Aradhana Sehgal
My phone rings at around 10:20 PM as I'm sat on my room's desk, typing away in the laptop so mindlessly that I barely acknowledge when I have picked my phone and recieved the call
"Hello?"
"Aradhana, neeche aaja"
I recognise Nipun immediately, remembering again our interaction earlier and reply
"Give me five minutes"
"Theek hai, jaldi aaja"
I humm into the phone positively as the call cuts from his end and put my phone down.
One more slide, and I'm good to go. I quickly finish my work and change back into something presentable. Nothing too much, just a plain tee and jeans with some scarf incase it gets windy or cold and grab a lip balm, pocket knife and handkerchief for my pockets, heading out towards the dock yet again today.
I feel nervous, meeting new people that I have no idea about, but after contemplating running back inside atleast thrice, I just keep walking forward.
Just by the door that opens to the dock stands Nipun, who smiles when he notices me.
"Sab log bahar hain, aao milata hun"
"You sure?" I blurt out without thinking much.
I know him so little as well, why am I asking him for reassurance?
"Tension mat le, tujhe ajeeb lage toh wapas chale jana" he says with a shrug as if that's the simplest thing ever.
Does he not think of how awkward it'll be to face these same people for the next six days of this trip as well incase this doesn't go well? Or what if we accidentally make eye contact or bump into each other? How awkward it'll be if they don't like me? What if they-
"Itna sochegi toh phir toh ho gaya"
He pulls me out of my head and I simply replay his speech in my head.
Makes so much sense, why can't I think like that?
I end up just nodding and putting up my most confident smile as he politely pulls me along by my arm, pulling us towards a group of four people sitting in a circle, a table of food and beverages in between and a guitar along with a cajon sits in the group. They all look like college students, right around my age, dressed in starkly distinguished attires from each other. All they do is smile when they see us, oh so sweetly that I can't help but reciprocate.
Amongst the four, I recognise one immediately. I wave to him as me and Nipun take a seat and he waves a hi back, smiling at me, somewhat amused.
He sits on a burgundy bean bag, a cotton tee hanging on his shoulders, a scar peeking from his collarbone, shining under the light from the mast of the ship, right next to his thin gold chain.
"Hi again" says Abhijay, as I say hi back and smile, everyone else left obviously confused at our interaction.
"We carpooled to the port together" I explain to the group as Nipun gets up.
"Yeh Aradhana hai, subeh ko ham sath me gaa rahe the. Iski awaz chumma hai"
He says and introduces me to the group consisting of Jheel, Nishtha, Dhruv, Abhijay and himself.
They all look at me with an impressed expression but mostly Abhijay, who looks not only impressed but also intrigued.
"Shree Shree Mahan Nipun Ranjan ji ko ek baar me impress kar diya,dekha Abhijay?" Dhruv says as Abhijay pouts, complaining to Nipun.
"Main bhi toh gaata hu, meri awaz ko toh kabhi compliment nahi deta kutte"
"Jhooth bolna galat baat hai Abhi" Nipun says not even a second later, to which Abhijay replies
"Tu ghar chal zara, rehna toh tujhe mere sath hi hai"
We all giggle and it's a very light mood. I can tell they're all trying to put efforts into cracking jokes to keep the conversation flowing, and it's all so comfortable thanks to that.
I get to know that they had all met in the music club of their college, no wonder they all have scheduled jamming so casually.
Nipun starts strumming and Jheel sits upon the cajon, humming begins and we all slowly start floating along the tunes of 'Chahun Main Ya Na'. I can see Dhruv starting to record from the corner of my eye as I search up the lyrics.
I begin with the lyrics, eyes searing my phone screen, singing with my head low, too nervous to look into anyone's eye.
"Itna batadun tujhko, chahat pe apni mujhko-"
Abhijay surprises me as he starts singing, the range of his voice completely transforming into something deeper and sweeter, much more bound together as he hits every note with unbelievable ease, especially for someone that's sitting down.
I quickly recover from my state of surprise and harmonize with him, as we smelt our voices together for the rest of the song. I eventually look upto everyone, seeing them humming along or moving their head to the tune rhythmically. The song comes to an end as Nipun spins one arrangement thrice and fades the song out slowly with his strings.
Nishtha starts cheering and a wonderful amount of praise pours down as Dhruv's video recording comes to an end.
Nishtha bends over, extending a handshake towards me while saying "Aap Mumbai aa rahi hai"
I play along and shake her hand vigorously while laughing.
The four of us keep singing and playing as Nishtha eventually gets up to sway along the music, dragging Dhruv up with her and it's a little past midnight when a member of staff comes to us, complaining about the noise.
We politely apologize to him and sit in perfect silence till we see him out of our peripheral view.
"Chalo gaano vaano ke liye toh panch aur din hain hi, meanwhile Aradhana, why don't you tell us more about yourself?" Jheel says enthusiastically as Nipun interjects
"Nahi yeh bohot matlabi hai, aise nahi batayegi"
"Arrey! Ab koi ladki apni safety ka bhi dhyan na rakhe?"
"Matlab? Main kya tumhe shakal se criminal lag raha tha?"
"Hote toh?"
"Tum meri bezatti kar rahi ho ya bas paranoid ho samajh nahi aa raha"
"Arrey-"
Abhijay suddenly interrupts our bickering
"Accha accha maan lete hain teri baat Nipun, hai woh matlabi." He turns around to look at me "Khair, tum batao? Do you sing professionally?"
I shake my head "No. Professionally main marketting manager hu, singing is just a hobby since college."
"Kitne saal ho gaye pass out huye?" Jheel asks as she picks up a bottle of soda pop from the bottle.
"Ek saal hi hua hai, you guys are in final year right?" I ask back as they nod.
"Internships gaand le rhi hai, koi tips de do" Nishtha asks while groaning as a few laughs splatter around the space at her choice of words.
"Tip toh ek hi hai, jese tese nikal lo. Uske baad bohot kuch chill ho jayega."
Dhruv groans, and the group keeps the conversations flowing and I barely notice the time till my phone lights up with a battery warning. 2:47 am, it read.
"Late ho gaya hai, hume so jana chahiye" I say and Nipun's yawn non verbally agrees with me.
"Kal subeh ka kya scene hai?" Abhijay asks as Jheel answers "I think they've organised some masquerade", after which Nishtha exclaims "It sounds so bougie!"
We all cleanup our food and snacks, re organising our arrangement as we shake hands and pass goodnights. We move back inside and board the elevator, leaving as our floors came by.
I smiled contently as I walked through the hallway, the sound of my steps resonating loudly in the silence of the night, feeling good about my company, unable to wait to get to know these people even better. I'm brought out of my thoughts as another set of walk sounds on my floor and a hand lands on my shoulder, as I turn around to look at Abhijay.
"Tumhara scarf" he hands me my scarf as I gratefully take it from his hand, smiling.
"Thank you"
"Wese tum, East Dadar side hi rehti ho?"
I nod, assuming he'd know since we came in the same cab that picked me up from not too far off my building.
"Cab ka pickup spot was like, barely a couple minutes away from my building"
He nods, processing the idea of my location,
"Mera, Dhruv aur Nipun ka flat bhi aas pass hi hai"
"That's nice, phir toh milna hota rahega" I say simply, in a tired sleepy voice, looking up at him as his face light up and flushed.
"Tumhe so jaana chahiye" he says, his voice soft and deep.
I nod at him and blink a few times
"You too" I say, leaning back against the door of my room, pressing the key card as the door unlocking sound plays rather soundly in the silent surrounding we were in.
"Good night" I say as he starts walking back, before smiling and putting up a salute sign, then turning around and disappearing behind the hallway curvature.
I enter my room, change quickly, wash up and drink some water before falling deep asleep. Socialising is energy consuming no matter how good it is.
Author's note
Thanks you for reading another chapter of the story.
The male lead as well as more important characters are finally revealed.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Until next time lovelies.....
Word count: 1572