The Zero Rupee Date!!

It was a regular Saturday, my no bath game was going strong. It had already been a week and was on my way to make a new personal record. "Tuuunggg" my mobile made a capricious sound. When I checked, it was a Facebook message from HER. It read "Hi. Are you free today?".

I am lost for words when it comes to her. What can I possibly say about her. She can't be described with words. She is the epitome of beauty, elegance, goodness, smartness ... . She is this special blend of all the good things in the world. All these love and beauty songs make sense when you think about her while listening to them. " Afreen Afreen " .

I had known her from my childhood and had this huge crush on her from the time I meet her. We went to the same school but never had I had enough courage to go and make conversation with her. All the conversations that we had were initiated by her and usually ended with her saying "Thanks for the notebook, I will return it to you in couple of days" and me just nodding along. That was the best feeling in the world. Everyone in our school knew that I had this huge crush on her except for her. It was not that I was an introvert but when it came to her, my vocal cord won't be mine anymore, my sweat glands would be busy, my mind would be lifeless and heart blissful. But life went along happily, and we both were nearing the end of our schools.

Like all the hopeless lovers before me, I had this urge to express my feelings to her. Thirteen years of school and I didn't have the perfect time to express but now with less than a week left I had to express. I had to say it to her that YOU ARE MY WORLD. Though I was very close to her, I was just another boy from the class for her. She and I were not even friends. The closest link from me to her was that my best friend's girlfriend was her best friend. All the information that I had of her were the ones told by her best friend to my best friend. And I have came to know that she was a romantic person. I sucked at that field. While I had been dreaming about being Batman, she had been reading books like twilight. The task before me was hard. I had to impress a girl who probably thinks of me as a mute and sweaty person, in a very romantic way within a short time of five minutes that my best friend and his girlfriend had managed for me in the break time. The day was here. It was the penultimate day of our school. She was there all alone sitting reading a book. My heart was racing. I slowly moved towards her and tried to utter a word. My vocal cord was lost. I couldn't utter anything. For the next ten seconds, I only kept staring at her. My sweat glands were active as though I had ran a marathon. Those ten seconds felt like an eternity. "Hi, How may I help you?", she said after the ten seconds of me staring at her. She might have been uncomfortable with this mute guy staring at her and probably the sweaty guy was stinking . I, with all the courage I had I replied, " Hi, I I I want to tell you something". "Please go ahead and tell me what you want to", she replied back swiftly. With a big gulp, I followed with, " I have had this huge crush on you for a long time". I said it quickly so that it will be over soon. She stood up!!!! I was about to cry. She Hugged me !!! That is till date the best thing that had happened to me and that followed by the worst thing that had ever happened to me. After the best hug in the world, She said " I knew and Thank you". I didn't cry but I had tears in my eyes for sure. I was speechless as before. The whole world came crashing down to me. I didn't knew what to do next. So I just with all the power I had, i stopped my tears and smiled at her and ran outside. I didn't attend the remaining classes that day and took leave on the last day of my school. The finals were over and by gods grace, I didn't have to come across her through out the finals.

She and I both passed our finals with good grades. I took monotonous Science in a mundane High School and she lively Management in an interesting High School. It was right that way. Our High Schools were different. We lived far apart. The only contact that I had with her was through her Facebook. I would like anything she used to post but never had the courage to comment or never had enough courage to send her a message. My heart was broken into pieces by her but every time, I came across her beautiful face in my Facebook Home page, all those broken pieces would love her again.

High School was over . I had started my bachelors in all boys ( not all but almost all) engineering college. I think she was pursuing the degree of how to be even more beautiful. During high school and my early days of college. I had tried to get over her. I had been to a few dates and had came across some of the beautiful and smart girls but all they lacked a quality. They were not "HER". "She is in a relationship already get over her man", my best friend told me. He was still my messenger. He would bring all her news to me. When he told me that she was in a relationship, My heart stopped pumping blood for a minute or two. She had found her Mr. Right. I wanted to be happy for her but I couldn't. I was a selfish lover like everyone other. The sad songs started making sense. Life was barren. But I kept on living. I had to even though I didn't want to.

Nearly a year after my best friend had told me that she was in a relationship, I saw her in a wedding reception. Me being an engineering student and to keep the pride of all engineers intact, had been doing the most engineering thing I could do in a party. I had been drinking ever since the party had started. It was by best friends cousins wedding and I saw her. She looked like an angel. She was in this beautiful lehenga and she had wings like an angel. The loud music didn't even reach my ears. The party venue seemed completely empty. I could only see her. But she had wings. Confused, I sought after my best friend and from him I came to knew that she was somehow related to his cousin and was invited to the party along with her family. I became sober within a second. All the beer that I had, was out of my system within a second. She didn't have wings anymore she was real but my god she still looked like an angel.

All my feelings for her came back rushing. I had unfollowed her from Facebook and seeing her after nearly a year, my heart was pumping twice the amount of blood it used to before. While I was drinking beer directly from the bottle like a barbaric, she was there as elegant as before. She didn't laugh too slowly or too loudly but exactly the right amount. The amount that would not only please your ear but also your heart. She had been holding white wine in her hand in a luxurious way. She didn't drink too much but just the right amount. The amount that would just make her a little tipsy so that later on when she danced it would loosen her body. Seeing her again the mute sweaty guy inside me has taken control over me again. I just kept standing there staring at her.

Not to get hurt again, I tried not be seen by her. I hid but my eyes were fixated on her. I couldn't get my eyes off her. I stayed in a corner drinking vigorously but nothing could get me drunk. I was drunk with her beauty.

As I was returning from wash room, she spotted me. My hand was in my zipper trying to close it but it wouldn't close. My eyes fixated on her. She looked at me and smiled and laughed and said , " Hey, it's been a long time, finish your business and we can talk". I smiled awkwardly, I bet no one has smiled as awkwardly as I did that day. I turned the other way, tried closing my zipper but it just didn't. I took me about a minute. I was embarrassed and when I was done and turned back. She laughed and said, " You should get yourself a new pair of pants. You can't keep a girl waiting for a minute just to close it." She laughed, I was in heaven.

We got into a deep conversation. We talked about what we were studying and what we were doing and all. I told about my engineering . And to my surprise, she was not pursuing the degree of how to be even more beautiful, but was doing business management. We talked about school, our school friends and all. It was the best conversation I had had till that day. She asked me to dance. I could not say no to her but god I didn't knew how to dance. We both in dance floor. She was dancing freely moving her body and the best that i could do was clap and wave hands. It was hard but thank god that ended and we were back to talking. Came the hard part, she started to talk about the day I proposed to her. I was getting uncomfortable. I don't know if she noticed that or not but dismissed everything with , "We used to do many silly things as kids hai". "But baby, that was not a silly kid thing I did. I said that because I loved you and I do now too", was what I wanted to say but couldn't rather I just nodded along. We had dinner together.

If someone saw our two dinner plates then they could easily differentiate between us and the life we live based on our dinner plates. Her plate was beautiful, every item had different place, there was enough place for little of everything. There was more salads than anything other. There was very little meat. On the other hand, I had been to a party after a very long time. It was probably my first wedding party that I had been to without my parents. My plate was full. There were things on top of another. The curry was running everywhere. There was no trace of any salad and half my plate was filled with meat and the other half was mix of every other thing. No one could identify what it was. While eating too she used the tissue paper time to time. I had no tissue paper. I had double the amount of food that she had but finished the food in half the time that she took. I was an animal. Time for deserts. I took everything there was there, two of each. She just had a small cake.

I just didn't wanted the party to end. I wanted the party to last till eternity. But time flows no matter what. The party was about to end. " How many girlfriends do you have" playfully she asked. I was happy that she believed that I could too have a girlfriend. "Square Root of -1" was my answer. She laughed, my god what a beautiful laugh she had. With a heavy heart, I also asked , "You must have a real count?". Swiftly she replied, "I don't imagine so zero". All the broken pieces of my heart glued back together. I had to be sure. "What happened to the one? ". "I didn't have a one"."Don't lie"."Who told you?". "I have Birds Everywhere". She laughed and said, "Praise Lord Varys" and continued, "It ended like a month before, things were good but he decided to go abroad and I don't want long distance". "It must have been hard" I said. "Seems like you have experience in that field" she laughed. "The experience still is the square root of minus one" I laughed. "Why?" She asked. "Waiting for the right one" I replied. She was speechless for a second there.

With all the courage in the world I offered her a ride home in my motorcycle. "I would love to but I have come along with my parents and father can't ride after party so I have to drive the car" she replied. The only thing that came to my mind was " I don't even know how to ride a car ". She hugged me and waved me good bye and she was gone from there. I couldn't believe what had happened to me that day. God has finally graced me with something special. A party that I will remember till my death bed. It was just another assurance of how different we two were and she can't and won't ever be mine but I didn't care about that. The memory was much more precious. The party was on Thursday evening.

Friday passed by quickly. All day I could think was about the evening before. And now Saturday was here when my mobile had made that capricious sound of "Tuuunggg".
It was her message, it read "Hi. Are you free today?".
"Hey, Just need to check with my assistant!!".
She replied with laughing emoji.
"She says I am all free for the day".
"You are funny".
"I have to be funny because being hot is not an option".
She replied with laughing emojis and continued with "I am also free today and I want to go out. Let's go somewhere".
"Okay Sure!!! I would love to".
"Where shall we meet?".
"I will pick you up from your home".
"How do you know my home".
"Birds".
"haha".
"okay. meet you there in ninety minutes".
"Don't be late".
"I will come early ;) ".
"okay see you".
":)".

"Thank you Facebook and Thank you mark and Thank you Bhole Baba ", these were my first though after the conversation. Then a greater problem loomed over my head. I checked my wallet. There was hardly fifty rupees. I checked my ATM. It had expired a week before. Saturday the banks are closed, I can't withdraw from cheque. No one was at home, everyone had already gone out. I tried calling my friends. None will pick up, I remembered they had planned for a movie and I hadn't gone, they are probably in cinema hall. I had to be at her home in ninety and still had to take bath and get ready. I didn't knew what to do. I took bath and searched for all the places in my home there might be some money. I couldn't find any. It was getting really late. I couldn't make her wait. I dressed up the best I could. I went to her home . I had this felling in my mind that was constantly eating me from inside "What will I do with just fifty rupees".

I reached her home. I knew her locality but not her exact home and in excitement of meeting her, I had forgotten to ask for her mobile number. My problems were just increasing. I tried reaching her messenger but she was offline already. I tried remembering her land line number from her school days. I had called her home many times from public phone to hear her say hello, but her daddy used to pick up all the time. I remembered that number and tried calling it. She picked it up. Her hello was like a glass of water for a man wandering in a desert for days. "I am waiting for you outside" I said. "How did you get my landline number and please don't say birds", she laughed. I replied, "There's a long story, I will tell you some other time, it's hot out here come fast". "okay will be out in a second".

She was out. She was dressed in all blue. She looked like a disney princess. My heart was beating faster than ever before. She came close to me. With all smiles she greeted me, I asked her to get on my bike. She did. After getting on my bike, she put her hand on my shoulder. It was like a touch of god. I was in ecstasy but was brought back to human consciousness when she asked where were we going. I had no idea of where we were to go. I was in deep thoughts. And all I could utter was, "We will be going some place nice". She said "Okay, It better be wonderful place, It took me ninety minutes to get ready" and she laughed. Her laughter was assuring but a greater deal of pressure was added to me. I should not do anything to her laughter. I have to make her more happy then she is now. "God know, God Sees & God Cares". I took her to "Swayambhunath".

I was afraid that she might not be fascinated with my idea of swayambhunath. But to my surprise, she loved it. The last time she had been there was during our school outing and never after that had she been there due to different reasons. For me swayambhunath was a regular place. I and my friends used to go there atleast once a month. It was a blissful place. I took her to all the nooks and corners of swayambhunath, even to the places where common people don't know about their exists. I clicked many pictures of her. They got stored both on the memory of my mobile and my heart. I knew that she loved it.

We were in swayambhunath for around 2-3 hours and I was starting to get hungry and it was regular for her to be hungry too. I could have came out clean and said to her that I didn't have any money. But my male ego which is smaller than the smallest thing you can imagine, didn't let me do that. To be assured if she was hungry or not, I asked her. She replied that she was starting to get hungry but was not hungry itself. I got deep into thinking. A light bulb illuminated over my head.

I took her to my college. Just outside the periphery of our college there is a small bhatti. It was ran by a lady whom we all called bhauju. It used to be packed with students from our college. Bhauju knew me and she would not mind giving the food on credit. It was not the typical place you take the love of your life for a first date but that was the best that I could do. I guess she never had been to such a place before. Though it was small, bhauju was not less than any five start chef. I took her to bhatti. She was surprised for sure. As it was holiday, it was not as packed as it used to be on other day. There we didn't have a great deal of choice of food but what we had was enough. I suggested her chowmein and we both had a plate of chowmein. She was impressed with that and complemented bhauju for it and then I suggested her "chow chow sadeko" and she loved it too and finally we had a cup of tea. Though at the begining she had been surprised at my decision to take her to a bhatti, but at the end she was happy. I guess the taste of the food we had was filled with much more love than any foods in any fancy, expensive cafes. I said to bhauju that I would pay the money tomorrow. She agreed without any hesitation.

She was thrilled at the day she had had. It was not a regular day for a fancy person like her. It was something that she hadn't experienced ever before. It was evening and I suggested that we go to Pashupatinath mandir for the evening aarati. She didn't knew about the magnificent evening aaratis of Pashupatinath. She agreed and we went to Pashupati. The eveing aaratis of pashupati are an act of god itself. It takes place on the hill just across the bagmati from pashupati. Many people gather to see it. Puajris pay homeage to bholenath and there is aarati function which looks like an exceptional dance. Pujaris with big fire aratis dance. Other common people who are there to see it join at it by singing and dancing on the songs of lord Shiva. It really is an magnificent scene. But she had never been there and it was a jaw-dropping scene for her. It was dark and we were looking at the arati and enjoying and she put each fingers of her left hand right in between the fingers of my right hand. She titled her head and held her head in my shoulder. There was a strong rush of emotion in my heart. I thanked Bholenath for all that he had given me that day. The arati ended. I took her to her home.

I Had The Zeroo Rupee Date with the love of my life and the best date and day of my life for sure. I was utterly happy. I was blushing all the time. My mind, heart and soul were only thinking about the events that had occurred today. I couldn't believe myself. I felt like I was the most lucky guy in the whole world. We started talking and going out more frequently. Before you know She was my girlfriend and I was her boyfriend. I could see a bright future ahead of us.

It has been around three years from my zero rupee date. Life is good. Next Mangshir there is a marriage, not mine but hers. She is getting married to an Australian NRN.