The Teen-N-Ties Lovers - Chapter 4 - First Get-Together

The mother and daughter showed up first and early at the mall in preparation for their first formal meeting with their love interests. They were at the food court by 6.30pm after spending a couple of hours at least each in the bathroom and bedrooms at home, with a lot of effort going into putting on make-up, trying on different dresses and finally achieve their desired ‘just perfect’ look of simple, minimal, barely-there make-up and elegantly ‘casual’ attire - as if they just put on some clothes in a hurry it all accidentally happened to look good.

Both mother and daughter had that Friday off. Preparations had already begun from the morning and previous night in applying and preparing lotions, potions,  using terms like exfoliation, de-foliation, skin toning, moisturising, conditioning, showing, shampooing. There were recipes made from the previous night from apparently the right foods to make their skins glow in the right way, to control the way their breath smelled etc. There seemed to be an extensive body of knowledge that the girls knew, rituals and procedures that they enjoyed and shared in a way that normally only two females can. It seemed natural to them.

“Aren’t we too early?” asked the daughter as they looked around at the seating area that had plenty of unoccupied tables to seat four.

She had wondered and asked the same question when they had set out from home.

“No, we have to attend to a few things at the mall before meeting them”, the mother had said.

As soon as they arrived at the food court, the mother went to her favourite stall owner, a friend of sorts, greeted her warmly, introduced her daughter and enquired a little bit about her family and kids. It seems they knew each other.

“We will come by later and order food then,” said the mother as she waved to her and walked away.

“She will remember and keep an eye on us this evening in case of anything suspicious,” the mother softly told the daughter pulling her close. She had the look of undercover detective on some mission, who had friends and spies in many places.

“Now to scout out the area before we see the men. Put on your dark sun-glasses and sit next to a group in the corner, against the line of potted plants, looking towards the escalator and that aisle. Then we wait and watch the man coming in to the area carefully, until about 6.50.  Then we leave here. If we spot him before 6.45, be watchful. See if he is accompanied by someone else we do not know about or anyone that looks suspicious. If we feel in our gut that something is not right, we just leave without being recognised. If he does see us, we just excuse ourselves and dash into the ladies toilet nearby. We need some time to make sure the coast is clear. Call for help from the mall security if we feel the person is still stalking us,” said the mother with the authoritative and serious tone of a police sergeant planning operation against a wanted criminal.

“Why should we wait until only 6.50 and leave? Are we not supposed to meet Mr. R_ at 7.00?” asked the daughter, puzzled.

“If the man is not here by 6.50, we leave this place, go into the women’s toilet, do the final touch ups to our make-up and hair. Then we slip into that shop nearby, and casually come out at 7.01pm and head towards these seats, carefully looking around to see if we can spot the man. You see, we don’t arrive early for the date, just a little afterwards. The man must be here first and wait for us. If he is not for some good reason, we will wait for 10-15 mins longer to see or hear from him. After that, we simply leave,” said the sergeant who had apparently given it a lot of thought and planned it thoroughly! The young girl was impressed.

“I wonder if she has done this before?” wondered the daughter staring intently at the mother, thankful for having her dark glasses on.

“No, I have not done this before, Beti, but I feel this is how we should do it after thinking about it and doing some research,” said the mind reading sergeant.

At about 6.40, the girls saw Senior pass across at a distance and at an angle away from them. He threw a casual glance towards the food court, but moved on. He seemed to be alone and headed somewhere with a purpose. The girls remained seated until he disappeared in the crowd. At 6.50, just as the girls got up and went towards the toilet, he emerged, heading towards the food court, carrying a small potted plant with a little bunch of bright flowers showing. The pot was quite tastefully decorated and wrapped. He held it carefully in front of him. He looked around and spotted an empty table, near the very line of tall potted plants that the mother and daughter had sat. He made his way to it, set the flower pot on the table, sat down and looked around, trying to spot the gorgeous K_.

Just after 7.00pm he saw her emerge from the crowd moving towards the food court. She had her daughter next to her. She had apparently spotted him too - she waved to him as she saw him looking at her.

As she approached, he stood up and moved forward, around the table to greet her. She stopped right in front of him, followed closely by her daughter. Senior did not notice much of the daughter then. All his attention was on gorgeous K_, who looked very elegant and beautiful.

Instinctively, both of them folded their hands together and said, “Namaste-ji!” There was a pause of what seemed like the longest couple of seconds, as they did not know what to say. They looked at each other. They liked what they saw. He looked smart and trim, with an obviously recent haircut and shave with a faint hint of aftershave, wearing quiet muted colours. He certainly looked like he had put in an effort to look pleasant. She had achieved the perfect, ‘spectacularly simple’ look that she had strived for. The man had no idea what all was done to arrive at that. He took it at face value. There was attraction and caution in almost equal measure on both sides.

“Accha, aap aye (Good you came).  Baithiye, Baithiye (Sit down, sit down),” said Senior gesturing towards the seats.

“This is P_, meri beti (my daughter),” said K_, introducing her.

“Namaste-beta!” said Senior in an affectionate tone.

“Namaste-ji” replied P_, surprised and a bit tickled at the seeming formality of a traditional Indian greeting between the grown-ups.

“Yeh, aapke liye (This, for you),” said Senior, offering the potted flower plant with both hands to K_.

She took it with a gracious smile and sat down opposite to Senior, with the daughter next to her.

“It is very nice. Pretty flowers!” she said as she smelled them. They smelled very good.

 The daughter barely but wisely suppressed a smile. It tickled her to see this quaint ritual of courtship of the old. This man seemed a bit culturally confused about it - giving a potted flower plant rather than just flowers. This seemed like a funny mix of eastern and western traditions to the young lady, who was growing up in a society that seemed ever more heavily tilting towards the western culture and practices, particularly in dating and courting. Her mother, however, seemed to be just fine with it.

“The flower vendor said that if you water them a little every day, it will grow and give more flowers. It does best in filtered sunlight,” said Senior.

The ice was broken. They all sat down.

“Would you ladies like something to drink? Chai, coffee, juice or soft drink? Shall we order something to eat? What would you like?” asked Senior.

“Main ek ice-tea mangaathi piyoong abhi,(I will have an ice-tea now),” K_ said, “Let us wait to eat though. We are waiting to meet someone else too. There is a boy who P_ wants to meet for the first time, just like you. We thought we would invite him to join us here at 7.30. What do you think?”

“Oh! That is OK,” said Senior, apparently not at all flustered. His cool equanimity earned him points from K_ and her daughter. “What will you have beti?” he asked of P_.

“Thank you. I will have a pineapple juice now. Let me get it while you two chat,” said P_.

“Oh, No,Beti.  You sit here, I will get it. Juice for you. I will have a Chai!” said Senior setting out to get the drinks.

“He seems nice. Sounds ‘normal’!” said the P_ to her mother when Senior was out of earshot.

They giggled.

“We’ll see, how it goes,” said the mother, sounding a note of caution.

They both turned to see the Senior order the drinks at the stall. The waiter brought out a tray after Senior paid the cashier.

“Go and help carry the tray back,” the mother told the daughter, who promptly got up and was soon at Senior’s side.

“Thank you, Uncle! I will bring the tray. Aaap jao aur baithke Mumma se baathen karo (You go, sit down and chat with Mom),” said P_.

Senior was impressed! He thanked her and walked back to sit with K_.

“She is a very well-mannered child,” he said to her nodding towards P_.

“Oh, yes. She is a good one,” she replied.

Pleasantries and more information were exchanged briefly before P_ returned with the drinks tray.

Soon, an alarm went off on K_’s phone. It was time to expect Junior shortly, if he were on time.

“Shall we swap sides and sit on your side and you come around? I would like to see this boy as he approaches us,” said K_. It was clear she was a cautious, thoughtful and protective parent, even if a liberal one.

“Sure, sure,” said Senior getting up. They all shuffled over and took their new seats, K_ and P_ facing the only  way Junior could approach them. Senior sat across the table, facing them.

They sipped their drinks and chatted as P_ kept scanning the crowd at a distance.

In a few minutes, she nudged her mother while still sipping her juice.

“Oh! There he is. He has not seen us yet,” she said softly putting her drink down.

“Where is he? Which one is it?” asked the mother.

“The tall one with the helmet under his arm,” said P_, “He must have driven his motorbike over.” She sounded thrilled.

It promptly set off alarm bells in the mother’s mind. K_ then spotted Junior. He seemed tall, slim, dressed in the elegant simple style of modern day male clothing models.

Suddenly, Junior spotted P_ and waved. He seemed to bound over to them magically all the while looking at them and not bumping into anyone on the way, through people coming and going in all directions. Soon he was right there. He had a handsome appearance and moved with the energy and restlessness that only the youth are capable of and themselves unaware of.

Senior had turned around too, to see who the new arrival would be. He did not recognise Junior for a few seconds. Junior was not even registering Senior as he approached. All his attention was on P_ and her mother.

P_ had already come forward to greet Junior, who shyly came and said ”Hello!” to her and “Namaste-ji” to K_.

Junior extended his helmet towards P_ and said, “Something for you”.

She looked shocked. “I don’t ride motorbikes” she said

“No, there is something inside it, pick it up!” said the young man.

She reached tentatively and picked out a tiny little bunch of plastic toy bananas, with a monkey shaped key ring attached.

“Monkey-man!!” P_ screamed, thrilled. It seemed to be the perfect gift to win her heart. K_ and Senior watched with amused expressions.

It was when recognition of Senior hit Junior.

“Da-Uncle-ji, Arreey Aaap (Oh, its You!!)!!” exclaimed Junior with a slightly worried expression but great presence of mind, “Yeh, aapki beti hai kya? (Is this you’re your daughter?).”

“Nahin, Beta!  This is Mr. R_, a friend. P_ is my daughter,” said K_, interrupting before Senior could reply.

Senior had a stunned expression that K_ noted.

“Thum!! (You!),” he exclaimed with an almost horrified expression.

“Oh!  Kya aap dono ek dusre ko jaanthe ho?  (Do you two know each other?),” K_ asked, surprised.

Both Senior and Junior had the presence of mind to call a truce.

“Oh, we ran into each other last week, here in this mall, I don’t know him,” said Junior.

“Well, actually, this young man was the one who ran into me. He seemed in such a hurry then,” said Senior, more composed now.

They all realized that their future was going to be interesting.



Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2016
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