If you want it, you get it !

13th July 2008

16:53 hrs
I look into her eyes but she looks away. I bow my head and nod. “Naah its not gonna happen.” I again look up while people come and go. Some faces smiling some tired. Some withdrawn like mine while some indifferent.

16:58 hrs
Ankur lights a cigarette and look at me exasperated. I give him a pleading “pls some more time” kind of look and he smiles and nods. I again search for the same pair of eyes but now she gets busy with her colleagues and arranges her way out to get something.

17:05 hrs
She’s not back and I look at my watch with my heart racing at the speed of 120km/hr.
Ankur goes and buys a chewing gum. 10 minutes to go!

17:12 hrs
She appears for a minute and emerges with a ream of papers. Distributes them and comes to the counter where I had been waiting for her.
“Any luck?” I ask. No ma’am, but let me check if I can go something for you. With this she again vanishes in another room at the farther end. I look around for Ankur he’s no where to be found. I turn back to the counter.

17: 14 hrs
Ankur is standing on my right hand side. His eyes question me and I give him a hopeful look. He smiles back and I cross my fingers.

17:20 hrs
She emerges with few stapled credit card receipts talks animatedly with her senior and points at me. The supervisor looks at me and I smile hoping that would do some magic. He turns back and nods. This is the first time she smiles benevolently at me and hands over 2 tickets of Jane Tu… Ya Jane Na..
Yes, that was the drama before I got to watch this “most excitedly talked movie of the month”. Every one in office, friends, cousins, cousin’s neighbours aunty had been raving about it while I smiled with an understanding look. Only my heart knew how much I longed to see the movie. Not that I was in love with Imran Khan or the story seemed intriguing. But for the simple fact that I wanted to watch what everyone liked so much.

With all previous movie plans going down the drain due to other commitments this weekend also looked clumsy. Saturday was pretty boring with my time spent at home and grocery shopping. Sunday I woke up to the world at 10:30 am and made my way to the kitchen by 11:30. I felt like cooking for a change. (Such occasions come once in years. And yes don’t worry every one at home are fine, even after the meal).
I looked around in the kitchen. After going through a list of dishes I zeroed in on Dal Makhni. The preparations started. Onions getting chopped. Garlic being grated. Tomatoes and butter making their appearance from the refrigerator to the kitchen shelf. With the help of my cousins I was successful in making a chaos in the kitchen. Someone was thirsty, someone was craving for chocolate biscuits, someone wanted to make sure I was cooking and someone secretly smiling as if awaiting a catastrophe. No sooner did the youngest of the lot woke up than she wanted to know what I was doing in the kitchen. After explaining my intentions she dreamily walked away to my aunt’s lap.
I turned around and continued mixing the contents in the pressure cooker.
The French beans vegetable was done and salad looked fine. I was just marvelling at my cooking skills (as no one else does so why waste a chance ;)) when my phone rang.
It was Ankur.
Ankur- “Hi, what’s your plan for the day?”
Me- “Nothing”
Ankur- “Ok I am planning to go to the Osian Film festival. Wanna come along?”
Me- “Oh sure, but is there some great movie coming?”
Ankur- “Lemme check. I’ll call you back.” And he hangs up.

I resume to my cooking. This time hastily checking the ingredients for the dal. The phone beeps to a message from Ankur saying “Get ready fast and reach Srifort by 12:45”
I look at the clock. It is 12:10 already. I am in the kitchen, still in my night suit with unfinished Dal on the burner and I am supposed to reach a place that was 10 km away in the next 35 min. I give final touches to the “tadka” and explain the rest of the procedure to my cousin.
By 12:36 pm I am on my way to the auditorium.
12:54 hrs- I reach the auditorium and look for Ankur. He as usual was running behind schedule and reaches by 13:20 when no movie is being showcased. The next show was at 16:00 hrs.
With 2 hrs in hand we make our way to CCD in a near by market. Ankur orders a chicken omlette burger and I a regular mocha. In between our discussions and our phone snatching fights (where he tried to read my messages) we dump our plans of going back to the festival. It was raining, we were too tired and simply lazy.
Sitting there we come across the movie line up on different cineplexes. That’s when we make up our minds for Jane Tu. It had been doing well. We had been planning it. And we both hadn’t seen it. Though getting a ticket seemed to be gory tale of “house full” we still planned to go ahead.
And that is how the whole game of looking into the eyes of the lady in the ticket counter and requesting began.
What with the pouring rain and my long dupatta getting entangled in the wrong places we made it amongst hundreds of people who came to watch the 17:15 show. With tickets in hand I clapped and Ankur hugged me. “Never ever I saw you so enthusiastic about anything. Man you can surely make things happen,” he exclaimed. I gave a twinkle back thinking of the famous quote from the Alchemist - “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

And when I got back home every one chorused "Lunch was delicious!" Day couldn't have ended in a better way !