An important aspect of me that I, time and again, try to remind people who insist on calling me studious or “padips” is the fact that I am an erstwhile member of the VVK (Varuthapadaadha Valibar Kazhagam) and also served as Ko-Pa (Kozhgai Parappu) Cheyalaalar for a brief period, by virtue of the arrears that I “kept” in 4th sem AI & 5th sem DSP. (It is another issue that I managed to clear them in reval, backstabbing almost all of my comrades). However, by no means would I consider myself to have failed in either of them. My first proper experience of “failure” was, rather surprisingly, here, in the US of A. Having been a strong skeptic (for want of a better word) of girls, especially these last few years of my life, it was, as it is, difficult, getting good feminine comradeship here (also considering the admirable/noteworthy nature of my good girl friends back home [Note: No sarcasm or satire intended here]).
My prejudice against girls here living away from relatives/husband didn’t make things easier either. Hence, you might call it boredom/frustration or plain old joblessness (so characteristic of me) that made me attempt to roast some peanuts with this girl who studies at the same university as two of my close DAV friends. I had encountered this girl during my 11th standard at the IIT classes, and she was also one of the friends’ classmates during BE in Chennai. And as far as the “kadalai” attempt goes, in my opinion, I think you could say it was definitely a first, considering that it was intended “only” for that purpose – kadalai. Well, and to those disagreeing souls, I would just like to clarify that those instances that you would consider as “kadalai” were merely spontaneously innocent (re)actions that were NOT meant to be “kadalai”, just that they ended up appearing like that. Coming back to this particular (singular) attempt, circumstances also presented opportunities (by no means a justification/reason for ‘the attempt’), partly encouraging the kadalai, in that I had to call up this girl once to talk to one of my friends (don’t wish to comment/elaborate on what was/is going on between them).
I did not consider this girl particularly good-looking, but I think a possible premise could be my close friend’s constant accusation of my “supposed” liking for the fairer specimens of the fairer sex. As an integral part of the kadalai, I ended up calling the girl once after I had spoken to my friend. Well, the reason basically was that, the first time I had called the girl asking to talk to my friend, apparently, she had commented that my tone was rude and unfriendly (Naturally!). So it ended up that I called her summa this time and wondered [:P] if I really had been rude or unfriendly. And then the usual patter about her being padips for a few ten seconds. Then, I told her something that would possibly be one of the top contenders for “the worst pick-up line” (Well, I don’t think ‘pick-up’ line is apt in this case, since I was not even trying to route-uttufy her, but well, I guess, something like impress, well, forget it, some crap!), I told her – “Hey sorry, enakku kadalai pottu pazhakkam illai, so edhavadhu thappa sollitta kandukkadhe.” Whoa – coming to think of it now, that was some royal mess-up! But then, it was in accordance to my usual practice of “open-admittance”, which usually impressed people. But I think, usually what happened was, in “most” cases, people ended up being impressed by my frankness, but here, it was screwed because my intention was impressing, and not being frank, and I wanted to achieve the former by the latter, which is what led to the joke!
Apparently, the girl was bewildered, poor thing, unable to understand what I was trying to say, and quite rightly, I believe, unimpressed. I returned a wiser man after the misadventure, learning the modern management lesson – “Know the rules of the game well before beginning any new business venture.” Or, more simply, don’t venture into unknown territory without elders…
