My search for the perfect one ends !

“Light at the end of a real long long long dark tunnel.” That’s precisely how I felt when I stood there in amazement. My eyes reflecting mixed emotions - disbelief, tiredness, satisfaction… I held in my hands what I now regard the softest skin in this entire universe. The touch … I can still feel it on my fingertips. A perfect creation – so simple yet so sophisticated; beauty and elegance par excellence… I forgot almost everything at that instant; it was a moment between us. Oh yeah! I had just discovered what I am gonna be passionate about for a long long time to come. Now that my dream of a perfect companion has finally materialized, I can sit back and recall my odyssey / ordeal, if I may call it so.

My search can be best described as a wild goose chase of sorts; I had no clue whatsoever of what I was really looking for. The only thing I ever knew was that mine must be unlike any guy could ever boast of. When I put my best foot forward with my companion, people should just stop and turn to look at the perfect pair we make. Well that’s the sort of vague search criterion that resided in my mind for over a month.

4 weeks back

There was this party and I see all these guys around me have one, except me. Feeling like an outcast, desperation filled my heart. Not 'just' any one, but the best one; the perfect one. I kept telling myself that If I dint find one that matched the description in my cranium, I wud turn insane. And I kept getting trailers of that during the special monsoon showers which Ill shortly be coming to.

Not knowing where to begin with, and with the kind of indecisive male I am, I took my problem straight to my dad - One stop for all my issues. As we all know it nothing in this world comes for free; neither did the help from dad. He started with his usual gyaan – “How many times have I told you, that u its high time u should have decided upon one. You are 23yrs old; people, society and blah… blah… everybody watches when u go out… and blah… blah…” That was the shower I was talking about, monsoon was yet to arrive. Despite all this I was hoping dad’s experience could be put to good use; I remember him saying, “When I was of ur age I had 4-5 of them in my kitty and all of them at the same time …” and there went his collar up!

3 weeks back

My family and I were visiting the Chennai City Centre – the latest and the biggest… (... ‘Manufacturer of people’, if I may call it so). Seriously, it feels as if the place is oozing with people and somewhere there was this weird pop-corn types of machine from which hundreds of people kept popping out every second. There was this “Sale” going on in the Lifestyle and my dad kept telling me, it’s the right time and right place to look for; difficult to find a larger variety than now, especially with so many people dropping in. I agreed with his analysis.

Somehow I doubted if it could all happen so easily. I mean, u walk into a shopping mall which is like buzzing with over a thousand people and still be able to happily walk out with one.

Even before my dad enquired, my mind was racing, competing with Schumi (I guess...), trying to find a convincing and fitting description of something even I was not very sure of. Alas, before I could begin using my brains, the inevitable question pops-up - "What exactly are u looking for?" It simply had to. So there I went with half my mind going left and other I donno where, I started with a vague description, to buy little more time. “It simply has to be unique, and ….” Disgusted with my beating around the bush I told with conviction in my voice, "Am looking for one with a tanned skin." “Huh?!” came the response. Obviously, he was not very impressed. But I remained adamant and that put him off. (I wish I cud tell him even Salma Hayek, one of the hottest dames, has a tanned skin. Of course, the comparison is a little far fetched, but as long as its tanned skin, I am happy). So now I was left alone on the 2nd floor to choose whatever interested me.

The problem, is not when there aren’t any, at least u know there aren’t any; the problem is when there are so damn many to choose from – long, short, Chinese, German, French, Italian… fair white, wheatish, dark skinned. While each one of them was interesting, I knew only a tanned skin would satisfy me. It wasn’t my day, just not. Returned home and now came the much awaited monsoon showers from every corner - my mom, dad, brother… And the worst thing was, while we all had gone looking for me, my brother was able to decide upon one for himself – short and of Chinese origin. Everyone went on to add, that I must have chosen a similar one. I pitied my ears… so this was the latest argument I was supposed to digest, that if not anything, choose what ur brother chooses. I mean is this Mahabharata and are we the Pandavas or something? Anything more about that day and ill loose my entire mood to write so we’ll move on.

The next two weeks I was occupied with some work at office and actually dint have the mood to continue my search. So they went eventless.

1 week back

It was evening and my dad convinced me to continue my search. I gave in cos by now I had returned to my normal self of desperation. When asked where we were heading, he replied, “Vepery and Pyriamid”. “Wow! Dad knows the right places to look in for. Hmmm…” I thought. Incidentally, there’s a working women’s hostel and a girls college too in that area. He assured me, that he will not discourage me in any ways and will go by my choice, whatsoever. Well, we ended up searching the place for more than 2 hours and returning home empty handed. This time dad was silent, but my mom and brother decided to play the thunder and lightning respectively. “Phew, another wasted week”, I thought.

Lying in my bed that night I thought, may be it really was a wild goose chase, may be I never will get the one I desire, may I should just listen to my parent and settle down with just about anything. Looking up at the night sky, I cud see it was just impossible to bridge the divide between dream and reality.

The past week

It’s a Wednesday, and my boss informs me that I may be deputed to Vaashi (in Mumbai) for a period of 6 months. Back home, mom and dad are in an all-senti mood as I am supposed to leave the coming Sunday. As for me, I was happy to be going o the new place. I appeared excited about it. However, behind the sparkle in my eyes, and the smile on my face, my dad could probably figure that I wud be leaving without a sense of completeness.

Next two days, I am occupied with my work.

Weekend arrives. Dad hands over the command to mom to accomplish the search mission. Its Saturday, and after a whole day of shopping, my mom is still not tired. She tells everything was done except for the one I had been craving for like ages now. She was reluctant to return home empty handed.

The Scene: Lifestyle, 2nd floor, 5 P.M.

I stand there wondering if “history repeats itself” was gonna turn true. My brain was happily creating horrible illusions of scenes which would best suit in any torturing family drama on Star TV. Pity the viewers. Pity me now? I was glancing around, when suddenly came a voice from within, “NO!” what was I looking at? I was simply awe-struck by the beauty in front of me. An aura of silence seemed to have surrounded me. And then suddenly, it seemed like the climax of MI-1, everything was falling into place, all the partial images had pieced together to take the form of what lay elegantly couched in front of me. I knew this was it – the moment I had been waiting for. Everything was just perfect, the perfect curves and shape, the flawless tanned skin. Mann, I cud even sense the tenderness of the skin 3 meters away.

I stepped forward, and just did what my heart told me to – lay my hands on supposedly a genius’s creation. I managed to snuggle my fingers into the hollow which felt like all cushion-cushion.

Ill kill the suspense here... so u wanna see my companion?

The geniuses were the craftsmen at Club Tree – makers of genuine leather shoes, wallets, belts, and other accessories. And this where my story of my search for the perfect shoes get over. Now ain’t I ready to put my best foot forward?

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I really enjoyed posting this one. May not be the best one if i have to go by the readers' standards. Anyways, i'd like u to know that i had no idea of writing a blog thanks to my laziness.. until this real cute friend of mine gives me a tip to write on my search for shoes. weird na... but i enjoyed it all through.. Well she did have a lot of nice things to say bout me in her own blog - http://frostatmidnite.blogspot.com but i cannot equal a writer of her calibre - one of the very few "best" writers i have known. Do check out her blogs for some real interesting stuff... ull surely get hooked to it just like i have. Thankx Mots. And for all those ppl who wish to congratulate me on the simply stunning photograph which i have over here, I'd like to confess (to be read as Thankx ) Sneh was patient enough to edit the snap perfect to my expectations. I love that snap.