Hi!

Posted by Nilanjana Biswas on Thursday July 13, @02:03PM

Just one little word, "Hi!"

“Hi!”

I did not even spare my caller with a glance. “Hi! Yourself”

“Wrong side, I see.”

With a sigh, I put down my pen and slowly raised my head in the caller’s direction.

“Wrong side of what?”

“Wrong side of the bed, that’s where you got up from.”

“Haven’t you got anything better to do?” I hated being disturbed, especially now and the caller had that uncanny habit of catching me in my worst moods.

“No reason to take it out on me.”

“I’m not tak”“

”Could have fooled me, dingbat.“

”Dingbat yourself!“

I was more frustrated and exasperated than being really angry and I certainly did not feel like indulging in verbal acrobatics.

”One dingbat recognizes the other.“

”This is it.“ I picked up my pen and dairy and prepared to leave the would-be battlefield.

”Cool down, it’s just a joke.“

”I’m in no mood for jokes.“

Any more of this I would get hysterical.

”That bad, huh!“

”Stop trying to analyze and understand things that you obviously don’t.“

”Hey! That’s hitting below the belt. There’s no harm in trying to understand ’“

”Oh! Please, spare me. Just “ just go and get hold of someone else.”

My voice was reaching a higher pitch. I flung my arms in the air dropping my pen and diary. “Now, see what you’ve done.” I knew that my accusation was baseless but I could not stop myself from lashing out. Things of late had been too trying and it was beginning to take its toll on my frayed and jarred nerves.

“Sorry!”

An apology! That’s the last thing I expected or imagined. I gaped for a while, not quite understanding the uncharacteristic remark.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Uh! You are forgiven.”

“That’s like someone I know.”

“Really? Who?” I feigned total surprise and innocence.

“You, my one and only Nisha.”

“You should have joined the theatre, Vinod.” I could not suppress a smile at his theatrics.

“There! I knew that I could make you smile.”

“Now that you have succeeded, you can leave me in peace.”

“Not again! Not when I thought you were easing up just a teeny weeny bit.”

“Please Vinod, I’ve got work to do ” I ’“

”So that’s why you are acting like a bear with a sore head. Frustration, exasperation, dismay, desperation, dismay, grief, sorrow “ don’t we all feel it sometime or the other but we should live and let live.”

“Dispose of the royal ”we“ and please stop spouting sh”“

”Uh-uh“, he waggled a finger at me, ”Language my dear lady, language.“

I regaled him with my choicest expletives and he cringed visibly in a most dramatic manner.

”Tut-tut, isn’t there enough pollution already.“ He bent down and picked up my pen and diary.

”If these“, he said waving my retrieved articles, ”are the reason for your sore head, you should forget about it.“

He saw the murderous glow in my eyes. He held up his hands and quickly added, ”for the time being.“

”Ok! What do you suggest we do in the “time being”, play peek-a-boo?“

”We’re too old for that or are we? But seriously, I came to talk to you.“

”Oh! Now that you have got my undivided attention, shoot!“

”You’re going back into your shell. I don’t know why you have got to be so defensive with me. I won’t seduce you or ’“

”Vinod, I’m not being defensive. Now will you kindly tell me what you have to say.’

We both knew that I was being defensive. Vinod was ok, hardly the lady killer type. But what unnerved me most were his eyes. He simply looked directly into one’s soul, or least he seemed to with his unwavering gaze but then again I was already reputed for living life in the virtual realms of reality.

“I hardly know anything about you.”

“So this is an inquisition, the Vinod-ish kind.”

“Hardly, I don’t have the necessary weapons.”

If he only knew. He had more weapons than the Pentagon. Either he did not know how to use them or he was waiting for the kill.

“It’s unfair, you know everything, almost everything about me.”

“You revealed yourself. I did not force you. There’s a difference.”

“Are you implying that I’m forcing you?”

“No, but you’re curious to know.”

“Anybody would be curious. Such a charming petite creature and no men in your life.”

“How do you know that this charming creature has no men in her life? Such profound analysis and wisdom! Dr. Freud, you’ve found your disciple.”

Vinod preened himself and ran a hand through his scarecrow hairstyle. I knew what was coming next.

“So how many of them have you been hiding in the closet?”

“Ah! Let me count, one dozen ” no! “ Two and a half I think.”

The ploy on my part was to keep up the playful banter without letting anything out of the closet.

“Am I one of them Nisha?”

He said it so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. The shock must have registered in my face. I had never considered Vinod, not in that way. He was so much the unassuming sort. I stared at him open-mouthed, a myriad of emotions rocked my whole life within a span of a few seconds.

He held up his hands characteristically.

“No! Don’t answer that, it was wrong of me to ask.”

A second apology! That’s all I needed. I never felt so vulnerable and confused in my whole life. It seemed so ridiculous or was it?

“I guess I have taken the wind out of your sails as well as mine.”

“That’s what you came to talk about ” us?“

”Doesn’t have to sound that bad Nisha. One thing just led to another. I “ I better get going. Now you definitely don’t want to talk to me.”

“No, wait!”

It came out before I could stop myself. I did take too many things for granted. I was scared, perhaps, to make any commitment. I was too encompassed in my own world to care about anyone else. It all came to me in a flash. That’s why I’d been so incomplete. I had no one to share my life, so everything I felt and did was a secret. I’ve been the one to isolate myself, circumstances or no circumstances. Here was someone trying to share his life with mine and I was being my typical selfish self.

Vinod looked up with a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Friends?”

“Friends.”

We could start from this little word and keep the road open. Let everything take its own natural course.

“What about a coffee, Miss?”

“I will take you up on it, Mister.”

Vinod proffered his hand. I took it unhesitatingly. “Here’s to life”, I breathed to myself.

“Shall we start all over again? Hi! Nisha.”

“Hi! Vinod.”