“No drinking in public places from now on in Goa”, the news flashed.
…
Still Goa or should we switch to Shirdi?”, the notification flashed on Whatsapp group planning a trip to Goa.
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
We will soon be coming back with season 2. We would really appreciate the feedback from our readers. So, do write to us @ “[email protected]”. Share the story if you liked it.
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)
Akriti and her sister were sitting on the couch, overlooking the rains through the windows.
A few moments before, they had this huge fight, over a phone call. Sukriti had informed Akriti about a phone call from a guy.
“I should never have taught you about changing voice on call in mobile phone.”, Akriti, still angry on her sister.
“But what difference does it make, you get calls like that every other day. Why is it any different.” Asked Sukriti.
That question left Akriti wondering for a bit. All her life, she had been avoiding getting close to anybody, because of her commitment issues and she should have been thankful to her sister.
But here she was, rebuking her sister. ‘Attraction works in mysterious ways’ she thought and proceeded to let go her anger or whatever it was.
Taking cue from her body language, Sukriti broke the ice.
“Do you know our college dance group is performing in a college fest, and I joined as well”, she informed Akriti.
“Ohh good, what are you performing on?” asked Akriti.
“We are depicting 8 songs on 8 different emotions with 8 different songs in 8 different languages.”
“Ohh thats….nice. Tell me one thing, does it also suck in 8 different ways?” Akriti joked.
“You wouldn’t even be able to do one step from it. You need flexible muscles for that”
“Atleast my funny bone will tickle while watching your dance.” said Akriti sarcasticly to end the topic so that she can talk about what she had in mind.
“Listen, the guy that you talked to; his name is Atush. Last week, he came into the video parlour to play Laser tag and…”
“What is that?” Sukriti said interrupting her.
“What is what?”
“Lasertag”
“You should really care atleast a little about what I do. It’s a game played among 2 teams, they each have a gun and they have to shoot their opponents to collect points”, Akriti explained.
“Okay got it….move ahead!” Sukriti said getting interested.
“So he has been my closest competitor so far, I thought I would lose to him, but somehow I won.”, continued.
“You are talking like you have never lost a game.”
“No, I haven’t and that is why I like my job”
“Don’t you think you are too obsessed with gaming? I am surprised you didn’t start to play that Pokemon Go game.”
“I would play it, but then I would have to go retard first. But anyways, I am not obsessed that much about gaming. I just like them a normal amount.”
“Oh yeah? Last night you were chanting ‘Go Go Go’ while you were asleep”
“Wow, that was a nice dream, I killed so many counter terrorists in my favourite map De Dust2.”
“Uff! Sometimes, I feel like I live with a boy.”
“I know you wish it sissy, but that is not happening in my flat.”
Sukriti shifts a little uncomfortably. But continues fighting with her.
“What’s wrong in bringing friends over?”
“Sissy, I fought with Papa to get you out of our small city, so that you can make a life here in Mumbai, and not ‘make a life’ here in Mumbai” Akriti joked.
“I love him, but I am not stupid. And I told you hundred times, that these talks make me uncomfortable.”
“Yes and that is why you can go live-in with ‘Whats his name’, but just don’t bring him in here. It creeps me out as well.” Akriti replied.
“His name is Rohan and yes, let me get a job and I will move out soon.” Sukriti said decidedly.
Both looked each other in the eye. They had nothing but respect for each other.
Karan’s place
Karan was playing FIFA in his laptop, when the phone rang. It was his dad. Karan immediately paused the game and started thinking about all the bad things he had done in the last week, that could come back to haunt him.
Surprisingly, we found nothing. So, he turned his thoughts to some bad news. After contemplating a lot, he heard from a distant corner of his brain, ‘Dude, it’s just Dad’s monthly call. Pick up!’
He picked up the phone.
“Hey! Hello Dad!” Karan started first.
“Hello Beta! How are you?”
“I am fine, dad! How about you?”
“I am also good. So, what’s new?”
“Nothing much!”
“Hmm…okay”
“What’s new in our city?”
“Well, nothing much. Same old things in same old city.”
“…”
“…”
Awkward silence was reaching its height, when a silver lining came to Karan.
“What is mom doing?”, Karan leapt for it.
“Yeah, mom is right here. Wait! Let me give her the phone.”, Dad also breathed a sigh of relief. He gave the phone to mom and went to see the TV.
“Haan beta, How are you?.”
“I am good mom. I was just playing football in my laptop.”
“Still playing games. Should’t you be studying for CAT exams?” she asked.
“Oh mom! I am not a kid anymore. I know my priorities.”
“Yeah that’s true, now you have a job, you don’t need to listen to your mom.”
“Emotional blackmail? That came very early today in our conversation. Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing.”
“Mom”
“We found a girl for you.” Mom said happily.
“No No No” Karan managed to say, before getting in shock; a shock that every child has to go through once in his lifetime, at some stage.
“Are you using the m-indicator app that I provided, while travelling around Mumbai.” Nauman asked Jaya.
“Why would I roam around Mumbai? I hate travelling….” Jaya replied.
Jaya and Nauman met for a coffee date. The rains were expected in a few days and as always happened, every Mumbaikar was pretty excited about the coming rains. The rains brought with it, the comfort and relief, and accompanied by sun dresses, it was the most awaited event after the scorching summers.
This was the time when Mumbaikars, took time off and went on weekend trips to nearby locations. Some went to Lonavla, some to Matheran, some to Mahabaleshwar, while some planned and planned and eventually failed, cursing their group.
“….I just love to spend my weekends reading and cuddling my bed.” Jaya continued.
“Wow, you are a weirdo, stuck in a city like Mumbai”
“I don’t see it that way. Anyways do you know we have a place in Pune called Bhosari. I heard a joke about it, but couldn’t understand it.”
Nauman listened to the joke wide eyed, and he knew he had to change the topic.
“Hah, you don’t need to go far for silly names. Have you ever heard of Chembur?”
“Yeah, I hear about Chembur and my mind goes straight to Harry Potter and Chembur of secrets.”
“Harry Potter….more like the boy who was born in Mumbai. What would the first part be? Harry Potter and Santracruz to Sion?
“Lame.”
“I have a good one for Order of Phoenix…..Harry Potter and Order from Panvel.” Jaya continued.
“How about ‘Patient of Alzheimer’s’ for ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’?”
“That will work” Jaya said a little more awkwardly than she always does.
“What about ‘Goblet of Fire’?”
“It should be ‘Ghatkopar ki aag’?”
“This looks even lamer than RGV ki aag.”
“Haha, it certainly is.”
“Wow, this is awesome. We just made the whole franchise Mumbai based. They should put our conversation in the textbooks of Marathi children. They will learn about their city.”
“Give me credit as well, when producers line up at your doorstep.”
“Haha…sure. Anyways I should leave now, as I have an important meeting after this.”
Nauman was going to meet Gaurav to talk about the situation. Neither Gaurav nor Jaya was aware of the special situation that was brewing between them. Day after day, the guilt was getting heavy to carry for Nauman and so he had decided to talk with Gaurav first.
(1.5 hours and 2 local travels later)
Gaurav’s home
Gaurav was sitting at his home when Nauman comes in.
Nauman sits beside Gaurav somewhat awkwardly.
Gaurav was thinking something before Nauman had rang the doorbell. He tried recollecting but couldn’t.
Nauman knew that nobody would be there at home, so he thought it was good opportunity to talk to Gaurav. Though Gaurav was a localite of Mumbai, he used to live in a rented house, so as to be closer to workplace. It was a pretty common thing in Mumbai, for youngsters to live closer to workplace, for the obvious reasons, plus this also gave them the independence to enjoy night life of Mumbai.
“Bro, I need to talk to you” started Nauman.
“Yeah tell me.”
“Have you ever felt something inside you burning and you have to get it out before it eats you alive?”
Gaurav suddenly remembers what he was thinking.
“Oh yes, what a great coincidence. I was also thinking of similar lines before you came in.”
“Eh?”
“Yeah, you know you feel like that when you are about to puke”
“No I didn’t mean it like that. I mean…like when you have something to say but you don’t how to say”
“Are you in love bro? Because that shit happens only when this kind of shit happens”
“Kind of! Not exactly love…”
“Wow that will work as well. What a great coincidence, I was thinking for a reason to party, and now we have one.”
“You don’t understand what I am going through”
“We are gonna have whiskey today”
“Its such a big fear that is eating up my brain.”
“No beers today, only whiskeys.”
“I can’t seem to understand whether should I tell you or not?”
“Why tell me, go tell her. You know what I have been struggling with my drinking problem too much now. You don’t see me crying about it.”
“This is serious dude. This concerns you as well.”
“I am pretty sure you are concerned for me, but leaving it altogether is not a solution I fancy.”
Nauman understood that nothing is going to work today. So he decided to just roll with the flow.
“Yeah bro, we are concerned, please find something or someone worth leaving this hobby for. I would suggest Breezer, but looking at your current status, I think you would finish the drink along with the bottle.”
“I might.”
“Anyways, I should leave now. Thanks for the talk.” Nauman said sarcastically.
“Anytime mate!”, said Gaurav raising his bottle.
Nauman starts to leave, when Gaurav remembers something and calls Nauman.
“Do you know my sister?”
Nauman freezes to death. It was as if Gaurav was waiting for all the conversation to finish so that he can ask this question.
Nauman and Gaurav walked into the office to see Karan and Atush already taking coffee in the pantry area.
“Dude, I told you to wait for us”, Gaurav complained.
“Sorry bro, I have a call to attend, so had to rush early.” Atush explained.
“And you?” Nauman asked pointing to Karan.
“Nothing, I have a KT call to attend to, so that means I am free as a bird. I will join you too. Grab your mugs.” Karan replied winking.
“So, you are not liking your new project?”, Gaurav inquired.
“I must say its incredibly boring. I feel like starting MBA preparations again.”
“Well, as they say, ‘Life is what happens, when you are busy making plans’, I think instead of thinking, you better start doing something.” Gaurav said.
Karan folds his hands in a praying motion. “Please spare me the lecture, and go get your mugs”
Nauman and Gaurav went to get their mugs. Atush also joins them to attend his call. Nauman and Gaurav worked in the same project. While Atush was gaining momentum in his projects working on proposals, Karan had recently joined this office and project. He was taking knowledge transfer(KT) sessions from individuals in his projects to familiarize himself with the work.
Karan started thinking about what Gaurav had said and started searching for inspirations in his mind. A lot of people came; Gates, Jobs, Elon etc. He had to stop his chain of thoughts when Mia also came to his mind.
Meanwhile, Nauman and Gaurav came back.
Then they saw Atush coming with his coffee mug again. Apparently his call got cancelled due to a mild earthquake in Kolkata region. The recurring earthquakes in east India, were making Atush’s life difficult as the workload came to him in absence of the kolkata team. But this time, it returned to give Atush some much needed relief, that heightened his mood.
“Dude, I just saw two HR arm-wrestling over a holiday home.” Atush came running into the pantry area.
“What? Seriously?”, everyone asked puzzled.
“Nah re, just kidding. They were beat-boxing.”
“Oh please shut up and lets talk about something real.” Nauman said.
“Like?” Atush asked.
“Like” said Karan still thinking, “Did you call Akriti yet?”
“No bro, I don’t want to seem so eager. You all saw how different she is. I won’t be doing any standard thing here”
“This is why you should call her soon. Waiting for 3 days to call is the stereotype these days”
“But I don’t want to look needy.”
“Okay, making whole office think you and boss are a Romeo and Romero OR shattering those rumours by calling the girl?”
“I better call her.” He proceeds to dial her number. “By the way, Romero? Really? Is that all you could think of?”
“Go get your gamer Juliet, who kicks your ass.” Nauman was nearly shouting as Atush moves to a more private place to call.
Gaurav turns to Karan
“So, when is your MBA truck moving from thinking stage to doing stage?”
“The driver of the truck has abandoned the truck because of bad
Image Courtesy: Google Images
road conditions.”
“Don’t worry dude, ache din are coming. Your roads would be fine soon”
“Abe what can Modi do, when the truck is shit and….” Karan had to stop as Atush had returned.
He looked distraught and consternated.
Everyone asked him what had happened.
“Some boy answered the phone and said the number doesn’t belong to any Akriti.”
Nauman tried to decode what Gaurav might have said.
While he was trying to make sense of it all, his eyes set upon a set of eyes even more restless than his. He kind of wished her eyes would rest on him, but ofcourse this was real life, so nothing of that sort happened.
Nauman stood thinking of all the pickup lines as he had mugged up during his desperation days. But he kind of knew that pickup lines won’t be necessary on this girl, not in a ‘him like a casanova and its going to be easy’ kind of a way, but in a way where being genuine would easily work.
He approached her making as concerned face as possible.
“You look lost.”
“Can you tell me which train number will go to Churchgate?” she asked.
“What? Trains don’t have numbers here…”
“Ofcourse they have, how else they will distinguish one from the another?”
“Well that’s true, but…..wait a minute….are you travelling in a local for the first time?”
She nodded embarrassingly.
“Can you help here? Just tell me the train number…I will find out the rest”
“Ohh, enough with the train number. You will need to wait on Platform 3, the Churchgate train leaves from there. This is platform 1.
And you see that train going…that is leaving for Churchgate. So you have solid 20 mins before another one comes.”
“Okay” she said feeling a little relieved.
“So, first time huh? Did you move to Mumbai yesterday?” he asked hoping to use these 20 minutes effectively.
“Nah, I have been born and brought up in Mumbai only.”
“Huh…weird”
“Nothing weird, have you seen the rush here.” she explained her predicament.
“So why now?”
“Just a bet to get a gift.”
“Care to explain?”
“I will get a new phone if I get a selfie with the Churchgate station.”
“What kind of competition is this?”
Before she could answer, they were interrupted by a sea of passengers trying to get on the train. They moved to a more central spot on the platform.
“Do you live here? Weren’t you waiting for that train?” she inquired.
“Ohh, actually I am waiting for my friend, who will be coming shortly here. He just got victimized to the passenger love and couldn’t de-board.”
“Ohh that’s scary.”
“So please board the ladies coach only. And which reminds me that you should install ‘m-indicator’ into your phone.”
“Give me your number, I will text you the link to download the cracked version.”
She gave her number with a wry smile and proceeded to uninstall ‘m-indicator’ from her phone.
“You know once I was on the beach and drew a heart on the sand with my name on it…and the next I know is 7 boy’s names written inside the heart. Please don’t be one of those boys.”
Image Courtesy: Google Images
“No I am not, I am Nauman, by the way”
“Ooh, I already like your name. Nauman, as in Roadies wala Nauman?”
“Yeah”
“My name is Jaya, by the way. I should leave now. And yeah don’t forget to text the link, you don’t want me to be lost in Mumbai”.
“Sure”
They parted ways. He saw the confused girl bumping into people, asking for directions to her train.
…Back to Present
“Did you call her yet?” Nauman asked Atush.
After being flustered in the laser tag game, they were back to the pub, enjoying last few moments of their weekend.
“No dude, let me get home atleast. I have tomorrow’s go live to look for. I have my boss hanging on me like a clingy girlfriend already.”
“Oho, so we have a triangle here.”
“I can bet I will receive a message in next 10 mins regarding his concern over the developed code.”
Everyone looked at Atush’s screen. A notification sound did came, but it was on Gaurav’s phone.
“Shit, its my sister. I have got to buy a new phone now.”
“Where’s our beer? The service here is crap” asked Nauman.
“Just like the bus service here. Man, would you believe that it took me 2 hours to cover the stretch of 8 kms. In my city, it would take me 20 mins and a cigarette break only”, chuckled Karan.
“You want to talk about traffic??? I was nearly fried, stuck between two BEST buses.” cried Atush.
“You could have used your AC” said Gaurav.
“Remember what we did last time we were drunk?” replied an angry Atush.
“Oh yeah, we left the car and AC running on the highway with windows open.” chuckled Gaurav and started laughing hysterically, but had to immediately stop as Atush started to pick up the fork in anger. “Nature’s call bro, can’t avoid!”
“The battery got so damaged that my father said if I use AC again, he will hack my account and will post a #supportJNU status to teach me a lesson.”
“Oooo that’s cruel.” everyone tried to suppress their laughter.
“Abe let’s change the topic. You won’t believe what happened at the station…” said Nauman.
“I thought, it will be more of a change.” interjected Karan.
“But this is interesting…”
“Yaar, its Mumbai, these things keep happening.”
Image Coutesy: Google Images
“Yeah, let’s leave up the redundant traffic talks and tell me with the show of hands, who is up for a game of Lasertag” said an enthused Atush raising his hand expecting a string of high fives from all parts of the table.
“Dude, no way I am going back in there”, said Gaurav explaining everyone’s dropped shoulders.
“Don’t you remember the carnage we conceded last time?” said Nauman
“Get over it man, we lost it big time. That girl single handedly beat our team” added Karan
“And that is why we should go and get our self-respect back.”
“Man, people find romances in weird places these days”, said Karan understanding the situation now.
“Ohh, our man has got a soft spot for the young lady” exclaimed Karan.
“Its not like that, I just love competition and yeah she is now one.”
“Then we have got to go and get our man his girl” everyone roared.
They had this new energy inside coming, injected by the things shown in the movies. When its time to impress a competition, everything falls into place and nothing can get you down. That was the scene when they entered the arena, ready to crush anyone fighting against them.
20 mins later(outside the lasertag arena)
Everyone returned with dropped shoulders, lowered to a new level.
“Well there is 200 bucks and a girl I would never see again” said Atush.
“Chill out man! You did come second. Thank God she was in my team.” said Karan.
“I think she was cheating” concluded Atush.
“Excuse me?”
They looked back with shocking eyes. It was the girl that had beat Atush and his team.
They still stared at her like the star troopers looked at a Jedi before getting cut in half.
“Did you really think you could win by making such a dumb strategy? Who leaves the base undefended?”
“I thought…. I would!” said Atush stuttering. Although scared, he was really impressed by the passion with which she was talking about the game. “Damn! You are so cool”, he imagined himself saying.
After completing the virtual nuptials, he finally muttered, “What are you doing outside your arena. Go depress some souls.”
This time she hesitated.
“Oh I came here to give these. These are congratulatory coupons given to the players who are just a little short of my high-score. It gives you some special privileges.” She said winking.
“I will beat your score someday. I will…”
“Huh! In hundred years!” she cut him off.
“The expression is ‘In a thousand years’!” corrected Atush.
“Well that explains why you being such a girl.”
She turned to leave and shouted in anger “There is a number mentioned in the back! Call it if you have any doubts.”
The three of them were in disarray, as they didn’t get what just happened here. They were astounded with the intensity that this girl shouted at Atush. They looked at a supposedly embarrassed Atush, but he looked serene and yet playful in his expression. He gave a wicked smile.
He came back to her, bruised and exhausted. She wondered this can’t be real…it wasn’t, but it felt so real.
He could see the pain and love in her eyes, but there was something missing beyond his comprehension. There were no tears. He asked “How have you been”. She hugged him, a hug firm but hesitating one, a tender one yet corruptible.
The distance between them had put them in a position where both were trying to understand each other, just looking at each other, words not required between them, they never were necessary. She thought could this be the reason for putting distance between them. Could something so beautiful once, be destroyed by a mere words; or the lack of it?
Suddenly the pain seemingly felt physical, she thought about the unspoken dreams that she had dared to imagine, the dream of a life adulterated by no one; the only life she could imagine since their meeting 3 years ago. Fighting the world seemed like a formality, when they joined forces.
Image Courtesy: Google Images
“Does it have to be so hard? Doesn’t this pain makes you realize that what we have is real and its a mistake to go apart?” he asked again.
“The pain not only makes it real, but reminds that it is not meant to be” she replied.
That hit him hard.
“Shouldn’t you be happy that what was not meant to be is not happening and you got rid of it.”
“I wish things were that simple.”
He went numb.
She spoke, “What we had was not love”
“We had love. But unfortunately love is not enough these days. Maturity is required as well.”
She chuckled “Maturity! Isn’t it an overtly used term these days. Blaming everything on it. When it comes to adventure and shenanigans, everyone seeks immaturity, but otherwise maturity is required. I am beginning to think that immaturity was what kept us together, in fact led us towards each other…”.
“What?” he cut her off.
“Yeah! How else would you explain us. We are so different from each other. Our interests don’t match. We are like two sides of coin, never destined to meet each other. On some level, we should have known that this day was bound to come.”
“Well, if you put it like that, it sure seems the explanation. But it seemed easy that time and looked like our difference somehow were connecting us.”
“Well, that was our infatuated mind taking over maturity.”
“I understand now” he sighed, dropping his shoulders. “But how are you okay going forward with this?”
“I think I am being mature now”, she smiled. He smiled back.
“But tell me this, how do I get closure?”
“Ha, never the one to shy away from the technical terms.”
“How else to prove I am different!”
“Closure is nothing but accepting that there is no ‘us’ anymore and being brave enough to imbibe that.”
“Like being happy for you and future?”
“No you fool, you don’t have to feel anything for me anymore…be as apathetic as you can. If you care, you are only hurting yourself.”
“It will be the toughest thing to do…”
“Me too”
“Who would have thought not caring would be this tough….”
“It is tough when you have promised ‘Thousand years’ to each other”, she tried to joke, but the gazing intensity of him melted anything that was calm inside her.
“Yeah, a thousand years” his words carried something venomous that even shook the nothingness in her.
Suddenly she felt lighter. The cloudy dust that had shrouded everything seemed to be clearing out and she could sense this from within. The heaviness that his remembrance brought was felt no more and she could un-shackle herself easily.
Atlast she woke up with a smile. After an array of dreamless nights, she leveraged the all important lesson that would catapult her towards an ordeal free world.
She can be herself again, completed after a long time.
This dream had done the job much better than her own consciousness could ever do.
“Thanks for ‘the thousand years’ and I am coming back”, she mumbled as she smiled her way back to sleep.
Its a friday evening. 4 friends(Atush, Gaurav, Nauman, Karan) were talking in their Andheri office about how they never went on a trip, where there would be only friends, booze and carelessness. One of them, say Gaurav gave the idea ‘Lets go for a trip tomorrow to Alibaug by ferry. Everyone seemed excited, everyone looked onboard until Atush explained the plan, ‘So, I have heard that one has to take ferry at Churchgate at 7.30 AM as its very busy there.
Atush started to calculate loudly, ‘7.30 means, we will have to reach the place by 6.30, which means I will have to start from 4.30 in the morning, for which I will have to wake up at 2.30 to prepare myself, for which I have to leave office by 12.30 today.
Then they all looked at the clock, it was 11.30.
‘If I start now, I will make it to the ferry at 6.30’, Atush said.
Everyone’s face saddened. ‘Dude, leave it please’ Gaurav said dropping his shoulders.
‘Lets plan for a Sports Bar then’, Nauman advised.
‘Yeah’ everyone cheered.
That was life in Mumbai, where the most plausible hangout place, ironically was the office itself. But these guys were going to learn it the hard way.
So the next morning, Atush started by his car very early, infact earlier than everybody as he wanted to surprise his friends that he is not a late comer everytime. Gaurav and Nauman lived in the same area, so they were coming together via the very famous and reliable local trains. Karan had to come by bus as he lived in central line and the destination was in western line, so it didn’t make a lot of sense to take local and change it again. Gaurav & Nauman reached local train station at dadar and the intricate and intertwined queue was nearly the length of train itself. Gaurav & Nauman went for different lines, for obvious reasons. After fighting off the counter-guy for ‘change’, Gaurav comes off victorious and now they move to the platforms.
Karan starts from his home to the nearest bus-stop. Just as he is about to reach the stop, he sees his bus leaving. Karan runs a little, but in vain. He comes back to the stop cursing his luck about the bus timings. He looks at his watch, there is still a lot of time. Little does he know that Mumbai traffic makes you pay for every missed bus.
Atush starts his engine along with the music playing. He still is superexcited about the virtual get-together of the 4 Mumbai friends.
Well that is Mumbai, where meeting of a complete group is so rare that once a group accomplishes a full-show, it is quickly dubbed as a reunion.
Atush still is smelling like his deo and revs up his engine to full speed from his home. His excitement takes a full U-turn as he joins the auto and car lines crawling up at 20 kmhr. His mind quickly goes into calculation of 20km at 20kmph mode.
Image Coutesy: Google Images
Gaurav & Nauman are very close by their station. The train nearly stops at their station and just when they are happily stepping down on the platform, they are greeted by a rush of Virar heading commute, which is nothing less than the Kumbh visitors, ready to kill just for the sake of touching their destination. Nauman somehow makes it to the platform feeling violated, when he realizes Gaurav hasn’t yet made it yet. He shouts for Gaurav, hearing his faint voice amongst the shouts of ‘Pude station! Malad(Please don’t forget to add the irritating tone as well)!’.He tries to make out what Gaurav is shouting, he hears ‘BC….. is that my station?’. He thinks hard but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to him, so he decides to wait at the station for Gaurav.
As he turns around disappointed and kicking dust, he sees a girl who is nervously eyeing him. He smiles as the train leaves the station. He had no intentions of reaching to the Sports Bar now.
