(Ek Choti si ………)
I’m not a 16 year old kid to get into an online friendship, but somehow she was someone special. She was not my first online friend. From the time I started using internet I have been making lot of female friends around the globe. Two of them, one from Brazil and another from Germany top the list. I was just a kid then and now again why am I doing this? This time she is an Indian that too from one of the southern state. I just love chatting with her. When she asked for my mobile number, I didn’t know why I was so apprehensive about sharing my number. May be I’ve wasted some time not talking to her. I just don’t know what our relationship was. It was long distance relationship and has never met each other in person. When my mom told me my parents are visiting my cousin’s place in Mangalore without any second thought, I told her I’ll also join them. Travelling from Mumbai to Mangalore just for a day and that too I’ll be with my parents for just hours was a loss making proposition. They call me Suhas (3 idiot Fame) and some time I think, I’m like him, as I always have a profit and loss statement for everything. Why am I charting this loss making trip? Just to see my online friend? I have no answer for these questions but only thing I know was that I desperately want to meet her.
I’ve planned my trip in such a way that I reach Mangalore Airport by 6:30 in the morning and will spent the first half of the day with my online friend and will head towards my cousin’s house in the second half. I’ve already informed my parents that I’ll be reaching Mangalore only by 3 O’clock and is travelling by road. I started my day by giving lift to one of my friend on my way to Airport. That was just a gentleman’s gesture to give her a lift. I was so excited about my trip and just told her about my adventure. She was not talking much and was just listening. When she got out of the taxi only thing she told was “Fly Safe and Play Safe.” She just walked towards her power yoga class and disappeared behind the glass door. I was lost for a couple of seconds and by the time a guy was standing near my taxi and asked me can I give him a lift till Airport and I agreed. We continued our journey towards Airport and suddenly I asked the guy sitting next to me, how he knew I was going to Airport. He was in his early 30s and a very enthusiastic guy. I just heard your girlfriend saying “Fly Safe and Play Safe”. Oh!! She is not my Girl friend. I just should not have talked to this guy this much. He took it from there and was talking, talking and talking. He told me my friend may not be my GF but her eyes say she has some feeling for me and blah blah blah. He was shifting from different topics to topics. Only thing I could recollect was that he was a Gujarati and a diamond merchant. Before leaving to different terminals he just handed over me his Visiting Card. His Business Card was as funny as him. It was blue in colour and in diamond shape. He has managed to incorporate his entire CV into this small blue coloured diamond shaped Visiting Cards.
Even after getting inside the flight, I was thinking of my friend’s comment of “Flying safe and playing it safe”. My journey has just begun. The seating arrangement in these low cost airlines is worse than the congested seating arrangement of Buses in Himachal. I was squeezed between a doctor and a middle aged woman who was a first time traveller. The doctor was talking to be like I was his long lost friend. There was another funny character who was sitting in the next seat. He might be 90 kgs and may be 5 feet tall and resembled Spin bowler Ramesh Powar with his sunglasses. What is wrong with this guy? Why is he wearing a Sunglass inside the flight? May be his appearance was not enough for the day, he started acting strange. He took out his Chinese make mobile handset and started clicking pictures of the Airhostess. He was enjoying the pictures he has taken in his pink coloured handset. Bare legs of the airhostess were captured professionally as if he was a professional photographer for some adult magazine. The lady sitting next to me doesn’t understand Hindi or English and could only speak Kannada. I had a tough time in convincing her to wear the seat belt, which was inturn done by the airhostess. The flight is to take off and now the lady wants something from the overhead cupboard and I couldn’t understand what she needs and neither was she able to explain me what she wants. I told her the flight is going to take off and cannot take anything now through sign language. Now she also used sign language to her benefit and conveyed me that she needs to throw up. Oh god! what more can I expect, I pulled out the paper bag for her and asked her to use the same. I was looking towards doctor’s side to avoid seeing her vomiting and doctor took it to his advantage and started talking to me about sea sickness and how he felt in his first international sea trip.
Most interesting thing I saw on this flight was the airhostess taking away the paper bag from the lady after she had done, with a smile on her face. Oh! God this is a tough job. I always associated airhostess to glamour, but now I can see customer service here.
What more I ask for? I was surrounded by classic kind of people. May be the long wait in the airport before boarding the flight or may be the strange people around me would have made me hungry. I was waiting for the flight attendants to bring the cold sandwiches they serve. I just couldn’t find any difference between these people and the chaiwala who comes inside the train. Both are having the same profile. Only relief for me for sometime is that the ever talking doctor is reading some magazine now and is not talking to me. When the flight attendant brought the sandwiches, I got one and paid her the money. I just inserted the balance amount returned to me in my wallet and started having my sandwich. Suddenly the doctor next to me became active and told me “You should never keep that in your wallet”. I didn’t understand what he was talking about. I just looked at him with more curiosity. He adjusted his sitting position in such a way that he can look into my eyes while he speaks. “There are chances, that it get damaged and the protection will never be a protection anymore.” That was too much for me to handle and I asked him what he was talking about. “Never keep condoms in your wallet; there is a high risk of it getting damaged.” How the hell do you know that I keep my condoms in my wallet? “I just saw the blue coloured thing when you were paying for the sandwich”. Oh! God, he had mistaken the diamond shaped visiting card as a condom packet. I wanted to correct him but then I thought that, I will have to narrate the story of how I got this card. Better keep quite. Now some strange feeling, hit me, why am I not carrying one?
The first thing I did after reaching Mangalore airport was to text my online friend that I’ve landed and asked her to text me back, where I can meet her. She texted me back asking me to meet her in the beach. I took a taxi and headed towards the beach. When I saw a medical shop I asked my taxi driver to stop and collected a pack of condoms. The shop keeper was looking at me like I asked Samosa in KFC. May be the effect of doctor, I kept the pack in my bag rather than keeping it in my wallet. When I restarted my journey towards the beach I realized the fact that, I’ve not bought any gift for my online friend. At this hour of the day (6:30), where can I get a gift? If it was my Ex, I could have made it up with a Kiss, but for this first meeting may be I’ll have to think something else. I could get some flowers for her. I was looking for flowers on the roadside and by the time I reached the beach and I’m standing in the beach without any gift for my online friend.
I always loved Arabian Sea. I just started enjoying the sea breeze and sat down in the lonely beach. I was totally lost in my thoughts and was enjoying the sea. I turned back when someone called my name. I was totally taken back what I saw. Two school girls were standing in their School uniform, one of then resemble Sharanya, my online friend. I really wanted to ask her, is she Sharanya’s younger sister. She introduced me her friend Riya. I was in a shock state now; I came all the way to Mangalore to meet a school kid? I really didn’t know what I need to do now. These kids took me to the nearby restaurant for breakfast and they both went to the washroom and came out, after changing to casuals. Now at least it doesn’t look like I’m with school kids. We ordered breakfast and started talking. Why didn’t you tell me you are a school going kid? She was very fast in responding. I’m not a kid and in next April, I’ll be 18. Oh God! , I’m with a minor, may be with two. I wanted to get out here as soon as possible. But I cannot do this now, as I’ve already informed my cosine, I’ll be reaching by 3 O’ Clock. I thought, I can handle that but here, I’m playing with fire. Let me get out of trouble as soon as possible.
I told Sharanya, that I’ve to go my cosine’s place urgently as there is an emergency. I told her I’ll call her and literally ran away from that place to my cosine’s house. On my way to my cosine’s place, I opened my bag and took the condom packet to crush and threw it into the dustbin. I was feeling so guilty of my action and was thinking why I couldn’t understand she was a School kid and not a doctor as she had told me.
I received an SMS from sharanya saying she misses me and had planned the entire day with me. I deleted the message and while walking I told to myself, she is going to miss me for ever. My mobile again received a message, this time from an unknown no. That was again a miss-you message but this time from Riya. I have no idea why I didn’t delete that message. The packet I wanted to crush went inside my bag again.
