It was that time of the month when our bank account makes us hopeful. Salary day. I would rush to my favourite restaurants and treat myself with my favpurite dishes. I used to visit these places with my friends too and enjoy but going on a date with yourself is also one of the best things you can treat yourself with, particularly when it is pehli Tareekh, or paachvi Tareekh for most people.
It was February, last year when I went on one such date to a local Dominos pizzeria to treat myself on salary day. So I went to this place and I ordered my regular Margherita pizza and I searched for a place to sit but couldn’t find any. I came across one seating area where only 1 girl, who looked almost about my age was sitting. I asked her if I could join her table, to which she said ‘Sure’. For the longest time until we waited for the counters to display our magic order numbers we didn’t speak at all. Which is normal actually, I am not a big fan of talking to strangers but somehow this time I felt that maybe we could basic talk. Making friends used to be easier before right? When we didn’t have phones and were left to make new friends for real and ask them the 4 magic words that sometimes formed the foundation of our friendships. ‘Tera Naam kya hai?’ (What’s your name?) sounds funny now right? But that sincerely used to be the golden ice breaker sentence until we slightly grew up. At one point the silence got so awkward I just finally broke the ice & asked her, ‘What have you ordered?’ & then began our conversation, We spoke about things, we had a real conversation & we even shared our pizzas. It was during the time when sharing was considered safe, it was 2019, that year was awesome.
Her office was close to my place & my office was in the area she lived in, which was quite far away, it was a nice coincidence. We missed exchanging numbers but it didn’t matter as this was a usual go to place for both of us & we could catch up some other time coincidently but after a few months Domino’s unexpectedly got shut down and I could not even eat that #onelastpizza in the place I grew up eating pizzas in.
Nevertheless, occasional self dates do give you good experiences. Sometimes you learn, sometimes you make new friends
Of Lilies And Marshmallow 