It was one of the few
times that someone from my husband's family was coming home for dinner, though
it was only a 22-year-old cousin, and I was naturally all excited and nervous.
He worked in Chennai too but it was at Bangalore that I had met him for the
first time at a family gathering. We had got along famously, resulting in
many persistent invites from my part to dinner at our place. Well, it was
months before he found the time to grace our home with his presence and when
he did make his appearance, he had a girl in tow.
She was good-looking,
slim, long-legged and dressed to the boot like a model. While I eyed her with
interest, the cousin introduced her to us as his colleague. As my husband's
cousin worked in the 'hospitality' industry, I gave her big points for her
personality and poise. But I had judged too soon! Before she had even sat
down, she said incredulously, "But you two look so young." Husband
and I couldn't help but laugh - she had imagined her friend's cousin and wife
to be an older 'settled' couple and was naïve enough to voice that in
their presence. The cousin grinned at us rather apologetically.
It turned out the evening
was taken over by the pretty 'gatecrasher.'
I called the cousin aside to the kitchen and asked him if she was his girlfriend and he said in his inimitable style, "You crazy or what!" and went on to tease me about the apron I was wearing, trying to look busy with the cooking. (I had decided on my easy-way-out recipe for dinners - veg fried rice, some crispies and salad. Ice-creams for dessert. The cousin had picked up a chicken side-dish on the way for the two guys.) On a more serious note, he said she was from Coimbatore and knew we were from there too, had a boyfriend who was in Bombay, was a nice kid (kid, hmm…), and had brought her along on a whim.
In the meantime, she
had finished taking a tour of the house with my husband, talking thirteen
to the dozen, exclaiming about everything like a kid, and finally arrived
at the kitchen. Again she said disbelievingly, "Hey, your kitchen is
so big and neat." As I shooed the guys away for distracting me from my
cooking, she sat down and told me her life history when I asked her about
herself. She was nineteen, had dropped out of college ("not interested
in studies"), had gotten a diploma and with that a job, was kind of supporting
her mother and younger sister (Dad passed away a few years ago) who were in
Coimbatore, liked her job and thought Chennai was "cool" though
she missed her friends back home.
By then, she heard the
sounds of the TV and rushed to our den where our TV was - we watch it on our
pc with the help of a TV tuner card. She squealed in delight, not, as we had
imagined, at the concept of watching the TV on the pc as many guests were
prone to do, but at the Bollywood 'gala awards nite' that was being telecast
live on one channel! She plonked down on the couch and turned to us with a
smile and said, "I was afraid I'd miss this programme - I thought you
didn't have a TV." Busy sighing over Hrithik Roshan's "cute"
smile, she missed the grins we all exchanged.
When the cousin, bored with the dance performances of the 'glittering' ceremony of the glitterati, switched to another channel (sports, what else?) ignoring her pleas, she went over to our bookshelf, took down some books and sat on the floor going through them. When she asked us if she could borrow a book, I was curious to see what she wanted to read - she was holding up a book of inspirational quotes! Of all the 500 odd books in our collection!
When we brought dinner
in (we don't have a dining room or table) and ate with our plates in our hands,
she took over the remote again and pecked at her food, more interested in
pointing out the various celebrities at the awards ceremony - until we mentioned
the Cornettos we had got for dessert. She suddenly sat up and said, "Great,
I love Cornettos."
We had bought just three
Cornettos (two chocolate and my favourite butterscotch for me) and my husband
and I decided to share the butterscotch. I had just started on it when, horror
of horrors, she asked for a bite from my ice-cream - I mean, we were practically
strangers and she was a guest at our place. I had to bite my teeth and offer
it to her, though, as the cousin looked on helplessly. The look I gave him
ensured that he did not bring home any more surprise guests.
She was totally oblivious to her inadequacies in being a graceful guest, jabbering away happily and taking down our phone number so she can keep in touch as we saw the two of them off at the gate. But I write with some affection for this "kid" for she was child-like in many ways and seemed to have been forced to grow up too soon. I was glad she had so obviously enjoyed her outing to our place that day.
