(She had this confused expression on her face)

Me: Its not as blunt as it sounds… I don’t go around thinking ‘I did not get compliments so I am great’. The way I look at it is that I did not get anything now means that I will get something bigger later… Yeah I am and will be an eternal optimist.
Her: Well its an interesting ideology, beats the heck out of people cribbing about not getting their due (laughs)

Me: Oddly this belief system is based on balance, life balances out everything eventually. If you don’t get something now it just means you will get something in kind later…
Her: So when people actually compliment you…
Me: I feel a little bad. Yeah… its like someone paying you for your work immediately, I would rather wait till the end of the month and get the big cheque.
(She kept staring at me)
Me: What this philosophy did to me is that, the work I truly like to do is the kind that goes unnoticed. I spend time around a lot of people who are very grateful and its like a challenge doing something nice without someone knowing it. But honestly the best days of my life have been the ones when someone else picked up the credit for my work. Most often then not its a mistake and the person it was bestowed upon mostly did a part of the work… but it gives and interesting opportunity to see life at work. You wonder if the system is going to fail and out of the blue you are vindicated for your beliefs and efforts.
Her: The best feeling in the world!
Me: The best feeling in the world!

Me: I see (took a moment to put this perfectly) Let me guess something like a person who loves ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, stays up all night listening to radio waiting for that kid trying to get his dad a date to come on air… hmmm
Her: Ok, if you are doing that we will talk about something else… What do you want to talk about (sarcastically) Cricket?
Me: (chuckling to myself) Come on I was just kidding. Go ahead tell me about your theory…

She stared at me for a second with those pretty eyes… probably checking if I was pulling her leg.

Her: Ok, Its like this, most of my friends have a different favorite romantic movie… There are important incidents that bring the characters in those movies together… Sometimes its just those incidents that make them love the movie, their idea of perfect way to meet and fall in love with someone. Obviously it doesn’t work with everyone but it does with most people… Maybe more common with girls than guys.

It took me a moment or two to grasp what she said… but you had to give it to her she had a point

Her: Like for example… Lets say someone likes… hmm… say “You’ve got Mail”, someone who loves that may be looking to meet the perfect person on the web or maybe even wants to fall in love before they meet for the first time.
Me: What about “Sleepless in Seattle”?
Her: Too complex, tried analyzing it but too many factors
Me: What about other movies?
Her: There is this friend of mine who loves “Romeo and Juliet”… She is so the ‘getting married to the guy your parents hate’ kind.

She was turning her attention to carving the next piece of the muffin, when i asked.

Me: So which movie do you love?
Her: No, you go first. Which one is your favourite?
Me: But I asked first.
Her: I came up with the theory…

Its becoming hard to win arguments with her…

Me: Before Sunset and Before Sunrise.

She smiled
Her: I knew that… So lets see you must be the… “chance meeting with a stranger, who you fall in love with” kind
Me: I also like Shakespeare in Love
Her: Oh my god, you are getting deeper into trouble mister… “Falling for your muse” kind is not the safest you know…
Me: Well I like to live dangerously, my dear. Which one is your favorite?
Her: Kate and Leopold…
Me: Ooh, let me guess… “Prince Charming” kind… Rare species that
Her: Well I do know a few guys that are charming.
Me: Well is anyone among them royalty? That would set you up perfectly…

She ignored me and put a chunk of Blueberry muffin in her mouth.

She stares at me with those pretty eyes…

Her: The ironic thing is that all religions assume humans as the highest wrt divinity of species..
Me: Hinduism does gives same respect to some animals as humans… But most of those are also represented by human abilities… like speech and thought. I cant speak like I am an authority over the subject but from what I know humans are often treated like the final step before attaining Nirvana.
Her: Yeah, I have often heard statements like ‘you are blessed to be born a human’…
Me: Exactly… A friend of mine was reading a book on the vedas and explained to me what it said about heaven and hell. He spoke about specific punishment for each of your sins. But then he adds saying “If you engage in mindless sex and gluttony you will be reborn as a pig, coz all the pig does in its lifetime is eat and have sex”… Ofcourse he wasnt sounding so apocalyptic…
Her: (recovering from the apocalyptic announcement)Thats the point they make it seem like all animals are humans that have been punished!
Me: I get what you are saying but I was thinking about it for a while and was wondering how a system like that could run. You know humans at top and rebirth determined by your actions. There is one simple system I could think of.
Her: Go on…
Me: Lets say Nirvana is the top of the ladder, humans are one step behind it. If you are human you are a step away from getting there. But like they say it the last step is sometime the hardest… Or was it the first step

She was clearly not impressed with my attempt at a joke

Me: If you reach that step you can do either, lead a pious life and reach the destination or do sins and get demoted. Each step below is possibly a different animal… Think of it like a pyramid if you want too…
Her: So the lower you fall the longer your journey will be to the top.
Me: Yes and since most animals cannot acquire sin they will guarantee you moving back up after say, a jail term as an animal for the sins you have committed as a human.

She was looking confused

Me: Think of it like a casino. Your goal is to walk out of the place… you can walk out only if you have a minimum amount money with you. You play different tables, each table represents a body… humans, pigs, insects, lions ect. When you play at the human table its a case where you can win big and walk out… or lose big and end up on one of the other tables. The other tables are easier to win on but they can only get you till the human table again for that elusive opportunity to walk out…
Her: Interesting but dont some stories in Hindu mythology about other animals attaining nirvana
Me: (grinning) Well maybe they won the lottery

She smiles… shaking her head.

Her: So which table are we going to end up in after this one…
Me: Oh, we are walking out dear…
She stares at me in a peculiar way
Me: The waiter is going to be upset if we keep switching tables…

I think she smiled for that one…

Her: No! You have to pick one… hmmm Say - A. How would you describe A

Me: Interesting choice… Why this all of a sudden?

Her: Come on play along and please be frank… I promise its gonna stay between the two of us. I will tell you once u tell me

Me: Hmmm…

Her: Yes

Me: I will go for beautiful… Now tell me why?

Her: Hmmm…. And B?

Me: Crazy

Her: (laughing) Actually yeah I agree… The question is void for her and me… We are the crazy ppl

Me: Well you said that… not me

Her: (smiles) Ok!

Me: Ok now explain.

Her: I read it somewhere… That a girl should pick boys depending on how they treat them but it mentioned small details

Me: As opposed to how they treat thier bikes. Damn i thought girls based it on that

Her: (ignoring me) Never go out wid a guy that calls u hot it said…(sarcastically) Cars maybe not bikes

Me: So beautiful=good and hot=bad

Her: Sort of…

Me: hmmm

Her: So use beautiful if u are hitting on the girl… if it doest not matter to either of u… then hot is ok

Me: Coming to think of it… it does make sense. I mean, the sad part is that words like ‘beautiful’ are terribly undervalued… People call most things beautiful that maybe its not exactly worth its weight.

She listened intently as I carried on “Terms like hot and sexy are very much terms to describe physical attraction… But probably a honest ‘you are looking beautiful’ will beat ‘em all. There is another way to look at it, I would rather look at someone and describe them as hot/sexy if I felt that is how others would perceive that person, in the case of beautiful, Its always what I think about that person.” I took a sip of the coffee cup and asked “So can I ask you something?”

Her: Ok…

Me: Why did you pick A?

Her: Hmmmm… I thought about it… Frankly, She is the one who would actually fit right for this question.
She added matter of factly “I could have said me… and got a nice little speech about how people dedicate songs on radios…” We both smiled…

She always comes up with interesting questions… I smiled and replied “What do you think it tell you?”

Her: I don’t know. Deciding whome i like more based on just one random occurrence is unfair on me I think.
Me: Well there you go, it doesn’t necessarily have to say anything.
Her: Why did you say ‘necessarily’? You believe it shows bias, dont you?
Me: Yeah… I think it does. I have always had a few people who I love to speak to. Always tend to have the best conversations with them and always look forward to speaking with them. Obviously if one of them picks up the call, I would be delighted.

She stared at me for a second or two and asked “Who are in the list?”
Me: What is with this morbid fascination with names. People are always falling over each other to ask “who?”. When infact the important thing is the information itself not the participants. People want names, as if that will be of any use, when they would possibly never meet or interact with that person. Wouldnt ’someone’ suffice?

She leaned forward…
She: Am I in the list?
Me: This is like the situation where someone calls up a tv/radio show to dedicate a song. They do their requests and add ‘also I dedicate is song to you’. Now we dont know if the person did it out of courtesy or actually honestly likes the host… If I said “yes you are on the list”. What guarantee do you have that it was a honest answer.

She stared at me with those pretty eyes and slowly smiled…

I don’t know what the textbook definition of Vindication is. For me its that feeling you get when you achieve something that nobody believed you could. When people looked at what you were trying and called it impossible and even considered you a fool for doing it. When you belive in yourself so much that you take the positive out of everything and keep moving towards your goal… When you are flying blind and almost totally on instinct, just that feeling in your gut that you are heading where you want to be.

That feeling when you reach your goal… thats Vindication…

She smiled at me and looked down at her cup again…