One of those moments...

It was one of those moments that make you smile.

I was with my family, the entire jing-bang, having dinner at a chinese restaurant in Dubai. Known for the otherwise tranquil atmosphere, Chopsticks, this night was stirred with noise. The table next to ours was occupied by a party of around 25 people, all celebrating and creating a royal rucous. There were only these 2 tables eating at the restaurant that week night. Since usually we're the most noisy table in radius of 10 meters, it was unusual to find some other group making more sound than us. Rather, its unusual for us to be able to hear any other people over our own noise. A table more noisy than ours, gasp! We gave our share of dirty looks, and taking advantage of speaking a language that the other table wouldn't understand, or hear in this case, we indulged in verbal bashing. How improper to be so rowdy, and make so much noise. Hmph. Of course, forgetting how we usually are. After all, who likes competition?

So anyway, after an hour or so of pure hostile looks being sent in the direction of the other table, we were done eating and ready to go. Just as the last of the hakka noodles and the stir fried veggies were being polished off, from the corner of my roaming eye, I noticed a guy standing at the next table, with a bunch of flowers in his hands. Curiosity bubbling, I looked on.

His friends seem to egg him on to do something, which I got a hint off, but wasn't sure. He stood meekly, with white flowers, and seemed hesistant. From his face, I could tell that he was mentally preparing himself for some herculian task, something which he seemed to be mustering up a lot of courage for. He walked around the table, as his friends moved their chairs to make way for him. He came and stood next to a girl, and by this time I was sure of what his intentions were. The loudness grew and the cheering started as the others around the table realised what he was doing. The girl too must have realised, because she erupted in a hysteric fit of giggles. She turned towards another girl next to her, and giggled uncontrollably. Meanwhile, the poor lad stood there, clearing his throat, pleading for silence.

Soon, after a lot of hoots and whistles, they silenced each other. The room went quiet ( the rest of my table had also stopped talking and turned to look), except for the giggles of the girl. Then, the guy bent over on one knee, and rose the flowers in his hands. He chose a time when the girl had momentarily stopped giggling, to ask in his very soft voice, "Will you marry me?"

As he asked, of course cheers went up around the table, and clapping and screaming and hooting. Unconsciously, I found myself cheering along with them. In fact, many of them turned to look at what I had to celebrate, only to see that I was self-inviting myself to their excitement. I just wanted to root for this guy, who seemed so sincere and so sweet! So then, a loud chant of "yes yes yes yes" went around, as the friends wanted to hear the girl's reply. At last, after a lot of jumping around excitedly, giggling uncontrollably and being red in the face, the girl replied, "yes, I will"

I don't know why, in that moment, I genuinely felt a warm fuzzy feeling inside me. All the irritation and annoyance I had felt earlier disappeared, as I joined in the noise to cheer the couple. It felt nice to see good things happening to other people. It felt nice to see a young pair getting on in life. And most of all, it felt nice to see that oh-so-doubted feeling of love so opening declared for someone.

I left with a wide grin on my face, and sincere hope for those strangers to be happy together :).