by Prerna . K
As the person shouted “what’s up bro” and sat beside Maira. I saw him, Jas saw him, Jas and I saw each other, then again at him, and perplexed she shouted “Ritz, James.”
She started excitedly overreacting, in Hindi and Punjabi mix, which was good they could not understand us.
I was controlling my smile and excitement as they could see and judge our expressions. But then Jas said, “Do you think I'm mad or you are unique smart? Look at that.” I noticed a weird statement on the screen saying “connection error”.
And then the boom of excitement blasted. We both started shouting, jumping like little kids who got their longed wish. As if this particular person was ten thousand percent, James.
Even if he was not; we just needed a reason to celebrate, so exactly we were celebrating something, what it was, that’s a mystery. This overjoyed, madness went for a little longer, trying to make all assumptions related to this stranger.
(I swear, I don’t exactly know my reaction, but these five people in my friend circle will definitely go to asylum the day I met him.)
But after that I didn’t stand in front of the screen as I needed to keep my excitement away from the senses of this boy. In the subsequent months neither I saw him, nor could I verify, if he could be my James, but Jas, Shubh kept talking about him, they were impressed.
Being honest I also liked him, but I know myself I keep liking guys, that’s not a big thing. More than his physical features I knew nothing of him. So I did think about him but not for long. I had much work to be busy with, so like always, a crush not took much of my mental space and emotional excitement. I was more or less neutral most of the time, somewhere just wishing to see my true James one day. Like always, my only emotional escape.
Around october
Around October Jas brought in a piece of news. Maira and Christina the two foreign sisters were coming to India for a trip of one month with 3 other friends and she has asked us to join their trip. After all, they only knew us in India.
It was exciting for me; after all I have been traveling just for business promotion purposes for the last 2 years. I needed a break and a get together too, with my special ones. I was also thinking if this guy, who was so popular in my group from last month’s will be there.
But I just tried to ignore this thought; after all he was just a sudden attraction like all others, and I had no plan to be too excited about him.
Jas and I called up our other friends, discussed about dates and places, decided to meet at Chennai airport around the first three days of December.
The month passed, all arrangements were made, Jas, Shubh and I flew to Chennai 2 days before it was planned. We checked in the resort we have booked, the cabs and tour travel bookings were also checked. With our tour guide we finalized the place of interest we have to cover in this one month. We tried to look after everything we could, and for all other things we were liable to our trusted tourist guide.
Christina and Maira were the first ones to arrive on the 1st day of December.
On 2nd day we all arrived at the international airport of south Chennai, with 3 cabs that we have booked. Their flight landed, we saw two foreigners a girl and a boy coming towards us, they were Ben and Lisa, good friends of two sisters.
Other flight landed, from the other side came Ash, Neha, and Joseph, our best friends. We all hugged each other; it was so exciting for me to see three of them after so long. We all 6 were childhood friends, but our careers and passion pushed us to different parts of the world.
it was amazing to see we all were longing for each other, Ash eyes had that same charm that she used to have in our school days, but our little hot girl was a professional model today.
While I was holding Ash’s hand Shubh came in between and said, “I’m her husband get aside.” We both laughed, this is among the oldest and most personal joke of this girl group.
“Oh you husband I’m her mother get away,” I said, joyously, remembering my role in this game.
“Oh mama where is my father, did you find him?” Ash asked. This father is James; we did an important life process in heaven before coming to this world. And this is our extreme level of connecting logic with every stupid thing.
“No baby not yet” I said her, laughing.
We all were in our resort; we had booked 4 rooms two for couples, one for single friend gang. One was spare in case anyone wanted to sleep alone with her or his solitude.
All four rooms were in front of each other. We were not going to stay in Chennai for long, as the plan was to see the site of interest in four days, with some shopping and tasting cuisines, then some sort of adventure sport too. Then we have to leave for Goa where we were going to stay for a little longer.
Maira, Christina, Ben, Lisa, Joseph, Neha, Ash, Shubh, Jas and I. (yeah, it is a big group)
we all sat around the bonfire at night after having dinner. We all very easily became comfortable with each other. we were narrating our experiences, just casually chatting about things.
In between our group conversation we got to know about Ben and Lisa. They both were a couple for the last two and a half years. Amazing I thought.
They both met through Maira and Christina, Lisa told, she liked Ben since the first day she saw him but he never gave much attention to her so she never showed it. After one and a half years they both confessed it.
Ben said he thought Lisa was never interested in him but when Maira told him about Lisa's feelings, he couldn’t believe it. They met later and talked about it, since that day they both are together. They felt that instant connection between them. They were always crushing over each other secretly, cute. I liked the little story.
He was not james
the new boy
Next day (in the morning)
Ben and Lisa came out of their room, behind them I saw somebody, he was another British boy, fair with brown hair, a good looking person. At first, like always I felt like, can he be James, obviously I was always desperate to find him, but I didn’t like this idea of him being James. He was not James, straightly.
Honestly, his good face was not able to convince me, that this can be James's face. Then I did not think about it at all, I trust my intuitions.
Christina came rushing and hugged him, so it was obvious he too was part of this trip. His name was Kim, Maira introduced him to us. I felt like he was an interesting, cool person to befriend with. So these were the three friends who were coming with the sisters. Kim Lisa and Ben I thought.
After all that introduction,
I said, “Let’s go now it’s already 6:30 after city wakes up it is no good to walk around, if you want to feel the pleasant atmosphere.”
“But I want something to eat first I’m really hungry,” Maira said. (Like, what should I think, her mind is dipped in food when I want to feel the beautiful nature around. This is one of the biggest reason I look for connection, for similarity. though they are cool, but my ways were sure to be boring for them, whatever back to the story)
“I don’t want to go anywhere, I’m going back to sleep,” Kim said. (Literally, I liked this attitude, say it straight dude, I m really going to have fun with these people, they are different.)
But I could not help it. I wanted to go, I was neither tired nor hungry so I said: “if you guys are tired, you can go back to sleep, I want to go out, so yeah I will see you soon.” I marched out of the room and the hotel.
When I was on the footpath, a cab crossed me, inside a fair person was sitting, we both had an eye contact, James my head said to me I turned back to look at him again, and seriously he also turned back to see me. Good, my mind said. Maybe I was going to find him here.
I came back at 8 tired and hungry. I took a bath, while everybody was waking up. Soon they all gathered in the room, we drank tea and coffee, Ben, Lisa came in the room, behind them a white skin boy who was Kim most probably approached.
“Oh my god” Maira shouted, standing up, “James” she said, becoming very excited
and rushed towards him, it took a little while for my brain to understand what she said. Ash said, “Ritz, James.” In an exciting voice
Again absentmindedly I looked towards her, after a few seconds, I reacted “oh James,” I was a little overjoyed, to see if something was really coming.
But before I could have a glance at him, all of them were around him laughing, smiling, and celebrating his arrival. I also stood up, to welcome him, as Maira said “come let me introduce you with my Indian friends.” I was standing behind Ash, trying to control my blushing cheeks, damn it was an awkward moment because
I was smiling more then I was controlling, and I swear it was way easier to control myself when my stupid friends were not around me, they are always so excited and restless to just pair me with somebody.
Maira said, “that’s Jas and Shubh my two sisters.” She turned towards us and said “that’s Ash, Neha, Kriti and Joseph, their friends.”
“And guys he is James my best friend.”
He looked at all of us with a charming smile, Ben patted his shoulder, and he turned back. Jas, Ash, Shubh, they all looked towards me with very excited gestures, Shubh said “congrats, di” (nickname for elder sister) in a very teasing way. shaking hands joyously. I was blushing hard, but I said them control guys, as he turned towards us. “Nice to meet you all” He said.
“Hey dude you are also a part of this trip now, don’t sing a goodbye song,” Christina said, and he turned back.
“Alright” James said smilingly.
“Ritz come with me” Joseph said with a serious look. I looked at him thinking now what I have done; James
looked at us, as we both left the room. Joseph had askfor a separate room, we went there, he shut the door, looking at me and he said, “You were literally blushing so loud, anyone can easily notice your affection for this new face. I saved you.”
Seriously, I wanted to dig a grave for myself when you looked at me like that, Hitler. I thought.
“Thanks, bro, you literally saved me, I was not able to control myself,” I said, thinking yeah in that way, he did save me otherwise James might catch a wrong signal from my side.
“Do you know him?”
“We all just thought he is James,” I said.
“He is James.” He said.
“Fool my dream one James,” I said.
“Oh, that one, so is he. Only you know best.”
“I really liked him, he is handsome and hot, else you know us, overacting is in our blood,” I said.
“That’s okay, but I don’t want you to blindly believe that he is the one, take time bro,” he said.
“Ohh of course, I will, it isn’t that easy to be sure about it, I gonna take time. But he is handsome.”
Hmm,
Neha came in the room, asked "what happened?"
Nothing, I fear your sister is going to be legally mad, soon."
Then we just went to the room where everyone were gathered. I was a little stressed after hearing him, he shifted my focus towards the seriousness of something, a weird kind of weight over me, I know all the way around, it was regarding James, my James. “So let’s be anxious”, my head said with a laughter.
When I entered the room my eyes met James eyes, ignoring I went towards the other side, like what else I could do. Everyone already had their tea or coffee. I sat near the little balcony, turned towards them. I suddenly remembered I saw somebody in the cab. I turned my eyes towards James to verify if he was that person, he also looked at me and lifted his eyebrows. I smiled.
I stared at my tea, thinking maybe he was that person. Is he James? I asked myself. This thought was actually making me feel the tickles of blooming love and romance.
"Guys lets go down." Maira said.
"Yeah, I want to eat something." Kim said.
"You guys have your drinks." Ben said looking towards James.
I saw Ash and Neha, they just sipped their drinks faster and went away. Jas showed me a thumbs up. before I could understand anything they all were gone, James was tieing his shoe. What is this happening, I said to myself, things look insanely slow and fast. I looked at the tea, no, no one can give me poison, foolish girl.
After some moment someone petted my shoulder, the person was James, “hello’! He said.
“Hey”, I said, it was unexpected that he will approach me.
“May I give you company?” He asked.
I looked at him and said, “of course, come." I was literaly like, what just happened, am I drunk.
He sat beside me, " So you are tea person.” He said looking at me. Goodness, looking at each other in the eye, tickled me.
“Yeah, I love tea.,” I said turning away my eyes.
“I never tried it.”
I looked up and said, "I was born in state of tea."
“Cool, What’s your name? I’m sorry I forget.”
“Kriti or you can call me Ritz,” I said looking straight into his eyes; I noticed his eyes had a very light shade.
“Wow your eyes are really beautiful,” I said with great gestures.
“Thanks. I also like that.”
I'm literally mad about eyes; they are the first thing I notice in any face. And I just can’t stop myself from expressing how overwhelmed I feel to admire something that beautiful.
“Are they natural or you apply lenses,” I asked foolishly.
“My natural lenses are of that beautiful color.” He said with a sexy smile.
“Ohk... Cool.., loved that.” I said, still staring his eyes, because when I say I like beautiful eyes, I m saying straight they are my addictive obsession, and I just can’t keep myself back, like I will admire them shamelessly, I don’t care about anything.
He smiled.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Nothing so.. Joseph interrupted us.
I looked back, he said “everyone is waiting for you come fast,” Standing at the doorstep.
Yeah, James and I, we both stood up, “coming.” We said together.
At the breakfast table, we didn’t talk much, later when we were going to places of interest and local market, we interacted, I don’t remember how, but he was with me, I was taking him to every local street shop he found interesting, I was explaining him about the product, and we had a lot of jokes in between. For some time I was with Kim, he was awesome at finding fun with every single thing possible.
After going to the art gallery, we all went to a restaurant to have something. Ben ordered a south Indian dish, which isn’t too spicy for north Indians, like all Indians in this group but Ben was absolutely mad after eating it; I guess he had least familiarity with spices than others among us.
From the sky
the world look better
Chennai is a famous spot for skydiving, it was already decided to be done today, so we ate less, it was just 4 of the evening, we wanted to do skydiving when the sun falls, because in my opinion that’s when sky look best, hopefully, this world too from the sky.
Within 1and half hour we reached there, it was already a very exciting moment to look at all those helicopters and people who were landing. We first went to the training room according to the instructions. Trainers asked us to do some basic warming up and other exercises, Joseph and Neha were trained skydivers so they opted for sole supervision, whereas all of us opted for a supervisor, who would dive with us, and do all the basic functioning in the air. We were all dependent on them.
We all were hooked with our masters, who were professional skydivers, sitting in the plane altogether. They all looked too confident, with the least excitement but a lot of experience in this sport.
The instructor beside Maira asked, “How are you guys feeling right now?”
“I m a little nervous” Maira said.
“It is going to be fun” I said.
“Have anyone of you did this before?” the instructor asked.
“Yeah we both have” Joseph said, fingering towards Neha. I looked towards him with great pride, passin
g him a flying kiss I said in Hindi, “mera sher putt.” (My lion-like son) Maira and Christina who understood Hindi smiled, he looked towards me and said, “English translation please.”
I replied, “You are with me for so long you can’t understand it. Don’t go on words go on expressions.
Understand the language of my heart.” I said again slyly.
He smiled; I smiled loud looking at him, “putt Sharma Gaya.” (My son is abashed)
“Are you done?” he said joyously.
“How many feet up we are?” I asked my instructor.
“2000,” the instructor replied.
“Awesome,” James said
“Yeah friend, but we have to go to 3000 feet for skydiving.”
“Amazing,” Ben said sarcastically.
Soon we reached the decided height, our trainers checked all the hooks, repeated the safety instructions. We all have to jump one by one from the plane with our instructors. After Maira it was my turn, I was exploding with excitement.
My instructor stood up, hooked with me, we stood at the doorstep of the plane from where we were about to jump. He said, instructing me, “Keep your head up. Legs together and fold, hands up to the chest, crossed as told earlier.”
We were standing at the edge, my instructor counted 1, 2, 3, and we jumped. My instructor was hooked with me, he was still instructing me to ensure a safe experience, he said me to spread my limbs right. I seriously shouted loud in excitement when I saw the vast land and ocean below my eyes.
I could touch the clouds, exactly. We were falling very fast, I could feel the air pressure, and it was almost shaking my jaws, my chest felt filled with air. I couldn’t breathe, air pressure was very dense but soon I realized I could actually breathe.
My instructor clutched the loop and pulled it. We went a little up then like birds were tucked in the air; our para shorts were on their jobs. This little, instant thing that happened was indeed my favorite part.
