IT was a wonderful party at Ravi's place. Everyone was having great fun at the dance floor immersing themselves in the music, yes, everyone except me. I was down there vegetating on the couch having no partner. Oh wait! I'm not alone! There is this pretty long-haired and smooth-complexioned girl holding onto her cup of lime juice sitting at the other corner of this same couch!

Should I approach her? My heart pumped excitingly as I eyed around for possible competitors. No. There were none ... This is GREAT .... My mind was confused but I took control ... Calm down now! Remembering the three important initial stages of normal approach (as taught by Ravi), I decided to put them to use. The first stage is to get her eye contact. After getting her attention, the second stage would be to 'invade' into her personal zone, to get near her in a non-threatening way. The third stage, which is the most important, is to try to get physical contact, (don't get me wrong) contacts such as shaking hands. This is a good way to use my body language to send that signal of interests across.

With my mind set, I took a deep breath, then I took five more, and then three more, and then I knew if I didn't get started right this minute I'll be taking deep breaths till dawn... This would not do, I finally decided to count to ten before getting into action...

Ten, nine, eight... waittt! I should count from the start. That's a luckier approach... I took a deep breath and calmem my sense. Okay here it goes, Zipo, on, tw, thr, for, ... wait! Calm down. Calm down idiot! I'm counting too fast... Okay slowly from the start again... Zero, Onnnneee, Ttwooo, Thrrreeee, Fffloorrrr (What are those butterflies doing in my stomach?), Fffllyyy, Ssssickkkk, SexxxFlourrr, *Gulp* (I swallowed my saliva), Eggggg, Nitteeee, Dan! Uh-oo, I have already reached the end. I took a deep breath, calmed down my heart-rate and put on my sweetest and most charming smile. Remember! Remember to use eye contact as the first attack! I'm going to sweep her off those little dainty feet. With my confidence built up, I turned towards her...

Suddenly it's as if everything stopped dead and opened up, and I fell out. The air was humming and buzzing around me, or was it only inside my head? I caught her eyes, and it's like I touched an electric current and got locked into it. Gigawatts of electricity flew. My whole body numbed as my limbs stiffened. Sweats formed on my forehead. My lips turned dry. I was on the verge of a possible 'black-out'. Something happened outside of my control. I meant she knocked me out. That's it. She knocked me out. Those sparkling 'jewels' of hers had successful torn down my first line of defense. My confidence was shakened.

Smile! She smiled at me entracing. My vision blurred. I could feel a tremor or two of loss. "Yes?" her magical voice captivated my fullest attention. Who cares about the crumpy music anyway? My inane grin must have betrayed my feeling of loss, and she repeated herself, as if working a magical spell by incantation. At that moment, I was powerless under her power.

Perhaps it was my nervousness. Perhaps it was my shy nature. Or perhaps it was just those butterflies in my stomach. Whatever the reason, I had lost my senses. All five of them. My God! I suddenly felt like a nincompoop. Someplace way back in the bottom of my throat I found enough of a squeak to answer "Bye" as I left the cough hurriedly. No more eye contact next time...