First Steps

It is 11:32 pm on a Saturday night. The song playing is ‘Suttum Vizhi’ from the movie Gajini - a song I had not heard until a few days ago. It’s in Tamil - a language I don’t understand. Just another example of how music reaches out across languages and borders. I don’t think that’s the reason though. You see it’s my love’s favourite song. And now… I love it.

I remember our first day out together. Nothing much on our unsuspecting minds, just homicide…………….no, chronocide – we want to kill time. The movie we have decided to use as the weapon doesn’t begin till late afternoon. So we walk into a Kalmane Coffee outlet. I have never had their coffee earlier. But when it comes to coffee, I am game anytime. They certainly have arrangements to please the senses – mellow lighting for the optic nerves, Carnatic Music for the auditory sense, and the smell of freshly roasted coffee-beans for the olfactory-bulb. Now I am only hoping the taste buds don’t get disappointed. We order Neelyani Gold: coffee from the Nilgiris with a hint of Cardamom of probably the same origin. Our conversation has begun before the coffee arrives. It’s not a disappointment. Neither is the coffee. In fact… I love it.

The other day I accompanied him to Octoberfest – the beer festival. There was going to be a rock show at the end of the day. I had never been to either. It was pretty adventurous of a teetotaller like me to have pitched-in in the first place. But the evening was great. The bands were good. What I will never forget, though, is him singing Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’. That was the real (and rare, mind you) performance. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed his company. It was all fun. And…. .I loved it.

The song now playing is ‘Manjal Veyil’ from Vettayadu Villayadu. I am new to this song too. I heard it for the first time when we were returning from our Company Day Awards function in a colleague’s car. I can still almost feel him tapping his feet to the beat. He made me tap my feet too that evening. I am no dancer. I have never danced after Elementary School. But he would have none of that. He dragged me right to the dance floor and didn’t give me too many choices. Later just the two of us danced for a few fleeting minutes. I twirled on my feet for the first time in my life. I loved it.

He proposed to me on the evening of 19th November 2006, formally. He took me to an elegant restaurant and ordered red wine for the occasion. I had never had wine before. So, I was pretty apprehensive. But..…I loved it.

I pause and think. I think about all these firsts in my life. And then I think about the common denominator. This is not about discovering great coffee with him, going to a rock show with him, listening to great songs in an alien language because they are his favourites, dancing with him or breaking a centuries-old tradition of teetotallers in the family to try wine with him………….this is about him. He makes it all special. He makes everything new do-able............…and fun. He brings adventure into my life. He brings love into my life. Most of all, he brings life into my life.

00:54 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I picture him sleeping soundly in his bed. If he can look as adorable as he does when wide awake with those eyes of his and that dimpled smile and the brat he is inside, I calculate the multiplying factor when he is asleep. I lose count after a while. And I smile to myself. Hey! This I have done before. But it somehow feels like I am doing it for the first time.

And of course…I love it.