01 | The first meet

Yet to proof read... kindly bear the grammatical mistakes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mahadevan~~~~~~~~~~

I was waiting for more than half an hour for my sister to get ready.

"Anna"

Ufff.. finally she is ready. "how long will you take to dress yourself? Come he might be waiting for us."

"Anna.. I am ready but what is this shirt that you are wearing? I don't like this color. Go change to a different one"

"Hey.. we are going to meet your groom not a girl for my marriage. So this is enough come on let's go. He might be waiting for us"

"No anna. Go change to a different one. While I am talking with Krishna, you can utilize the chance to sight the girls there. If possible pick one". She went inside and rummaged my cupboard. After 5 minutes she came out with a new shirt.

"here wear this and change to  black jean .. I don't like this faded one"

"Anju maa.. why da?? this is good . come we can leave"

She pleaded and pestered me for sometime and finally I changed to the attire she gave.

"Anna.. this hairstyle..." she started which I aborted with my sentence.

"Anju..stop it there.. We are already late. As I said we are going to meet Krishna, your future husband. We are not going to meet any girl for my marriage"

She pouted. But I dragged her outside of my house and we hopped on to the bike. My sister Anjana is very talkative but a good at heart person. Yesterday Krishna and his family came to see her for marriage at our house.

Though we all have agreed to proceed with marriage, me and my parents felt like Krishna was not ok with marriage. We made Anjana understand our concern as she has already fell in love with him.

Now we are on the way to meet him in the mall to discuss about his decision before we start with the marriage proceedings.

May be he was forced to say ok yesterday. That is the reason, we have asked for a meet today with him in the mall.

We reached the mall in half an hour and went to the food court in search of them.  Upon searching for less than minute , we spotted Krishna who was sitting along with another girl.

She was scrolling her mobile phone while leaning on his shoulder. Seeing us, I saw Krishna utter something to her and she sat straight diverting her gaze to us.

She waved her hands at us. As we took steps towards their table, she and Krishna were indulged in some conversation. My confusion is who is she?? Is she his sister? or girlfriend? Is that the reason he did not show interest in the marriage talk yesterday at our house?

Within few seconds I had numerous thoughts about them running in my mind. But I did not want to come to a conclusion and remained neutral.

We sat in front of them and my eyes were fixed on her and Krishna alternatively. Krishna too seemed to notice the path of my eyes. May be he figured out what I was thinking.

The moment we sat, my very talkative sister Anjana started her talks and complimenting  Krishna.

"ayo.. serious ah..alaga irukeenga.. ama ivanga yaru.." (seriously ... you look handsome. And who is this?) Anjana asked Krishnan.

"Hi.. I am Sandhya.. his girl bestie" she stretched her hands for handshake to Anjana. She then looked at me. With a small nod I mouthed 'hi'.

"oh.. hi I am Anjana.. this is my brother Mahadevan.. I am going to marry your best friend. By the way, this earring looks good nga.. where did you buy?"

"oh.. thanks.. this one.. I got it from Meesho" replied Sandhya.

The girls then indulged themselves in to the shopping conversation about Meesho, completely ignoring me and Krishna.

"hmm...let me go get some juice for all of us..." I said

"um.. we just now had .. so.." Krishnan dragged..

"ok.. I will get it for myself and Anja.." I said and left the place, giving a look at Sandhya  who was now holding his arms and beating him in the middle of her laughs and giggles.

I find something suspicious. Krishnan was thinking something which I don't know. What is he planning I don't know.

I ordered two juices and was waiting in the queue. While standing I had a look at their table. Upon seeing me Krishnan started to behave more closely... like touchy touchy with Sandhya.

Something does not seem right. He threw his hands over her shoulders and was talking with Anja. Whereas Sandhya seemed uncomfortable with whatever he was doing.

Upon noticing me, Sandhya immediately withdrew his hands from her shoulders and left to the other table.

I got my juice and walked to the table where my sister and Krishnan were seated

Handing over the juice to Anjana, " I will wait in the other table" saying it I left in search of some other table .

I went to two other different tables, but the empty seat was booked for someone. Left with no choice, I sat opposite to Sandhya on the same table.

I was kind of feeling uncomfortable to sit with a stranger. But I had no other option. I was taking a sip of my juice and scrolled through my mobile.

Though my eyes were fixated on my mobile, I could sense the gaze of her falling on me often.

Is she sighting me? It actually bought a small smile on my lips which I controlled hard.

For the past 4 minutes, she was trying to make me look at her or at least initiate some conversation.  Giving up the thought that I would look at her she started talking some random things.

"this mall is nice la"

"hmm" I just hummed after half a minute. I don't want her to feel embarrassed without my reply.

"the food in this food court is too good. Especially you should try the momos here"

"hmm"

"that ice cream shop charges more amount, but they give very less in quantity. But the quality is good"

"hmm"

What is her problem now? Why is she talking and asking some random silly questions to me? Un announced, I perked up to look at her gawking at me.  I caught her off guard and she smiled awkwardly to manage the embarrassment.

She was feeling shy as well. Oh wait.. one thing I noticed  and concluded by looking at her gesture is , she is not in love with Krishnan. She must be his best friend only.

If she is really in to him, she would not be throwing glances often at me. Sandhya cleared her throat to gather my attention to her. I looked at the other table where my sister is seated and then to her.

"actually, myself and Krishnan are just friends.. like bro-sis relationship.. he was doing all that earlier to reject your sister.. "

I just remained silent , drinking my juice.. still listening to her.

She continued..

"believe me.. he is just indecisive about marriage.. but .. but I think Anjana is the right one for him. We need to make him understand. He too likes her.. "

I looked at her nodding my head.

"and.. I don't have any feelings for him."

She was feeling very nervous and shy. But why? I understand I am a new person to her , a stranger, but what is the need to feel shy here? I am the one feeling uncomfortable to share a table with unknown stranger.

"we both are just friends...platonic friends... so don't mistake us.. "

I hummed in response to her. I seriously don't know why she is clarifying all this to me.

To be frank, I have not conversed with girls much. I speak well with Anjana because she is my sister and Vishaka, my elder sister. Other than that, with other girls, I don't indulge in conversation unnecessarily.

Till college, I had lot of male friends and there was no girl in our friends gang. Basically I come mechanical background. Quite shy among girls.

Generally I am a reserved guy who have closed knit of members whom I converse with, which does not have most girls excluding my sisters.  Moreover, I come from Mechanical background. My schooling was in military school.

So that explains why I am kind of shy towards other girls.

My family call me as mix of Vishaka and Anjana's characters. Reserved to the outside world but talk a lot among the family and close friends.

To the present, Anjana came towards our table. I then spoke with Krishna for few minutes and left the place with Anjana.

I had to literally drag Anjana from the conversation with Sandhya. And as a punishment for dragging her from the middle of the conversation, she started narrating the story to me.

When we were leaving, I once turned to look around casually and Sandhya was seen there standing beside Krishna.

He was conversing something with her, but her concentration was not there. She was looking at me and Anjana. The moment she looked at me, she waved hands mouthing 'bye'.

Was that for me and Anjana ? No. I guess its just for me. Coz Anjana was looking at the front and talking. I was the one who looked back at Krishnan and Sandhya.

I am confused. Should I reciprocate ? Don't know. I turned towards the front. Still my eyes betrayed and looked back.

I saw Sandhya smiling at me looking straight in my eyes.

I smiled but immediately swirled my head to the front again and walked. What is this girl up to ? Why is she behaving suddenly like this? And strangely why do I like it and reciprocated her?

Just ignore her Deva.