Planned for Each Other

Raja was all ready with a plan. He sat on the back seat of his car and asked his driver to increase the speed so that they reach in time.He switched on his laptop and opened the excel sheet he prepared the previous day.He read through each of the items. 'Things to say', 'Things Not to say', ''What to joke','When to joke', 'When not to joke','How to smile', 'How to look confident'. This was the first time he was going to be on he receiving side of an interview. Being a person of a great reputation of a very high planning to execution ratio, there was no way that he could stand the thought of not getting through the interview.He has planned so well, hence he was confident enough.

Introducing Raja, he is a software professional who is working as a Project Manager in a leading IT company. His growth in the corporate world has been phenomenal.And he credits all his achievements to his planning. The only thing in life where his planning did not work is in selecting a life partner. Completing 32 years, he was so busy planning his career, that he did not get time to plan his life.He himself accepts it as his lack of planning and even takes it as a'Lessons Learnt'  case study on how lack of planning can affect you. Now as per corporate processes, for every 'Lessons Learnt', there should be a corrective action. Raja's corrective action has been to find, get close, get engaged, get married, all this in one year. His excel sheet had all the deadlines. He saw lots of girls, but unlike the complex projects he handles, this plan just did not seem to work out.The deadline was nearing and there was just one day left to find THE girl. That was when he got a meeting request from a girl's profile. They decided to meet the next day. For Raja, that was a 'Do or Die' situation. Make the girl like him, or else, the whole plan goes for a toss ! As complexity increases, planning should increase. Raja sat the whole night, trying to study the girl's profile.He scanned her facebook timeline, Twitter timeline, even Orkut timeline and made a set of likes, and dislikes the girl had. Based on that, he decided how he should behave the following day.  'Things to say', 'Things Not to say', ''What to joke','When to joke', 'When not to joke','How to smile', 'How to look confident' etc. For Raja, more that a wedding proposal, it was an interview he had to crack, an interview which meant survival of his values, an interview which meant self belief ! He had to crack it..some how.The whole night, he planned for the next day.

Raja scrolled the excel sheet to the bottom and started reading the Likely jokes I could say which started with 'Hi, I am Raja, Will you be my Rani?' and many more similar ones. Raja was quite impressed with himself. If he was the girl, he would have quickly agreed to marry him. He smiled. 'All's according to plan. This will work out !', he thought.
'Driver, how much more time will it take to reach there?', Raja asked.
'Fifteen more minutes sir', the driver replied.
'Okay, time for some more reading', Raja said as he opened his own profile which he had uploaded in the wedding site. He needed to be sure of what he has written in his profile. What you write in your profile could get you a job. It could also be the reason why you don't get a job.His memory took him to the previous year.
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2013 June
Raja was the interviewer and was taking interview of a 3 year experienced professional. Raja went through his profile and started asking questions pertaining to that.

Raja: So, How comfortable are you with Trees?
Interviewee: Very comfortable. I believe we should plant more trees.More trees means more oxygen...
Raja: Is this a joke?
Interviewee: No sir, I am serious.
Raja: I would like to remind you that you are here for a technical interview, not on a 'Love your environment discussion', and the question was about tree structure programming.
Interviewee: Oh, Sorry sir.I am comfortable about tree programming.
Raja: What is the use. You don't even know when to talk about programming and when to talk about the other trees.
Interview: Sir, I thought you were just joking.
Raja: This is not a comedy show. I have no time to joke. Do you know that I have allocated myself 20 minutes to complete this interview. You have wasted 2 minutes of my time which I could have used efficiently for some other thing.
Interviewee: Sir, don't tell me you are serious about this?You just cannot plan every minute of your life.
Raja:  Ha ha, I feel pity on you, and as I inform you that you are rejected for the job, I would just like you tell you one quote,"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Interviewee: Oh, I was expecting some technical questions. But so sorry to know that you are disappointed with me.At this point, here is another quote which I have heard, "If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans !"

The boy walked out of the room dejected. He never expected the interview to have such an abrupt ending. For Raja, it was just another interview that day.


*********


But today, Raja was the interviewee.And the interview was supposed to be a life changing one.
Raja was confident as for him, all's according to plan.But just till the current moment , not the next moment, when he was going to get a flat tire.

"Sir, I need ten minutes to change the tire."

"Oh no, we will be late, I can't afford to be late"

"Sir, I will do it quickly", The driver started to change the tire.


 Meanwhile Raja thought he will not waste any time.The girl likes humor. And he has to be humorous.He decided to check his humor quotient with his driver.
"Driver, do you think I am humorous?"

"What are you saying sir. This question you asked now is the biggest humor you ever told in life. I have in fact never even seen you smile."

Raja, looked surprised."What was there to smile?"

The driver looked at Raja and smiled,"Sir, you don't need a reason to smile."

"What do you mean, you don't need a reason? You need a reason for everything in life.And for life to go your way, you plan the reason. It's all about fore-seeing"

"But sir, we never planned that we would get a flat tire, or we will take som much time to reach here due to traffic.It just happens"

"Yes, you are right. I have already added that in my Lessons Learnt !"

'Unbelievable, Iska tho Condition Serious Hai (His Condition is Serious)', the driver thought, as he completed replacing the tire.

They continued their journey and in 5 minutes Raja reached the coffee shop where he was supposed to meet Jhanvi.

Raja, entered the coffee shop and looked around. He did not find anyone who looked like Jhanvi.He reached 5 minutes late, Would she have left because of not seeing him. Raja became disappointed that all his planning had become of no use just because of a flat tire. "Was the driver right in saying that everything cannot be planned?", Raja wondered as someone patted on his back. Raja turned around.

"Raja?", a girl asked.

"Yes", Raja replied.

"Hi, I am Jhanvi, came to check if I could be your Rani ! ha ha, Can we sit somewhere?"

'God damn it!, my joke taken!',Raja was disappointed that he could not use his primary joke as they sat on a table.

"Sorry I was late", siad Raja.

"It's okay, I was even late. So I am the latest", Jhanvi grinned as she said this.

Raja was not prompt enough to get the joke. But after a moment he understood that it was some sort of a joke and he smiled. He also tried to add further humor to the conversation.

"So you are latest Jhanvi and I am late Raja !"

"Late Raja? ha ha"

'Man, Late Raja meant something else. That's not what I meant', Raja thought. The humor had gone out of hand. He remained quiet.

The service guy came to take the order. Raja had already planned to tell a mock-tail and hence ordered one.

"Do you have cafe latte?", Jhanvi asked the service guy.

"Yes Madam."

"With cream?"

"Yes Madam"

"Okay, then get me a normal tea"

"Madam?"

"A normal tea", Jhanvi smiled , "sorry it was at the last microsecond that I felt I should have tea.You have tea, right?"

"Yes madam",The service guy took the order and went.

"I am surprised that you can't even plan whether to have coffee or tea well in advance"Raja said, and immediately remembered that he had to be humorous,"Well, humorously speaking , I am not actually that surprised.."

The service guy came back to their table and said to Raja, 'Sorry sir, the mock-tail machine is not working'

"Okay get me a tea", Raja said

"See, there is no use in planning what to have well in advance. The menu contains the plan, the kitchen contains the reality."

"Ha ha ha, good joke", Raja smiled. He remembered his driver's words. He has to smile more often.

"Well, after coming here that was the only thing I said seriously, And you found a joke in it? Interesting."

"You know what! I like to smile.You actually do not need a reason to smile", said Raja executing the last minute plan.Execute the 'Talk with driver - lessons learnt' plan.

"That's so true. Positivity never requires any reasons. You don't need a reason to smile, to tell the truth, But you have reasons to cry, to tell lies, to give false impressions"

Raja was speechless. He in fact was trying to give a false impression.Did she already know that?He wondered.

"So being honest, I am a fun loving person", Jhanvi continued,"I love travelling, I love living life as it comes.It's the thrill of unknown future that drives me.The lack of planning. You know what? There is this quote, "If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans !And I have regret in only one thing, that I never made God laugh ". Jhanvi made a pause and took a sip of the tea that arrived a few seconds back.

Raja was quiet. He knew he could continue acting humorous, which he had already understood that he was doing a bad job at, or else he had the option of telling the truth.

"But I am a person who believes in planning. That's how I have lived all my life. And I don't think I can change.", Raja said,"So I don't think our relationship will work out !"

Jhanvi got shocked. She never expected such a quick decision from Raja.

Raja meanwhile pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket."See this", he showed the paper to Jhanvi. It was a print out of the excel sheet he had prepared."I had been planning the whole day.And I have been proved wrong the whole day.The flat tire today, the un-availability of mock-tail, and my inability to find a girl whom I can make my life partner. I might have achieved so much in life, but I feel like a loser now.", Raja's eyes filled with tears.

Jhanvi was really surprised seeing the paper which Raja showed.

"Sorry, I got a bit emotional", said Raja as he paid the bill and got up from his seat,"Let me leave, Wish you good luck", Raja started walking.

"Oh, your discussion is over. It took 5 minutes lesser than expected. Did you tell him as per what I taught you?", Raja over heard the conversation from behind. He looked around. It was Jhanvi's friend who was asking her about the discussion they just had.

She had a piece of paper in her hand and was cross checking something with Jhanvi. Jhanvi just shook her had to anything her friend asked. Her friend looked frustrated and threw the piece of paper. The paper fell near to Raja's legs. He took that."Oh God", he sighed.

It was a sheet which contained the list of items Jhanvi should do while meeting Raja.'Things to say, things not to say' etc etc.Raja read the paper and looked at Jhanvi. Jhanvi walked towards Raja.

"Seriously, I was shocked to see the list you prepared. It was similar to the one my friend prepared for me. She had prepared this for me to impress you today. But as I told earlier, I am not used to act according to plan. And that is the reason she became angry and threw this paper.She had shared the list with me yestaerday,and today your list looked similar to mine. I was so surprised that I was speechless."

Raja stood stunned looking at the list.

Jhanvi continued,"So Mr. Raja, Meet my friend, Pooja,unmarried, planning freak. In fact you two share a common wave length, and you two should start seeing each other. "

Raja looked at Pooja and smiled. Pooja smiled back.They both went to another table to talk to each other, to plan their future.
Raja smiled at Pooja, unplanned."You know how I would rate the first impression I had about you in Five?"
Pooja stared at him eagerly. Raja reached out to the pocket of his pants and placed a Cadbury Five star on the table.
"Ha ha, that was a good one!", said Pooja.
"Planned joke, you know, plans always work!", siad Raja.
"Ha ha, but may be both of us should change that belief a little bit..Like the way we met , which was totally unexpected"

That's the irony of life.For the people of utmost planning, finding their life partners was completely unplanned.

Jhanvi walked out of the coffee shop.She too was happy for them,"This relationship will definitely work", she said to herself, "as these two are made for each other...In better words, Planned for each other !"



This is a submission for the '#ConditonSeriousHai' contest in Indiblogger.