It’s a Sunday evening, everybody is rushing to either homes, or finishing up on their shopping lists, some people who get just one day off are sleeping the day off, while some are doing more of a productive work like binge-watching the TV shows, texting or spending the evening in their favorite bar.
Karan had invited everyone to his home for a drinks. After much resistance from Gaurav, they managed to convince him to join them.
Gaurav starts in an auto to reach Nauman’s place. While on his way, he observes that traffic police are camping down on the road to check helmetless riders and triplers. He surpasses them when he sees a helmetless guy riding in opposite direction towards the cops’s camp. He thinks he can warn the guy to save him some penalty but at the last moment, decides against it. He looks back from the auto and sees the guy getting caught by the cops.
Gaurav and Nauman took a train to reach Thane. Though there was no rush today, there were standing on the gates of the bogey. Evening charm of Mumbai is another thing people sometimes get to experience. It was one of those Sundays when the rains were done after a harsh marathon and everything looked cooled down.
Gaurav sensed that Nauman was oddly quiet, but he didn’t say anything. Nauman observes Gaurav looking at him and so he breaks the silence.
“Dude, don’t’ drink much today. You know you need to control that.”
“Yeah I know buddy. And you too, you know how only one beer gets your mind stumbling.” replied Gaurav.
Nauman remembered the last time he was this nervous was when he had failed a subject in college and had to tell that to his dad. Although he didn’t regret the bashing received at the moment, but he regretted the subtle sarcasm he used to receive at his hands at every turn of life, whenever he screwed up.
Finally Nauman and Gaurav joins Karan and Atush, who were waiting for them for an hour.
They all find places to sit in the room. Gaurav again senses that there is an unusual silence in the room.
“Guys, all good?” he couldn’t resist asking.
“Atush is in huge trouble and he needs our help.” Nauman started rather abruptly. Atush looks up making a poker face.
“What happened bro?” asks Gaurav.
“Umm, there is this problem I have been facing for sometime now. ” said Atush making a sad face.
“You know Akriti, right?” continues Atush.
“Yes we know”
“So, here I am falling for her and then I found that her brother is one of my good friend.”
“What is his name?”
Atush tries to think of a name, but is not able to think because of the added pressure of him being eyed by everyone.
“Uh… umm… his name is Gourab.” he says finally.
“Gaurab as in Gaurav with a ‘b’?” Nauman asks incredulously.
“Yes yes that’s a real name.” Atush nearly shouted.
“Okay go on.” Karan interjected.
“Okay so, I am not sure how to proceed ahead. Should I tell him before, should I ask his permission or should I start the relationship without telling him. What should I do?” Atush asked making as innocent face as humanly possible.
“I think you should continue ahead man, and when you think its becoming serious and you are sure about her, then you can tell your friend.” Karan spoke quickly as if he was waiting for his cue.
“Yeah dude, that’s what I would do.” Nauman also started supporting Karan’s opinion.
Now, they all knew that Gaurav was a very practical person. If someone is seeking his opinion, he would definitely measure up the problem and will give his opinion then. So, Nauman was kind of expecting him to be the Devil’s Advocate and say against the motion and indeed he didn’t disappoint them.
“Now wait…wait… let’s break it down first. It depends how close the friend is. If you two are very close, then he might get offended.”
“But what if he reacts in a bad way, and then you end up screwing both the relation and the friendship.”, asked Atush.
“Well thats a risk you will have to take.”, Gaurav concludes.
“But man, if everything is going well right now, why screw it up? I am playing it like batman here, everything is in control and I have contingency plans for everything.” Atush jokes.
“Well, there is a joker against every batman, who screws up every contingency plan.” said Gaurav.
“Yes, and I believe his reaction upon hearing this, would be the ‘joker’ in your situation.”, added Karan.
“So, that finals it then, I shouldn’t tell him.” concluded Atush.
“That would be a mistake, I tell you. If I was there in place of Akriti’s brother, I would have preferred you to have talked about it beforehand.” replied Gaurav.
Atush, Nauman and Karan exchanged nervous glances with each other. They had realised that their little play was about to reach its climax. They were bracing for it and praying that Gaurav keeps his words. Fortunately for them, Gaurav wanted to subconsciously make up for the regret that he was feeling for the auto incident.
“Listen to me, you are meeting this Gaurab guy this weekend and tell him everything. We hope everything stays well between the two of you.” commanded Gaurav.
“We shouldn’t wait that long.” Nauman said absent-mindedly, almost regretting that.
“Yes, I don’t want to wait that long to tell him then.” Atush had to add.
“Then call him”, Karan added. Gaurav agreed too.
So, Atush went into the corner to make a fake call. When he returned, he found a question mark on everybody’s face.
“He didn’t talk much, was in shock. And stayed in shock. I gave all the explanations I could. Now what?” Atush explained.
“Next, you send him a large, hearty message explaining how much he means to you.” said Gaurav.
“I don’t know man.”, Atush surrendered.
Gaurav took Atush’s phone and started typing a message.
“I am writing a message on your behalf, based on my understanding.”
“Gaurav wait!”, said Nauman. “Are you sure your reaction would have been same, if Akriti was your sister?”
“I don’t know man, I am just trying to help a friend.”
“If you don’t know yet, then better be ready, because this might happen with you someday.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am just saying. You might face such a situation as you have a sister.”
“I think I will be fine. As long as she is happy, I am happy too.”
Nauman set a smile on his face and went in for the kill.
“Dude, I like Jaya and I think she likes me too. How about now?” he said with an aura of confidence never seen before.
“What?” said a confused Gaurav.
“And I think she is happy around me, I do make her smile sometimes. I ..”, added Nauman when he is interrupted by Karan.
“That’s enough my tiger.”,, Karan says as he puts his hands on his shoulder to calm Nauman down.
Gaurav is speechless as if shock has transcended to another level. Karan is holding down Nauman. Atush is editing the message typed by Gaurav earlier. He was making it funny, and wanted to send to Nauman later.
“Gaurav say something.” Karan requests Gaurav.
Gaurav tries to be composed in that pin-drop silence, while his mind is constantly getting back to the incident where he was feeling regret for not helping the biker. He understood that it was all a ploy to trap him in his own opinions.
“Damn that biker.” He utters. He was surprised how a small incident had affected his life in a big way. If he hadn’t faced that situation, he wouldn’t have tried to be so actively involved in Atush’s problem, and this whole incident could have turned out in a different way. ‘How different?’, his mind asked. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to stop this from happening.’, ‘Only if I had managed to de-board the train that day.’, his chain of thoughts kept going.
“NOOOOOO”, screamed Atush. Everybody looked at him with concern “I accidently sent the text to the last number that Akriti had given me.”
Everybody shrugged it off. Karan and Nauman sat for a long time, waiting for Gaurav to move, while he kept thinking.
The End
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