Blog by Aarthi Lakshmi
Have you ever been very pleasantly surprised by yourself? Isn’t that kind of very nice feeling? Of course, it very much was, in my case! This is just a small story of myself that might bring a little smile in the corner of your lips. I literally was smiling all the way as I wrote this!
Let me begin by telling you this: I have made my peace with the fact that am not very good at making conversations except for very few people that am very comfortable with! It will always begin with an obligation to speak but a very, very painfully blank mind which leads to an awkward conversations filled with many uncomfortable silences.
Not today! I went to a nice book cafe and found myself a comfortable place to sit and started reading the Murakami book that I took off the shelves. Except for the couple of annoying and loud teenage girls sitting opposite to me, I was in my own bubble. I would be lying if I told you that I didn’t let out a sigh of relief when those girls left! There was something about their shrieking voices that kept getting to my nerves.
I know it sounds like an introduction in a romance novel but I had just read too many of them to not leave a mark! So, then she came and quickly sat on the space where those girls left. I noticed she had a book written by Murakami in her hand too. I don’t know if she saw me because I was staring at her too long or just because I was sitting opposite to her couch, but she noticed the Murakami book I had in my hand just smiled instantly! She asked if I had read the ‘Norwegian Wood’ and there began our conversation. In a few minutes, I shifted to her couch so that we wouldn’t have to talk in a way that the whole cafe could hear. There wasn’t one awkward silence and our conversation was far from over when she realised she had to leave, an hour later we had started talking. We barely exchanged our names but trust me when I say that it was one small perfect conversation.
This made me realise that I maybe far from an extrovert but I still could share a wonderful conversation with a stranger as long as I don’t force myself into one. Maybe, just maybe, I am not made much for small banters. Or maybe, it would take another beautiful stranger to make me realise otherwise!
One Who Hated Books 