Nayantara

Dil ko tumse pyaar hua Pehli baar hua tumse pyaar hua Main bhi aashiq yaar hua Pehli baar hua tumse pyaar hua

Sameer, Rehna Hain Tere Dil Main

Nayantara Das. Extremely bubbly, vivacious, a perfect representation of her sun sign: Leo. Nayantara was from Bangalore and had lived there until her school years. She shifted to Mumbai for college: St Xaviers and has been in love with the city since then. Mumbai as a city is known to have that charm on people. When caught between “Which City is Better” debates she has a tough time defending her “I love Bangalore but I also love Mumbai” stance. She graduated with an honors in economics. Loved the subject and studied it just for the love of it. She would never have dreamt of a career in anything ‘Financy’, like she called it. She started working with an NGO devoted to conservation of water using traditional methods. After having spent a year there, she realized that while she loved what she was doing and it was in fact a dream come true, working towards a change for betterment, she wanted to do something more. Cooking was something she always loved, whenever her extreme mood swings hit her, she would go grocery shopping and come home and whip us a dessert or a “MasterChef “ dish. She always had friends over on weekends who sweared by her cooking. One night, while watching “Julie and Julia” a movie that talks about how a woman takes up a project to complete 360 dishes from a cookbook in 365 days, it struck her that she maybe wants to cook. She got thinking and spoke to friends about it and hit upon an idea of opening a cupcake shop. What better than giving Mumbai sweet little treats that tasted heavenly? And with some loans and a few friends investing, she opened this tiny little take away place called: Sweet Little Things in Bandra. The rent for the shop was exorbitant, but she was confident that with time, as people start recognizing her brand, the shop would be able to pay for it. And she was right. The shop was the next big thing, orders were good, people appreciated her cupcakes and she had a loyal clientele. Earlier this evening when Nikhil had seen her on the road, she had shut the shop and stepped outside with a friend to deliver an order. Her delivery boy was out and since it was surprise order, the client could not be asked to pick it up himself. On their way back it started to rain. Just short of her shop, there was a traffic junction and usually terrified of crossing the road, Nayantara stood there for 15 minutes before she gathered the guts to cross the road. Her friend by then had crossed over and was waiting for her on the other side, under the shop. At that exact moment Nikhil’s car braked in front of her and she covered her face and her friend eventually crossed back and dragged her away. Nikhil had seen her but she had not seen Nikhil in the car. At the shop, while she was packing two boxes of Red Velvet cupcakes for Nikhil to take, she started talking about his recent film: Kashmir, praising his performance and that even though she is not a big movie buff she went for this one and liked him and the movie. He looked down, shy when people complement him, and said “Thank you, I appreciate it.” And then while she went on about the movie, he asked her “ Are you from South India?” She stopped and looked at him and said that was from Bangalore, and he said, that’s why the accent. And then realizing the comment could be taken as a racist comment, apologized and said that he merely wondered. She laughed it away and said it was ok. Then he paid for the cupcakes and collect the paper bag, said thank you and was walking away, when he turned and said: is this your shop or do you work here: She said the shop was hers and then smiled. He wanted to say something more but ended up saying : nice place and waved and opened the door and walked away and entered the car before the public goes mad on seeing him. As the tiny bells on the door tinkled as the door shut, Nayantara realized that she was smiling, still. She waved her hand in front of her face and said to herself, “yes he is cute, but he is also a film star, and get over it!”