A trip abroad and a proposal later....

He jumped out of the driver’s seat with the alacrity of a man half his age. Giving me a friendly grin, he hoisted my bag into the cab and motioned me in.

After I settled myself comfortably, he started off, both with the driving and a volley of questions:

“You from India?” was the first question.

“Yup.”

“You must be surely a student.”

I gave a smile and replied, “I am working.”

“Where?” was the next question.

“Edinburgh”.

“Aaaah…. Nice place. But you don’t look like you are working. You too young, you see.” And he twisted sideways in his seat to look at me while he spoke the latter sentence.

I could not help smiling in response, however indirect the compliment was, but remained silent.

“You have a boy-friend?”

The question caught me unawares, and after a second’s hesitation, nodded in affirmative.

“Where’s he?”

“And I thought we Indians were overtly curious......”was my wry thought before replying “He is back in India.”

“So you would be marrying him after you go back?”

I barely suppressed a grin before nodding a yes.

He wore a disappointed moue of expression, “That means you would not be marrying me! I was about to ask you so.”

This time I could not control my laugh, “We honour commitments very seriously.”

He mulled over my statement before asking, “When would you be coming back?”

I answered honestly, “I don’t know.”

“Whenever you come in, do drop in to say hi. My name’s JC. You can ask anyone in the lounge. Don’t forget.” he said wagging an admonishing finger at me.

By then we had reached our destination. His parting shot as he deposited me with my luggage was, “A pity! A great pity!”

I laughed and walked towards the airport terminal to catch my next flight.