“Excuse me”, a voice came from Parking space.

A mystic demi - Goddess like figure appeared, for a moment I felt she is present day Aphrodite absolutely stunning.

I stood at the lift gate waiting for my Friend, with no signs of him I thought he might be busy in his daily late night calls which seem to have started a bit early today.

“Can you allow the lift to close,” she said in a presumptuous tone.

“Yeah, sorry...sorry,” I replied and pressed the lift button. 

Conscious of her presence I felt that reiteration of sorry was indeed misplaced, I mean why I said sorry that too twice.  With these thoughts my neck skewed at an angle just to have a glimpse of her, to my surprise she too was looking at me.

My first impression on her was terrible, she was striking beauty, smartly dressed seemed suave, sophisticated and I acted like a naïve, dumb and dim-witted guy. For few seconds I started thinking about her, haven’t seen her before, maybe she is new in the building or visiting some friends as there were few apartments in my society exclusively rented to women.

“Do you know the connecting stairs between the two towers,” She asked

“Ninth floor,” I replied

“Oh.” she said nonchalantly.

My apartment was on 12^th floor of the building and every day the sojourn in the lift was nothing but a painful travail simply because during office hours lift used to stop almost at every floor, but that today things were different.

Though she was beautiful but initially I felt that she is not very friendly and proud.

After few days I had some important work in office so I planned to leave early around 8 AM, moment the lift opened to my surprise she was there again.

She looked at me smiled and asked “Parking, right?”

“Yes,” I replied.

Wow, came the instant voice from inside, it’s like the most unexpected has happened at the most unexpected time. Life showers you with opportunities, panegyrics and some moments which you want them to hold, deep down I was ecstatic enjoying every moment of silence.

“Ok, bye, have a nice day,” she said.

“B.b...Bye,” I stuttered.

Since then lift was our rendezvous, every time I acted bizarre mostly conscious with my saccharine smile. Many times I tried to broach a conversation but in vain. Only for that duration my extrovert nature turned into meek, shy and passive attitude. 

After few days I was waiting for my Company bus then she came beside me.

“Waiting for bus,” She asked

“Yeah, it’s late today.” I replied.

Suddenly my eyes fixated at the big bold letters on her handbag bag, PANKH…lets fly. Does she work in an airline, never heard of such airline, may be some training institute or company?

“Where do you work?” I asked inquisitively.

“I work in a NGO called PANKH,” she replied enthusiastically.

Then there was a pause, as I was about to ask her again she said “Do you want to know about it?”

”Yeah, why not,” I said.

“It’s an NGO for children, we conduct classes, awareness campaigns for education, health, hygiene and we also encourage students from rural areas through scholarship for higher education”

“That’s why it is named Pankh epitomizing children to fly and reach greater heights,” I interrupted.

“Yeah, you are quite receptive, my Cab has come so maybe we will expatiate later.”

“Ok...have a nice day” I said.

 Never thought that girl like her would be working in a NGO, she should rather apply to some fashion magazine, ramp shows or may be movie. The whole day in office I was thinking about her, since past few days major change was witnessed in me as I was punctual, trimly dressed as everybody in office noticed it.

It was all because of a heavenly girl who lives in my building and leaves for work at 8, so it became customary on my part to give her a company at least in lift. Sometimes I felt I should leave my IT job and join Pankh, may be fly with her.

“What’s your name? We have met so many times, at least we should know each other’s name.”

“Prashant” I said.

”I am Sheetal you work in an IT company or BPO?”

“I work for Zentec  as  Consultant”…”Wow, that sounds great…white collared managerial job..Hmmm…nice”

”Common, don’t embarrass me, my work is nothing like yours, you are doing such a noble work” I said.

”Really… thanks a lot.” she chuckled.

She is an engineer who did her Masters in Social entrepreneurship from the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She’s been working in this NGO from past one year and wants to start her own NGO. May be another Medha Patkar in making, I thought.

In few days we became good friends, we started exchanging messages, mails and occasional phone calls, not to mention they were mostly one-sided calls from my cell phone. Earlier things seemed quite rosy since she gave an undivided attention whenever we were in conversation, smiled and praised my cute sense of humor; she thought I was funny however my friends had a different opinion.

The word Sheetal and Prashant have almost same meaning in Hindi one of the few thoughts which always occupied my mind, may be same thinking too. Sheetal was a perfect girl next door any bachelor could ever imagine. She was charming, effervescent and truly beautiful. As a girl she will make her presence felt instantly not because of her splendor but because she had an easy going bubbly nature, acknowledged every gesture of people around, would play with kids as she had already befriended many in the society. I still remember how she became part of the senior citizen’s discussion group in few days.

I had gained little weight by virtue of my sedentary nature of work so got up one day just to see if I can start jogging in morning. Moment I came out of balcony I saw Sheetal practicing few asanas of yoga in the lawn.

“Wow!”  I said. It seemed that I was in a fairy land. Without wasting anytime I dressed up quickly and went near the lawn stretching and jogging pretending as if there no one present. However she had already left and there was no around. I was disappointed.

Since then I would practice conversing with her in front of my strained yellowish mirror, read her mails, messages again and again, look at her number in my phonebook multiple times.

Something terribly has gone wrong as I was acting completely insane, maybe Cupid has struck, not sure though.

One day my phone rang at around 1 am, I was fast asleep but its persistent vibration woke me up. It was Sheetal; I almost jumped out of my bed.

“Hello...it’s me Sheetal”…”Hey! everything ok”…”No, actually…Can I talk now, it’s little urgent”

“Yeah, why not, I always look forward to your call...I mean we are friends, right, off course we can talk…tell me what happened” I replied hurriedly.

She told me she had a terrible day at office; at one of her fund raising function she had an altercation with her one of the sponsors as things didn’t go as planned. The matter has been reported to her team lead who wants her to apologize, however she feels differently. According to her, the sponsor was rude and unfriendly right from the beginning but since he is one of the key members of the team they had to bear the brunt of his attitude.

I explained her that these things happen at work place and she should take it as a routine stuff, just speak to boss explain him the situation and things should be fine.

Next day I received her message that things have been sorted out and she is really happy and thanked me for the support. Since then our friendship moved to next level, we were always pulling each other’s leg and sometimes even taking dig at things.

One Sunday morning I thought of inviting her for a cup of coffee and wrote a formal invitation.

‘Hi Sheetal,

Just wanted to invite you to a simple, pure and platonic coffee session at some place outside, may be at a coffee shop.

Reason: Well, I enjoy talking to you and want your kind, benign and humored presence.

 And yes, you have every reason to accept or decline the session and it won't make any difference to our friendship.

Prashant’

After reading the mail few times I thought of sending it but due to some second thoughts saved it as draft. Later in the evening when I was fast asleep I received a call.

“Hey"

“Sheetal” I replied

“What are you doing now? Oh…still sleeping, come on it’s already 6 pm”

“Yeah, just little tired you know, today I broke all my previous records”...I said.

“That’s why you didn’t reply to my message…anyways, why you don’t come to my place for evening snacks, “She said enthusiastically.

Evening snacks sounds fun, is it a daydream or did she read my drafted mail, how foolish I am.

“You are coming...right!” she again asked curiously.

“Just give me 10 minutes” I said.

I never believe in co-incidences and destiny but the turn of events made me feel somebody above me has certainly choreographed this event and within the ten minutes I was at her flat, D-17.

The snack session was wonderful; we were together for almost 2 hours and she told me everything how she wants her career to progress, her priorities and her ambition. She made me believe the power of women, how empowered they are today. They want to live life on their own condition, want to compete with men in every field; however in spite of it they are still grounded. For Sheetal there were few exceptions she was complete blend of modernity and traditions. Then suddenly after hours of serious talk she blurted. “I want to tell you something funny ”

Surprised with the twist in our conversation,

”Why? What happened?” I said

“From past 15 days, I have received some 50 invitations for Coffee, how foolish, what is there in a coffee, why every men this town wants coffee” She replied.

“May be I was next in the list,” I mumbled.

“Did, you say something?” She asked emphatically.

“No, no...I was repeating your words, they are lot of guys around who would love to be with you, may be your engaging personality is doing the magic.” I replied. The words of my mail echoed in my mind and I thanked myself thousand times while she blushed at my statement.

“But then you invited me, isn’t it?” I chuckled.

“You are different Prashant, not pushy like those other stupid guys, they always have some senseless reason to talk boring me with their unending PJ’s.”

“Let me see, different means funny, may be joker,” I replied. “I wonder if people will ever truly understand me.” I said though with a quite tone.

“Shut up.” she smirked.

My project was in a critical stage and we started working nights as the deadline was approaching .At times office works reminds me of Karl Marx who was against any kind of exploitation in capitalist society; maybe someday law-makers would realize that labor law is the need of the hour.

Due this hectic routine we couldn’t meet though technology always acted as savior; mails, messages were exchanged quite often. She too was on month long visit to a Bharat darshan organized by her NGO. I always longed to meet Sheetal, her absence made me dull and irritable; my friends would always complain me of my petulant behavior. Deep down I knew that something needs to be done may be acquainting her of my feeling moment she is back.

Our routine had changed as I became a nocturnal creature who used to work mostly at night just because my colleagues in other part of the globe needed me. However after few months of this painful travail I decided to take off for few days around my birthday with the only intention to meet Sheetal.

So, I invited her for dinner which she happily agreed.

Finally the day arrived 21^st October, for me it was an auspicious and one of the most awaited day of my life. She as food connoisseur had varied knowledge of many cuisines with Italian as her favorite. I wanted everything to be perfect, booked a table in one of the happening Italian restaurants of the town and ensured that as a host I should be on time.

The ambience of the place was quite friendly with soft and soothing music pleasing our ears.

“Nice place,” she said.

“Well, I wanted you to see if the place the worth your waste,” I replied.

“I have been to many restaurants in the town but this seems to be climbing my list,” she replied happily.

“You have to taste the food first”

“Yeah that’s true but I am talking about this place,” she said naughtily, “See the place, the people around and the music isn’t it romantic?”

I smiled and thanked her.

All the items in the menu initials were La, Le and Li with presto sauce, ragù sauce without any idea about the recipes, only thing I could identity was tomato sauce.  May be I should try more cuisines and learn about them after all we are going places and getting global, I thought.

Sheetal was expert at Italian cuisine she told me how she has tried few of them in her kitchen and explained me the difference between them.

“Hey Sheetal, I want to tell you something,” I said, suddenly my heart started throbbing.

“Yeah, tell me,” she replied, “Hey before than that I have something very special to share.”  She said with gesture to stop me.

“Ok, you first,”

“See, I haven’t told you before, I mean I thought many times but never got time to speak may be because we were too busy in our work and I wanted to speak in person after all you are one of my best friend ”

Still friend now this story is getting too complex, I mused, “come on tell me, you are making me nervous” I replied anxiously.

“I like somebody we have been seeing each other from past 3 years but there were few problems in past few months thankfully now they have been sorted out” she said, “and I want you to meet him, may be tell me what do you think about him”

I will tell you now, leave him he is no good came the instant thought.

I cursed myself maybe I shouldn’t have opened this Pandora’s Box. For seconds I was numb without any thought like somebody has thrown me from a multi-story building one of the rare feelings I always felt in my dream.

“Hey, are you ok,” she asked.

“Y..yeah, yaar you are always full of surprises , I wonder if I ever would be able to know you ,” I replied pretending to be normal.

“Is it? Come on, I wanted to tell you long before,” she said remorsefully.

“Now your turn, tell me fast”, she asked.

“Nothing like yours, I mean just wanted to congratulate for your knowledge about Italian cuisine.”

I was completely shaken knowing her status with no-entry board, why did it happen to me? When things are not in personal agreement life becomes a nightmare. I took a refuse in the rest room for next few minutes trying to analyze things, to come up with terms with this dark reality. But still there was a glimmer of hope at least she is not engaged officially, who knows how things would go in future. For now I should try to act normal it might hurt her if she comes to know and that too on my birthday.

I came back and we ate our food quietly, maybe she knew what I wanted to say such thoughts haunted me for another half an hour. Then finally the deserts arrived, Apple strudel her favorite. After dinner we went for a small walk where we didn’t speak for few minutes then I broke the silence telling about my new assignment in United States, I told her I won’t be around for few months and thanked her for everything.

Next week I was away to my new world full of adventures and experiences but the memories of my girl next door were always there. Today is 3^rd November more than a year since we last met but we are still in touch through mails and messages, may be destiny has something in store, who knows.

Life is unpredictable but then it makes you believe that there are many things which can never be planned, they happen because they are supposed of happen. All those unforgettable moments we spent together will always be rejoiced and I will never forget my “Girl Next Door”.

P.S: At every place we can find one “Girl Next Door.” maybe we are too busy in our life.

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Comments (13)

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written by Pavalamani Pragasam, December 11, 2009

Increased social interaction of our times brings the gambol of genes to the fore! Stirring up interesting emotional experiences which in the end may come to nothing!!! Sensed the twist coming and pitied the poor guy who would be happy with a less vivacious lady!!!

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written by Santosh, December 13, 2009

To meet to know to love and then part is the sad tale of many a human heart!!

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written by umbrella, December 13, 2009

Typical! If the girl is as good as the author makes her out, why she didnt call her 'lover' and call this poor guy [hero] at 1 am to talk abt her hard day at the office..i wonder !! She is the embodiment of most women who think about only themselves and inadvertently cause heartaches to those men they befriend ! nice story. wake up call to men..perhaps?

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written by Domarp, December 13, 2009

@PP thanks ma'am...wanted to write something on the humourous side with...only idea was that a boy meets a girl in the lift and then become friends....certainly social networking has its advantages and disadvantages....but this is most of the story end..as only few can get such girl..

@Santosh : you are right sir...thanks a lot

@Umbrella: thanks for the input...in the story she has mentioned in the end that things were not well in her relationship with her boyfriend but by the time our hero invites her for dinner they were sorted out...considering that i just imagined that she calls our hero at 1 am at night...but then its fiction...though still tried to make it realistic..in hindi cinema they certainly would have met

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too...good...
written by Prasen, December 22, 2009

Really a very witty, interesting and sad story (for Prashant). But atleast he got a friend for life..... Thoroughly enjoyed reading it and hey I searched my building too but wasn't able to find "The Girl Next Door"

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The story next door
written by Shweta , December 24, 2009

First of all Kudos to the writer..perfect balance between humour and emotions...while reading, never it felt like a typical bollywood saga..But I would call it 'the story next door'..as probably every person meets his/her girl/guy next door somewhere sometime in life..most of them end up getting a true friend..few get heart broken...but whatever happens knowing your girl/guy next door is worth a try!!!

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written by IdleMind, December 24, 2009

A nice story, tender to the core. Though one often comes across such twists is debatable, but the essence of the story remains the sweet crushes we all had during our younger days. The tone of the narration was wonderful, and I kept going back to my younger days with every little event in this story. Well written!

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written by Domarp, December 24, 2009

@Shweta : only for you "The story next Door" , thanks for reading

@Idlemind: Thanks sir,your appreciation means a lot to me

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Prash
written by Prashant, December 26, 2009

Very well written -edited- simple-yet-crisp-presentation-makes the one reading - read it till the end. Overall a very nice piece of work ..!!

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written by Administrator, December 31, 2009

Felt like an honest confession rather than a made up story.

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written by Domarp, January 01, 2010

@Admin Lot of people felt so....

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written by Yashu Rustagi, March 13, 2010

I think it was a lovely story with nice humour notes But, I agree wid d admin - it sure seems to be 'ur' very own ))

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what i learned
written by enamoured, June 29, 2010

Nice story !!Same thing happened with me..we were deeply involved with each other. i used to think " i am different and she can get engaged only to me" proved to be a false belief.
It was a disaster when she told me about her beau but then i couldnt carry feelings inside me so i finally told her.
I realised that if i had shown a little interest in her earlier instead of playing some stupid games or reading some english classic she would hv been mine..!!
Also,sadly guys SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ONLINE costed me highly.

so timing is very important guys, open up earlier and never get too attached with anyone...
cheers..!

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