Sanjaya sent an application to his boss for half day leave. As the office was too busy and lots of work was pending the boss was reluctant to give him leave. Finally after pleading for half an hour and requesting that he had to meet his grandmother admitted in the hospital Sanjaya was able to manage half day leave. Actually Sanjaya had lied to his boss. The reason why Sanjaya needed half day leave was that he was called by Batika and she wanted to meet him immediately in the Basundhara Park. Sanjay was sure that if he would have told the boss he wanted to meet Batika he wouldn’t give him leave. Sanjaya’s boss was a kind of misogynist type of men. He was so strict in the office that he wouldn’t allow the male staffs even to talk with the female colleagues in the office time in matters other than the official work. He would detest chatting and flattering of his male staffs with the female staffs.

Sanjaya had met Batika two months ago on his journey to Kathmandu. Sanjaya was going Kathmadnu to attend a seminar while Batika was to attend her friends wedding. Fortunately the seat of Batika was adjacent to that of Sanjaya and Sanjaya was on the window side. After around half an hour the bus headed toward its destination Kathmandu from Pokhara, Batika requested Sanjaya if she could sit on the window side. Sanjaya politely left the seat and came on Batika’s seat. The exchange of seats paved the way for Sanjaya to begin the conversation with Batika.
“Hi! I’m sanjaya” sanjaya said.
“This is Batika! Batika pradhan” Batika replied.

This was the beginning of never ending chatting between the two. Immediately after that Batika asked so many questions to Sanjaya that he sometimes felt irritated. “What’s your surname? Where do you work? What does your father do? What’s your favorite dish? Why are you going to Kathmandu etc................... ?.”
“So many questions in such a short interaction” Sanjay murmured.

Batika was talkative and very beautiful. Blonde hair and dimple on her checks were adding beauty to her round face. Sanjay on the other hand was a polite, humble and a little bit introvert. Since his school days he was a bit shy. So he had very little female friends. Sanjaya had never met a chatterbox like Batika. Though for the first few hours of the journey he was very irritated by interrogative Batika but slowly he began enjoying her questions and her questioning style. He was very fascinated by the dimples on Batika’s cheeks. Sometimes when Batika was speaking continuously he would secretly look into her cheeks.

Slowly Sanjaya also began asking questions to Batika and he also became engrossed in continuous chatting with her. During rest of the journey Sanjaya and Batika were so much busy in chatting with each other that they both got surprised when the conductor said “La La Kalanki aaipugyo……” (We arrived Kalanki). Before departing at Kalanki, Sanjaya asked Batika her cell no and the date she was returning to Pokhara. Fortunately Sanjaya was also returning on the same date. So he requested her to give him company during the return as well. Batika didn’t reply his offer. She simply said “I’ll call you latter” and hired a taxi to ‘Kalimati’- her friend’s house. Sanjay glued his eyed to the taxi till it took a turn in the far end of the road.

On the day of their return, Batika called Sanjaya early in the morning and both agreed to meet at Kalanki and returned together.

With in a week after their memorable journey from Pokhara to Kathmandu and back to pokhara together, one Friday Sanjaya called Batika for a date. Batika accepted his request without a thought and agreed to meet him. By this time Sanjaya was completely in love with Batika but didn’t have courage to propose her. Sanjaya went to meet Batika with a red rose in the inner side of his jacket. He was not sure whether to give it to her or not. After staying there around for two hours and finally before departing from there Sanjaya gave the rose to her. Batika accepted the rose with a smile and said “thank you”. Sanjaya was fascinated by the dimples formed on her cheeks during laughing. Sanjaya was very happy as Batika accepted his rose and he understood it as a green signal for his love toward Batika

Every day Sanjaya went on a date; he used to go with a red rose. Every time Sanjya gifted the rose to Batika she would accept it with a smile and two words “Thank you” in return. Sanjay was very fascinated by the smile and the dimples that form on Batika’s cheeks during laughing. That was the reason why Sanjaya always used to go on date with a rose.

Today also, after getting permission from his boss, he directly went to a flower’s shop and bought a rose. While he was on his way to their favorite dating spot “Basundhara park” Sanjay thought “I should propose Batika today”. But he asked himself “Why should I do that? I have been giving her red roses and she accepts it with a smile. As red rose is a symbol of love, I love her and she loves me. It is very clear. If she won’t love me why would she come on a date with me whenever I call her? And why would she accept my roses with a smile? But still I need to propose her and I’m going to do that today? But why had she called me on a date today…………….?” He went on thinking like that.

When sanjaya reached at their favorite dating spot, Batika was already there. There was a bundle of red roses on her side. Sanjay was too happy to see that “oh she has also come with roses for me…….” Sanjaya was just about to say “I love you Batika”. Batika overtaked him and said “sanjaya thanks a lot for your friendship and your roses. These are the roses you gave to me in the last two months. Please take them back. I’m getting married next month. This is the invitation card.”  Batika gave him a bundle of roses and an envelope. “This is the three hundred rupees that you paid for my busfare while returning to pokhara from kathmandu. Thanks a lot Sanjaya for your help”
Sanjaya silently accepted the rose bundle, envelope and his money back. He remained speechless.

Written By
SANJEEV RAJ NEUPANE
sanjeevmeister@gmail.com