"No Ice Cream Sir"

Groggy after a 50 hour week I decided to spend the Saturday evening at Barista with a cup of strong coffee.

When I finally managed to get a table at the overcrowded coffee shop, I noticed a friend also looking for a seat. I called him over and decided to share our stressful work life woes.

I ordered a 'normal' coffee for myself and an ice cream for my friend to the smiling man at the counter who dutifully called my name out in 15 minutes.

I walked upto the counter to take my order and to my horror found a cup of cold coffee with ice-cream in it!!!

I pointed this out to the (still smiling) man at the counter. He apologized profusely and promised me a solution in two minutes. He poured the coffee and the ice-cream into a mixer and switched the machine on. Before I could protest, the machine had done its job and the man poured the concoction back into the cup and gave it back to me with a smile - "No Ice Cream Sir".

I did not know how to react.

A Short Love Story

It was just another day that started innocuously.

After another grueling day at work I decided to do some window shopping following it with a quick bite of momos. Little did I know then that this would be a day I would always remember for reasons more than one.

The momos done, I was walking back to the car when I suddenly heard someone shout my name. I stopped - and so did time.

It was 'S'....for whom I had a soft corner way back in my first organization. She was as beautiful as ever- complete with those lovely eyes and bright smile that used to give me the inspiration of battling another day. All my co-workers used to tease me about her and many of her close friends had told me that she had a soft corner for me. But neither of us ever spoke about it and just moved on in life - me to another job and she to an MBA.

And here we were suddenly meeting each other on a crowded street after 3 years and not knowing what to talk about.

She was with her mother and being in a hurry gave me her telephone number and asked me to "definitely call her".

I was in a daze - life was giving me another chance.

The next few hours were spent looking at the watch and wondering when I should call. I decided against showing an overdose of enthusiasm and to call only after a few days had gone by.

I was restless the whole week wondering what to talk about when I called. I spent hours thinking of smart lines, writing them down and canceling them out as clichéd. Finally after about a week,still unable to come up with a single original pick-up line,I decided to call her come what may.

With my heart beating faster than a 100m athlete (running towards the finishing line with anabolic steroids) I dialed her number.

She let out a scream on hearing my name....my heart did a somersault of sorts and I blurted out a boring apology of being swamped with work and not being able to call earlier.

"Oh but why didn't you", said S,"I so much wanted to call you for my wedding last week."

The phone call ended pretty soon with me making muted promises of keeping in touch.

I am yet to call again.