E09 : Best Friends

Suddenly from behind, a hand came curling tight around Rudra’s neck and gripped it. He could also feel two finger tips pressed like a gun near his left temple.

“GOTCH YA !!!”

Rudra escaped easily from the grasp of the hand and turned around to find a too familiar face that was smiling too brightly.

 “Kashish!!!”

She jumped and hugged him, and from somewhere not very far, a little bit curious, 

little bit suspicious pair of eyes was staring intensely at them.

“Where were you these days Rudra? No replies, even on group! No time to talk!” Kashish punched him hard on his stomach, twice and ran.

“Ouch! You!!!!!” He ran after her, and caught her soon in the same way, “Gotchya!”And they laughed.

 “Huh!! Engineering has happened baby. Engineering. We had midterm exams...like unit tests. So was busy studying yaar.”

“Don’t tell me you are actually liking engineering?!” her eyebrows rose too high and lips turned into a smile.

 “Do you think I can LOVE studying? No babes. I’m just putting efforts for my parents. I don’t want to disappoint them, not so soon.” He winked.

Kashish searched his eyes for truth, but instead, she caught a lie.

“No worries, you can tell me the real reason later. I know you can’t keep any secret from me. At the end of the day, you’ll come to me.” She grinned with laughing eyes.

“Oh Kash... how I miss you! Anyways, how are Aayush and Rachel?”

“Well uh,” her eyes lowered to the ground, “they broke up, just yesterday.”

“Shit mahn!!!!... The same reason?” Rudra was broken to hear the news.

“Yes...the very same.”Kash bit her lips.

“And you guys did not even tell me!” He wanted to be furious.

“We need to talk with them Rudra.” She urged.

But her friend called out disrupting them, “Kashish! Come on yaa. We’re getting late.”

“Yeah! Coming! So... let’s meet tomorrow then, at our regular place?” she proposed.

“I’ll... I’ll text you tonight. Chal bye, take care.”

 “See ya soon Rudra.”

The evening had met its dusk and the queen’s necklace was lit by bright yellow lights. Rudra started walking ahead, watching the sea, trying to find comfort in the breeze.

“Who was she? Your girlfriend?” Nihaal asked, still looking at the fading Kashish crossing the traffic. 

“No. She is my best friend and was my best neighbour. But now she stays in Andheri.”

“Why?” Rudra heard a curious Miraya. He did not realise that she had been walking by his side all the time.

“Uh...”, said a bewildered Rudra , “Actually, her parents divorced two years ago; she and her mother moved to Andheri then.”

“That must be really sad.” Miraya felt sorry, imagining herself in Kashish’s shoes.

“It must be sad, but it isn’t. That is what Kash is like. You know, she is the most confident and amazing girl I’ve ever met. Too brave for her age. A smart, crazily matured fun loving girl. We both were in the same school and grew up together.”

Rudra continued, “During our 10^th board exams, while the problems in her family were nerving even us- her neighbours, Kashish never let them affect her studies. When her parents finally decided that divorce was the only solution, this is what she said, ‘It’s okay Rudra, at least I am lucky to have mom and dad in this world. Some children don’t even have a complete family in their fate.’  I was left... speechless... Miraya are you listening?” Rudra came back to present and found Miraya distant.

“I am all ears, and as speechless as you”, still her eyes were grave, but she managed a smile.

“During tough times, even though I rarely allow them to happen to me,” He said proudly with attitude, “I remember Kash and then I kick the butt of the problem!” He jumped perfectly and kicked the air.

And then, Rudra went about telling stories to Miraya- of his dance academy, Kash, the heights of their fun times, about Rachel and Aayush, and so on.

“Miraya, your ladies coach, we’re here.” Rudra had a playful look in his eyes.

“What?” She looked around and found herself before the ladies coach on platform no. 1 of CST. She never realised that they had already said goodbye to the rest of the gang who were going for dinner at the famous Sukh Sagar, that she and Rudra had taken a cab to CST. She was so engrossed in Rudra’s stories and in the way he told them. They all seemed live before her eyes.

“Yeah. Bye!” Miraya smiled, Rudra held out his hand. Miraya’s hand met his for a firm shake.

“Take care of your hand okay? And text me when you reach. Ok?”

Mira blinked her eyes in agreement. Rudra waved and ran to catch his coach. Rest of the time in the train, her thoughts were occupied by Kashish and her story. And then she asked herself, Am I strong enough, to let go of my past?

_____________________________________________________________

 5 Days later, in college, SPA lecture...

The Midterm papers were checked and shown to the students. Aryan had scored the highest marks in the subjects of Physics, Maths, SPA(C coding language) and Mechanics. But he had barely passed in Chemistry, that too due to the grace of copied answers. Eeshwar was the highest scorer in the rest subjects: Chemistry and Basic Electronic and Electrical Engineering (BEE). He had missed Aryan hardly by 1-3 marks in other papers.

And yes, he was very, very jealous of him.

“Hey”, Mayank passed a sheet from behind.

“What’s this?” Rudra asked, scanning the paper. It had three columns to be filled- Name, Roll no., Email id.

“Just fill it re.” Mayank replied in a glum tone, he was already half asleep like half of the class.

“Class Representative (CR) needs our email ids so that he can send important notes and ppts.” Eeshwar Subramanium clarified Rudra’s doubt, who was sitting beside him.

“Ohh.” Rudra finished writing his details, wrote Eeshwar’s name and passed it over to him to fill other details.

“What have you done, moron?” Eeshwar made a disgusting face.

“What’s the problem?” Rudra was confused.

“You’ve written my name as Ishwar Subramanium.” He cancelled it, several times, as if to protect some secret words written bymistakely on a notebook. He then wrote the correct spelling. “Idiot, moron, remember my spelling the next time.”

“Dude, relax okay, it was just a spelling error.” His disgusted look only adds more tragedy to his face.

“What if I spell your name Rudre instead of Rudra, tell me? No, tell me if I am wrong.”

“Eeshwar and Ishwar are close enough.” Rudra argued.

“When written in Devnagri script and Hindi language, it makes a hell lot of difference. If you would have studied Hindi properly in school, you would’ve known it. Grammatically, Ishwar is incorrect; it has chhoti ‘e’ ki maatra, while ‘Eeshwar’ has badi ‘e’ ki maatra. See, I’ll explain you what the difference will be.” He started writing his name in Hindi.

“Woah woah man, it’s okay. My mistake, I sincerely apologise.” Rudra got up from their bench, “And I promise to never write or spell any body’s name again, especially yours.”

He picked his book and pen, shook his head and walked to the first bench where Miraya was sitting alone. He sat down beside her with force. “What?!” Miraya whisphered.

“You know, there are only two people in this class, wait, forget this class. Only two people in this world I have pledged never to argue with. One is that bloody Eeshwar and other is YOU!” Rudra whispered back, feeling like a loser.

He expected the short tempered Miraya to burst madly at him, but instead she giggled. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that. Ah it feels amazing, for a girl like me to beat a person like you, that too in arguments.”

“Yeah yeah, go on, laugh. But don’t challenge me. It’s very difficult for me to lose a challenge.” He said confidently.

“Don’t be over confident. You see, that is the problem with you. You think you are so cool and easy-to-go-with guy, but people see it as arrogance.”

“Are you jealous of my coolness? Because, only jealous people find coolness to be arrogance.”

“This exactly is arrogance Mr.” Miraya bowled him for a moment, and smiled with pride.

“What’s going on you two, on the first bench?” Professor Bakshi raised his voice. “Leave the class right now!”

Miraya stood up, “Sorry, sir.” she apologized, but Rudra was still sitting on the bench in a carefree way.

“Leave I said, or I’ll leave. Out. Now!” Mr. Bakshi, the usually calm one, was unusually too angry all of a sudden. Miraya put her book in the bag and left the classroom. Rudra followed. Professor closed the class’s door. “This is the first time I’m thrown out of a class. All because of you!”

“Me? Don’t blame me” but Rudra was cut by his ringing phone. “Say Aryan... Yea... hmm... I’ll be in half, sorry 5 minutes.” He told looking at Miraya, “Anyways Bakshi threw us out of the class... because of Miraya yaar...Exactly... haha... Yea I’ll be there. See ya.”

Miraya was scowling at him, “You’re unbelievable!!”

“Listen, we’ll continue this later, but I’ve to go.” Rudra said and started walking 

away fast.

“But where?” She called out.

Rudra stopped for a reply, “Football ground! Aryan has found a new hobby; he loves it like a new girlfriend! That is why we are bunking 3 lectures everyday!”And then he paced ahead speedily again.

“Can I come?” Miraya shouted.

“I don’t want you or your hand to get hurt baby! See ya tomorrow! Bye!” He waved and disappeared.

Miraya kicked the wall she was leaning on with her foot, but got hurt instead. 

Ugghh, I hate him.

(To Be Continued....)