Gaurav’s home
Nauman was standing in front of Gaurav, one hand holding the door, the other one ready to defend himself in case Gaurav cracks down on him.
A lot of things were racing in his mind: if he could have left 5 seconds before, if he hadn’t taken that much time to wear his sandles, if he hadn’t made eye contact with Gaurav before heading to the door, if Gaurav’s eye wasn’t twitching at that moment and he hadn’t stopped to notice it, he could have avoided the scene. He knew his number was up.
“Dude, I asked you a question.”, Gaurav reiterated.
“Yeah”, Nauman wasn’t sure what words were coming out of his lips.
“Dude, are you okay?”
Nauman heard that friendly tone, which gave him a little assurance that he won’t be pounced upon soon.
“Yeah, I am fine.” he replied.
“So, how do you know my sister?”
“You sis…sis..ter, No I don’t know her, what makes you think that I know her?”
“You just said ‘yeah’, when I asked if you knew her.”
“No I don’t know her, how would I know her?”
“Arre I just remembered when I was left in the local station few days back, while you stepped down on the platform and I was stuck on the train, I had seen my sister on the platform. I gave a shout to you as well, but you didn’t hear me.”
“Dude! What do you expect when you have a Virar commute attacking you like ants attack a lollipop fallen on the ground. So that’s what it was. You had said ‘BC is that my sister’ and all this time, I couldn’t decipher what were you shouting.” Nauman explained more to himself than Gaurav.
“So did you see her?” Gaurav demanded.
“No, I didn’t. I don’t even know how she looks. You should really introduce her to us.” Nauman said carefully, hoping it won’t backfire.
“No need, she is a weirdo. And I am angry at her.”
“Why?”
“I gifted her a new mobile few days back and now she is complaining that the RAM is not sufficient.”
“You should have discussed with Karan na. He could have done this research for you.”
“Even I know that stuff, but I didn’t knew she was so much into Android apps.”
“Ya! She is weird that way.” Nauman chuckled.
“What??”
“I mean girls can be weird sometimes.”
“Yeah, all the time.”
Nauman left ASAP from there.
Karan’s home
Karan had called Atush at his home for a drink.
Karan has this great flat in Thane that he was very proud of. He lived alone in the flat. For him, quality life mattered more. Though after paying the rent, he wasn’t left with much quantity, or quality for that matter. But he was enjoying it. This was the first time he was living independently and he wanted to make most of it. The last conversation with his mom, had scared the shit out of him. He called Gaurav, but he was behaving erratic. He knew Nauman was on a date, so he had called Atush.
Karan sounded panicky, so Atush tried to come as early as possible.
“What are Nauman and Gaurav upto?” Karan said entering the room.
“I don’t know, what happened?”
“I just whatsapp’d them and they were hanging out at Gaurav’s home. They could have invited us as well.”
“That’s okay, listen. My mom called and they have started looking for girls for me.” Karan said dramatically.
“So? Everybody goes through that pain.” Atush replied nonchalantly.
“You don’t understand. I have this aunt who wants to get me married to her niece.”
“You mean she is your cousin?”
“No” Karan nearly shouted in exasperation.
Karan had this aunt who wanted to marry him off with her side of family, well because Karan always seemed like a good husband material and he was always nice to people. Since childhood, Karan remembers she would send her niece to Karan’s house so that the two of them could bond.
“She is a bully of a girl and if aunt succeeds to convince my dad, then I am screwed for life. I need to find someone for myself. Does Akriti have some good friends?” Karan continued.
“Dude, I would gladly help you, once I am in the game. I don’t even have her number now.” Atush remembered almost losing into his thoughts. “Why did she had to apply that cheat code?”
Karan eyed him agitated.
“Oh sorry. Back to the point. So, tell your dad that you are seeing somebody. Problem solved.” Atush gave his suggestion.
“I wish man. My parents are not as cool as yours.” Karan said. “I can’t just drop this bomb on them. That would actually escalate the process of me getting married to that bully.” He continued.
“I will have to say…” Atush is interrupted by his message notification sound. It was a message from Nauman.
“I got a message from Nauman. It says ‘I need to tell something to you guys. Meet me at Cafe Green.”, Atush read the message aloud to Karan.
Cafe Green
Karan and Atush meet Nauman at the cafe.
Nauman was looking very agitated.
“Man, why are you breathing so fast.” both asked Nauman.
“I can sense that he knows about me and Jaya. The way he looks at me when he talks about her. I need help from you both in telling about it to Gaurav.” Nauman said in one breath.
“Woah woah….who is Jaya and why would you tell Gaurav about it?” asked Karan.
Nauman explained the story to them.
After listening to the story, Atush started, “Out of all the girls in Mumbai, you had to choose Gaurav’s sister. He is surely going to kill you. You can’ trust a drunk person’s temper.”
“That is why I need you guys to be present when I tell him”
“That is straight out of Durjoy Datta’s novel. But you should have been careful if you knew about the situation.” said Karan.
“Sometimes, you can’t understand how the heart works. I didn’t plan for this. There was some connection in our first conversation. We both felt it and so we moved ahead. I feel guilty whenever his name comes up in our conversations and that is precisely why I want to do tell him. Because let me assure you, getting along without telling him, is the easiest decision I could have taken.”
“Easy buddy, she really has put her charms on you.” Atush said.
“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about us. You need to worry about his reaction.” Karan added.
“Okay, so listen, here is how it’s going to go down.”
(Nauman explains them how he plans to tell Gaurav)
To Be Continued…
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