Game Over (Part 3)

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, read it here and here.

"We are here, at last. In the USA." she said to me and smiled. The same cute smile.

"Yeah." I smiled back.

Once inside the JFK airport, we had to change flights, from a Boeing to the much smaller Embraer jet. Unfortunately, we couldn't get seats next to each other. She seemed more disappointed than me due to that. I had mixed feelings, since this time, it was a hot American chick sitting next to me. I was hoping to somehow start a conversation with her during the flight. She had to sit next to an old lady who kept asking her where she came from and whether all Indians are vegetarians. She kept turning back to look at me helplessly, but stopped when I started giggling uncontrollably every time. She was probably pissed at me for not having tried hard enough to convince the old lady to shift to my seat, so that we could sit together.

The flight landed in Indianapolis soon after, at around 11 pm local time. She glared at me when I walked towards her so that we could gather the baggage together. May be she did notice that I was chatting away happily with the American chick (Sarah was her name, by the way) while I left her to suffer in silence. I offered the biggest and most stupid smile I could manage, and hoped it would work.

"So, a busy flight eh?" her voice was stern, almost authoritative.

"Hmm no. But at least it was more interesting than the previous flight. And a much hotter chick." I grinned.

"You %&$*!@ (insert the worst expletives here) !!" she started off, but I knew she was floored.

We collected all our baggage and sat in one of the couches inside the airport. Being midnight, there was no transportation in and out of the airport. So we had to wait till the first taxi in the morning to go to our respective apartments, her's in Indy and mine in Bloomington. I opened my laptop and was pleasantly surprised to find a free wifi network. So I started replying to all mails and facebook messages that I had got during the two days of my internet deprivation. She hadn't brought her laptop from India, and thus sat opposite me, trying hard to sleep.

"Enough with the internet, jerk. I am bored." she quipped suddenly.

"I thought you were sleeping." I offered an explanation.

"Not able to sleep. Let us do something interesting together."

"Ya? Do you want to play NFS Most Wanted? Or FIFA? They are the most interesting things I have come across." I gave her two options.

"You know what? I am actually glad that you are going to be in Bloomington, and I am going to be in Indy. You are such a jerk." she gave up on me.

And there it started. Just when I thought I had told her my entire life history, and she had told me hers, I was proved wrong. We kept talking, for hours. After close to four hours, she finally got tired of talking and without any notice, lied down on my lap and dozed off. Careful, careful. Don't jump to any conclusions yet, Karthik. Not yet.

To be continued..

Game Over (Part 2)

If you missed Part 1, read it here.

It took me ten minutes to change my clothes and come back out of the restroom. Some people were still staring at me. I still kept ignoring them. I occupied my seat and looked at her. She still looked miserable. I tried to dump my clothes inside my bag, and after much effort, managed to do so. I settled down in my seat and she opened her mouth to speak.

'My name is Krithika." she said, as she offered a handshake.
"Oh, nice name. I am Karthik." I accepted her friendly gesture.
"Are you going to IUPUI too?" she wanted to know.
"No. Actually I am going to IUB." I noticed the disappointment creep into her face as I said that.
"Oh, good. I wanted to apply there, but I missed the deadline." she explained.
"That is bad. But IUPUI is a good university too."
"Not as good as IUB though." she added before I could finish.

And there it started. We spoke as if we had been friends for long. The talk started with university rankings, admits and rejects, and other academic stuff, and slowly moved on to hobbies, parents, and personal stuff. We had talked to each other for almost 2 hours, and I felt I almost knew her entire life history, and I had told her mine. An old lady sitting in the front row was glaring at us because I guessed she couldn't sleep. I ignored her looks. Anyway, both of us felt tired after the long talking session, so we decided we needed some sleep. And we fell asleep soon after.

By the time I opened my eyes again, she was awake already. I drowned in her eyes as she said a "Hi" with the same cute smile. I smiled back sheepishly, rather sleepily. She was watching something on the personal entertainment system. I leaned forward to see what it was.

"Rock on." she whispered before I could recognize the scene.
"Oh, nice movie." I replied.

Bored, I started watching some old tennis matches. Before long, a voice in the PA system announced that we were about to land in New York. Ah, finally after so much preparation and struggle, here I am, at the United States of America. A huge sigh of relief. Little did I know, that, two weeks later, I wouldn't be so relieved after all.

to be continued...

Love at work

I hated to work on Saturday evenings. Especially since all my roommates would be enjoying in Kilroy's Sports Bar, while I would be cleaning up trash, or serving burritos. That Saturday, I was put up at the Italian food joint, and it was particularly busy. I had never seen so much crowd before, and it was tiring. The only solace was that Hafize was working in a place right opposite to mine.

I first met her when we both were put up in the same place for the shift, the Deli. Being the evening shift, not many people wanted sandwiches, so it was relatively free. I managed to strike a conversation with her, introducing myself, and that I am from India. She introduced herself and said she was from Turkey. Boy, was she pretty! She was the most beautiful girl I had seen in years. I got lost in her eyes for sometime, before I managed to get back to the real world again.

The word 'India' worked wonders, as she started raving about how great and beautiful India is, and how handsome Indian guys are. Then we started talking about the university, our respective courses, how she finds speaking in English very difficult, and so on. She seemed to know most other people working in the food court. As one of the guys, Dan passed by, he commented.

"Hey, nice boo@#" he said to her. I couldn't hear properly what he meant to say, as I shook my head in disbelief.
"Thank you." she replied with a big smile on her face.

I was thinking, what the hell is wrong with this girl. Then I realized she was wearing quite a nice pair of boots. I literally banged my head against the wall. Time seemed to fly as we kept talking. By the time she left I knew it. Yes, I was in love.

Sadly, after that one time, I couldn't meet her much. Even if we did, we didn't have time to say anything more than a 'Hi. How are you?'. Even on that day, there was no way I could talk with her, but I had all the time in the world to look at her. Ah those pretty eyes. I could swim in them forever.

Soon after that, my shift ended, and so did her's. I met her when we were clocking out.

"So, how was your shift?" I asked her.
"Not bad. How was yours?" she asked me back.
"It was awesome." I said with a smile.
"Any plans tonight?"
"Nope, nothing as of now." I told her honestly.
"Oh. Where do you live, by the way?" she wanted to know.
"Park doral apartments, it is near Best Buy. You know?" I tried to explain to her.
"Ya. Actually that is quite near to my place."
"Oh is it? That is cool." I told her.
"You know what? You can come to my place, and have some food. Then I will drop you in your apartment. What say?

I couldn't believe my ears. Did I hear her correctly, or was I just imagining something?

"Er, you have a car?" I managed to blurt out.
"Of course, stupid. Tell soon, my husband is waiting outside in his car." she said quite clearly.

There was a huge shattering noise heard somewhere inside the huge hall, and everyone rushed to see if any of the glassware crashed to the floor. Alas, it was the sound of my heart breaking.

Evolution of dreams

Age 7-15 : You dream that your mom/dad is dead and wake up scared.
Age 16-22 : You dream that your girl/boy friend is dead and wake up scared.
Age 23-30 : You dream that your spouse is dead and wake up scared.
Age 31-55 : You dream that children are dead and wake up scared.
Age 56-69 : You dream that your grandchildren are dead and wake up scared.
Age 70+ : You dream that you are dead and realize it wasn't a dream.