Normally to woo a girl, the guy goes on his knees to propose to her. He buys her chocolates, bouquets of flowers, arranges candle light dinners, gives expensive gifts, etc. I too believed and expected the same. He did none of these and yet managed to take my heart away.
It was an awaited trip to Kala Ghoda Festival. He woke me up by calling me up as instructed. Not without difficulty, I woke up after talking to him till 4 am (Brahma Time) the last night.
Back Story of Brahma Time : Out of the many fears that I have, what dominate are the fear of ghosts and fear of darkness. So night time is a deadly combination of these two - especially when I had to sleep alone in a room. I'd imagine a child sitting on top of the cupboard or a lady peeping in from the window that opened to the balcony. I would talk to him till late at nights, partly because of the genuine reason of my fears and mostly using it as an excuse. He had stated that 4 am is the onset of Brahma Time - the holy time. It was only post 4 that I would hang up, assured that the imaginary child and the lady would not haunt me any more.
Coming back : I get ready and meet Vishal at the CST station. As usual, I skip a heart beat when I see him. He is wearing the same T-shirt he wore on our first date. We take a cab and reach the more-than-expected crowded Kala Ghoda Fest Venue. Both of us being art lovers, we absorb the creativity of the pieces of art around. The candid photographs, vibrant artifacts, beautiful portraits and best-out-of-waste forms simply left us awe-struck. For once, my attention was more on the surroundings than on him. He still managed to keep me hooked on to him by his adorable gestures. He held my hand tight through the crowd, he made sure I ate my meals and had his eyes on me throughout.
After hovering around the place in the first half, we decided to attend a workshop 'Discover the Clown in You' post lunch. The person taking the workshop, Rupesh, had an interesting mix of activities that would indeed propel anyone to show his crazy side. Vishal and me also participated in one or two. Here comes a little back story again.
For hours me and Vishal had had long conversations about plenty of topics- science, God (God probably being one of the first few topics that got us to know each other), philosophy of life, movies, books, puzzles, childhood stories, past experiences, amidst a lot of other nonsensical talks and pointless giggles. Now, I remember him saying once, "I have stage fear since childhood"
"Why?"
"Don't Know"
Me: (Saying the exact words my brother had said once to me) "It's OK to goof up on stage, it's OK to look stupid.. but more than often you'll do better than expected.. you have to at least give it a chance.. I think you underestimate yourself"
"I guess you're right"
This was the moment, in this workshop in Kalaghoda Fest, when Rupesh invited people to act crazy on stage - one could do anything one wished, without uttering a word and completely rely on his or her body language. The catch was that there would be more than one person on the stage and the participants would have to put up an act or role play and the people from the audience had to point at the one who attracted the most attention while the participants are still performing on stage.
I told Vishal 'Come on, go...Please...For me'. He blushed and said - No. I smiled and looked back on stage. I could still feel Vishal looking at me. I looked back at him - I saw this confused look on his face as if he is thinking something hard. I figured he is up to something. He got up and proceeded towards the stage. Knowing him and his stage fear, I knew it took a lot for him to sum up the courage and do this. I could sense the nervousness on his face.
But once on stage, he took me by surprise...by manifolds. The moment Rupesh said "start", I was amazed to see Vishal play air guitar and head bang like a Rockstar. My eyes were glued on him. Coming from a guy like him, who is so shy - he mustering up all his courage to do that, that too for me, did completely and truly floor me. I noticed that not many fingers were pointing at him but he had all and full attention from the person he wanted. I had no idea what the others on that platform were doing. The stage was for him and he was for me. This was his way of kneeling down and telling me 'I love you'.
