The Guy in the checked shirt -4

Chapter 4
During our period of friendship, I noticed that he was an active participant for all the Team Building fun activities team, and when Ragini left my team he was looking for a person to replace her in the Activities committee. So during one of our frequent calls (Yes we call each other now…J) we were discussing about a lot of other stuff and suddenly we happened to discuss something about women and he started telling how girls are not actively involving themselves in anything except for official activities, I had argued for the women and eventhough some of his points made sense, I simply could not give up on Girl power and during the course of the argument, he asked me if I would be able to balance both. Ofcourse I can. “Good..” he said…”You’re going to be part of the Activities gang…Welcome to the team”. I was locked! No escape. And I gladly accepted. Little did I know the work involved in it. He completely handed over all the activities during my first event planning and laughed at my struggles. I couldn’t bear to leave my gethu and ask him for help. I was struggling to pull in the people. I was so shocked that they did not want to have fun!! During one of my ‘I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-I’m-doing’ moments I suddenly find him leaning across my bay, looking amused. I gave him one of my ‘How dare you ditch all the work to me??’ looks and he seemed undisturbed. All smiles and zen calmness. And to this day, it annoys me the calmness with which he approaches an issue or a problem. ‘Any help?’ he asks. ‘Not at all’ I say..Two can play this game Mr.Thaadi…’All in control’ I continue. ‘Ok brief me on the events planned for this Friday’ and with a smug look on my face I show him the excel prepared. ‘And what about the plans for Diwali Celebrations next week?’. Crap! I’ve forgotten all about Diwali. I’m particularly not good at hiding emotions from people. My face betrays me always! He seemed to have noticed it and was all smiles again. I had to admit defeat. ‘I forgot’ I say weakly. After just a brief pause, he says ‘Ok, lets do it together then’ and he proceeds to come up with ideas and fun activities for the Diwali celebrations. I was thankful he didn’t rub it in. Yet another of his many qualities that I liked…no…loved!
The Diwali celebration was a grand affair and as a part of this event we had planned for an Ethnic wear fashion show. Sandy and a couple of other girls had turned up in sarees. And I had come in my best silk kurti for the event and as always my thaadikaaran came in his rugged look and unkempt beard. He took one look at me and asked ‘Ethnic wear?’ I said ‘Yes! Don’t I look lovely?’ He looked quizzically at me and asked ‘Is this ethnic wear?’ I said ofcourse, ‘It’s a kurti and its Indian’ He didn’t look impressed and I felt a little disappointed. ‘Well I have to run up and down until the last moment to fetch goodies and approvals and other stuff, so it wouldn’t do if I came in a saree too!’ He seemed to buy that argument and smiled. ‘Where’s yours?..you’re supposed to be in ethnic wear too!’ My turn Mr.Smart… ‘Well’ he said scratching his beard…’ I guess you would need help with your running errands. So….’ He drawled… Nice save sir. Using me as an excuse to get out of this. Not too impressive but ok enough to get him out of trouble. The event went off wonderfully and we screamed the loudest when Sandy walked the ramp. She was lithe and graceful and gorgeous. She even gave a little twirl at the end. And to no one’s surprise she bagged the ‘Best dressed’ award. Completely exhausted, I was packing my stuff to leave, I heard the squeak of a pair of shoes and I turned abruptly and unusually fast to face him and that’s when I loved my heels….Eventhough I was short and he was considerably taller than me, my heels had bridged the gap between our height, not completely...but just enough for me to stare into his eyes…directly. When people say sparks fly and chemistry happens, I was ever so skeptical. But his moment I was ashamed to admit that it would be possible to power a battery from the electricity we generated. He too hadn’t anticipated this turn of events and stood tongue-tied briefly, as was I. ‘ So…ummm Good show!’he said and cleared his throat. I took a step back and paced myself. The tension broke and I laughed. ‘Yeah well, will you please admit now that we girls can do a bloody good job of organizing as well?’ I joked. ‘Not all girls…some’ he said. Never admits defeat. Tough one this guy. ‘So will you make it in time for the cab?’ And only then I noticed that it was 9.22 and the Cab would leave by 9.30, and with absolute possibility I know that I will not be able to make it on time even if I ran like Usain Bolt.