Aicha E-week Virtual Drums

www.youtube.com/watch?v=erPqRom6YfU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DovHSwANr10

“Hi i see you are eating alone. Mind if i join you?”
She hasn’t replied. I think she is scared of ppl coming upto her at restuarants.
“my name is vivek. I usually have dinner here alone. Saw you alone so thought you might need someone to talk to while you eat. Dont worry i wont eat you, i am a vegeterian”
Now why did i say that. Its so stupid. I cant believe she smiled. So i will have company for dinner after all.
“hi my name is rashmi. My roommates have gone out of town and i had no mode to cook so i came here to eat”
” good for me. When are you roommates coming back”
“why?”
” hopefully till they come back u wont have mood to cook and meet me here.”
I never met her at the restaurant again.
“this place is far from my house. Had come here for some work. So are there other place where you go alone ?”
That brought a smile to my face. ” i am going to this movie tomorrow at 7.
” oh k. May be you will find some company there too.”
Next day i waited outside the theatre till 7 30. I was feeling so lonely. Just as i was abt to leave i saw an auto stopping near the gate and rashmi coming out of it. I couldn’t help but smile.
” hey how did you know i would be here!”
For the next one month i went to movies, restuarant and trips alone and luckily found rashmi to give me company.
it was getting serious and we used to spend the evenings together. I wanted to pop the question but i didnt know how to. Near the beach, in my house with roses everywhere, surprise visits oh i had lot of ideas. And then it happened. I told her we can go to the restuarant where we first met. We drove upto the place. The place seemed closed. I told her to check while i park the car. She entered the restuarant but it was dark. As soon as she entered the lights came on. The entire place was empty except me standing near the corner table with roses in my hand. She was shocked. She took the roses but didnt say anything. She was quiet the entire evening. Then she told me she wants to leave. Without asking her anything i dropped her home.

I cant believe i am back in the same restuarant. Same table, same dish and the same stupid empty chair.
” hi i see you eating alone. Mind if i join you?”
“sure. I hate eating alone. My name is vivek.”
“i m preeti. I hope you dont it the wrong way. I am not used to eating alone.”
“not at all. You dont have to worry about me drooling over you. Guess where i met my wife first time…”

” Hi do u remember me? We met in the restuarant yesterday. Dont worry i am not here to bother you again. ”

” No thats okay. So u like eating out a lot huh.. Give me a minute…” she stood up and left. I waited for an hour but she never came back.
Was she trying to run away from me. I hoped i would never see her again. It was so embarassing. Next few days i was quite busy with my work. I had forgotten all about the fiasco. It was my colleagues bday so we decided to go for lunch close to office. As i entered the small fast food joint i was shocked to see her sitting near the window with a couple of her friends. Before i could realise i was standing next to her.

She looked at me and said “Are u following me?”

Everyone kept looking at me. I was so embarrassed. I was just hoping the roof would fall over.

“Girls this is friend Vivek”

I was shocked she remembered my name. I wanted to talk to her but i had come with my office friends. I couldnt just forget about them. Though they are not like my best friends. No its rude. So i told her i had to go and that we could catch up sometime. She didnt say anything. So i went back to my table. All through out the lunch i kept looking at her. She didnt look back even once. All my feelings for her were back. I decided to talk to her after everybody had left.

Finally my friends started walking out of the restaurant. I turned to walk towards her table but she was gone. I didn’t know what to do. So i walked out of the restaurant.

After reaching office i kept thinking of how to contact her. I just knew her first name. The only thing i could do was to go the 3 places i met her and hope she is there too. There has to be some reason why i see her everywhere i go. Okay i will go to the restaurant tonight where i first met her.

I entered the restaurant and carefully looked at each table. Unfortunately she was not to be seen anywhere. Okay let me have my dinner and hope she shows up. I sat at my favorite table in the corner. Before i could say anything the waiter asked if i would have the usual. I was not interested in the food. I was just waiting for Rashmi.

The food was on the table. Without looking at the food much i started eating. The food was so good that i forgot about her for sometime. And then everything came back to me.

“Hey Chef someone wants to compliment your cooking.”

“Finally!”

“Hi Rashmi.”

“Hello Sir. So i was told you liked my dish.”

“I always liked your cooking. Even when you were 7 and had just started cooking. But i never knew you would become a chef in a big restaurant. I am sorry I didn’t recognize you. I knew there was a reason why we met everywhere, why i liked that dish so much.”

“But you took a lot of time Sir. I thought for a while that you don’t remember your friend. You have always been slow. Never knew how to cease the moment.”

“But i will not be slow this time. Rashmi I could never find a friend like you. Will you be my friend forever and to make sure you don’t leave me this time will you marry me?”

“Why do you think i followed you everywhere!”

“So does this mean i can have that dish for free at home.”

No matter how much i begged her, Rashmi never made that dish at home.

Not only did he compete with me, he faired better than me in everything. He was scoring better than me. He slowly becoming the teacher’s pet. And i was loosing my popularity. All my friends were more interested in hanging out with him. The worst part was that he was a very nice person. He was never proud of his achievements. But i just hated that guy. But there was one thing he could never beat me in.

The annual school debate competition was going to start next week. I had won the competition for the past 4 years. I never expected pradeep to compete in this competition because he was very soft spoken. When i went to enroll for the competition i wrote down my name in the enrollment list. Guess whose name was written before mine.

It was the first day of debate. I was waiting for neha to come and wish me luck. Oh i didn’t tell you about neha. She was this girl i liked since god knows when. I think she liked me too. But i could never tell her how i feel about her. When i was with her i used to forget everything else. She used to get the best out of me. When i saw her coming towards me i started smiling. She shook hands with me. I kept smiling and i am sure i was freaking her out. She told me she would be back in 5 mins. Then she went to pradeep and wished him good luck. I decided to ignore this.

First couple of rounds were really easy. I won with high margins. My last debate was with pradeep. The topic was easy and we both did pretty well. I was expecting to win the debate. When the results came i have to say i was quite surprised. For the first time in the competition there was a tie. The judges could not decide who was better. The top 4 scorer went to the next round. Out of that 2 would proceed to the finals. No marks for guessing who went to the finals. I wanted to win this competition  and i could have done anything to make that happen.  This was the only thing that could prove that i was better than him. So i went up to him and tried to make him a little nervous i told him that i bet 100 bucks that i would win and while he hands me that 100 bucks he has to write “Naveen is a winner” on it. It was my turn first and gave my best shot. When pradeep came to the stage he was welcomed by a round of appluades. After he started talking no one moved a muscle. By the time he finished the judges had already decided the winner. After the competition i went upto him handed the 100 bucks with the dreadful words on it. But the worst was yet to come. Neha ran to pradeep and hugged him. I had lost everything. I never spoke to neha after that. I heard she got married to pradeep later.

I am a manager in one of the branches of the country’s largest bank. My parents are forcing me to get married soon. I like this girl in office and we have been dating for quite a while now. Everyday i walk from my house to the office. Its a 2 km walk. I like the atmosphere in the morning. Everyone is so lively. Everyone but this small house and its occupant. The house is so dirty that even dogs don’t go towards it. I dont think it was ever cleaned or repainted. Everyday when i cross this house i see an old man with uncombed hair and a dirty beard sitting on a chair outside the house. Once in a while i look into his eyes and i get a feeling that he is trying to talk to me. Then after i reach office and start my normal work. In the evening i take shruti out for dinner and then drop her to her house. I have been following this routine for the past 4 years.

One day i woke up late and i was running late to work. I walked a little fast and decided not look around but walk straight to office. As i was crossing the old house i looked at the chair outside. To my surprise the chair was empty. I got really curious. I wanted to go check inside the house but i was getting late. So i continued to office. The whole day i kept thinking of the old man. Shruti had sone work in the evening so i decided to walk back home. On the way back i was hoping to see my friend sitting outside. But the chair was still empty. I decided to keep walking but some force made me turn towards the old shack. I kept walking towards the door. As i went closer i saw a group of people standing in a circle inside the house. I joined the group and tried to find out what everyone was looking at. In the centre my friend was lying down motionless. People were trying to decide what to do with the body. After standing in the crowd for 10 mins i decided to turn around and walk out. As i was about to do that, i saw something peculiar. My friend was holding something tightly in his fists. Before i realised it i was already trying to get the thing out of his hand. It was a crumpled paper. I opened the note and read what was written on it.

“Pradeep Naveen is a winner”