The year long relationship - Part 1 of 3

The last year was a good one, but the last relationship? Not so sure. I had just moved out of IIT campus to Nungambakkam and was really bored. Bored because, almost all of my friends were placed outside Chennai or had gone for further study outside Chennai, to add to that, my job wasn't hectic either. Occasionally it demanded weekends/ more hours, but on an average I wasn't working more than 45 hrs a week. I had all the time in the world at my hands, with nothing much to do. Moreover, the procrastinator in me destroyed the plans of utilizing the free time, and it was in this “free time” that I met her.

I had gone out to check out Minus1 - the closest pub to my place, and I found her sitting at the opposite table staring at me. Well, being a Surd in Chennai, I do get a lot of stares; fortunately this wasn’t one of those - “OMG, Is that an alien?” look. So, I took the cue, and stood up, but before I could walk up to her, my rusted guts started to panic and threw up junk and random questions - What is an asian babe like this doing sitting alone in a pub in Chennai? What if she is a pro? What if she's just jerking me around? What if she is with someone or waiting for someone? Luckily, the brain processed some parameters and ordered me to turn straight to bar and to order another beer, buying me time to think and to weight the pros n cons.

After half a pint and 5 mins, the pros and cons were irrelevant, as gods curse for men had taken its full effect and I wasn’t thinking with my brain, but my penis. Again, I stood up, and the panicky rusted guts, which again tried to throw me off the target – What should I say? What should be my pickup line? But this time I ignored it and decided to be.....  Spontaneous!

Me: Hi, Do you mind if I join you?

Babe: Sure.

*awkward 30 seconds of silence…

Me: So, what’s a babe doing, sitting alone in a pub in Chennai?

*facepalm. So much for spontaneity! At least, I could have asked her name first!

Babe: Well, I come here and haunt the single men, sitting alone at the bar. And what are you doing sitting alone at the bar?

Me: (huh? A babe with a sense of humor! ) I come here to get haunted by the pretty babes who sit alone in the pub. Damn, that’s not funny! tchch.. I just moved in here, and just came down to check out the pub. I am Sarbjot, BTW.

Babe: Hi, I am Lon.

Half an hour had passed and I was barely managing to keep up with the philosophical topics that she was so happy to discuss, the pub was closing, and there was a growing desperation for a way to ask her number. Bad at multitasking I started to nod at almost everything that Lon said.

            Lon: Okay. So, let’s go.

            *another nod. Damn it! I don’t have a way to her number yet!

            Me: Where to?

            Lon: I am thinking of going to Marina beach and pain some more single men.

            Me: (What the hell? She’s brave too?) Do you need company?

            Lon: I don’t. But you do. Why don’t you join me? *grins

            Me: (Yessss!!) Sure.

Moving to the end of the day, (as rest of the part is out of the scope of this blog) as we part our ways –

            Me: This was fun. Should do it again.

            Lon: Yeah, Give me a call next time you are going to a pub. Alone.

            Me: *a laugh. You are funny!

And there I had it with me, her number. 

So it started, with a run in @Minus1, continued with hangouts at cafes/pubs, moved on to frequent dinners @Shansi, and got strengthened by movie marathons, back at my place.

I was easily hooked on to her company, not only because she’s uncomfortably hot, but also because she has an addictive personality. She was just so damn unpredictable. One day she is all preachy – “God helps us all”, another day she is all ears even when I’m in the ’deth fan mode - “Megadeth is far better than Metallica because, blah blah blah”. She could be anything from angry, calm, argumentative, agreeable, funny, violent, caring, abusive, and eloquent. Lon had all the weapons in her artillery too have things her way; silent treatment being her favorite choice of weapon.

 As summer gave way to autumn, we were spending more time together and things were going smooth until…. Well, they say if you observe the moon closely, you will start to notice the imperfections.

.... continued at Part 2