CHAPTER 5
I'M SERIOUS...!
Next day in college...
We were soothing at college canteen as recess was clocking the time.
I was trying to acquaint with Pragati over yesterday, but she kept ignoring me all the time.
She was fumed over me, but somehow she managed to keep those homicidal flames in her forge, maybe she didn't want to be a felon of her best friend's suspicious death.
Whenever she got upset she used to boycott that person if he/she is her friend, not just for a week or two but once upon a time when we were at junior college Sneha politely declined Pragati for chemistry notes because she was yet to finish those notes. But Pragati is Pragati..! She despised Sneha at least a year for such mediocre issue. But fortunately they sorted out later, and now they were best friends.
I was concerned because my mistake wasn't that facile, she had made up her mind that I harassed her sibling, Purvi. And she had no plan to be lenient despite the fact that it was me, who provided my chemistry notes to her in dying moments.
I couldn't wait thousands of years in solitary like a saint in a hope that God will delight over his dedication and would incarnate before him.
No..! I couldn't wait, I was desperate for Purvi, I couldn't let her somebody else's. This time the situation was solemnized as it was a question of my life and I was determined to solve it asap.
"Have a seat guys..!" DK insisted.
I sat beside Pragati but she stood up and reversed her sit with Sneha and denied me another time. DK and Vicky knew what was going on so they decided to stay neutral.
"Let's have coffee, bills on me!" DK said. We nodded.
"Ramu Kaka, five coffees..!" DK shouted.
"Anything else DK Sir..?" Ramu kaka asked as he came.
"Anyone want snacks or something?" DK asked. We denied.
Vicky was going to order but DK interrupted before Vicky could say a word.
"No just bring coffee." DK ordered.
"OK..!" Ramu kaka quietly nodded and went back.
Vicky stared at DK resentfully.
"Don't be puerile, it's not gonna work! You know your Dad! Right..!" DK imitated Vicky's Dad.
"However your agility is sapping by. You must skip lethargic items from your plate; you could get conceived by them." DK scoffed.
They laughed out loud, but I didn't. I sat on chair vigilantly, gazing at Pragati, waiting for an opportunity to get her on the line. But she was deftly preventing eye contact.
"Hey Vicky..! I'm having some trouble." Sneha mildly said to Vicky.
"What happened?" Vicky asked avidly.
"That last lecture of Ms.Shukla was gibberish to me. All the words she threw went over my head. So can you?" Sneha asked to Vicky.
"Off course..! Why not..!" Vicky replied in great enthusiasm.
He used to energize whenever Sneha asked him for favour. And she always asked HIM to solve her queries each occasion.
Vicky, he never said NO to Sneha regardless of his own difficulties related to the same topic, which Sneha asked him to explain.
But he finally managed to scavenge remedy as he used to study all the topics meticulously at the beginning of the academic year.
The urge to spend time with Sneha astonishingly transformed him into a book smart scholar.
"I would love to! I'm all yours..! I mean it's my pleasure." Vicky fumbled in excitement and they both smiled.
"So everyone's finished..! Let's go then." DK said.
"Sure!" They stood up and started moving.
"Pragati..!" I called her but she ignored me again.
I desperately wanted to talk to her, but she was showing no interest. I had left no other option, she made me helpless. So I decided to go audaciously pragmatic.
I grabbed her hand when she was moving. All the students present at canteen were looking at us in amazement. Our friends were shocked; their expressions were wide-opened-pothole.
"You go guys! We have some unfinished business to finish." I stated.
"We will meet you at class." Pragati said to them. She had realised that I was not going to stop unless she listened to me.
It was an unexpected turn of events for our friends. They surely didn't anticipate that I would embark beyond. But then they heard Pragati and finally left us bewildered.
Pragati finally agreed to hear my concern. She sat front of me in annoyance.
"Sorry for the trouble." I apologized as I sat back.
"Look Sameer..! Explanation won't gonna change my mind. So don't be hopeful." Pragati sulked.
"I know that you're angry over me. I seriously ashamed, what I did yesterday was a disaster." I said in apologetic tone.
"But believe me Pragati I didn't do these intentionally. She just showed up and I lost control over me, and did what I did. I never met her. I didn't even know her name yaar...! Trust me!" I pleaded.
"You shouted her name in public! They all heard you clearly pronouncing her name, and you are saying you didn't know her name..?" Pragati ranted. She was fume over me, I never saw her in such rage. I could sense, situation is critical, I must play cautiously.
"I thought you're a good person not like those boys who stalk girls, badgers them, and sledge lewd comments over them!" Pragati yelled.
"But you proved me wrong! You are one step ahead of them! You provoked my sister in public. She is dovish and tolerant, only why she pardoned you." Pragati raved. I got agitated as Pragati was alleging me without hearing my plea.
"Listen to me Pragati..!" I interrupted.
"There were only our football team players present at that time, who witnessed. They won't say a single word to anyone. You have my words." I said.
"And how could you question over my integrity and my character?" I asked resentfully.
"You know me for years. Have you ever seen me stalking any girl or provoking them? Seriously tell me, have you ever noticed any of my actions which badgered any girl? Have you ever heard a single rumour which suggests me characterless?" I asked vehemently to Pragati. She was quiet. She did not have any answer for that.
"I...hmm...!" Pragati faltered. She tried to counter but she had not even a single evidence to prove me wrong.
"Come on..! Tell me!" I said. But she then stayed down as she accepted the fact.
"You know Pragati..! I got several lucrative offers in these years. I could be with any girl of my appetite. But I chose my carrier, soccer over them. I only focused on my game, pre occupied himself." I implied.
I clinched the rein of conversation, now I could explain her as she was taking me seriously. I then calmed down to speak of my heart.
"Yesterday shook my whole life upside down...!" I said.
"I saw Purvi and I just got hypnotized. Everything stopped, I couldn't feel my body. My eyes stuck at her, she was walking in slow-motion; I could sense her emphatically, like I'm walking beside her." I described my emotions.
"I could feel her breath, it was all euphoric. Then suddenly like thousands volt of current went into my body and came out through my throat. And I screamed her name as a result." I said in excitement.
"And then she turned to look at me, I gazed at her. She was looking like an angel who came on earth just for me; I was having this feeling like we know each other for ages. It was complete magical experience." I again lost in Purvi's memory for awhile.
"Hmm..!" Pragati disrupted my oasis.
"I actually went to dementia for awhile as I got hit behind my head. But I realised everything, when I saw her at coffee house." I said then.
"Seriously Pragati I never felt this way before. It was something else, kind of supernatural. I didn't even sleep by night. I even deprived to watch the biggest Derby game at evening, which I planned to see weeks before." I explained my restiveness.
Pragati was listening to me curiously; it was accelerating the zeal in me.
"You can see bag around my eyes!" I said and tilted to show, by stretching the skin around my eyes.
"See..!" I said.
"Back off..!" She pushed me.
"Now you have a better idea of my situation." I said and sighed as I sat back on my chair. She was looking confused after hearing me.
"I believe your eyes..! And somehow my heart is implying me to believe your words as well. But my mind is still confused, whether to exonerate you or not." Pragati fretted. Her concern interrupted the comfy of reliance over my Oscar winning performance.
"It is hard to digest that you called her by exact name which you're explaining that you didn't know. And some kind of supernatural power or a spirit possess your body and forced you to do that?" Pragati asked dramatically.
"Yeah exactly..!" I replied impatiently.
"Are you serious?" She jolted.
"What did you think of me, an idiot..!" She ranted.
"No...! I'm serious Pragati!" I tried to plead. But she declined me.
"You see..! I'm your friend and you have my trust as a gift in regard. But I'm not that naive! How could you think anyone would believe in your contrived story?" She said vehemently.
"Seriously Pragati, I swear to god, all I'm telling you is true....!" I said desperately.
"I don't know why this happened to me. It was an extraordinary, like we heard in many legends and so many ancient conventional stories. It was kind of like that." I rushed my words anxiously.
"It was like a prophecy of near future. We are made for each other and I think God just prophesised that. He has showed me the destination of my life." I said enthusiastically.
"Now it's up to me to find a path which will lead me to her." I said and dashed my fist over the table in zeal.
"Alright..! I believe that you were in the influence of some kind of supernatural power. And it is God's will. Like 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' kind of..!" Pragati said dramatically.
"Exactly..!" I interrupted.
"Then why only you heard prophesy of God? And why that spirit possess only your body not her?" She asked curiously.
I was stunned by her question. I never thought about it. She knew I have no answer for that, she trapped me deftly...
(To be continued...)
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