The Cab Chronicles: Solving the Mystery of Women

 ‘The heat is increasing incessantly. How are you bearing it?’

‘Don’t ask Karthik. This place is turning more into an oven nowadays’, Arvind said wiping the perspiring sweat from his face. 

‘It’s time to start. Who are we waiting for still?’ exclaimed Joseph. 

Just then, Mani knocked at the cab door. He was talking on his phone hence he opened the cab door & diligently dropped his bag in the seat & went out again, continuing his phone conversation. 

‘Now that’s what I call the marriage syndrome’, said Arvind.

‘What’s that’, Joseph asked excitedly?

‘Well, you see the time after a person gets engaged, is the happiest time’?

‘For a person?’Joseph interjected.

‘No, the telecom company’, sighed Arvind. 

Karthik couldn’t hold back his laugh & said ‘Rightly said so, Arvind.’

Arvind continued. ‘Before getting engaged, work remains a big part of the person’s life. After engagement, his phone becomes a big part of his life. The amount of time on the phone increases accordingly, which gets duly reflected in the phone bills. I saw Mani thrice today & on all the occasions, I saw him talking on the phone’

‘Yeah, telecom companies do everything at their disposal to create avenues for people to come together, so to cash in on the emotions.  I have a hunch that the months preceding the time of the year when marriages happens most, would be the most profitable quarter for the Telecom providers.

The driver entered the cab signaling we were ready to leave now. Karthik signaled Mani to board the cab, who was busy walking to & fro still lost in his phone conversation. It took a while to catch Mani’s attention, but eventually he noticed & came back. 

‘Sorry guys to keep you waiting. Just busy on a call’, said Mani

‘No problem. Carry on’, said Karthik. 

The cab started & the driver switched on the A/C which provided a big relief to all. Since Mani was on the phone, the whole cab remained silent.

Surprisingly, Mani wasn’t talking at all. I mean he wasn’t speaking much. The two words which we heard were ‘Yes dear’, ‘No dear’ that too used very infrequently. 

Sometime just to break the monotony of the conversation, Mani would speak up few other words such as ‘Uhmm’, ‘Yea yea’. The longest sentence which he would have spoken was for 4 words. ‘Is it? Then fine’. 

After 20 minutes of conversing, Mani abruptly ended the call. Joseph had dozed off listening to ‘Yes, No dear’. Karthik surprised by the sudden end of the call asked ‘Is all well’, Mani?’ The end of lullaby (phone conversation) seemed to have its effect on Joseph, who woke up. 

“All is well, Karthik, replied Mani. Why do you ask?’ 

‘It seemed strange that you ended your phone abruptly after what seemed to be an engrossing conversation’.

‘Oh, that. My phone charge is completely off’.

‘Oh I see. How are the marriage arrangements coming up?’

‘Going on pretty well. A lot more stuff to finalize still, so plenty of things at our hands. Even now, we were discussing about the printing of marriage invitations’

‘Ohh. That’s nice’, remarked Joseph wondering from which angle would the conversation qualify as a discussion. 

‘Yeah. We had a healthy discussion. She was sharing her inputs on various things and I agreed with her’, said Mani.

Arvind, Karthik nodded in quiet agreements, as if empathizing with Mani’s state. 

“So what happens after the marriage syndrome?” Do we have any cure for that, asked Joseph.

‘Well, you see. It’s quite a paradox. The solution for Marriage syndrome co-incidentally is Marriage itself’ replied Arvind.

‘I don’t get it?’ Joseph asked quizzically.

‘Well, Joseph it’s like this. For anyone inflicted with Marriage syndrome, it’s like a phase. The symptoms start withdrawing after marriage. The amount of time spent on phone reduces till a point where you would be happy to leave your phone. 

‘I agree. I feel that the amount of time spent on phone before & after a marriage follows a bell curve distribution. Increasing until a crest & then decreasing eventually to zero. 

‘Is it?’, wondered Mani thinking which point of the bell curve he was currently in. 

‘Practically speaking, the marriage syndrome is meant to help the guy and girl get to know each other. 

But nothing could be farther from the truth’ remarked Karthik.

‘I don’t think so. We get to know others the more we talk. We identify each others interest, likes, dislikes etc. Don’t you think so?’ asked Mani.

‘Well my boy, that’s the myth. One figures that it is normal to understand someone after spending time with them, but in case of women, it’s not applicable. I can say with experience that with woman, the longer the time you spend with them, the harder it will be to understand them. Actually, this topic is quite worthy of a PhD thesis. So much unexplored & undefined. The fact that no man has solved the mystery yet, speaks of the insurmountable challenges that lie ahead.’

‘Why don’t you both share some insights from your experience on ‘What to do & what not to do in a marriage, so as to avoid unhappiness in life?’ asked Joseph. 

‘I hope we could do that. As is the case, the more you think that you have solved it, the more you realize it’s unsolved. It’s complicated’, Arvind said. 

‘Maybe, but there may be some general insights which you would know. At-least that will help us avoid the pain points’, Mani asked eagerly. 

‘Well, there may be few axioms which if followed to the letter would help you avoid some amount of trouble. ‘ said Arvind donning the sage mode ready to share his gyaan!

‘So, what is that axiom’, asked Mani.

‘Remember the one & only most important axiom ‘She is always right’. No matter what the situation is, what the place, just keep this one thing in mind. She is always right. Just agree with her & life will be ok for you. ‘ said Arvind. 

‘But, what if she had made some mistake & you need to correct it?’ asked Joseph

‘Well, God save the person who is courageous enough to point a woman her mistake & moreover tell her what to do. That’s the quickest suicidal way. Not only you earn the wrath of the woman for a lifetime, you end up being the reason for every bad thing that happens. She will not rest until she has earned her revenge. Keep that in mind’

‘Uhmm’, Mani murmured wondering if has done anything like that yet. 

‘Don’t worry Mani, based on what we heard today, your conversing style is pretty good. If you stick to that, I doubt if you will ever make that mistake’, Karthik said jokingly. 

Arvind continued, ‘That said, it doesn’t mean that just agreeing with her will ease things out. You have to exhibit that you will be for her in any situation when she needs you. 

‘How can one tell that she needs me’, asked Mani.

‘Well, that I can’t say. I have thought about it from all possible logic & I have never been able to understand how one can figure that out‘

‘I completely agree with you’, Karthik replied. ‘Once, I had an office meeting late into night. When my wife called & said that she thought she was feeling little uneasy & wants to see a doctor. Since I was busy, I told her ‘That it would be nothing & that in some-time, she will feel better’. I couldn’t speak for long because of my meeting but I told her we will see about it once I reach home. I think she kind off said that she wants me to be at home immediately, but I didn’t give it much importance then. I reached home little late & being tired went to sleep. It was in the morning when I remembered about her health and asked how she was feeling now. All I got was a glaring look & ‘Nothing’ reply.

‘Was that all that happened’, Arvind asked inquiringly? It seems that you got away with it easily.

‘Well, that was just the beginning. The morning tea & breakfast surprisingly for the next 3 days was sour & bland. In order to save further trouble, I told my wife that I wanted her to rest & that I will eat at office itself.’

‘I get the idea here. If you had reached home when your wife had called you, wouldn’t that have made her happy? Next time, you can rectify your mistake & things will be easy from then on, isn’t?’ remarked Joseph. 

‘Even I thought so. But with time, I realized that it is impossible to figure out when a woman needs you. Few weeks later, something similar happened. I was on my way to office early for a meeting, when my wife called me & said ‘she was feeling a little uneasy and thought she had fever’. My intuitive mind quickly activated & recalled my previous conversation with her. I thought she expects me to be with her now & I shouldn’t miss a good chance to show how much I cared for her. I called up the office, cancelled the meeting & quickly reached back home. Any idea what I got in return?’

‘A big smile? A hug?’ asked Joseph

‘Nope. A glaring look again!’ replied Karthik dejectedly. She said I was stupid to cancel an important meeting for which I had started early & for which even she had got up early. She remarked ‘you should know how to prioritize things. you needn’t have come.  

I told her that since she was feeling uneasy, I thought of being with her. She replied ‘you shouldn’t waste your time on small things like this. If I hadn’t woken up soon, I think I wouldn’t have felt uneasy’ - indirectly blaming me for the outcome. Karthik seemed to choke as the old memories came back to haunt him. 

Joseph had dozed off again. Listening to all the contrasting realities would have taken a toll on his already tired mind & body, so he had retired to sleep. Mani had a perplexed look in his face as if weighing the incidents & wondering what to infer from them. 

‘All said & done, does a solution exist?’ asked Mani in a despaired tone, since things were looking bleak no matter how one looked at it. 

‘Don’t worry Mani, remarked Arvind. You get used to it after a period of time. It’s like the stock markets, one day you see it reaching heights & the other day, rock bottom. In due time, you began to expect it & when that happens, the reality somehow seems better than your worse expectations. You will learn in due time.’

The cab driver slowed down as we got near to Karthik’s drop point.  His phone rang at the same time. He picked up his phone & as he got down, Mani could hear him say ‘Yes dear. You are right’!

‘That’s experience speaking’ remarked Arvind as we bid adieu to Karthik & went ahead with the journey.

Adventures of Rim, Jim, Sim – Quest to identify the inhibition to talk to a Girl! – Part II

Adventures of Rim, Jim, Sim – Quest to identify the inhibition to talk to a Girl!: Part I: here

The atmosphere was grim… The three of us sat facing each other. The only difference in the sitting styles was that I was looking down, Jim sat looking up and Sim sat with his face nodding in an oblique angle. One could say that our pose was reflective of our predicaments. I had just returned back from office and was really tired as I had a hectic day. But due to Jim’s insistence for coming up with a solution to the problem he faced, I was more or less forced to sit down with him. We had a 3 hour discussion about why he hadn’t been able to speak with the girl, but we hadn’t arrived at any solution yet. So I was wondering about his problem and about how long would this so called meeting would go on. Jim on the other hand was looking upwards, as if asking God for an answer. You might wonder about Sim’s pose that of an oblique angle, that’s coz he has a unique knack of sleeping while appearing to be hearing. You might ask how one could do that, that’s one of Sim’s special ability. He will make it seem as if he is listening to your conversation while at the same time doze off. His head will be nodding continuously more so coz he is asleep rather coz he is listening to you, but making the speaker think that he is intently engaged in the conversation. Only when you have spent a major amount of time with him that you would realize what he is actually doing. Few things that give him away would be things like his answer to your statements. No matter whatever you say, you will get the same reply. You might exclaim to him that you got to speak with a girl who you had been planning to talk to, and his reply would be ‘Ummmm’. And the same ‘Ummmm’ will appear when you tell to him that your boss shouted at you. Anyhow, presently Jim was too pre-occupied to think about Sim’s sleeping. The poor guy was lost in his own thoughts as to why only he had the inability to talk to the girl who he liked. And one would really sympathize with him. Finally when the clock ticked 1’O clock, we decided to call it off and retired to our beds.

The next few days went by with very less remarks about the girl from Jim. We assumed that the matter has died down with him. But unknown to us, the whole thing had been troubling the poor guy. It was at this context when the fate decided to play its dice. We had just returned from dinner when Sim rushed in with a paper in his hand. And he pointed to a column in the paper indicating some fashion show which was to happen this weekend.

‘We have got to go for it, guys’, remarked Sim… ‘See it’s also written that only limited seats. Let’s call the guy and book our tickets’

Jim remained mum. Not that he was an eager, talkative person normally but due to this particular enigma troubling him, he was more quiet.

‘Leave it, Sim. It’s better to hang out at some other place’ I said while indicating to him with my eye not to speak about this as this will remind Jim about the girl.

‘Hey come-on, this is a good chance for Jim to forget the girl and see few more attractive girls. Who knows he might end up liking someone and he can go talk to her’, remarked Sim, completely ignoring my signal.

None of us replied and remained silent.

‘You guys are bore, I think I will ask the new girl who had joined my team’ Sim said, flung the newspaper near us and went out of the room.

I was wondering what to do to engage Jim in a conversation, when he replied, ‘Let’s go for it’.

I didn’t get what he was talking about. Then I saw that he was holding the newspaper in his hand and was looking intently at it. I was surprised that Jim could change his mind about going to fashion show so soon when I realized that he was looking at a column at the corner of the paper. It was a tiny column about some seminar and went on to say about something called ‘Emotional Intelligence’. It said that if you are suffering from the following – “Not able to interact with people well, not able to express your emotions well, not able to utilize the best of your potential’, you had to attend this seminar.

I found it surprising that it had mentioned all the ‘NOTS’ in our life. After reading the ad, one might think that a human was not capable of doing anything on his own other than eating & sleeping. Nevertheless, Jim was completely enthused about this and decided to call up the guy and book 3 tickets. It was to happen on Saturday. I wasn’t sure if Sim would join us for the seminar coz he was pretty enthusiastic about the fashion show and had planned to go there with his friends. Anyway, I told Sim about the plan to go to a seminar on Saturday and invited him. ‘Ha ha, you old people go for this kind of seminars. I need to live my youth… Hope you will have a good time listening to some old greybeard deliver some lecture’, ‘ saying so, he left.

On the day, we were supposed to go for the seminar, Sim left the home pretty early to go and pick up his colleague before going to the fashion show. I and Jim were about to leave the home, when he came and parked the bike. He had a sullen face.

‘What happened. Did they cancel the fashion show. Or was it a male fashion show,’? I asked

‘Nope. She got stomach ache and couldn’t come. What fun is there by going alone. So I thought why not come along and take you guys to the fashion show’

‘Come on, Sim. You know how serious Jim is taking this. We can’t come with you today’, I said.

‘Guys, think about it. Haven’t you spent your college days listening to college professors. Why do you have to make yourself undergo this torturous experience again?’

We didn’t say anything, started our bike and left for the seminar. After sometime, we found Sim following us. We reached the venue well in advance. The only problem was that Sim started sulking too coz of the missed opportunity and for making us drag him here. Even I thought that the seminar would be boring. But as soon as we entered the inner hall, we found around 4 pretty girls clad in saree and welcoming people to the hall. Probably they were checking if people had the entry tickets and were guiding them inside. Sim’s joy knew no bounds. He dragged us towards the girls as if he was the man in charge, he told them about our booking and went on to talk about his job, how busy he was etc. The girl checked the tickets while patiently listening to him. She then asked us to go inside the hall. We came and settled in our seats. Hardly a minute would have passed, when Sim excused himself and went outside… I went outside to stroll for some-time when I saw Sim talking to the girl. I dragged him back to the hall and made him sit. Shortly thereafter the seminar began and a young man started the session.

During the course of the seminar, the guy wanted a volunteer for some activity. And as fate would have it, he ended up selecting Sim as the volunteer. Sim was asked to reminisce an incident from his childhood where he was bullied or he saw someone being bullied. He then went onto show how people mature & become emotionally intelligent at a young age. The audience gave him a warm applause. A thing to note about Sim is that he always wishes others to recognize him and tries real hard for that. In that sense, I think the speaker inviting him onto the stage really made an impact on him. His engagement for the whole duration of the seminar amazed the speaker itself. I guess he hadn’t ever seen a more enthusiastic volunteer involved in his talk before. What we eventually learned about emotional intelligence is the fact that EI is a self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups, this in turn leads to an increased self-awareness, self-management, social awareness & better relationship management. It seemed as if the speaker was addressing Jim’s problem. Jim too was hinged onto every word of the speaker. The speaker also mentioned a main point about Daniel Goleman being the one to introduce Emotional Intelligence to the world. And the session went on. The lecture finally concluded and we left for our home. Sim’s scrambled at the last moment to get the autograph of the speaker as a souvenir, really moved the speaker to a great extent. The next day being Sunday, I was surprised to see Sim waking me up. This surely had to be miracle as he doesn’t gets up soon. I told him that I had to sleep more and asked him to leave him undisturbed. I could only hear his voice trailing off saying ‘Iam missing a big goldmine’. ‘Whatever, who cares about it now.’

I slept peacefully for 7-8 hours and woke up relaxed. I opened my eyes to smell a strong scent emanating from the scented sticks with my room thick and completely dense. It got me wondering if I had being teleported to Heaven… while I was contemplating about it, Sim entered and gave me a smile. I followed him to the living room to see lines written on the wall ‘Jai Gole, Jai Gole’. I got confused that Sim would have adopted Sanyasi living and ‘Gole’ must be some god in the vast list of Indian gods. It was when I saw the photo of Daniel Goleman kept in the center of the room and decorated as that of a deity, when I realized that the Gole was an abridged version of Goleman. Near the photo were stacked Goleman aka Gole’s various books on Emotional Intelligence… I asked Sim what was all of this. He replied that he and Jim had decided to follow Goleman’s teachings in their day-today life and one way they could integrate it in their daily life was to see him daily… Certainly few gods would have wished their devotees to pray to them like Goleman was being revered. The next few days saw Jim savor 3-4 books of Gole in rapid succession. He seemed to learn something from it, at-least it seemed so. Sim on the other hand restricted himself to saying bhajans of ‘Jai Gole’ and hoping that it would rub off the Gole’s magic on him. Sometimes during the night, Jim would sit and share few learning from the book. One interesting thing about it was the fact that Jim realized why he was facing inhibition while interacting with her. There is something called Amygdala effect which is nothing but the response of a gland called Amygdala (an almond shaped structure in the brain) which determines the significance of the external stimulus and triggers emotional responses like freezing or fleeing. The amygdala is specialized for reacting to stimuli and triggering a physiological response that’s described as the "emotion" of fear. Amygdala being the storehouse for the memory of fear, misinterprets signals from the body and cause inappropriate actions such as panic, increased breathing, increased temperature, localized sweating, freezing etc. This certainly made sense why people acted in a weird way. Sim reasoned here why not remove Amygdala gland itself as it was causing so much nuisance in the brain. Jim said it doesn’t work that way and said that Amygdala is beneficial for humans in certain critical times. Emotional Intelligence certainly seemed to be important in one’s life.

As the saying goes, ‘If you desire something truly, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it’. That was very true in this case. Somehow, after a week, Jim returned from office excitedly and remarked that she has been put in his project. The management had decided to shift her into his team for a new project which he was about to work on. Now, because of the close proximity, Jim got to try out his new EI skills with her. Sometimes he failed miserably. Once he was sitting in his cabin, when she came to a cabin next to him. He looked up and to his joy/misery, realized she was there. Joy coz he generally gets excited when he sees her, miserable coz he suffers from Amygdala effect due to high anxiety. When she looked at him, he smiled and in return she smiled back. She asked him ‘Howz work going on’. Poor Jim, he wanted to talk a lot, except that like the kid in ‘Taare Jameen Par’, his mind was full of colorful images of what to reply, but his mouth was completely shut. Thankfully, one grey cell in his mind was still functioning and he picked up his phone and acted as if he had received a call, while at the same time, managing a smile on his face. Somehow, he escaped the situation without embarrassing himself. By constantly re-affirming the fact that he is in control of himself and by undertaking few activities like breathing slowly etc, he was able to relax himself back to normal self.

Things started improving gradually. He was able to have small conversations with the girl now. As far the updates goes, he had taken her out for a dinner… To top it, Jim came home once and happily remarked that he will be going to the fashion show. The girl had always wanted to go to a fashion show and when Jim offered to take her, she readily agreed. Imagine what surprised us the most… Sim instead of fighting with Jim to go to fashion show smiled. When we asked him what was his plan, imagine our surprise, when he took out a ticket of the EI seminar and waved it at us… Irrespective of who had wanted a solution to a problem, it was heartening to see Sim on a quest to conquer Emotional Intelligence. His plans were to do a research on EI and put forth the concept of EI for animals. Who know which animal he may help in overcoming it’s inhibitions… nevertheless, it was good to see a good ending for Jim as well as Sim regarding his new conquest for knowledge…

Adventures of Rim, Jim, Sim – Quest to identify the inhibition to talk to a Girl!: Part I

Napoleon had said that ‘Nothing is impossible’. Well, it seems to be quite true as long as one is saying it to the other person. Even I believed it until we came across one unsolvable problem. Well, the problem got solved in the long run, but that’s not the important thing. When we first encountered it, it seemed as if there was no solution to it. Jim was ready to face Napoleon (if necessary) to ask him to substantiate his statement about the ‘Impossible’ thing. I guess you would be wondering what Iam talking about. Let me fill you with the details of the incident and you will see for yourself the intricacies we found ourselves in.

It’s not quite often one would find Jim in a ‘colory’ outfit. The word colory is a creation of Sim’s ingenuity. You know the kind of dress which goes off tangent in every aspect. Yellow shirt + Red pant + Jazzy over coat + a thick buckled belt… I shiver just at the thought of this… Yet, it was Sim’s who introduced these outfits in our mundane lives, which until now had been restricted to the usage of the Bolly & Kollywood’s heroes. Someone said it somewhat right - “Behind every man success, there is a woman”. I say somewhat because, it should have been ideally ‘Behind every guy’s insanity, there is always a girl’. What happened is as follows. Sim had met a girl in a friend’s party. As always to impress her, Sim got the hint that she is a hardcore fan of these Bolly/Kolly heroes. But he couldn’t get to impress her much then. She was wooed by a guy who was in a jazzy outfit. I can’t imagine how he decided that jazzy outfits of the guy was the only reason to impress her,(his view was that he was better than the guy in every aspect, Intelligence, Attractiveness etc etc. Since we weren’t present there, we decided not to comment) but that’s what he did. What then followed was a pitiful story of how he launched a ‘Find the BK dress’ (read Bolly/Kollywood’s dress) campaign. What was more pitiful was the fact that being his roommates, we were compelled to be the campaign managers. Sim put it more wonderfully to us. I & Jim had returned early from office and were watching TV peacefully.

Suddenly, Sim rushes in and says,

Sim: Hey guys, I have wonderful news for you…

Jim: Are you moving to some other place?

Sim: Ha, not yet. The wonderful news is that iam launching a campaign called ‘Find the BK dress’ campaign. Then he briefed us on the details of it.

We were then forced to visit each Mall in the city and look for a flashy, jazzy outfit for him. I and Jim had taken a vow that this is the last time we will ever be doing anything with anything that is jazzy. As well for what happened to Sim with his Jazzy dress & the girl he was trying to impress, though iam eager to tell the story, Sim forbade me from noting any of this in the Chronicles of Rim, Jim & Sim (No surprises that the mere mention of the jazzy dress embarrasses him)

Having said that it was to our greatest surprise that we saw Jim in that outfit. What’s more interesting was Sim’s reaction to this. Iam not sure what shocked him the most ; Jim’s foray into Sim’s closely guarded territory of using jazzy outfits or the nostalgia of the experience with the girl or the less probable chance that Jim might be doing this for, how do I put it, well for a, a, a girl… Iam sure you folks are wondering what’s so great about Jim getting interested in a girl. For us, it is. It’s as if North Korea initiating a peace treaty with South Korea or China agreeing to a floating exchange currency system on its own. You get the point right? These things could never be conceived, same with Jim. It’s not that Jim wasn’t attracted to girls, (I hope you don’t think he was attracted to someone else), it’s just that he never wasn’t interested in impressing girls. He was concerned about his own work, his health, his friends that’ it. Neither Sim’s repetitious girl chase marathon or my fantastical notion of a dream girl had any effect on him. So it’s with great horror and shock, that both I and Sim looked at Jim & his jazzy outfit.

Not able to control himself anymore, Sim blurted out: ‘Why Jim, why…’

Jim said coolly ‘There is someone who I will be meeting this weekend. So I thought this dress would be interesting enough’.

I said ‘Tell us more about it’

He briefed us that his company has hosted some party this weekend. Blah blah blha.
‘Not about that. About someone who you had planned to meet’ I said.

Again, it was surprising to see Jim blush. He said ‘She has recently joined my team. Man, you should look at her.. She is so so awesome…’

Well, if Jim says the girl is awesome, she has to be.

‘So how did you get to know her? Tell us about her’, we said.

‘I haven’t spoken with her yet’, Jim said.

‘You what’, Sim shouted… ‘You haven’t what…’ Sim shouted again…

It seemed that she (Deepa) had joined the team just 1 week before. And Jim had got smitten with her at the first glance itself…

‘You sure, she isn’t a witch. She must be quite adept to have woken her magic over you so fast! To impenetrate the impenetrable will fortress of Jim… Who would have thought that we will be alive to see this day, Sim exclaimed.

Jim just growled at him.

‘If you are going to speak to her for the first time, dont you think you should wear something nice’, I said to Jim indirectly alluding to the jazzy outfit of his.
‘Well, I thought that this would be apt for the situation. Haven’t you said once that simple girls like guys who are flashy’..

Jim, Rim’s reference was in a different context, Sim said. He meant simple girls like guys who are quite bold and proactive in their approach. Right Rim?

I was kinda surprised that Sim could be wise too. So we spent the next 30 minutes trying to make Jim choose some other outfit, something better suited for the occasion. Finally, we convinced him to wear a formal black suit. Jim invited us to the party, as every employee could bring two of the family members. Since, I and Sim hadn’t planned anything for the weekend, we readily agreed.

On the day of the party, we got ready 3 hours before the party thanks to Jim’s insistence of not arriving late at the party. We reached the place a bit early. Jim made us sit in a place and went ahead to meet his company colleagues.

After sometime Jim came to us….

‘Shhh, shhh’, he said.

We weren’t talking loudly, hence the ‘shhh shhh’ didn’t make any sense.

Jim said, ‘She has come’. We understood that Jim’s shhh, shhh was a attention signal code.

‘Where is she’, Sim said.

‘Wait. She was here. Then after looking here and there, he pointed at a girl who was talking with another girl’

‘So how is she’, Jim said.

Well, what could we say. She was nice and good. But not the kind of girl who would make you fall over your feet. Jim certainly had a unique taste. ‘She is kinda cute and good’

‘Yea, I know’. Jim exclaimed.

‘So you spoke with her yet’, I asked him.

‘No, not yet. Not sure what to talk to her about’. Jim said. ‘I have to go. Saying that, Jim went off in one direction’

We saw Jim approach the girl. We expected him to talk to her. All he did was walk towards her, give her a smile, stand there like a dumb for 5 seconds and then walk away. We were surprised after seeing what happened.

Jim came to us after sometime.

‘Dude, what did you just do. I asked Jim’

‘I tried talking to her. But I couldn’t speak’, Jim said… My throat just went numb. It kinda wrung itself. I couldn’t get any word from my mouth.’

Well, this isn’t like Jim. He was acting strangely… Like I said, behind every guy’s insanity, there has to be a girl.

‘What the heck. Talk about anything, man. Her dress, the company, the cool drink, even the food to be served’, And if you are not gonna speak to her soon, Iam going to approach her’ Sim said…

We forbade Sim to do anything and to avoid hitting on a girl whom Jim was interested. We saw Jim walk by the girl few times, but again the same result. The girl did seemed to be interested in talking with him, but for reasons unknown he repeated the same sequence again and again. Go past her, turn around, look at her, smile for some-time, and then continue walking. Sim was so pissed off, that he was ready to flung the glass at Jim…

The party got over and everybody started leaving. Jim was clueless about the happening. While on our way back to home, we kept on berating him for behaving like an ass. Still being our friend, we decided to figure out the problem and help him out. So began our quest to identify the root cause of the problem of being mute when approaching a girl.

To be contd...