And She Smiled..!! (Episode 1)

Authors Note:

Some time back I had thought of directing a short movie, and this storyline was lingering in my mind since long. During the development of the script, I somehow felt that I should try publishing this as a story even before attempting to direct it. Hence, the script development was stalled and I went on to write the story.

I had many people complaining, when I stopped writing 'Not At First Sight'. But I will assure you that 'And She Smiled' is not destined for that. ( Well, it also depends on how well this episode is going to be received by you).

It also forms a part of my duty to tell you that, this story is not based on my real life. ;) 

Let me thank my friend Archi,for the valuable time that she spent on proof reading this.

Enjoy reading it and please share it if you like it...!! :)

Episode 1

 “Sorry..!! Got late!” she said. She was panting and trying hard to smile through it. It was an open air restaurant amidst a beautiful garden. ‘Fresh Air and a Coffee’- the restaurant’s board read. There were about a couple of dozen people - old and young alike, warming the seats.  The sun light escaping the long branches of the tall green trees had drawn beautiful patterns all over the place.

The girl stood next to the chair and was waiting for the response from the young man in blue shirt who was sitting across the table. Either he was very much involved in the novel he was reading – ‘Not At First Sight’ or he was making a deliberate attempt to ignore this girl.

Handfuls of photography enthusiasts were seen lying on the chest, squatting in awkward postures in order to capture their objects of interest in the most beautiful manner and from a perfect angle. It was nine in the morning and the place looked beautiful in the rays of sunshine –just like a painting.

“Okay, I get it”, she said shaking her head mildly. A brief pause and she continued. “Clearly you should be angry. But it was this Bangalore Traffic that got me late, you know? It was not carelessness on my part” said she. Her fingers were busy, playing with the straps of her bag.

She had worn a yellow kurti with floral patterns all over it. She was looking pretty. Just that the green hair clip seemed to be quite out of place.

The guy looked up, out from his book and threw a questioning look at her. There was an exchange of awkward glances and he spoke.

“Sorry?” he spoke.

The girl smiled “Why are you being sorry..! It’s okay. You weren’t all that rude” and placed her hands on the chair.

“No., I wasn’t apologizing. Sorry as in, Sorry! Do I know you? That’s what I meant” he replied quickly. He had now closed his novel and kept it on the table.

“Oh. I am sorry. Actually you are wearing a blue shirt, So...”

“So..?” he asked.

“Actually there’s a small misunderstanding you know! I was supposed to meet a movie director here. We haven’t seen each other before. And we decided that he would come in a blue shirt and I will be in yellow, so that we could find it easy to recognize each other” she replied.

The smile on her face had disappeared by now. Yet, she was looking pretty and charming like those girls in any Disney animated movies.

The guy looked at his shirt, laughed mildly and raised his spectacles.

“Oh. I see! But you could have taken his phone number right?” he fired his first question. Without waiting for her response, he went on to pose few more questions.

“You say that he is a director, how come you don’t know him by face?”

“Okay, how did you both communicate?”

“If through phone, you should have had his phone number and you could have called him, right?”

“If ‘twas through Facebook, you would have at least seen his profile picture right?”

          “Or did you tr...” he was yet to complete his questionnaire, when she spoke.

“Look..! I feel like telling you that this is none of your business” she took her hands off the chair.

“Oops..! I am really sorry”, he made an attempt to apologize and continued “So you were supposed to meet a director. So you must be an actress. So, how many mov...” before she interrupted him again. It was obvious that she was getting annoyed.

“You Know what? I am getting late. I’ve to leave. See you”, she turned around and prepared to leave but, it was his turn now – to interrupt her. She had to find the right person now- the director in a blue shirt.

“Akshay..!” she heard him saying. He had tied his hands behind his head and was leaning against the chair.

She quickly looked back and exclaimed “Akshay…!! I mean Sir! So I was right in the first place itself. And what was all that about? This is so embarrassing.”

An old lady sitting in the neighboring table, who was in the middle of some serious phone call, looked a little upset with the sudden squeaky voice of the female.

“You know what..? I am getting late. See you!” He mimicked the girl and laughed..

“Stop it..!” said the girl fighting her way out of embarrassment. “Sir..!”, she felt the need to add a sir.

“Stop calling me Sir! Call me Akshay, that’s what my friends do” said he.

The old lady threw annoyed looks; yet again .The waiter approached the table and placed the menu card on it.

“Good morning” Akshay greeted him while trying hard to suppress his laughter.

“Okay sir, I mean Akshay! I think you should stop. Now if you please, may I sit?” she asked and pulled the chair.

“If sitting on the chair is what you have in your mind, then I am not going to object” said he with a wide grin as he surfed through the menu.

“No. My intent was to sit on your head” she smirked.

The waiter who was standing next to them was clearly enjoying the conversation as he forced his lips against revealing that smile.

“On my head..? Oh... desperate to sit on a hot seat?” came the repartee and he acted as if he was trying to adjust his hair. He then winked at the waiter and whispered in a soft voice, “Quite a show isn’t it? Give us a minute to decide the order”.

The waiter obliged with a courteous nod and made an exit from the scene.

“Hot Seat? Okay, let me take a guess at what you are expecting now. Me laughing out loud on your dumb and stupid joke?” She sat on the chair and raised her eyebrows.

“You mean L.. O.. L? Nope. I have a better expectation. How about rolling on the floor and laughing?” He winked and looked at the group of photographers at the distance.

The small group of photographers had found something interesting on the green grass, and they were all lying flat on the ground and were seen pointing their camera at it.

“Not so funny. I think we should start discussing work” she said.

“As you say Ms. Workaholic.! But first let’s order something”. He waved his hand at the waiter.

 “Coffee and green Otingos please. So neetu, what will you have?”

 “Its nitya and not neetu. I will have crispy bites, capprico brunetto and Mario pompeshol please”.

***************************************************************

Nitya was a twenty something girl and Akshay, a twenty five something guy. Nitya was a pretty lady with flowing, let loose hair and Akshay was a tall, slim guy who sported a clean French beard. She wore thick framed glasses while he had the frameless ones.

Nitya was doing her literature from Clewman’s Girls College and was also a columnist at ‘Bangalore Reads’- a fortnightly publication. Well, it is not a prominent magazine of the city, but she used to write stories in her column and she had a decent reader following.

In her ‘about me’ section, she had also claimed that she’s a playwright apart from being an avid reader, dancer, cook, badminton player, singer,photographer etc.

Her facebook profile picture was a selfie- posing as about to kiss the camera. In her cover picture she was seen dressed in a gorgeous red sari and alongside four other pretty ladies. While the profile pic had 231 likes, the cover pic had managed 471.

Akshay was an Engineer by profession and in his three years of professional life he had hardly worked on any project and was mostly asked to warm the bench- no work, only pay.

He always dreamt of becoming a movie director and hence his Facebook profile picture was that of Stephen Spielberg with a quote. He had shot five short movies and all these movies had earned him praises from his friend circles. However, it’s a best kept secret that, they were all lying when they had praised him.

One day after watching some inspirational speech on YouTube, for the first time in his life he felt like doing a short movie without copying the plot from other movies. There was a film festival due to happen in the city and he firmly believed that he stood a great chance of winning it easily.

 Now, that he had decided against being a plagiarist, he also felt that it was high time to have a screen writer to assist him. It was through his friend, whose girlfriend’s sister happened to be a fan of Nitya’s stories that he came to know about her. He quickly wrote to her asking if she was willing to write the screenplay for his short movie and she had responded positively. I don’t know if it was an auspicious date, but they had decided to meet at this place on the fourth Friday of February.

*****************************************************************

“Akshay, I think I should tell you this, I have no previous experience in writing screenplays” she spoke with hesitation and paused for two seconds. “By the way who’s producing your movie? Who’s playing the leads? What’s the budget?” her rapid fire round was on.

It was then that Akshay realized he hadn’t told her the most important part of the project. He searched for words and then responded. “Ah. Well..!! I think you have kept high enough expectations. I forgot to tell you that it’s a short movie and not a feature film”. He said. ‘I am just another random person who shoots cheap short movies hoping to make it big one day’ he wondered if he should have added a filmy line and looked at her. He couldn’t help but notice that her face had dropped.

“BFI has organized a short movie festival and I was planning to submit an entry. I wanted to have a strong and genuine script, hence thought of asking someone really good at that, to do it. And I found you”, said he. ‘was it necessary to say really good at it?’ he asked himself. ‘It was needed to ease off things’, spoke his inner self.

Nitya looked at him, took a deep breath and there was a long silence. After thirty seconds she spoke.

“I am not that hungry” saying so she turned towards the waiter, who was near the counter and asked him to cancel the order.

 “What was that?” he looked annoyed, “I am going to pay your bill, don’t worry. And there is no reason for you to put up that face after knowing that it’s a short movie. I was not expecting you to work for free and I was anyway going to pay you” he said.

“I didn’t mean that. Seriously I’m not hungry”

“Hmm Okay! I should have told you that it’s a short movie. You seem to have spent needless hours on your makeup” he put up a sorry face.

“Arrey.!! I am not dropping out. I’m still interested in working with you and I think you should stop being sorry” she said and smiled. All of a sudden she seemed to have realized something and said “By the way, what do you mean by needless hours on the makeup?”.  She tried acting angry.

“I wanted to say that, you are looking good. It was a compliment in disguise”

“I didn’t ask for any compliments”

“It’s a Diwali offer- free compliments. You can have it”

“I am in no need of free compliments. And I think you should start improving your sense of humor”.

Akshay had always thought that he had the best sense of humor in the town and his sense of pride was slowly being hurt by Nitya who looked tired of his humorless jokes.

He pulled a tissue paper and moved his fingers over it. Few twists and tampers, and within no time he made a rose out of it.

“White Rose. Peace?”, he held it in front of her. 

“Fine” , she smiled at him and accepted the tissue rose. “It’s time that we start discussing work. You can start with narrating the story, if you have any in mind. As and when I feel that something is not convincing or good, I will interrupt. I will start putting things on paper only when we are done with the whole plot”.

“Cool..!” he said and raised his spectacle. He was now trying to act like a proficient director. “This is a love story, a beautiful love story. We have a hero and a heroine. And they..”  He stopped as she interrupted.

“And they meet each other in a restaurant. And after a couple of meets they fall in love with each other. I think this is what you were going to tell me. But, can you please start from the opening scene and explain the story scene by scene”, saying so she raised her eyebrows.  She had this habit of raising her eyebrows every now and then.

Before he could speak, she added “And please stop raising those hands and trying to act like a director. Looks weird” and laughed.

“Okay Madam! So here you go, from the opening scene”, he grew conscious and tied his hands. He winked at her and continued, “The scene opens in a bus and we show our lead sitting there. We will call him Mohit. Now, Mohit will be shown looking at his right side every now and then.”

“He is looking at the lady right? The heroine?” she interrupted.

“Yeah!” he answered with a mild hint of fuss. “We will call her Neetu. Mohit is shown looking at her every now and then. Well, he is not one of those rogue kind, he is just like any other innocent guy who tries hard to get a second glimpse of the lady, with whom he has fallen in love, at first sight. So, he is looking at her and  ” Akshay was narrating the story passionately.

“And finally she looks at him right?”, there she was, yet again, like a speed breaker interrupting him.

“Yes..! And stop hurrying. Be Patient. I doubt if you will even wait for nine months to deliver a baby, I think you will do so in just three months. Ms. Restless”, he laughed. It didn’t sound funny.

“Disgusting..!” she put up an angry face and mildly slammed on the table. “Stop speaking disgusting things. One more attempt from you to crack a joke, and I will leave right away”.

“Sorry..!”, he apologized and grabbed the tissue rose from her hand. “Peace?” he said in guilt tone and offered her the rose again.

“Next time you do that, forget peace. I will cut you into pieces”, she said and waved the table knife at him. He acted being scared.

“Okay! Now continue your story” she ordered, hiding her smile behind that commanding tone.

“As you say your highness! Coming back to the story, all of a sudden the heroine looks at him, just like the way you had guessed”

******************************************************************

Mohit was a little tensed now. Yes of course he was happy and excited. Yet, his heart was pounding like those drums in a rock concert- fast and loud. The reason being the girl sitting next to him- with whom he had fallen in love ten minutes back, was smiling at him now. He is not an exception; every guy in the universe complies by this unnamed law of the universe pertaining to heartbeat.

“Hi!”, she was a little nervous. Yet, she was trying to smile.

Mohit grinned and replied “Hi!”.  Not sure as what else to do, he scratched his head and extended his hand. “Mohit”, he said.

She didn’t find it necessary to shake hands with him, instead she asked, “Can we swap places? I want to sit next to the window. I am feeling dizzy and getting a vomit sensation”. So here she was, proving it again- A girl’s smile comes at a cost.

“Sure sure.! No Problem. Please.!” He tried being extra polite and got up. In the process the luggage rack above him, hit his head.

 He rubbed his head, grinned at her and said “Sorry! I was little excited. Soo..”, he gave a brief pause and continued “And, take care of your head”.

She didn’t smile but quickly moved towards the window and put her head out of the window. The next moment, Mohit was trying hard to look comfortable as he could hear her puking.

One hundred and fifty seconds later, he looked at her again. She looked at him. She was done with whatever she had in store.

“Hi” he smiled by mustering all his courage.

She smiled in response.

“Can I sit next to the window? I want to.” he didn’t complete his sentence. Instead, he chose to point his fingers at his mouth.

The next moment the beautiful girl was seen getting increasingly uncomfortable and trying her level best to cover her nose and ears simultaneously.

Mohit was seen with his head out of the window -vomiting ugly and loud.

**************************************************************

“What happened?” Akshay asked.

Nitya had rested her chin against her palm and was biting her lips- her eyebrows trying to touch her hairline.

“Nothing! It’s interesting. I mean it’s good, very good” , she fumbled with words.

Few people are good at it- Telling a beautiful lie and making the other person realize that it’s a lie. It’s not exactly sarcasm, but sarcasm in disguise.

Take for instance, a boyfriend trying hard to lie to his girl that she looked pretty in her new dress. He doesn’t want to disappoint her. But she can easily make out that he is lying.

Nitya was doing the same thing; just that she went a mile further by giving him enough leads to realize that his story was bad. That’s why she had deliberately fumbled with words and that’s what you call- sarcasm in disguise.

“Don’t lie”, he smirked. Her mission was accomplished. “You are bad at it. If you didn’t like it, you have every right to say it on my face” he sounded like a women rights activist.

“It’s not like that. It’s just that something like vomiting in the opening scene, will it sound good? I mean imagine the audience covering their eyes and ears in the very first minute. And there are very high chances that few might end up puking then and there” she tried acting anxious.

The waiter placed the food on the table and left.

“I thought that the movie should start with a bang”, said he.

“Exactly! With a bang..!” she took a sip of the drink.

“Actually you are making sense. Fine, let’s change it. I had one more scene in mind. It goes like this.” He took a deep breath.

“ It’s eight o clock in the evening. And it’s quite dark outside. There is a bus stop where an innocent looking guy and a girl are seen waiting for a bus. The story is set up in the 80’s and both of them are seen in retro outf..”, he started narrating.

She smiled as she took another sip of the drink and started listening to him.

-To Be continued….

Note:

Haven't read 'Not At First Sight..!' ??

Follow the link Not At First Sight (Episode 1)