To Argentina, With Love

TO ARGENTINA, WITH LOVE

a Argentina, con el amor

This story is not about Rov. He has a part to play just because he is the source. The male protagonist is Biku. He featured in another of Rov’s stories with the falsified name of Akram. The female protagonist is Mia of Buenos Airos, Argentina!

“Mi más Estimada Mia,

        Hace la misión de cosa imposible para mí. Pero, soy un chavo loco y yo le aseguro que pararé en nada más que éxito. Yo también soy confundido si querrá tal éxito o no. Sin embargo, yo cuido lo menos para tal confusión y yo pongo el corazón y el alma en esto.

Con mis sentimientos amorosos más profundos,

Yo me quedo,

Suyo para siempre,

Biku”

Rov would have written the above in English but for Biku’s insistence on perfection. So, the former had to download a translator program and type the e-mail in Spanish. He still has the least idea about whether he worked out the correct message. In English, it was supposed to be something like this:

“My Dearest Mia,

You are making the thing mission impossible for me. But, I am a crazy guy and I assure you that I will stop at nothing but success. I am also confused whether you will like such success or not. However, I care the least for such confusion and I am putting my heart and soul into this.

With my deepest loving sentiments,

I remain,

Yours forever,

Biku.”

PART ONE: ABOUT BIKU

The real name is Vikram. That’s also the name of a king of ancient ages. That king had married a beautiful princess impressing her by lighting candles singing raaga! I wonder if Biku is capable of creating similar magic!

King Vikram had a storyteller.

A few days ago, Biku asked Rov an opinion. Though the task was not difficult, the sudden need for it perplexed Rov.

Excerpts from that dialogue:

Biku: …slang…“What would anyone think of me at first glance?”..slang…

Rov: Possibly a great small man! To me, you are like a guru…

Biku: …slang…great guru is rather confused!

Rov (tentatively): Why?

Biku: …slang…slang…and more slang…

Rov: That’s too much slang!

Biku: You don’t like it? You don’t like slang? What do you like? What does anybody like?

Rov: Do you mean anybody or someone in particular?

Biku: Yeah! What does she like? Tell me what she likes and I promise I would say no slang no more…

Rov: Mia?

Biku: Who else, you duffer!

Rov: Most of all, she should like all the brands that you wear, from the Rayban sunglasses, Swiss watches, Reebok shoes, Levis jeanswear… After all, no offence meant, she only hails from an Argentinian village!

Biku: I know! I know! I just want to hear from someone else! You describe myself to me!

Rov: You are a smallish person and though not old enough, I have always imagined that you could play the part of Hercule Poirot well!

Biku was irritated to hear such irrelevant nonsense…

PART TWO: THE SECRET LIFE OF BIKU

“We’re going through!”

His voice was like thin ice breaking.

“We can’t make it, Biku!”

Mia’s declaration had a shrill intonation because she was experiencing the zenith of excitement!

The scene was close to romantic stuff shown in cinema. The two of them were sheltered together under a colourful umbrella that was failing to thwart the lashing rains. Their gazes were fixed forward at some challenging danger! The whole bye-lane ahead of them was inundated with muddy waters and also with filth from the drains on either side floating in Brownian motion, making an abominable presentation. The stinking smell was an additional torture. The yellow streetlight below which the two of them were standing was blinking repeatedly as if asking them to make a decision and act on it fast.

Mia perceived a gentle increase in pressure of Biku’s forearm around her waist and she looked down at his ever-jovial eyes, which were a foot below hers in altitude. The questioning glance of her serene eyes curiously generated tender warmth in some part of the left side of his chest and that made him cough a few times. Mia’s reaction to these masculine noises was that she, in an insistently incurious manner, raised her eyebrows to solicit dialogue. Biku thought of saying something but became occupied by the sights of the flutter of her long eyebrows in infinite slow motion! Her straight long black hairs, the smooth and glowing skin of her face, which he at all times rated to be of perfect description, with a dimple on either side of it and her simple nature despite such aesthetic brilliance once again became a full face realization to him that very moment like myriad occasions that whole day, and he felt very good and happy about it, besides also feeling taller, bolder and stronger! He smiled and spoke out loud only four words, “You and me together!”

Too many things were awaiting notice for Biku at that time. A hot and searing pain, felt in his left index and middle fingers due to the burning cigarette stub, a persistent irritation of his throat despite coughing a few times, the blinking screen of his laptop in screensaver mode, the wet and sticky sensation of his shorts owing to spilled beer and the shrill sound of ringing alarms of the table clock in his otherwise silent, and dark room that meant to intimate Biku that it was 2AM and time to sleep. He moved the mouse of his laptop to initiate action in the display. He read a scrap in his Orkut profile.

 “Te quiero”

PART THREE: TO MIA

“Mi más Estimada Mia,

        Hace la misión de cosa imposible para mí. Pero, soy un chavo loco y yo le aseguro que pararé en nada más que éxito. Yo también soy confundido si querrá tal éxito o no. Sin embargo, yo cuido lo menos para tal confusión y yo pongo el corazón y el alma en esto.

Con mis sentimientos amorosos más profundos,

Yo me quedo,

Suyo para siempre,

Biku”