And don’t even get me started on the dimples.