The Beautiful Bond- ICT Friendship OS Series

Fitting In (Siraj-Virat)

A/N: I love reading those inline comments, keep them coming please 🥺❤️🤭!

Siraj had been with the team for quite some time now. But he always felt like he didn't fit in. Everyone spoke such fluent English. Here he spoke Hindi with such a heavy accent. How would he ever keep up with them? They were always nice to him. Virat bhai, Rohit bhai, KL, Hardik, Bhuvi bhai, Jassi- all of them tried to make him feel comfortable. He was grateful for that.

So, Siraj decided to do what he did best. Bowl better and better each day. Virat was pleased with his progress, but concerned about him. Siraj seemed to be underconfident, and that would not do him any good.

One day, Virat and Jassi decided to go out for dinner to some fancy place that had just opened up. They saw Siraj sitting on a bench, listening to some music, and Virat suggested that they should invite him, too.

They walked up to him, and Virat said in Hindi, "Hey, Siri. What's up?"

Siraj immediately stood up, removed his earphones, and replied, "Nothing, nothing, bhai. You tell me?"

Virat chuckled, "Arre, calm down. I haven't asked you a question for your viva. Jassi and I are going out for dinner to the new restaurant that's opened up. I've heard it's really good. You want to join us?"

"Er- no, thanks, bhai. I'll just eat here. Thanks for asking me, though", he replied hesitantly.

Jassi raised an eyebrow and said, "Why are you saying no to Virat bhai?  We'll have fun, what's the point of eating in the hotel everyday?"

Virat was confused, too, but he didn't want Siraj to feel uncomfortable, so he said gently, "It's fine, Jassi. We'll go out with him another day, okay? For now, let's get going, I'm hungry!"

Jassi couldn't ever think about arguing with Virat bhaiya, so he nodded. Siraj gave a small smile, and the two of them walked away.

Later that night, when Virat was almost ready to go to bed, Siraj knocked the door to his room, and slowly walked in.

"Bhai, did I disturb you? I just wanted to say something", Siraj gave another sad smile.

"Not at all, Miyan. You know you can barge in anytime."

"Yeah- er- thanks, bhai. I just wanted to say I'm sorry if you felt bad. I didn't mean to, you know-", Siraj said.

"I know you, Siri. I didn't feel bad, trust me. Just out of curiosity, though, what were they serving at the hotel today? Biryani?", Virat laughed. He hoped Siraj would understand what he was asking.

"No, nothing like that bhai", Siraj finally grinned.

He continued, his grin fading as quickly as it has appeared, "Just that- I don't know. That new restaurant would be a fancy place. I don't know how to act there, or the kind of food they serve. And everyone would be talking in English- even the waiters, I'm sure. I didn't want to embarrass myself- or you guys."

Virat immediately felt guilty. He should've known Siraj would feel this way. How could he forget his own struggles with the language when he was starting out?

"Siri, most of us don't know English when we start out in this team. That's fine, we learn with time. You will too, I promise. And you know I once slipped out of a cafe because everyone was so posh and everything so expensive there? I must've been twenty. Heck, I just wanted chai. There they were, asking me a million questions. The waiter turned around and I ran for my life", Virat laughed. He was relieved to see Siraj laughing with him.

Virat continued with a gentle smile, "But, you need to talk to us. Tell us if you need help. There's no need to pretend to be someone you're not. We like you for who you are, Miyan."

Finally talking to someone about his feelings, even though Virat had basically read his mind, felt so good to Siraj. He gave a quick hug to Virat.

"And tomorrow, you're coming to have dinner with us. We'll go that Dhabha you love", Virat declared.

"How do you know about that, bhai?", Siraj was surprised and pleased in equal measure.

"Oh, I know everything. EVERTHING", Virat bragged.

"Yeah, you do", Siraj chuckled and agreed.