THE QUEST

   Three photos(my clicks), that made its way to the finals of the National Photography competitions haven’t satisfied the judges and first of all, they haven’t even satisfied me!

   Wait, Have I introduced myself? No? Hey narrator, what the hell are you doing around there. Just introduce me to everyone.

   “Oh! Sorry, I was busy with some other work. Guys, this is Praneeth and people here call him “the photo uncle and….”

    Idiot, its “the photo man”, not uncle. Just get out from here. I’ll narrate the story myself. Guys, its said that everyone have a born talent in them. And photography is my passion. Its not just a passion, it’s the beat of my heart. My photos had it all- timing, focus, aspiration and creativity, but one thing was always missing- soul and this is the day I found it.

   It was Sunday and as expected CCD was fully packed. I had this habit of going there every now and then and try to capture the beautiful lake view sunset from its balcony. But I wasn’t successful in reproducing the liveliness of the scenario. That day, as usual,  I was trying some of the new angles and just when I was about to click, I found someone obstructing the view field and click, it went. And then I looked at the photograph, I was just perplexed by the beauty of the still. It was “Beauty of the sunset reflected in a pair of beautiful eyes.” Wonderful view it was. And I started looking around for those pair of eyes which made my heart skip a beat. Pch. May be I missed her.

    As I suddenly turned back, I saw her, standing out even in such a huge crowd. The way she adjusted her hair strands that fell in the way of her eyes swept me off my feet. I’ve decided. She’s gonna be my soul mate. I just kept following her steps and my heart kept following her thoughts. If she turns around in a count of three, she’s mine- I said to myself. One….two… No, three is a bit unfair. Its count to 10. 3..4……9.. and she suddenly turned around as if she forgot something and I was just right behind her. Startled, she let go of her hot chocolate and it spilled over my shirt. Wait, ‘shirt’ is an inappropriate description. It spilled over my ‘Brand new pepe shirt’ that my mom had gifted me last birthday.

“What the hell! Cant u watch your step” I could’ve yelled.

But when a girl does something wrong, its always okay, especially if she’s such a startling beauty.

“Its okay. Just an old, useless shirt!” I said (Sorry mom)

“Oh my god! Praneeth sir, it is you! I’m a big big fan of yours.” She screamed. I later learned that she’s my fresher and was entitled Miss Fresher of the year(no surprises!!!)

  “Myself Maddy. Can I buy you a cup of coffee, as a compensation to my mistake?” she said with a childish accent.

 “Sure, you be seated. I’ll be back in a minute” I said and went aside to text my friends Yeshu and Vivek  “Hey, I’m on a date, in CCD. Please don’t disturb me.” I know they would surely come and I would a proud man, first in our gang, to get in a relationship.

   Until we got the order, we talked, about our friends, hostels, goals in life and about why indian team have players who are not efficient and about why girls love to give awkward stills in photos and feel like its fashion. And after we got our order, our conversation stopped and I was just watching her beautiful lips covered by chocolate. There was this silence for sometime. She broke it by saying “Sir, can I ask you something…”

   Even though, the addressing “sir” seemed uncomfortable, I was excited and wished my friends would be here soon to witness a beautiful girl proposing.

  “Actually, me and Ravi are sending our love story to valentines competition this year. We need a photo of us, together, attached to the story. Can you please click a beautiful still of us? I know you’re best at that.”

  A bang in my heart! Adding to this shocking conversation, there came my friends, always with their impeccable timing. They were looking at me with their troll faces and trying best to control their laughter. I said to her “ See you later ” and my friends helped me consoling myself by changing the venue from CCD to “Kingfisher”.

  If you’re thinking this is the shortest, silliest love encounter that you’ve ever heard of, the you sure missed 42 of my previous encounters. Okay guys, time to go. I’ve to start the quest of my 44^th one.