The date - cont'd

Previously...

Scene 4: 8:15pm. Madras Central parking lot.

I took the bike to the parking lot and got my ticket. Something told me I must keep the ticket safe. I recalled an incident where I lost mine and spent 30 minutes convincing the guy at a stand to let me take my bicycle.

I looked at my mobile to see if I missed any calls. Supriya said Roopali would call me when she gets close to Madras. A message was waiting for me.

'hiee edward, this is roopali here, supriya's friend..me coming by brindavan express..S1..will reach there by 8.15...how will I recognise u'

Good question. How will she recognise me!

'Am dressed in grey. Wear spectacles. Helmet in one hand'.

I stood for some time at a counter to get a platform ticket only to realise that the counter had moved to another place. And there was a long queue there. I fished out my mobile and sent Roopali another message.

'Am standing in a very long queue to buy a platform ticket. Wait there.'

I know what it is like to wait at a station. And it happened twice- at Bombay and the following month at Trivandrum.

Fortunately, the queue moved quickly and 5 minutes later I was inside the station. I scanned the list of arrivals and found the platform. As I walked down the platform, I casually looked at the compartment. It was S1. I slowed down and looked around. Too many people who did not fit the description Supriya gave. I continued walking when something made me stop and turn back.

Surrounded by her bags, a girl stood in the middle of the platform. Hmm... matches the description, I thought. But what if I am wrong? I took out my mobile and dialled Roopali's number.

'All lines in this route are busy. Please try again later'.

I cursed Reliance Infocomm and tried again. Reliance did not budge.

'My boy, it is now or never. You can spend the rest of the night waiting for her to find you. Or you can find out for yourself. You are still shy, aren't you?', my mind taunted.

I took a deep breath and walked towards her. It's now or never.

'Excuse me, are you Roopali?'

She looked at me and smiled. 'Yes', she said and we shook hands.

One formality over. Come to think of it, I don't think I introduced myself?

'Now I need to go to Chennai Egmore', she said.

Eh? Egmore? Whatever for?

Turned out that her train to Guwahati leaves from the Egmore station and not Central. I groaned inwardly. That would mean leaving my bike at Central. I dismissed the idea of taking an auto outright. We would definitely be fleeced and haggling with auto-rickshaw drivers is not one of my strong points.

'Which ones are yours?', I asked pointing to the bags that surrounded her.

'All of them'.

My eyes widened. Two of them were huge. Why would one person need to carry so much? Some mysteries will remain unexplained.

A porter stood nearby, waiting patiently for Roopali to let him take them.

'I can carry all of them', she said.

All of them? Whoa!

'I will take this bag', I replied and pointed to a large blue bag. If it wasn't for my helmet, I would have taken one more.

Helmets can be troublesome. Like tonight.

I watched in bewilderment as she strapped bags onto her and picked up a suitcase. There was only one thing left to do. I picked up the remaining blue bag.

I have never carried a bag so heavy. And the helmet was making things difficult for me.

'Why don't you wear your helmet?' she suggested.

'The last time I wore my helmet and walked around, my colleagues began calling me a Martian. I used to walk everywhere with my helmet on', I grinned.

As we neared the exit, I realised that Egmore did not have any of the 'fancy restaurants' that the Central had. I suggested we have something to eat at Central before going to Egmore.

'What do you want to have? High quality vegetarian? Or sandwiches?'

'I want Indian food.'

'Fine. Saravana Bhavan it is. We can have it here, or go upstairs'.

'Let's go upstairs.'

'What about the luggage. I am not quite sure if we can take it up there'.

'This is a station! People will have luggage.'

A valid point. I looked around and saw people leaving their luggage at the cloak room.

'We can leave it at the cloak room', I started to say. But she was already half-way up the stairs. I shrugged my shoulders and followed her.

'One side', said the man by the entrance. He meant we were to sit next to each other and not face-to-face. I was not worried about that. I was more worried about carrying the luggage through the narrow aisle.

Some minutes later, we got a menu card and placed our orders. Hers came first. I dialled Supriya's number.

'All lines in this route are busy. Please try again later.'

'Fuck!', I muttered to myself. I was surprised I swore out aloud. Invectives are always muttered and are never heard by others when I use them. I hoped Roopali did not hear me.

'Not getting Supriya's number?', she asked, her eyes on the plate.

'No... did you hear what I said to myself?'

'That 4-letter word, na? The one Supriya uses so often?'

I could have banged my head against the wall. Or my helmet. I sent Supriya a message instead of calling her.

A few minutes later, Supriya responded saying she was not able to get my number as well. I decided to try her land phone number. While dialling, I told Roopali that the last time I called Supriya on her land phone, she thought I was Roopali! As the phone rang, my order arrived. I gave my phone to Roopali.

After making small talk, Roopali gave the phone to me. Supriya whispered conspiratorially.

'Did you get her a box of Nutties?'

'Nutties? What Nutties?'

'I sent you a message about it.'

'I didn't get it. But I'll buy one anyway.'

After finishing our dinner, we decided to have coffee from another place. Coffees at Saravana Bhavan are way too expensive for the quantity they dispense. I caught the waiter before he came up to our table, and paid the bill.

What has happened to me?

'Shall we leave?'

'Don't we have to pay the bill? Or we can go without paying?'

'Didn't you know? They have a special discount for passengers going to Assam. You don't have to pay anything.'

'Ah, then I must come here more often.'

'I have to be around. I had to convince him to give the discount.'

As we made our way out of Central, auto-rickshaw drivers kept pestering us.

'An auto, saar?'

'No. We don't need one.'

'If you all say like this, who will take an auto?'

'We only have to go to Park!'

That shut him up. We crossed the main road and walked towards Park station.

By now Roopali began to huff a little. I felt bad carrying only one bag. So we swapped my helmet for her suitcase.

After getting tickets to go to Egmore, we bought coffee and spent the time playing with words. It seemed like the train took a long time to arrive.

But I wasn't complaining.

To be continued...