My City..My Life..4

Recap: 1 2 3

The perfect start to a Sunday. I had a good night's sleep, woke up early and ran two rounds of the nearby community playground. Normally if I happen to do an early morning jog, I see only old folks walking and doing laughter exercises in the playground. They will come all dressed up in branded shoes and tracks. Today the old folks were few and the one's I saw were wearing T-shirts and caps with the Indian tricolor. Then it crossed my mind that the old also have a reason to celebrate today. The Indian cricket team is playing South Africa in the city. They were taking the first bus in the morning to the stadium.I am pretty amazed to see the enthusiasm of the older generation of this city. Other instances are quizzes and they are really serious about it and can leave young quizzers with a wounded pride, one of my roomie knows well.

I came back to our flat. My roomies were smiling or snoring in their sleep while there may still be couple of hours left in the transition from the dreamland to the real world. I like it this way. The morning calm and serenity; of course the accompanied 'original' tweets from the birds. I took the bike out from garage for the weekly wash. I also took out my camera. I tried to capture some snaps with the water splashing around the bike but in vain. I need to learn a lot more than the auto mode use of the camera. Atleast I was happy the bike was ready for the day. So far so good.

Previous night, my brother had called and we talked the usual stuff. Then he asked if I was planning anything for tomorrow. I said no. He said, then I may go and meet my friend if there are no plans on the other side as well. I replied well then I may go and meet. I did not want to inform of my plan to the friend; will be a surprise.

I took bath, put on a new shirt which I bought last evening from a sale at the nearby mall, put on my not so old jeans. I looked at the mirror and the mirror replied 'not bad'. One of my roomies managed to run away from scourge in a game of warcraft and crossed over to real world before he was about to be brutally killed by the Lich King. He gave me quizzical looks as if I cannot be 'civilized' in proper clothes on a Sunday morning. He asked me casually if I was upto something. I said just a rendezvous with a friend. He didn't poke further. He's got good sensibilities of a friend and roomie. I said bye to him and was off from our flat.

I went straight to the nearby market bought some stuffs and put them into my bag. I gave a quick call to home and then started off to to my friend's place. There was no rush on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. Most of the city would be having a lazy off day. I was enjoying the ride at 100 plus speed (KMPH). As I got near my destination, I got stuck in a traffic of people who thronged the narrow road to do some grocery shopping for a special Sunday meal. I thought of giving a call to my friend lest my surprise really surprises her should I knock on her door. First ring..Second ring..Third ring..No one pick ups. Am I too early that she may still be sleeping. So I sent an sms and did some window shopping at the roadside vegetable market to kill time !!

Tring..Tring..One of my friends from office calls and asks where am I? I said somewhere. He planned to go shopping for a laptop in the afternoon and asked if I could accompany. I just couldn't.

The sun started to shine brighter and I quenched my thirst with two glasses of sugarcane juice. Ping..Ping..An sms. It's her, she replies she is at her friend's place. Hmmm..I was left at the middle of nowhere, yes this part of the city is new to me and guess what today is also Valentine's day!! I just had a private goofy laugh all by myself.

If I return so early while my roomies may be speculating at the very moment, there may be 'suspicions' especially today. I took my time to return to flat. Earlier today I had stuffed my bag. There were chocolates and a flower. I asked for a yellow rose at the flower shop. The shopkeeper shows an array of beautiful roses but all red. He knows the occasion well. I take the red one thinking anyways the girls like flowers. I took chocolates of three varieties.

So far so good, isn't it !!.

A small kid was lucky that day, he got a big bar of chocolate. I ate one chocolate myself, I was empty stomach since morning. The third variety reached the girl on a later date. As a testimony to my little piece of crazy adventure, a rose bud is taking form somewhere on the stretch of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.