On a Valentine's Day

“Dey, I’ve to do a small shopping. Are you coming with me?” When Shaks asked me this at 5 in the evening, I was just woken up from a not so small slumber which I started after my morning class at 8:45. With quasi closed eyes I was contemplating about the possibilities of starting a ‘non-Valentines’ day from this year onwards. Might be the aftermath of a dream I had in which I was riding on a black stallion with 14 red roses in my right hand and seven in my mouth, but not finding anyone to sell those. Yes! You read it correct. Sell it is! Actually in that dream I was a sales guy who sells red roses to valentines! Too much of a dream and I felt it as an insult on my conscious mind by my subconscious mind, which generates all such arbitrary dreams! And then I decided to start a ‘non-Valentines’ day. Don’t know why St. Valentine forgot about such a huge majority in his shore up for people who love each other. We, the majority were always there, but still.

Shaks and me left our dorms within half an hour and we reached the factory outlet in another 15 minutes. He did all the actual shopping and I engaged myself in checking whether the shop owner had applied all the retailing and layout principles taught in our retail management elective.

“Hmm... not up to the mark” I told to myself.

“What?” a lady who was busy selecting shirts near the shelf, shot up all of a sudden.

“I mean, the shelves are not up to the mark.” I replied and then with a sheepish grin moved on to where Shaks was standing.

He was trying to make a choice between two shades with the same checks and in between, haggling on the discount they were offering for that particular range. Anyways he didn’t take much time to arrive at a decision.

It was at that time that Shaks noticed the lady whom I just had an eye-fight.

“Dey, she is a TV actress. I have seen her many times on television.”

“You sure? I haven’t seen her anytime.”

“I’m sure yaar. Ok let’s go and ask her.”

“Hmm… wouldn’t that be too much?”

“You should always be proactive man.”

Next second I saw him near the lady, about to ask her something.

“Are you an actress? I have seen you on television. I am a great fan of yours!”

“What? No I don’t act. By the way, I have seen both of you at the institute. I am wife of Prof. R. P Bhatia.”

Had I got a camera that time, I would’ve taken a snap of Shaks' face. It would've definitely won popular photography awards due to the presence of the maximum number of expressions in one face at one time.

Incidentally Prof. Bhatia teaches us Retail Management.