That Impromptu Trip to Banagalore

Ramit was one of those people who keep to themselves, go about their 9am to 5pm jobs and settle in their beds at 10pm but lay awake until an hour after midnight scrolling on their phones, coveting others’ lives on social media. His days were pretty much the same. He held a data-crunching job at one of the most prestigious companies in the world but he was paid peanuts and if you ask me, that’s what really matters. He had dreams, of course, dreams inspired by ideas of adventure and travel, but in his heart of hearts, Ramit was an indoors person. He did not have many friends, because it had already been rather hard for him to befriend people.

He would sometimes go to these happening cafés around town and sit there looking at beautiful people, couples, gangs of friends, boisterous and happy in their conversations and jokes and Ramit envied them. He wished he had the comradery. At other times, a beautiful girl would catch his eye and he would start wondering about what her life was like. By the time he finished his thought, some muscle-laden guy would walk up to the girl and take a seat beside her. Ramit would realize, at this point, that he was the only single guy there and would leave silently.

You would not call Ramit’s job demanding. As his boss liked to point out, “Ramit had no real skill, no marketable talent.” Ramit’s boss thought Ramit was stuck in the company because no other company would hire him, but the truth was that Ramit had not interviewed for a job in like five years. He was just nervous of appearing in interviews. People in the office often commented on the fact that they thought Ramit was an ‘unappreciated genius’ but he dismissed all the praise as flattery or a part of the social interaction which he thought he wasn’t great at. 

Nearly a year ago, Ramit had found himself enamored with a beautiful girl who had joined the Accounts department. Her name was Tabitha. Tabitha had spoken to him a few times at his desk to clarify some queries with the data that had left his desk. On seeing Ramit talking to a woman, especially one who “brought a smile to his face” had made a few colleagues nudge him to ‘maybe ask her out’. After a lot of deliberation, Ramit had gathered courage and gone up to Tabitha but she had curtly declined his offer to buy her coffee. A few days later, someone pointed out to Ramit, Tabitha’s Instagram story where she had mentioned, “this guy in MIS who asked her out, and while she was flattered, she found him too dull and had to say NO”. 

There was no reason for him to be bothered by her opinion but when has the human mind worked like that? The words cut though him like a hot knife through a dollop of margarine. Ramit became more and more reclusive with each passing day. He wanted to be an interesting person, but having chased security and stability in life, he had no great stories to tell, no interesting adventures he could call his own. One evening, in an attempt to be in with the times, Ramit installed the Instagram app and made an account. He searched for Tabitha but could not find her. The algorithm that suggests friends suggested a handful of work contacts that Ramit did not want to connect with outside of work. So he kept exploring. 

On looking for #friends, #fun, #beautiful and other such tags, Ramit came across many interesting pictures. Clicking on one picture after another, he landed on this guy’s profile which was public to view. This guy Srimoy, who was a ‘Bengali boy in Bangalore’ had a lot of abstract pictures with friends and food in huis profile, but what caught Ramit’s eye was Srimoy’s post on mental health. Apparently, Srimoy had suffered from a mental breakdown and had been on anti-psychotic drugs for a while, before finding balance in a hyper-social friends circle, which included his elder sister Susmita and her ‘gang of misfits’. Ramit followed Srimoy and Susmita’s profiles and started seeing their stories.

Every weekend, as he moped around his house, doing laundry and reading books, he would check out Susmita on Instagram and she would have an alarmingly high number of updates – which ranged from pictures with captions, videos of her singing, songs from her favorite artists and memes. Susmita was chubby, jolly, sported short hair and wore Harry Potter style round glasses which made her look so nerdy, but cute. She had such an angelic voice, as she crooned to country music. She had big Bengali eyes and would be constantly smiling in her pictures and videos and Ramit started developing a bit of a crush on her. 

Ramit sent Susmita a few complimenting words in her DM and she conveyed her gratitude. After this, he would comments on her stories every now and then and she would just respond with smileys. Ramit was not just pining after Susmita; he was pining for her whole lifestyle. Her group of friends who all came across as platonic yet fun. Her ability to laugh and sing. She was a techie but her life existed outside her work and Ramit was charmed by her ability to be happy and full. She would post several polls on her stories, quizzes and trivia. Ramit would never really participate in such frivolous things had it been someone else but for Susmita, he made an exception. She started noticing.

One Thursday afternoon, he noticed a notification, which said Susmita had tagged him. He clicked on the notification and landed on a picture of Susmita in a saree where she had tagged him for some reason. She look all sensuous and curvy, showing a seductive glimpse of her belly. Ramit found himself fantasizing about Susmita, about being in her life, about sitting next to her during her jam sessions, about making love to her. In a weak moment, he DMed her this – “I wish I were a part of your life. Sitting in the horizon, my life feels so dull and lifeless compared to yours. I wish I could cross over and find what it is like to be you.”

An hour or so later, when he realized that it was stupid to send that text, Ramit went into the DMs to delete his text but realized Susmita had already seen it and replied – “All that glitters is not gold, Ramit. I am blessed to have a great group of friends. We will be jamming at Lazy Suzy, Indranagar this Sunday. Join us if you can or catch us on Instagram Live.” A jolt of electricity ran through Ramit’s body. Did she really invite him to meet her? He really wanted to go. But Susmita was in Bangalore and he was in Delhi. It was a 3-hour flight and nearly a 2-hour cab ride to her location. Plus it would cost a small fortune to make that trip. He shook his head at the stupid impulsive thought and laughed it away.

When Saturday rolled in, Ramit found himself lonely and listless. Then he remembered Susmita’s offer. Maybe he ought to go, maybe this was the kind of impulsive and adventurous things he should be doing, Ramit thought to himself. So, he booked tickets to Bangalore for the next morning. It was the first time he had booked an impromptu flight ticket and he was excited. He looked up Lazy Suzy, the café Susmita had invited him to. It seemed kind of offbeat but quaint. He could not sleep much that night, kept imagining himself with Susmita and her group. 

The flight started quite early and having stayed up all night, Ramit did not have time to coordinate what he had to wear, so when he landed at Bangalore, he went to a boutique inside the airport and bought himself a blue linen shirt and white baggy cotton pants to go with the Bangalore weather. He looked distinct with the new bright clothes and almost felt like a new person when he reached Lazy Suzy around noon. At this point, he realized that Susmita had not specified a time and he had no idea when that session was supposed to happen. Instead of texting her to find out when she would come, Ramit decided to just wait. Big mistake.

Ramit waited and waited. Susmita and her gang of, for the lack of a better word, hippies rolled around at 5pm in the evening. Except Susmita, who looked as cute as she did in her pictures, everyone in the group looked haggard and drunk, which he later found they were. When he walked up to Susmita, she did not recognise him even after he said his name. He had to remind her of the invitation on Instagram and once he did, she looked at him with incredulous eyes and said, “You came all the way from Delhi. You must be rich.” One of the people in her gangs commented on Ramit’s clothes and said, “He is rich. Look at those branded clothes.” Ramit had not noticed the brand logo on the side of the shirt he had bought, but the guy had and made an estimate of how much the outfit would have cost. For the next hour or so, this group of ‘weirdos’ talked about designer labels and how they were lame.

Ramit seemed embarrassed now and looked over to Susmita, who was now rolling a joint of marijuana. Ramit now realised that all of these people were into weed and the wacky colorful stories she posted on Instagram made sense to him now. “Don’t let these guys bring your energy down,” commented Susmita, “You are rich. Be proud of that shit.” He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t, but the conversation had moved on to other things by then. As he sat and listened to the group and their overly animated discussions about truly mundane things in life, Ramit realized what Susmita had meant when she had said, “All that glitters is not gold.” By the time they called it a night, Ramit had finally spoken to Susmita and expressed his feelings for her. 

“You’re crazy, man!” Sushmita exclaimed. “This is crazy. I have never done something this wild. Yes, we do post rad Instagram stories but that’s about it. We are broke and our online profiles are pretentious. That shit is not true. Most of us do it for validation. To my eyes, your life looks as enviable as mine looks to you. You have everything sorted out. I sometimes I wish I were like that. And yet, I don’t think I would chase a dream like you did. This is really gutsy. What if I were a crook?” Susmita joked away in her inebriated style. After this, Ramit opened up a little and told the group about his life, all of them were supportive, and one of the women even gave him tips on better Instagram pictures, to which Susmita said, “You’ll look but won’t feel that way inside. That has to come from within.”

Ramit shared a cab with Susmita and Srimoy who insisted they drop him back to the airport since he had come all they way to meet them. On the way, Susmita dozed off on Ramit’s shoulder and when they reached the airport, she hugged him goodbye and whispered in his ears, “The next time you’re here, maybe actually ask me out.” The flight back to Delhi was uneventful and yet, Ramit felt cheery. When he landed in Delhi, there was an Instagram notification on his phone. Susmita had posted a picture of Ramit and captioned it – “Sexy & I Don’t Know It.” She DMed him her number the next morning, along with a picture of her blowing him a kiss. “I’d call that a win.” Ramit smiled to himself.