This incident took place exactly 6 years ago on this very day.
Those were the days; back in 2007, when my lonely heart ached
for a partner what with being single for two straight years.
It was the morning
of Feb 14—Valentine’s Day, and I was headed to my college praying to get stuck
by cupid, little did I know that as fate would have it, in a few hours I would
be playing cupid, helping a school kid whom I had never met before help propose
to her crush.
So, it was 10 a.m. and I parked my silver Tata Indica car in
one of the back alleys behind my college near Bengali Market. As I got down, I saw
a couple of school students from nearby Modern School, Barakhamba Road.
Armed with a huge sack of red rose petals they were making
some patterns on the one of the walls of my college by sticking the petals with
glue. As the lane used to be deserted even during the day, they carried on
without being bothered.
I caught a quick glimpse and carried on towards my
classroom, wondering what they were upto.
I had three good friends in my class and it was a routine
affair for us to play cricket during the one hour lunch break at around 12:30
p.m. in the same back lane.
As, we approached the lane, the boys were done with their
work and had made a huge heart made of red rose petals on the yellow wall and
written below it was “I love you” followed by the name of a girl.
I was again confused. What’s the point of doing it here, in
a back alley? Or does the girl lives in a nearby house? I wondered and opened
the boot of my hatch to take out our cricket gear.
It was then that I was approached by one of the boys. He introduced
himself and told me that he was going to propose to his crush who was on her
way to meet him in that secluded and quiet back lane. The rose heart on the
wall was ready and so was an expensive gift but there was still something
missing.
A romantic song in the background at the time of the
proposal!
Impressed by the lad’s style and devotion, I agreed to play
DJ CUPID. He urged me to play a particular song – “pehla yeh pehle pyaar” by
Kumar Sanu on full volume and let the boot remain open.
Minutes later, the girl arrived and while my friends were
setting up the wickets for a match I was adjusting the bass and treble to get
the perfect sound.
The girl was really taken aback as she chuckled in delight
with both palms on her cheeks. The boy then went down on one knee, clichéd I know,
these school kids I tell you, and proposed to her with a ring.
It was a beautiful sight and the Pioneer base tube, Sony
amplifier and speakers in my car were definitely adding the magic touch. The
girl said yes and they hugged, not bothered by four strangers (me and my three
friends).
Come to think of it, may be she thought were his new boyfriends’
friends as after all we were the official background music providers.
The boy before leaving thanked us all and left with his lady
love. As I sat there sulking and realizing that another member of the single men’s
club had left us, I was till alone… waiting for someone.
And that someone did came, minutes later, albeit it was the
security guard of our college who followed the blaring sound of Kumar Sanu’s
voice only to howl at us, asking kill the music as the neighbours were
threatening to call the cops.
When I told him that he could have said the same thing more politely;
he replied in a tender tone “bhaiya ji gaana band kar di jiye na please”. And that
my friends, was the only sliver of love I got that day. Screw you cupid!
