The first time!

Bolshoi heard her voice before he saw her.

“I work in the evening shift nowadays – leaving home at 7 PM and coming back in the morning by around 6:30 AM…”

Her voice was low, but not quite husky. As if her vocal chords had decided to gingerly tread the border towards huskiness and then decided to stay on that border. It gave her voice a unique and intoxicating effect. And that accent…! Although it did not sound unnatural, it certainly sounded intriguing enough to make you pause and think about each and every sound that came out of her mouth.

Bolshoi had by now stepped off the elevator and into the corridor. He could see that the door of her apartment was open. The other end of the room had a balcony which was welcoming the fading evening sunshine into the apartment. The room itself was full of furniture and potted plants. And then he saw her!

She was leaning on the table and talking. Her arms were crossed in front of her, but not in a defensive way.

“Quite the cool lady!” Bolshoi thought to himself, as he walked into the apartment.

She did not look up at him as he walked in. Ignoring him, she continued talking – each of her sentences ending with a mild laugh. He noticed her laughter – it had a ringing tone to it. It was as if the sound wanted to come rushing out, but was stopped at the last moment, being promised to be set free at the end of the next sentence.

Bolshoi was nervous. This was his first time! All his life (well, at least since he crossed puberty!) he had been waiting for this day! He had spent several hours fantasizing about this occasion and planning out the details of each and every second. He had already memorized a thousand times the lines that he would say, the small talk that he would make and what he would do in this situation! But nothing had prepared him for this! He was too scared to even look up at her face.

Settling down into the sofa, he permitted himself to steal a glance at her! “Wow! She is more beautiful than her photographs…” he thought to himself.

She had long wavy hair, a delicate face, bright and big innocent eyes. And her lips…They looked delicious! She had full lips, rose colored, but without any hint of lipstick. He couldn’t take his eyes off her lips. Finally, with great difficulty, he allowed himself to look at the rest of her. She was slim, but not reed thin. And somehow, he found her cool and casual posture quite attractive.

Suddenly, Bolshoi realized that she was now looking at him.

“Awww..shucks…she has caught me staring at her!” He mentally cursed himself. She had a faintly amused expression on her lips, as if she was indulging a school boy who had a major crush on her.

“Why don’t you guys go into the next room?” Someone in the room asked. Bolshoi dumbly nodded.

She led the way, Bolshoi following her. He was nervous and suddenly had a very strong urge to run out of the apartment shrieking at the top of his voice. “I cannot do this!” He thought to himself. However, he saw himself silently following her into the room.

“Have a seat”, she told him – and sat down without waiting for him. He looked around and sat on the bed.

“Err…hmmm…Hi!” Bolshoi looked at her and smiled. He was feeling very shy and could feel that his cheeks were flushed.

“Hi!”, She replied back.

“So…tell me something about yourself!” Bolshoi replied. “What a lame opening line!” He thought to himself, “I sound like one of the HR interviewers breaking the ice with potential employees.”

“Oh…let me see…I am a very talkative girl, enjoy movies, enjoy having fun. The rest I have already told you in my e-mail to you. You tell me something about yourself.”

Bolshoi could not take his eyes off her – she was too damned attractive. He felt his lips moving and sounds coming out of his throat, but his brain was too focussed on looking at her. He did not even realize how long it had been since they entered the room. A quick and loud knock on the door brought him out of his reverie.

“I think we should go. They seem to be waiting”, She suggested. Again there was a hint of playfulness in her voice..."Do you really want to go?" She seemed to be asking him.

“Yes, lets do that…”, Bolshoi reluctantly got up.

Both of them got back into the main room. As they entered, the small conversations suddenly came to a stop, bringing an unnatural silence into the room. He went and sat near his mother and whispered into her ear – “She seems to be nice.” He didn't want to sound too enthusiastic with his mom. There were murmurs of approval from all directions.

He looked around and realized that she had gone and given a similar report to her parents.

Bolshoi’s mother smiled and told him - “I knew that you will like her.” Turning towards the others in the room, she said, “If you think it is OK, they can probably meet alone another time and get to know each other better. And oh! We would prefer the marriage to be conducted in the summer vacation time, as we have lots of relatives coming in from Kerala…”

Bolshoi could not stop thinking about her lips, her laughter and her voice - even as they got into the car and started driving towards back home!