One of the longest lines I have come across in a Hindi song is in Bas…Ek Pal

And, I love that song.

I tried hard to come up with a cool title. As you can see, I failed.

Normal person: Did you clean your room?
Saamy: Is it me, or does your room look cleaner?

Question: Do you think I should get this?
Normal person: I think you should because I like it.
Saamy: Let me put it this way, I would go for it.

Normal person: I hate the conversations with married people. All they like to talk about is their kids.
Saamy: All that these married people can talk about is their kids and their terrible two’s and I am like, “Yeah right. Kill me now.”

The point I am trying to make, if you haven’t gotten it already, is that Saamy likes to use American phrases. Well, I like to use them too. But the problem with Saamy is that every sentence he speaks has to be a punch line. Ok, it is a bit of an exaggeration. It’s every other line. (You see what I mean.)

When I first met Saamy, I was quite impressed with how he sounded. He sounded like he was a total American convert and I have been trying to be one almost for as long as I came here, and as many of my friends would say, failed miserably and had almost given up until I met Saamy. Wow, I thought, now I have someone to look up to. If Saamy can do it, I can atleast try. Or as the Americans would say, “The least I can do is, give it a shot.” But alas, the fantasy did not last long. And it was not because of my inadequacies. The more time I spent with Saamy I realized that he did not sound cool all the time. I realized it was more of a contrived effort, especially in situations where two words would suffice, Saamy would be using a few sentences. I did not know him well from before. So I don’t know if it really is him or it is his way of fitting himself into the American work life.

But I realized that he was very comfortable with the way he is and very confident about it. And he is not one of those guys who throw their pseudo American accent (like I used to do, and maybe still do) at others just to show that they have been here a while and they are really cool dudes. He is one of the nicest people I know. He is very helpful, more than most of the people I know. He is humble and works very hard, a little too hard I think.

And then there is V.

Me to Saamy (on the phone): If you have too much on your plate right now, maybe we can do this later.
V: Was Saamy eating at this time?

And V is a great guy. He is one of the nicest people you will meet, probably even nicer than Saamy. He has been here almost as long as I have been and his is a really impressive resume. But when you meet him the first time, it doesn’t show.

And as I have been writing this, I realize that once again, I am ending up sounding like the only rational person here. I am making it look like there are two extremes of people around me and I am the balancing point. I have developed a knack of portraying myself that way. But that is not completely true. I come with my own bag of eccentricities.

I did not intend to finish this off on a self-reflecting note, but I seem to have.

And yes, I couldn’t come up with a cool ending either.

Halves

His flight had been delayed by two hours. He really did not mind. He would just be losing two hours of sleep and that was not a problem. He got up to stretch a bit and found himself in the path of a little kid, running down the aisle. He stepped backwards and smiled, as the kid’s dad ran past him to catch up with the kid. He scooped him up and carried him back to where they were sitting. The mom, who had been reading a book, looked up and shrieked as the dad dropped the kid in her lap. They seemed to be having a nice time. He sat back in his chair and continued watching the people around him. A 60 year old lady was knitting a sweater. From the size, it looked like it was for her grandkid. She was also watching the people, as her hands skillfully knitted the sweater. His gaze shifted towards the guy sitting next to him. He was dressed in a cheap suit and was working on his laptop. He had gathered that he was a lawyer, who worked on pro bono cases. He had been on the phone for a long time discussing some case of his. He appreciated lawyers like him. With so much money to make, working pro bono was not something every lawyer prefers. Then there was a family, probably returning from a vacation. There were six of them in total, grandparents, parents and their kids. They looked tired but happy. A little further away, sat two girls. They seemed to be in pretty high spirits and were chatting in high pitched girlish voices for over an hour now. He did not listen much for they were mostly talking about boys. And in the corner most seat sat a woman with a book. She was reading A tale of two cities. She had a frown on her face, and gave furtive glances at the people sitting around her. She seemed to be angry or irritated about something. But she was very beautiful. It was a small terminal and there were not many people around. He decided to take a short nap and closed his eyes.

She put down the book she was reading. She couldn’t concentrate any more. The damn flight was late again. She hated flying. Why couldn’t these planes ever be on time? She was stuck in this god forsaken terminal with some really weird people. There were these pair of girls who had been chatting in a shreiky voice for over an hour now. The only thing more annoying than their voice was their giggles. Then there was this guy on the laptop. She was just happy that he had finished his call. He had been yakking on it for a long time and was only making her headache worse. And then there was this bunch of people just sitting around happy. She had no idea how people could look happy in such a place. She glanced at the sweater being knitted by an old lady and cursed. She had been trying to knit for over two years now and never failed to hurt her fingers even once. And this woman was doing it with her eyes closed. Why are some people so gifted? She looked at the small family who were right then giggling for some reason. The guy was lifting his kid over his head and the kid was shrieking in delight. They were treating the terminal like it was their living room. And little kids have to be controlled by their parents. Only a little while ago, the kid was running around the terminal like crazy. In the middle of all this she glanced at a guy dozing off peacefully with a smile on his face. This was the last straw. She got up and decided to get a coffee from one of the expensive airport stores.

* * * *

They had announced the boarding. He got into the plane the last. It was a very small plane with about forty seats. He made his way his seat and found a book on it. He tilted his head and read the title. A tale of two cities.

“Oh, I am sorry. Let me get that out of your way.”

“That’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Prashanth.” He extended his hand.

As she took it, she said, ”Sunandha. Nice to meet you.”