Nice shoes!! Where did you buy it from?

Everyone likes someone to appreciate you and your belongings, but not always. It’s true when you are in corporate world. When someone says to me, I have done a good job through chat, nowadays I reply with “tel me” instead of thanks and there comes the next task for me.

But a week before something worse has happened. After reaching back at Bangalore in the morning, still feeling the home, I had to rush to office. I have a habit of keeping all my shirts ironed in a stack and will pull out the bottom most shirt from the stack (yeah,  I actually implementing FIFO- First In First  Out) so each shirt will have same frequency of usage. Today it was “Pink-shirt” day. When there are only guys in your office, who cares what you wear. So I started to office at usual time as usual except for feeling home-sickness.

I went for breakfast from usual hotel. Everything was normal till the middle of breakfast. Then a man from nowhere turned up. The first dialogue itself created confusion.

“Nice shoes!! Where did you buy it from?”

(OMG!!! An unknown “man” coming to me to say my 2+ year old Woodland is nice. And this guy does not look new to Bangalore and I can bet he has seen the same shoe – exactly same colour and model - atleast 20 times. So what he is interested is not my shoe, but something else. Then I realized, I was wearing wrong shirt today. Did I turn on a wrong indicator? I have never been an attraction to girls, but now!!! Oh no!!! This cant be so. This is the worst that can happen. But I still tried to be polite to him but want to avoid him. )

So keeping my eyes in my plate,  I said “From Marthahalli, Woodland showroom”. So that’s the end of conversation for me. But he remained there.

He wants to start a conversation. Ok. I don’t mind, this is the first and last time we are going to talk or meet.

“How long have you been using these shoes?”

“More than 2 years”

“Oh! It is nice”

My eyes are more into plate. He has no plans of letting me enjoy my food.

“By the by, I am Ajith, Working at blah blah. May I know your name?”

“George”

“Which is your native place?”

“Kerala”

“Do you watch Tamil Movies? There is a hero named Ajit”

So do you think you are that hero??

“I don’t  watch much of them”

“My name and his name are same. My Mallu friends watch his files...Where are you working?”

“Kormangala”

“In which company?”

“Blah blah blah”
Please.. Please leave me. I am the not kind of person you are expecting

Then he had a series of questions to be answered in one word.

“How long have you been to Bangalore?”

“Were you working with same company for all the time?”

“What platform are you working on?”

“What do you do on weekends?”

…

I never have seen a man with these many questions.

There comes the one last, but the worst question.

“What is your mobile number?”

And he gave me a miss call. I dint save his number, but he was saving that.

By then I have completed my food and said I am leaving. He has repeated his first sentence again.

“Nice shoes!!”

Then he went to parking lot and took his Honda Activa. For me,  my doubts were cleared, such soft spoken man having Activa!! I completed the story. But still wanted to know what he wanted or more importantly, I didn’t turn on a wrong person.

I soon called my friend and told what has happened. He could not stop himself from laughing. When he had a similar experience, it was me who made most of the fun. But he dint share his number. I was sure I will get a call from Ajith in one week time.

On that Friday, my phone rang by 6:30 pm. An unknown number.

“Hello”

“Hello”

“I am Ajith”

“Ajith? Which Ajith?”

“We meet there in hotel last Tuesday”

“Oh ya”

“I told, I am working in Blah Blah. Me, with my friends have started a venture. We you are looking for part-time employees. Are you not interested in some extra income from your spare time”

“No. I am working in a start-up and am fully occupied. 24*7 I am busy”

“Ok. If you know any of your friend looking for an extra bonus, please let me know”

“Sure, I can call in this number itself?”

“Ok”

So I am safe.The worst hasn’t happened. I am so relieved at that. But I learnt something from this, a man can also start a long conversation by talking about your shoe!!