An Affair To Remember...

I don’t exactly remember when Nitya came into existence. However when she came, she conquered me. I loved her. She was divine. Angel. Lovely. Cute.

And not real.

She was a bit of Elizabeth Bennett, some Karishma Kapoor, a tint of Kalpana Chawla and a great friend of mine. She had a doctorate in Physics. She knew the theory of Relativity better than anyone else. Probably Einstein included.

Nitya’s transformation from being a cute little chubby girl of fifteen to a post doctoral student of unlimited intelligence had been closely monitored by me. At every defining stage of my life, I refined Nitya as I wanted her to be. She had always been my ideal girl.

Any girl I met – would undergo the Nitya Test right away. If she passed this test, I would take a second look at her. If not – Whoz Next?

It was on my twenty seventh birthday that my parents told me that they’d like me to get married. I frowned. I tried to explain that I’d marry a Nitya.

“A Nitya?” My father was curious.

“Yes sort of a benchmark called Nitya. The girl has to pass this certification to become a Nitya.”

“And who conducts these benchmarking tests, my son?” My father was now furious.

It was a Trans-Atlantic call. I couldn’t actually sell my Nitya proposition to them effectively. I decided to talk to them about it during my next trip to India.

Couple of months later, I stood in front of them with a big smile on my face. “Ma, Pa – I am India!”

“I am India?” Randheer, my only remaining friend from B-Tech couldn’t resist it. “As in I am home?”

I didn’t say anything. My parents didn’t mind the horrendously disastrous opening line. “I am India?” Randheer still makes fun of me.

Barely a day later my mother told me as-a-matter-of-factly that Mr Venkateswara Rao and his daughter Navya were visiting us for dinner.

I raised an eyebrow. She nodded. Indeed they were exploring the option.

“Is she a Nitya?” I asked my mother.

“Navya has an M Sc degree in Mathematics.”

“Aha! So she is not into Physics. So she is not a Nitya. I am not interested” I told them stubbornly.

Being stubborn – assumes a very different meaning especially when the other party is your mother or father. It only means that a couple of minutes later, you give up your ideology and pursue what your parents tell you to do.

Clad in blue jeans and a Hare Krishna kurta, I answered the door bell that evening. Navya smiled shyly. Mr. Venkateswara Rao helloed me and hurried off to my father’s library.

My mother retired to the kitchen under the pretext of preparing tiffin.

They couldn’t have been more direct. They wanted us to start talking and hoped that by the time the Masala Dosa was ready, we would be ready to exchange I-Love-You’s.

It so happened that by the time this famous Dosa was ready – We had not even started talking – let alone exchanging ILUs.

Navya inspected the modern art hanging on our walls and I stared at the European Premier League coming live on ESPN – Not that I could differentiate between a Real Madrid team and a Manchester United team – I just didn’t know what to do.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao – slightly disappointed that his daughter hadn’t been proposed to yet, suddenly came up with yet another blatantly stupid proposition.

“Why don’t you guys go out and roam around a little? You will get bored with us oldies.”

Both of us knew there was no point arguing there. We silently rose from the sofa and went out.

Twenty minutes later, we entered a restaurant and ordered coffee.

Navya started talking first. “Where are you from? Refresh me!”

“San Francisco. Actually South San Francisco. And you?” I sipped my coffee.

Navya nodded. “I expected this. How long have you been in SFO?”

I cleared my throat and shifted uncomfortably in my chair. “A couple of years”.

She shook her head. “And that makes you a Frisco dude? What about the twenty five years you had spent in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. Forgotten?”

I didn’t reply. In fact she was bang on target there. I was showing off.

“OK. Leave it. Tell me about yourself.” She asked me.

This time I was careful. After a couple minutes talking about myself – I asked her about her future plans.

“I want to be in India – married to an Indian ­– work on my M Phil and probably shoot for a doctorate.”

I nodded. It was clear that we were going nowhere.

“Guess we need more time to decide!” I told her.

She stared at me seriously. I thought she would start a lecture there but she chose to remain silent.

I paid the bill. She did not resist. When we were about to leave, she asked me if I could join her for a movie on Sunday.

I went home totally confused. Maybe she liked me. Maybe she was just being nice. Maybe she didn’t want to marry me…

My father was angry with me. They wanted me to get married this week itself so that I could take my wife with me to San Francisco.

Obviously I needed more time.

Was she my Nitya? There was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that she indeed was what I had been looking for. However I wasn’t so sure.

Sunday came in a hurry. We went to “Dil To Pagal Hai”. She munched her popcorn. I drank my ice tea. The theatre was almost empty. I decided to ask her the question that had been nagging me for the last couple of days.

“Ah Navya, I wanted to ask you something.”

She smiled, “Let me guess. What did Navya tell her parents the other day?”

I was stumped. “How did you guess?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what is the answer then?”

She stopped minding her popcorn, “I wanted to ask you the same question. What did you tell your parents?”

I knew she wanted me to answer it first.

I coughed mildly, “I asked you the question first.”

She nodded.

"Any plans of answering it now?" I was getting impatient.

She nodded again.

"So what is it?" I asked.

"Does it make a difference?" she asked me.

Negative… I thought, negative. A sudden wave of disappointment overcame me. She spotted it deftly.

"It does. I can help you save your skin," I said weakly.

She looked at me a bit seriously. "What do you think?"

I didn't know what to say. 'Is she the Nitya?' I was not sure. Was I really?

I didn't feel particularly attracted to her. Maybe because I didn't really know her. She entered my life just two days ago. Even a lifetime is insufficient to read a person fully.

Observing my dilemma, Nitya spoke in a very pleasant but mocking tone. "I can also help you save your skin"

I smiled wearily. I felt a great divide separating us two. Neither of us was able cross it.

The film had come to an end and I did not remember watching it.

I dropped her at her residence and came home.

My parents looked at me tensely. I knew they were expecting an answer.

“I need more time” I told them.

My father nodded. “I expected this. Hell ya! I did expect this. Are you nuts? How long do you need? You are flying in two weeks for Chrissakes. Suit yourself. Be a bachelor for the rest of your life.”

The phone came to my rescue then. My father picked it up, talked to someone in a low tone and turned to me. “You know, I think you’ve found your soul mate. Navya also sings the same song. You guys are made for each other.”

The sarcasm in his voice was pretty direct. I didn’t reply. I just went to Randheer’s apartment.

“Guess she is not interested in you”

Randheer was brutally frank sometimes.

That hit me hard. I didn’t like it.

“And you like her a lot. Admit it.” Randheer could read my mind very well.

I admitted it. There was no point holding it back. I was slowly leaning towards her.

Next day, I met her again.

“What do you think?” I asked her.

She gave me a strange look. “About what?”

“Enough of beating around the bush. Let us be practical. Will you marry me?” I had to put in an Herculean effort to utter these words.

She was silent. She didn’t respond for two full minutes.

At the end of the second minute, I rose from my seat and left.

She observed me go.

And she let me go.

“We don’t jell together well.” I declared to my parents boldly. They were taken aback.

“Don’t you like her?”

I took my own time before coming out with a reply, “I like her very much.”

“So what is the issue?” My parents were puzzled.

"It is not that. I like her very much. She is probably as close to Nitya as anyone can ever get. I just haven’t considered an important point so far. A girl having so many qualities may not think in my frequency at all. She doesn't come down - neither do I. And uh.. Well, it is not gonna work. We just cannot be together. I have to take a relook at my dreamgirl. This is a good lesson for me."

Two weeks later, I boarded an Air India flight… Still single. I didn’t feel like pursuing the other “matches” in my parents’ list.

I didn’t tell anybody but I was in love with Navya. And the fact that she didn’t stop me that day from leaving – hit me really hard. It took me months to recover from the depression.

A year later – in San Francisco International Airport, I ran into Navya. She introduced me to her husband Nirmal – A Sun Microsystems Engineer. They were on their way to India. We chatted for about half an hour. I wanted to ask her a lot of things. However I couldn’t do it in front of Nirmal.

Then, God created an opportunity for me. Nirmal excused himself and went to the restroom.

I immediately seized the opportunity, “So you finally found a guy who understands you well?”

She smiled, “I expected you’d ask me this.”

“So?” I was impatient.

“Nope. Not really!”

Surprise… Negative… Astonishment… Surprise again…

"Why then.." I almost shouted. I couldn’t hold myself back.

She replied very casually, "He did not ask me whether I liked him or not. So whatever might be my opinion it just didn't matter."

The End.