Unexpected Birthday Gift

Expressing my views was never a problem till I met that person..

This problem of mine was found on an auspicious day,my birthday..

My friends would say me if u go on being frank and bold you will never get married. I would reply them that i would be more than happy to be a bachelor than be a dog to obey his master as it is..

Mom always used to bless me on my birthday saying “Be polite, be patient, earn a good name for you and our family”. I often get bored by her advice. So have even started reciting the same from 7th standard on my birthdays along with my mom. But she didn’t give up and said ‘Actions speak louder than words’ “Mere imitating doesn’t help? Be a nice gentleman by your actions!!” on my 25th birthday.

One fine birthday.. Mangalore..

I was invited by my friends working there.They were my close mates on my 1st job and still now. People in my team used to call us as Musketeers for reasons best known to them and we call names for each and every one according to our behavior.

Since I was working in the same firm where we joined initially and they switched to a different one, I traveled all along from Chennai to Mangalore the previous day to spend time with them on my birthday.

However I really enjoyed the travel by train as it was a rainy November day. I started writing some small poems raving about weather and nature. As it was drizzling, rain droplets entered through the window started dancing in the window spokes and fell on my writing sheet.

I was actually angry at first and even closed the window very fast terrifying my co passengers since the page was damaged heavily. But then realized that since I waved my hand, the droplets resembled a figure somehow. I tried to view the figure by seeing it from all sides,diagonally and so on. But I was getting nothing on my mind. So I wiped the droplets very slowly with my kerchief and saw the erased portion resembling eyes,nose,mouth,neck and ear ring. Can’t believe!!But yet I thought GOD has provided this image to console me since there wasn’t even a single gal in my compartment for sighting or flirting.

Usually in movies, whenever hero travels in Train, Bus or even bullock cart, He’ll definitely be accompanied by a beautiful women along side him. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen in real life. So it seems that I’ve got atleast a Girl portrait with me.

I haven’t longed for a girl in my life since I used to sight them and doesn’t take them seriously till now.I used to make fun of them and be friends with them.That’s it.Then I enjoyed my travel and wrote some poems.Well the readers has to say whether it is good by the way.

I slept after having a nice chappathi along with kuruma which I bought in Coimbatore as the train stopped by.

At 11.47 pm, One of my College buddies,Raja messaged me.

“Many more happy returns of the day Arjun.Wishing you get many surprise birthday gifts.Would wish you in the morning by phone”

And birthday wishes went on to pour from many of my friends. As I have already entered Palakkad(Kerala), didn’t wanna lose money by replying to messages as it would add to roaming charges as well as I couldn’t even hear them wish me. I decided somehow they are gonna call me tomorrow so let me speak to them then.

Few of them wished me over phone in the morning and I had many unexpected people who wasn’t in touch with me wishing me on my birthday.Then I thanked all those who didn’t call but messaged me without forgetting my birthday.

Then I went to a hotel and took bath and got ready and had breakfast too..Since I don’t know Kannada, I somehow managed the server to bring me 4 idli,1 vada and a coffee..

Then CURD called me and said that I have to be there in City Centre at 10 am by the way and they are all arriving at the place and cut the phone call. I was thinking why CURD was behaving like ROWDY today.

Nick names

Then I had regular smiles every time I think about the friends in my gang for whom i traveled over a distance of more than 500 miles.

CURD – A Girl whom everyone in our gang used to kid often. Since she used to eat curd rice often and like curd rice,we named her as CURD. But she is the only one who used to kid BALLOON like anything..

BALLOON – A Guy who is so fat  but eats very little by the way.He used to fart often and NEEDLE named him as Balloon by the way.

NEEDLE – “The only man who can wear his school uniform even during his late forties is NEEDLE”-this was the first comedy said by ‘MOKKA’

MOKKA – Since she used to kill us in the name of making fun or kidding about others, MOKKA was choosed by us unanimously.

PEETHA – Yeah,Its me.. Since I used to call everyone in my gang as PEETHA, They named me to it..Actually PEETHA has no specific meaning to it, if you feel like calling someone by name,U can use PEETHA by the way.The only sorrow in my life is they named me as PEETHA..But however we act,we can never maintain status between our friends as they know us completely.

ROWDY – Yeah you heard it right.There is a rowdy in my gang and U expect it to be a guy.U are definitely wrong,its a gal by the way. If u kid her, you will get a nice pinch if you were a gal or your shirt/face would get yourself decorated with some food items if you were a guy. But sometimes ROWDY gets dominated by CHAPPATHI.

CHAPPATHI – Since he used to eat a lot of chappathi(popular north indian dish),he used to have lot of kuruma as side dish and that’s how he used to dominate her.As the scar by kuruma is very difficult to wash,he was the only one to threaten her.And Probably he must have been called as KURUMA but we somehow named him CHAPPATHI and it still continues..

Then I somehow reached CITY CENTRE at 9.30 am itself. And was wandering over the corridor as if I was the only nice good looking guy in the mall. Started sighting gals one by one and that’s when my mom called and wished me..Spoke to my mom and then I heard someone was calling my name and I was searching to the exact place and arrived at the place after a moment of hiccups..Where I astonished to see few young gals reciting “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Arjun,Happy Birthday to you “.

Was even sighting them for a while and then was searching my friends. Probably they would have been the one who would have arranged for it.Then a person touched my shoulders from my back, I immediately rolled the hands to hear nothing but a scream of a girl. After which i released my force on her hands. But she didn’t get angry and understood the situation that I would have thought her to be my friend.

She wished me “Iniya piranthanaal vaazhthukkal” (Happy birthday in Tamil) and made a pleasant smile on her face inspite of the pain in her hands. I apologized to her for my deed and she replied me “Its Ok” with a flaunting smile..

But I felt a lot for that and that’s when my friends arrived to the place and I began chasing Chappathi,Needle for the incident happened and CHAPPATHI said that she doesn’t take this as serious as she also has lots of friends and she was his team mate by the way..

Even though they consoled me,I was feeling heavy about her..

Then we had a cracker of a celebration by watching a movie and cake cutting inside the movie hall.Then after the movie got over we were wandering over the shops in the mall.And we were making fun of ‘Mokka’.That’s when I saw the same girl again came to buy some antics for her.I went ahead myself to say SORRY but she noticed me and stopped me saying “Don’t say sorry on your birthday”.

“Ok I am Arjun”lending my hand for a hand shake.

“I know it in the morning itself,myself Sajitha, can’t shake hands now sorry”

I replied I was really guilty about it and she said “Please don’t feel guilty about it. I have even informed my mom that I slipped in stairs. It’s an accident. Don’t make it to a issue..”

Then she was purchasing some antics and said to us ” I’m feeling jealous since I am not the one among this group. Its really rare to see a guy travel longer distances on his birthday just to spend time with his friends and you guys too making arrangements for his birthday,that’s really great”

“So what, do some stupid funny activities, you too can become the one among us” said Mokka and everyone of us starred at her. Sajitha laughed uncontrollably for a while forgetting her pain,I felt ease now..Then Curd was buying some nose ring and bangles for her.

Myself,Chappathi and needle were walking in the corridor discussing about our lives,family and well being.However they noticed that I was constantly seeing Sajitha always and said me that “Dont try her,She is a billionaire daughter”.

I was explaining them that the sounds I heard while I rolled her hands and they said”She will adjust the situation somehow. Eventhough she is a billionaire daughter,She doesn’t have that head weight even a bit and being so kind to everyone”.They started explaining about her kind attitude to me.

Then as it was getting late,we went and called Curd,Mokka and Rowdy to finish shopping as fast as it could and that’s when I saw some different ear ring she was wearing by the way and immediately I was shell shocked as it was of the same symbol as I saw it yesterday on my writing sheet.

I moved a few yards away from her and took out my writing sheet and compared the space created by droplets with that of the one she wore.I was actually interlacing the image of her ear ring in the space in my writing sheet.It was almost similar by the way.

That’s when the important problem started.

I was unsure about my feeling whether I like her or its just an attraction or its decided by GOD or its coincidence.

Then while we were about to leave the mall,we saw a girl thrashing a man.We understood the situation that someone has misbehaved with a girl by taking photos with a camera.And as a man I have to jump into the act right,but I went near to the girl who was weeping to get confirmation that it mustn’t be her because she doesn’t need one more pain today.It wasn’t her and to the contrary, the girl who was thrashing the man was her.

I was shocked and so as my gang too.I was thinking “Thank GOD,She didn’t thrash me on my birthday for hurt her”Then little by little many questions arose to curd.She asked me “Hey She wasn’t even able to lift her hand right?How is she thrasing him then??”

Needle kidded her in return “Seems like We can find Brain in Curd’s head too”

while she kid back saying “If Mokka itself has a brain,can’t i have one?”,since she was the one who laughed much.

And as the cycle continued they kid me too.. I was shell shocked seeing her beating that man and didn’t notice them..they understood I wasn’t noticing them.And then began the drama..

Rowdy found “this is not the girl” “She is wearing some other dress which was different from the one she wore before” Then only we realised.

We tried our best to control that girl’s anger towards that man and moved her out of that situation.And we introduced ourselves to her and She said that she is Saritha she is there to pick her sister up as she met with a minor accident..”Since Sajitha is suffering from pain,We will meet sometime later” said saritha and they both moved on..

My friends:

Rowdy threatened me saying that she would tell saritha that he was the one who hurt her and she didnt fall by the way.

I asked her to first listen to the situation and explained them the rain droplets instance and the ear ring she wore.Mokka made the situation worse by saying that “even saritha wore the same ear ring”

While needle was arguing that “why can’t it be a coincidence?”,

rowdy was planning myself to “get married to saritha and watching me getting beatings all over the lifetime” and curd,needle supporting her.

Balloon made the situation even more worse by farting in public..We all began running as the security warned us..

I angrily shouted “PEETHA PEETHA cha PEETHA” exclaiming about the situation!!Eventhough I can relate about the situation,since it was unexpected to me and made me unhappy a couple of times on my birthday.Its definitely an unexpected surprise on my birthday.And I dreamt to be an enjoying one.Though enjoyed a bit,at the end it finally pulled my leg.and so it was the most unexpected birthday gift till now.Can’t be completely happy about sajitha that i found my lady love or sad about saritha that if she would be my future wife..

Chappathi said me that “Dont worry Sandy would provide a nice solution to this”

Yeah now i gained some hope and I became a bit more lively.I forgot to mention about him.Sandy is…..

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(to be continued..)