The Dinner

The plane touched down Mumbai airport at 6:00 PM. It had been a long flight for both Jignesh and Jahnavi. She was waiting for his call that he has arrived and then she wanted to tell him that she will be waiting for him at “The Paradise” hotel. Jignesh was silent in the whole flight, just sat closing his eyes, thinking about Jahnavi and wondering if she would agree for the dinner or not. Pooja noticed him deeply engrossed. She had tried to talk to him in the airport but he was not much entertaining, and so she thought, he was tired, but of late she was slowly realizing that he is deeply involved in some thoughts. Maybe someone. She guessed. And then ruled out the possibility, What bullshit, she thought. After finishing the airport formalities, the first thing Jignesh did was to call up Jahnavi.

He must have boarded the plane. He must have had his lunch properly. He must be talking to Pooja. She must be trying to talk more to him, as he will not talk. Idiot is a moron and will ever remain so. Stupid, Idiot, Donkey, Monkey, Fool. Did not even tell me about Pooja, or his paper, or its selection, or his trip. All he could tell about was Sid. Who wants to know about him?
Tring Tring.

And her cell blows away to glory. She sees the number and beams with joy.

Jignesh: “Hi, I am back. How are you?”
Jahnavi: “Oh Jignesh, I am fine, how was your journey?”
Jignesh: “Pretty well. What is your……?”

Just at that moment, Pooja motioned to him that she was leaving.

Jignesh: “Yeah, bye. See you later.”
Jahnavi: “What!!!”
Jignesh: “Hey nothing, I was just saying bye to Pooja. What is your plan in the evening? If you are free, we can meet up for dinner.”

Jahnavi was boiling. Already the thought of a girl with him since the past three days had disturbed her, and now to add fuel to the fire, he was bidding her bye-bye while talking to her. She felt like putting some excuse, but that would mean lying as she had been waiting for the dinner. She could not. She agreed.

Jahnavi: “I guess we can meet. Tell me where do you want me to meet?”
Jignesh: “Hotel Paradise, 7:30 PM? Sounds music?”

Jahnavi smiles and is taken aback at the same time. How did he know?
Jahnavi: “Sure, I will be there.”
Jignesh: “On time, I assume.”

Smiles and hangs up. Jahnavi was doubly surprised. Is this the same moron she had seen here? For the first time ever she had seen him in a little mischievous spirit and liked it very much. She wore light Pink Salwaar Kameez, put up slight lipstick (pink), a little lip gloss, a little eye shadow, a bit of mushkaara, a pinch of foundation, a small bindi, her watch, a yellowish-orange double shaded chunni, flats and started off. Jignesh put on a Black Shirt and Blue Denim, his watch, shoes and walked off taking his wallet with him. Both of them were very excited. Made some stupid cooked up story to account for not having dinner at home and set off to dash into each other.

It is 7: 30 PM. Jignesh is waiting. She lands up at 7: 45 PM. Jignesh is taken aback seeing her. He had never seen her so beautiful. He wanted to reprimand her for being 15 minutes late, but her beauty compensated for everything. He fell in love with her all over again and thanked Sid again.

Jahnavi: “Hi.” Her tone was soft and she was a bit nervous and shy.
Jignesh: “Hi.” His tone was full of romance and life. He felt like dancing with her.
Jignesh: “Ummm shall we?” He led the way. Both of them seated at a cozy corner 2 seater table.

Now both of them were in a fix. In spite of having a plethora of topics to talk upon, they were not sure, where to start, how to start, what to start? Jahnavi knew very well, today she needs to forget that she is a girl; she will have to take the lead, as the moron is a useless waste material with absolute purity. No mixture.

Jignesh: “You are looking very beautiful today. I could never imagine you can look so good.”

She melted. She was not prepared for this. Since the last two days she has been getting one after another surprises, some pleasant and some not so pleasant. She gathered herself and spoke.

Jahnavi: “Thanks.”

This was all she could say. She somehow wanted to start the topic of Pooja, how did he meet her? How did they become teammates? And most importantly, how close had they grown? But she was not feeling very comfortable; she could not understand the reason for it. Everything looked so nice. She was dining with him. She had also noticed the stare he was giving her. Not for a second could he remove his eyes off her. Also the glare and the warmth in his vision were not alien to her.

Jignesh, on the other hand, was totally oblivious to her objection regarding Pooja. He was more concerned regarding Sid, though he had a slight inkling, she has accepted it, as otherwise she would not have entertained his messages, call and dinner proposal. He too thought to start the topic but was somehow not feeling comfortable as he was stunned with her beauty today and was also aware that probably she is aware of this, but he knew things had to move forward.
Waiter: “Order, sir.”

Hurriedly they finished off giving him orders. It was just a necessary disturbance to them; none of them was interested in the menu. They were far too engrossed with things tastier than food, at least for today’s evening. She smiled. He basked in glory and gave slight grin. His dimples appeared. She felt awesome. Oh my God he is so cute and his dimples, I love them. She fell for his smile.

Jignesh: “Hey you know, we won the contest there.”

Jahnavi was jolted out. Aah, this stupid moron, what better can be expected of him? She thought. Now she had no other choice but to participate with him in the boring discussion. So she did.
Jahnavi: “Oh that is great. So where is my treat?”
Jignesh: “We have not met to discuss the agenda for our next meeting. This is the treat. And this is a special one for you. Only you.”

Jahnavi felt ridiculed at the stupid question of hers. And then Only you had made her evening, she did not need anything more.
Jahnavi: “Then you should be ideally celebrating that with Pooja; you see she worked with you on the project.”

Jignesh was surprised. He was not prepared for this. But life is not an easy test. He answered.

Jignesh: “Pooja? Well I never wanted to share my success with her. She is some relative of the principal and he had insisted me to take her. All work was mine. Had to include her at the last moment. Not only had to share credit with her, also had to explain to her the concept and then help her prepare for the presentation. That was the reason I could not even meet you on the day of leaving, as I was engaged in explaining my paper to her in the Library.”

Probably most of the questions bothering Jahnavi had been answered. This revelation also explained why Pooja was never mentioned to her, as there was no Pooja ever. She felt bad for cursing her Jiggu for this and cursed Pooja like hell. Later. She thought. But now she was happy. Not only that Jignesh had not concealed anything from her, but he was also unhappy that Pooja had been dropped on him. She felt bad for Jignesh as his credit was divided now and she also knew that Jignesh will never declare this in public that the paper was solely and entirely his efforts and Pooja had nothing to do with it.

Jignesh: “But this is just revealed to you. Even Sid is not aware of this. So be very careful. Everybody is under the impression that we worked independently and parallely on this and then clubbed at the behest of the principal.”
Jahnavi: “Don’t worry about it. No one will get to know the truth. I know it is harmful for you as well.”

Both of them were feeling better now. They talked about many things, the rest of the evening, whilst during the dinner and then the walk, post dinner. Jignesh dropped her home, bade her goodnight and left. Jahnavi kept watching him for a few minutes, when her mom jolted her out of the reverie.

Mom: “If your show is over, we might walk in.”
Jahnavi was shocked.
Jahnavi: “Yes mom.”
She ran straight into her room. It is time to talk to her now, her mom thought.