“I don’t have a favourite song. Whatever music is there, I will listen.”
“You don’t have a playlist for every collection? When you draw… wait, you draw your designs, right? How do you do it?”
“I draw, pencil on paper. Then transfer it to digital. I work with real fabrics as well as digital textures.”
“And you don’t listen to any songs while doing it?”
“Do you?”
“Yes, when I am sketching couture lehenga in the Cath Lab.”
“See? Your cutting, burning firing has started.”
Ritu bit back a smile.
“I don’t have any particular music preferences. Maybe I am just not musical that way. What about you?”
“Not me either.”
“Lie.”
“Youare a lie.”
“You cannot ask me about my favourite song with such passion if you don’t have a favourite song of your own.” He stared her down. Usually, she had enough balls to stare such pieces of pride up. But for some reason, it felt good to lose to him. Today, at least.
“I don’t have one favourite song.”
“Lie.”
“This is not a lie! I have a whole era that I love.”
“Which is?”
Ritu’s eyes went far away into the distance. The lights were coming on in verandahs and balconies, the sky was turning darker. She didn’t want to notice anything of that sort. May this evening never end.
“Whichis?”
“90s and 2000s music.”
“Like?”
“Like… Alka Yagnik songs. Like Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam. Kumar Sanu. Like the songs that we waited for hours to watch on MTV and Channel V, then sat through 20 minutes of ads just because somebody saw a flash of Coming Up and it listed our favourite song. That music.”
“MTV Most Wanted.”
“Yes! Oh, yes! We even voted. I loved Falguni Pathak music videos. Her heroes were so…” she stopped her giddy jiggle. Her mouth fell shut, chagrined. When she glanced up, he was smiling at her, adoringly, if that’s what his soft expression translated to.
“Hey! I was supposed to ask you, and you made this my 6th What.”
“Alright, I’ll give you one grace too.”
“You are not giving me any grace. It’s fair play.”
He cocked his head in acquiescence.
“So, no favourite song. What is your degree in?”
“That’s on Wikipedia.”
