For all those who missed the earlier parts:

The Girl in the Mall - Part 1
The Girl in the Mall - Part 2

Truth, they say, is sometimes stranger than fiction. Well it’s certainly true in my case. It was almost six months to the day that I last saw the girl in the mall and yet somehow, it was as if I had just seen her. After that incident, I returned back to my college and business went on as usual. The next time I went back to Delhi was to attend my sister's marriage in January. Busy with preparations and stuff, there was hardly any time left for other pursuits (read partying with friends). Now the basic schedule for the wedding was something like this-

Day 1- Cocktail party for friends (means no oldies allowed)
Day 2-The Wedding
Day 3- Reception

So finally Day 1 arrived and that was something that me and my friends had been looking forward to most of all. I mean ya my sister's wedding was important but then so was this man. This took place at a farmhouse on M.G Road so basically we had a free reign from 9 at night to about 4 in the morning. The party started and slowly everyone got into the groove. The drinks and snacks had started and the dance floor too was beginning to come alive. After having supplied my friends with all the necessary stuff, I went around meeting all my sister's friends whom I’ve known since childhood and partying with them.

Suddenly, Abhinav came running to me and pulled (read dragged)me to one of the corners where some guests were sitting. And that was when the world around me stopped. I had seen Her again and no, this was no imagination. She was really there and this time I knew I wasn't letting go of her so easily. But she was sitting with one of my sister's friends (Neetu Didi). I call her Didi cause many of my sister's friends tied me Rakhi when I was small (C'mon guys, you can't protest to all this when you are in Class 2!! I was innocent back then).

So I went and found my sister and literally dragged her from the dance floor and demanded to know whether she knew the girl sitting with Neetu Didi. And I absolutely hated that smirk on my sister's face when she asked, “Why?". Some bullshit later and she finally told me that that girl is Neetu Didi's younger sibling Shikha. Now I was in a moral dilemma. I mean I treat Neetu Didi as my sister but does her sister also qualify as one. No way, my brain told me. Even Neetu Didi's my sister by sheer ill-luck and not by choice so definitely her sister doesn’t qualify in that category. And my assumptions received further impetus from Abhinav and Saurav who told me that" Real Sister ki friend who's your muh bola sister ki sister is definitely not sister". Seriously man, thats like saying Osama and Bush are brothers or like Mallika Sherawat doing puja!!! It’s as far stretched from reality as possible.

So after convincing myself that I wasn't committing any cardinal sin, I spent the next ten minutes wondering how to go and talk to her. Believe me, it doesn't help one bit if you have friends like mine who give you advice ranging from writing a love letter (I mean C'mon guys, get a life!!Who writes love letters now) to going straight to her and snogging her in front of everyone (apparently according to them, she'll think that I am very direct in my approach and hence THE MAN). So once again, I dragged my sister off the dance floor (with my future bro-in-law giving me murderous looks) and asked her to do something!!

Finally my sister agreed and we pretended to chat to the guests and slowly made our way to where she was sitting. My heartbeat seemed to grow proportionally as we moved closer and closer to them and at one point of time, I even decided to back off. Well, what are sisters for after all!! Oodles of gyaan later and we finally reached their table where I started chatting with Neetu didi while glancing at her every 5 secs. And finally, we were formally introduced!!! I extended my hand to her and said in the most macho tone I could muster at that time (not easy when your heart's accelerating like an F1 car)," Hi, I am Aman!”. And she said, "Hi ".That’s it!! Just Hi, nothing more nothing less!! I mean, she must be having some name right? "That’s the end of my love life", I told myself.

And then she started laughing and I was like," My name's not that funny also". "No stupid", she said," I am laughing cause you still don't recognize me. I am Shikha, dumbo!. Remember we used to play when my sister used to come to your place back when they were in school. I think we were in lower KG then. U still don't remember kya??".
Now believe me, I have absolutely no recollections of my childhood. Not one bit!! The last thing I remember from my childhood was when i was caned by my principal for bunking to a girl's school in class 9(that’s another story). So there's no way I know whether I even studied in lower KG or not!! But of course I couldn’t tell her that so I put on the best thinking expression I could come up with and said "Oh ya, of course I do..ya u still look the same". "Shut up liar, I know you don't remember me. I do cause I slapped you when you hid my Barbie doll". Ok that was quite embarrassing but at least it broke the ice.

After that we got along like a house on fire. Chatted stuff ranging from anything to everything (nope, I am not telling you guys anything). And yes, we even discussed my antics in the mall six months ago. Well 2 hours later and I remembered I had other friends too. So I introduced her to my friends and she introduced Anushka to my friends (yup, she too had come along with her). And then we danced and danced and danced. Holding her close to me, taking in her fragrance and just being with her was like a dream come true. It was the happiest night of my life. Obviously the drinks too helped but I cannot remember having so much fun ever in my life!!

The next three days passed in a blur and I was on my way back to college before I even knew it. She came to see me off at the station and a lot went unspoken there. They say everything's written in the eyes and that you can read a person like a book by just looking into their eyes. Well, I did just that and so did she. And even though there were a lot of things we didn't understand, most of it we did and we were grateful for that. We were in touch constantly after that and we still are to this day.

Now to answer the question foremost in everyone's mind. Are we or are we not? Well, as of now we're just friends although very close ones. I dunno about the future and frankly speaking I don't care. Cause I believe that if you're meant to meet someone, then the entire universe will conspire to bring you together. And after reading all this, you might just tend to agree with me. And that, my friends, was my story.

Now many people have asked me why I included Anushka's name in all this when she didn't have any part to play. The answer to that is Abhinav! Because Shikha wasn't the only girl in the mall that day and I wasn't the only guy there. This story did have two different endings. And a little bird told me that Abhinav and Anushka had a very umm private sort of dinner two nights ago and the bugger hasn't answered my calls since then (obviously!!). So here's wishing them all the best from everyone who's reading this.

P.S-: I re-wrote this 3 part story 'cause of a phone call that I got from the U.S a few weeks ago which brought back a lot of memories of an old friend :)

Read Part - 1 here -> The Girl in the Mall - Part 1

Hmmm so where were we? Oh ya the movie had just ended and we followed her out back into the mall. Well she kept glancing back at our group so that gave us even further reason to pursue our goal. I guess they were hungry because we soon found ourselves sitting in Pizza Hut trying to figure out what to order(Ahem,actually we were a little low on cash so umm we had to Google the entire menu to find the cheapest stuff). Eventually we ended up with 4 slices of garlic bread for the three of us(you should have seen the look on the attendant's face when we said " One garlic bread pls, that'll be all". He actually asked us thrice if we wanted anything more.The nerve of some ppl!

Ok back to the story now. So here I was sitting diagonally opposite her in order to have a clear view of her(her face I mean...filthy minds). She obviously knew I was staring so she had to show some 'bhaav' after all(these girls I tell you). After 10 mins or so, she too got into the game and we started a game of 'Who Blinks 1st!' And so we stared and stared and stared. Ah, those beautiful eyes still haunt me day and night. Well,I never even got to taste even a bit of that garlic bread(some friends I have)but who cared anyways at that point of time.

After Pizza Hut, she and her friend walked into a huge garment store(I think it was Westside but like I said I could have cared less even if it was Hell) and we dutifully followed them like lambs to the slaughter. From one section to another, from 4th floor till the 1st, always keeping her within my sights. Until she disappeared that is! We searched the entire 1st floor better than the FBI but still no sign of her. One minute she was there and the next she went Kapoosh!!

Until Saurav's brilliant idea,"She must have gone to the basement, I saw a sign saying that's the girls section." So down we went and as soon as we went there, 3 pairs of salesgirl eyes stared at us as if we had committed Harakiri. Why you may ask? Well, 'cause we had just entered the Lingerie section!! Imagine, 3 guys and 3 salesgirls and the lingerie section. Now I don't know who was more embarrassed,They or Us. And to top off his brilliant suggestion, Saurav comes up with THE most(no words to describe this) excuse,"Lets go to the toilet guys!".That too aloud! Now remember, there are 3 girls, 3 guys and the lingerie all around us. Don't you think it wasn't the best time to excuse ourselves to go the loo. U get my drift right?? Well in a sense he was right. It was the girls section after all!!!

Anyways after escaping(read running for our lives) from the men-not-allowed-and-should-not-be-seen-here department, we went and searched the only other likely place they could have gone. Outside the mall,that is (Brilliant na,I still congratulate myself for figuring that one out). And yes she was there, standing right next to her car (A red Santro, see I still remember..Isiko kehte hain saccha pyar). "Oh my god, she's leaving",I thought. "This can't be happening to me!". But there we were, standing about 10 meters apart waiting for the other one to make the 1st move. I know I should have done something but as to exactly what I should have done I still don't know (C'mon girls, you know how tongue-tied we guys are in moments like these).

And then she Smiled. And I mean that smile which can light a thousand bulbs. That mischievous, naughty, lovable smile that you don't normally hand out to every other person that you meet. And with that she got into her car and drove off into the sunset leaving me expressionless in her wake.

I stood there rooted to that spot for the next two minutes until I felt blood flow in me again. Did that just happen or was I still dreaming? Only when Abhinav and Saurav dragged me off from there did I get back to reality. She was really gone, just like that!!

And now I am serious. I mean was that it? After all that happened since the morning, was it really meant to end this way? Because believe me, there was something between us. It was there when I first saw her, it was there in the hall, more so after that and that connection reached its zenith when she gave me that smile. I know many of you must be thinking " Haha,kat gaya iska or that both of us were just flirting". Ya I do agree, it was timepass but there's no way I can explain to anyone of you why this time it was so different.

So what happened to that girl, you may ask or what's the use in writing all this if she went away!! But like I said, there was something between us and that's why "The Girl in the Mall" might have left but the "Girl from the Mall" certainly didn't. Yes, I met her again!! As to how I met her again and what happened after that, well you'll just have to wait a little more.

Next Week : The Girl From The Mall - The Grand Finale

Hey everyone,after days of planning to write something,i am finally ready with my first post. Actually had been wondering all this while on what i should write. And then even if i wrote something,would anyone even care to navigate through all the crap that i was going to write. Anyways i’ve decided that ppl are up to the task of reading all the rubbish that i am gonna write! 1st i thought i’d write about my love story( Ah! everyone just loves those huh)but then i thought let me pretend to be a little philosophical and impress ppl with my first post. So here i am sitting at my desk after a heavy(and pathetic)lunch and discussing all my sane thoughts with you. I’ve always wondered about a lot of things which i’d like to share with you all…
Disclaimer-: All views expressed here are creations of an insane mind and hence not subject to any arguements
1) I’ve always wondered why we call it our life? everything that we do in this world is governed by other ppl’s choices and judgements. From the time we enter school,most of us(or atleast me) study not because we want to but because our parents and teachers told us to. Ditto in college. After that a lot of us marry whom our parents tell us to and in some cases ppl break up with their loved ones to marry the person chosen by their parents. More than half our life is spent trying to live in the society that we’ve created for ourselves and almost all our actions are based on that society’s wishes. Why is it called Our Life then?
2) I’ve always believed in god and im sure the majority of us are not aethists in any way.But for me(and also for a large percentage of the population),that faith in God begins to waver whenever we face a major difficulty in life. And i’ve almost always prayed to God when im in need of something. Im not saying that i dont pray to god otherwise but definately that faith takes a back seat when everythings going great in life and somehow i dont remember thanking god at those times. Why then do we believe in Him if our belief is not rock-solid?
3) i’ve met so many ppl who say that for them money doesn’t matter at all and they’d rather be poor and happy than being rich and sad! But from my own experience so far,ppl try to earn as much money as they can so that they can be well settled in life and be happy because they’re living so comfortably.

I could go on and on and on but i fear ppl will not read anything more i write from now on.Hence the torture will stop for now.Pls post your comments on this dollop of rubbish and wait eagerly for my torrid love story