First day, once again

Till now, I have experienced many first days. First day of school, first day of college, then first day at job, and then at second job and at third.

And now today. First day of fourth job at my own college as a teacher. That's something!

My college friends will die laughing, if they know what I am going to do. But they weren't there too laugh. Haha!

"Okay! Enough joking around to create humour. This is serious." I started talking to myself.

"You're going to go inside, smile, introduce yourself and ask them questions." I was trying to remember the steps.

"Or we can play introduction-introduction. That's what all the teachers do on their first lecture. No need to panic. Today is just an introduction day." Now I was started to panic. My body was crumbling and eyes were clueless. And then I smelled a refreshing smell of 'chai' from cafe. 'How about a single cup!' I asked myself and I convinced myself for a single cup. Still I was worried about droping something on new dress on my first day. So I was trying to stay away from liquids. But now it was out of my hands. I turned my body and headed towards the origin of smell. God it was smelling like heaven. And  suddenly I realized, I was hungry. But I had eaten a 'Chai-Roti' combo at home. But I wasn't quite myself in the morning. Actually I couldn't even sleep properly either. Every time I closed my eyes, I was waking up by the thought of getting late. God, it was horrible!

So, the hungry, thirsty & anxious-nervous me, entered the cafe. It was packed like festival. I tried to find an empty table, which looked impossible at the time. I had to wait almost half an hour. Actually I had enough time, because I was an hour early. But what I didn't have, was patience. I wanted to drink that 'chai' so badly that I thought I was going to faint. No. not really. Haha. Just kidding!

So, I was looking everywhere, trying to find an empty space. While doing that, I was shamelessly looking at people who were eating. Who cares! I was only thinking about that 'chai'.

And suddenly I heard some words which interrupted me. Somebody was calling me. That must be him. I smiled and looked at the corner, the sound was coming from. And there he was, Chery, smiling, and waving at me. I analyzed my quickest way to the table and hurried to reach. While doing that, I didn't see somebody coming. Oops! I hit him and poured all the 'sambar' on his shiny white shirt. And I looked up at the face. There it was, the his handsome face, little angry, saying sorry. And I realized I must have ruined my dress. Oh god! I looked at my dress and there was not a single spot on my baby pink dress. I felt so guilty that I ruined his shirt. I said 'sorry' and reached my table.

"You're going to kill him one of these days." Chery's sarcastic voice welcomed me.

"Do you live here?" I asked him smiling widely.

"Kind of yes. And no. I just come here in the morning, at afternoon and in the evening."

"It means you're here every 4 hours. You must like this cafe too much." I tried analyze him.

"Yes. Very much. I do like this cafe very much." He answered with weird emotions. I didn't understand him so I dropped it.

"So, first day, hmm?" He asked in a casual way while eating his samosas.

"Yes. First day." I couldn't express my feelings, so I stopped myself at those words.

"Nervous?"

"Kind of"

"Why don't you have some tea?"

"Actually, I came for 'chai'. That's what brought me here."

"Are you sure only tea brought you here, nothing else?" He asked while pointing towards that handsome non-waiter waiter.

"No. Oh god no.", "I mean, yes, he is handsome and all. But I don't even know him. And my head already full with my first day anxiety. I don't have time for all of this. And who is he anyway?" I answered in as careless as I could. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Plus I was still in a breakup phase, and I didn't know how long it can last. So I tried not to get involved and I regretted my last sentence, the moment I realized what I have asked. But it was too late. Chary has already started his wikipedia.

"He is younger son of this cafe's owner, Mr. Gupta. His name is Amit and he works here on Monday, Saturday and Sunday."

I was awed with his information directory. "And why does he work here exactly? Is he a chef or something?"

"Yes, he is". Chery answered immediately.

"So, he works here for an experience, right?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. As per my sources, he works at this cafe, and at another restaurant in city on all the other days." He shared proudly.

"You have quite a lot of information about him."

"Yeah. I like to be updated about everything." He smiled and started eating his samosas.

"Enough about him. I need to order a 'chai'. I forgot about it in all of this chatter." And I started looking for a waiter. "Bhaiyya, one 'chai' please." I put my order and said, "so, how was your weekend?" I was trying to start a conversation so I will forget about my first day, first lecture and my nervousness.

"It was fine. Calm, peaceful and relaxing."

"So, you mean you didn't do anything and spent all day at home relaxing?" I asked sarcastically.

"Exactly that. Except coming for breakfast here. And one chai on Saturday."

"That's awesome. I like to relax at home doing nothing. Sometimes, I don't even like to bath on weekends. Haha! Just sit, eat and chill while watching movies. Isn't it fun and stress less?" I shared my feelings about weekend.

"Not even a bath?, You're dirty."

"Oh! Come on. It's like, why to waste time and hard work, on a useless thing like bath. I mean, We do it everyday. Why can't we skip one day in a week and chill?"

"You're mad" He accepted his loss and moved on with his samosa.

Meanwhile somebody brought me a cup of chai. I held it sacredly and took a sip. It was delicious. It worth to take a risk of destroying the dress.

"Don't you want to eat anything? I thought You're hungry." Chery asked and gave an order of sandwich.

I saved my tea to drink with sandwich.

"Where is your factory?" I asked him.

"It's near that big tree. You can visit if you want when you're free."

"Yes. Why not?" I replied while thinking about how I didn't miss him today with wll this busy schedule.

After few minutes, My sandwich arrived, and chery ate it  more than half of it. I couldn't eat a lot because of nervousness. But 'chai' helped me surely.

"So, shall we meet at lunch time here?" He asked while we were paying the bill.

"Sure. Why not? I have brought my lunch with me. We'll share it." I replied happily.

"Then see you at noon" He said with a big smile and left on his bike.

I looked at his image getting invisible, smiled and headed inside college gate. Suddenly I realized I was not nervous anymore. Surely I was scared, but not anxious, not nervous. That was a good sign. I entered the staff room with enough of confidence inside.

He would have proud of me if he was there. I thought to myself and regretted thinking such a thing.

I was nailing it today at friendship after being afraid of making new friends,

Surely it won't replace the old ones, but hell yeah, they will be priceless.