Curiosity killed the cat?

Met a Prospective Groom (PG) over the weekend and though it was not the first instance, I kept imagining what it would be like to meet the same person in an entirely different setting, like in a party or in a professional setup or even just standing behind me in a line outside some theatre..

But instead we met under the noisy awnings of a Barista, for the first time, to consider each other as (tentatively) husband and wife.

PG is successful, settled (read makes decent money) and is the only son (am I lucky or what?) and really tall. After settling onto the respective chairs at a Barista ( I did not realise he was very uncomfortable) and yelling across the table for a while, we realised that a conversation was not going to be possible.

"I don't know Bandra (a surburb in Mumbai and a reasonably central one at that) that well so you decide," he tells me. My minds galloped ahead and went to every joint I knew in Bandra and was ruling them out one by one.. too crowded, too noisy, too small, too intimate, too expensive and all this while pretending to listen to him yelling across.

Finally settled on a path way for walkers at Bandstand (a picturesque and infamous strip of Bandra) - just right, I thought, strolling amongst more serious walkers, enjoying the balmy air and could always stop for coffee, incase we felt the yen for it.

After battling various rickshaw and BMC made obstacles, we found a parking spot and got onto the cobbled path. I was unpleasantly surprised. What I had imagined a stroll was actually turning out to be me constantly trying to catch up with PG's strides and catch the phrases thrown over his shoulder.

Huffing, puffing, clutching onto my bag with my dear life and trying stretch my strides longer than I could afford, I was hoping he would want that coffee quickly or at least notice that I needed it!

"Fixed income is the way to go.... The markets are growing much faster than equity.. I only like English movies... Am a fitness freak... (this was quite evident)..

At this point I gave up and started walking at a speed I could manage. I think PG almost instantly realised and adjusted his pace to match mine. By this time the coffee cravings surfaced.

We managed to find an obscure corner even in this supposedly posh strip of land where seedy coupled shared bright looking floats, oily pattices and entwined hands and gazed into each other's eyes. All the while sitting on the best of tables (overlooking the sea). This was, of course, a college memory and I was dreading entering the place but PG seemed to have something against the Baristas and Cafe Coffee Days.

As we entered, I saw that there were more families than couples (must be a result of all the moral policing - Bandstand was the worst hit after all), brightly lit and tall tables. At this point PG tells me how uncomfortable he was in Barista with its low tables (Really? I had never noticed).

For the next one hour we spent asking and answering question, though I seemed to want to know more about him. I was absolutely intrigued. Through snippets, I got to know PG was a student in Russia from 1988 to 1994 and I was thinking that means he saw the fall of communism!

I was so excited but of course the good Indian girl NEVER gets excited so had to find a middle ground. I was throwing questions much faster than he could or would answer them. But I was VERY VERY curious. For something that was a textbook entry as the fall of communism and I remember seeing it in the news. At that point (in 1991) I remember thinking to myself, this date would be very important for history in the years to come and now here I meet someone who actually was in Russia then.

But, PG in his chatty yet reserved style, did not impart too many details. At that point I really wished we were friends rather than prospectives.... Sigh.