« AHANA »
They say you should look into signs when you notice them. They say those signs were a premonition of an event in the near future. I was called stupid but I wasn't stupid enough to believe those superficial, horror stories. But you see, adults had ingrained those stories into our heads as a part of our sanskari (traditional) education. We would notice them even if we turned ourselves blind. Just like today.
It started right after I woke up. I walked into the balcony and the first thing I heard was my sweet, lousy neighbor downstairs shouting to a milk delivery man. Myth one-- if you happened to see or hear the voice of an unfortunate person, first thing in the morning, your day was bound to turn into a catastrophe. Myth two-- If a black cat crossed right in front of you then it was a bad omen. Myth three-- If your right eyelid happened to blink repeatedly then it was a surefire sign of a bad event. It was as if nature was giving it's best performance to warn me. Even my mother warned me after she read my horoscope today. Normally, I wouldn't even bother to bat an eyelash but with multiple things happening one after the other, I was forced to come up with bizarre conclusions. A road accident? A natural calamity? A heart attack? Or will it happen to my parents? No, no, hold your horses right there you overactive mind. Maybe I should just take a leave from office today.
In the end, I listened to my logical mind and my logical Papa, prayed to God anyway and walked my ass to office. To hell with those centuries old myths. What could possibly happen on a bright sunny day such at this?
Well, what do you know? I was proved wrong.
For starters, it wasn't anything to do with road accidents or natural calamities but who knows, I might be victim to a heart attack very soon. At first, I didn't pay any heed to the loud commotion happening in front of the main office until I noticed my dearest colleagues taking part in that small commotion. They seemed quite traumatized and angry. When I asked them what was wrong they simply flashed me their respective termination letters they received from their evil boss. I probed them further but they were frustated beyond their wits to explain it in decent words. From what I heard, it seemed like a case of redundancy. Knowing that nothing would be gained by loitering around here, I entered the building as requested.
My worst fears came true when my boss handed me my resignation letter. I was kicked out of my job. My boss seemed pretty distressed herself as she stated the reasons. To be truthful, I kind of anticipated this but I didn't think it would actually happen. Design Plus, being a start up company, was tight on finances for a long time now. Our projects were successful but we needed to catch on a bigger fish in order to cover our expenses and debts, which we weren't getting. It became a little more difficult due to the effect of demonetization in the country. My boss was considering this for a while now but only decided to take action after our last project. She was afraid that she and her partner might have to shut down their business if this went on so they decided to make a majority of their employees redundant. For now, they decided to retain ten employees, who were working in the head department. Being the head of the company, she was quite sorry herself and wished never having to witness this day ever again. She had a solid reason behind her actions and seeing her sorry state, I didn't feel like fighting back. Though that didn't stop me from feeling enraged at the situation itself.
My mind did a flashback of all those days I've worked as I visited, at what used to be my cubicle for one last time. From the corner of my eye, I could make out Nikhil lamenting at a distance. The floor itself was empty now. I clenched my teeth and beat the table with my fist. Eighteen months... I've worked for eighteen fucking months here. Before realizing it, I got attached to the company and my colleagues like it was my own. I sacrificed my Saturdays when things got hectic, gave my blood and sweat for this job and what do I get in return? A fucking piece of trash, confirming my termination.
My mind was compelled to change as I settled down with my colleagues at the cafeteria. As we complained about the unfairness of it all (even though the redundancy process was fair), my feelings for my boss grew from pity, to resentment, to hate. I found myself hoping that those losers would dissolve their company completely to understand what was like to be in our shoes. The seven of us (four girls and three boys) ranted for the longest time and then discussed about the future prospects. We departed after promising to help each other in finding a vacancy for the job.
It was three in the afternoon by the time we bid goodbye to each other, including that handsome hunk. Too bad I wouldn't be seeing his lovely face anymore. Vansh would definitely be happy hearing that. Just recalling him urged me to call him, express my sadness but knowing him, he might be sleeping or waking up by now. Time zones sucked big time. Either way, he won't pick my call and unfortunately, I was proved right when I called him. Nevertheless, I left him a message to call me when he was free and added that it was important. Not having the courage to go home yet, I called my best person I knew who would be available for me provided she was free from work.
“My, oh my, look at who just crawled into my caller ID. You free or what?” Nisha greeted me in her usual not- so- polite way.
Hearing her familiar voice threatened me to bring my emotions to the edge. Indeed it was selfish of me to call her only when I needed her but at this point, I didn't care anymore. Quickly, I wiped my wet eyes at the back of my hand. “Well I'm officially a free birdie for now. Are you free, Ni?”
“Yes, I'm for today. You don't sound your usual self. You didn't even cuss me back. What happened, sissy?” she asked, concern laced over her voice.
“A black cat crossed my path. That's what happened,” I paused to chuckle despite the lump in my throat. “I'm coming to your place.”
“Sure, we'll cry together...” She trailed off, “But if we are gonna cry anyway then I suggest you bring some ice cream tubs along the way. Oh, and a plate of hakka noodles would just be great!”
I swear this bitch. “You—”
“I know, I know, you love me, I love you too. Now come over quickly. I'll make you feel better, okay, byee~”
I stared at my phone blankly. Did I made the right decision to call her?
~
The following week passed painfully slowly, mostly in moping and sulking within my residential premises. My parents being understanding enough tried to cheer me out of it in their own lovely ways. Like how Papa took Mummy and me out for a movie at night and how Mummy insisted me to bake a pie together once. In one way or the other, I was spending more time with my family which was a good change. They didn't seem to be in a hurry for me to fetch the next job. Mom assured that my loss might be for the best as I'll find a better company to work on next. I held on to those words.
While it felt good to relax, there was another part of me that missed sitting in front of the computer and making those graphics. I'd still have this aching need to do something, especially during the day. Meanwhile, I had improvised my resume and placed it on the job portals online. I just had to grab the right opportunity.
I was cooped up in my bed with my laptop, catching up with the latest season of Game of Thrones when a knock on my bedroom door surprised me. That's funny, neither Mum and Papa needed my permission to come into my room. I reverted my eyes back to the screen, ignoring simply.
“She's not responding, bro.”
“Let's barge in, men. Don't kill us if we found you changing your clothes, Ahana.”
“Now that would an amazing sight.”
I rolled my eyes even though they couldn't see me. The very next instant I was welcomed with four grinning faces— Vishal, Piyush, Xander and Aman— who were street dogs in human form. In sensible words, my brofriends. Since all four of them were here (which was a rarity unless it was a national holiday), that too in their casual attire with their sports shoes, it could only mean one thing.
“Sorry kids,” I apologized right away. “I appreciate you dragging your arses to my place but I won't tag along with you, no- no. I'm watching GoT and I happen to be in a very interesting part so kindly knock someone else's door.”
“The sixth season huh,” Aman spoke, his eyes litting up at the mention of his all time favorite series. Within seconds he was sitting besides me, watching it again. “Wohoo, it's the battle of the Bastards. Man, I still can't get over Jon Snow's demise.”
“I know right! I've already been spoiled, thanks to the Internet but I still can't believe it...”
Soon we began gushing over it left and right. Alas, the moment was short-lived as Xander snatched my laptop and quickly shut it down. Aman and I raised our voices in defense but they didn't pay any heed.
“Now I would have joined the party too but we've got some important things to do,” Xander explained, placing my laptop on the table.
“And games to play. We are going out to play cricket. I've already took permission from your Papa and Mumma dearest. They simply told us to return you safely. Now get the hell up,” Vishal demanded, standing high before me.
I crossed my arms, remaining glued to my seat. “And what if I don't,” I said. Who in their right minds played cricket at night anyway? Okay, it was 7pm but still.
Vishal's mouth twitched up, “Then you leave me with no choice but to kidnap you. Boys!” he called out, smirking.
“Don't be stubborn Ahana. Just say yes,” Aman whispered besides me.
“No.”
He let out a sigh. “Don't say we didn't warn ya,” he said before shifting behind me. The next moment I was being held mid air with Piyush lifting my legs and Aman coiling his arms around my arms.
I let out an uncharacteristic squeal and struggled under the grip. “Put me down, you animals! Put me down!”
“First say yes, child,” Piyush demanded.
“Yes, yes, YES, NOW PUT ME DOWN!! GENTLY!” I added, yelling. It was a miracle— a ridiculous miracle, actually that none of my parents had noticed my gentle voice across the room.
I ended up ditching my favorite episode and joined these lunatics to play a sport, my hands barely got a hold of. Since the number of people were few, they decided to play a game to see which player would score the highest number of runs. As usual, I was missing out most balls when it was my turn to bat. I even hit the ball on the wicket two time but strangely, no one was batting an eyelash about it. It was like they deliberately chose to cover my mistakes to let me keep playing. It wasn't like I was bad in sports. I was actually quite good in badminton but cricket was not for me. Surprisingly, they didn't made fun of me this time. I could clearly see what they were trying to do. I didn't know whether to hug them or to punch them for their stupid ways.
An hour later, I was breaking my sweat and energy as I got into the game. It felt good to get my blood pumping after a long time. Almost like we had traveled back a few years, back to our school days. When my body had enough, I requested them to change my position, which they readily did. I even heard Xander saying 'thank God' out loud, making me snicker. In the next seventy minutes, the five of us lost ourselves in the sounds of our feet running, mouths yelling and the bat kicking against the ball.
We barged in Piyush's house later, bringing tubs of ice cream and snacks along the way. His family was out of station so we pretty much had the house for ourselves. The music was loud alongwith their voices, pretty much turning it to a unorganized party. Pretty sure the neighbors were placing death curses by now. As for me, I didn't mind one bit. I breathed for this kind of madness.
“Feeling good now, princess?” Vishal asked, a scoop of ice cream in his spoon still in his hand.
I raised a questioning brow. “Really? You are asking me while I'm devouring my favorite butterscotch cone. You need specs bruh,” I said and paused to eat another bite, the butterscotch cream melting into my mouth alongwith the small chocolate chips. When I was done with that bite, I continued, “while I do thank you guys for forcing me out, you should thank me too for giving you an excuse to play.” Each one of them have their own nine- to- five jobs to deal with so they seldomely got to play.
“You got a point. I mean when was the last time we broke a sweat like this?” Xander spoke from behind while fanning the collar of his shirt.
Vishal who was resting his head on the head of the sofa sat up straight, facing me. “Well then, I guess we owe you a thanks. Thank you for losing your precious job. We are grateful to you.”
“We hope you keep losing more jobs like this in the future so we can continue cheering you on,” Aman chided in and the rest of them joined the charade by laughing out loud.
Seriously, why was I friends with these goofballs again? Because you're insane, remember. Right.
Nevertheless, I wasn't someone to let them have the last word. I flashed them my brightest, fake smile. “Well then, I hope all of you lose your jobs too so that we can all cheer up together. Ah, what an awesome cheer up party would that be.”
Piyush widened his eyes at me and then at everyone. “Protect your jobs, men. She has a 'kaali jubaan' (black mouth)” he announced. The other three responded dramatically— Vishal saying he already visited the temple today so God was there with him while Xander and Aman were already making plans to bathe in holy water tonight. I rolled their eyes at their overdramatic comments but
ended up laughing at them later.
Somewhere around ten, I excused myself for a bathroom break. When I returned however, the rest of the boys were already going home. Guess that was it then. With a disappointing sigh I walked my way towards the door.
“Ahana, wait up a bit,” Piyush called behind me but quickly reverted his cool gaze to Aman, “Laters, bro.”
“Aye, aye, I'm going. No need to kick me off the door,” Aman said, a devious smirk forming his handsome face as he pushed the door handle. “Don't make too much noise kids.”
I slapped his shoulder, glaring at him. “Fuck you, I only want to show my newest coin collection,” Piyush said before I could bark any profanities at Aman.
Piyush had a hobby of collecting coins of different currencies but that was actually a alias. In reality, he kept a collection of something else— something he didn't wanna reveal to the outside world, lest they would laugh at him. It seemed quite 'unmanly' as he put it. He led me to his cupboard. In a particular shelf, under the stack of stationary items and handkerchiefs, lay a steel box. It was his third box now. He took it out and carelessly dropped it's contents on his bed.
Dozens of colorful rubbers lay, staring back at me. Piyush's craze of collecting different shapes of erasers stemmed from his childhood and surprisingly was still active to this day, though quite lesser than before. Maybe it seemed odd but definitely not upnormal as he put it. Atleast he wasn't collecting cigarettes and porn magazines. He wasn't planning to reveal this secret to anyone. I just happened to see his small collection while I was taking out something from his bag. I remembered how infuriatingly embarrassed he became and vowed me not to whisper a word to anyone else in the group. I became excited at the mere aspect of keeping a secret that no one else knew. Since then, Piyush had been keen on showing his collection to me from time to time. It was fun talking about something in code words, something no one knew about. They all thought we were talking about currencies. He collected coins too, but it wasn't in excess as his precious erasers. I too helped him out in his collection sometimes. I even bought some of the coolest pieces from Toronto for him. He was escalated.
Unfortunately this secret got expanded later as his little sister came to know about it. We would sometimes tease him about it, deliberately embarrassing him. As of now, he had a whooping collection of around three hundred erasers, mostly unused. It was enough to open a shop for himself.
“Why not?” I questioned when he denied selling it. “Don't tell me you're planning to keep them forever.”
“Not at all,” he answered with swat of his hand then paused. A long pause indicating he wanted to say something but was finding a hard time to do so. “But I'm thinking of... Well, it just popped in my mind, that's all,” he said, his voice getting lower and lower. He faced towards the window trying to hide his embarrassment “I'll simply give it to my future kids.”
My eyes literally widened. This man who had been collecting erasers for years was willing to give it to his future children. My respect for him just grew tenfold. “That's so sweet of you. I can already tell that you're going to be an awesome, dowesome Dad.”
He rubbed the back of his head, stifling back a smile. “Well, that's way ahead in the future. Here this one's for you,” he said, offering me an eraser in the form of a parrot.
“Parrot?”
“Well yeah, cos' you're loud and whiny like a parrot.”
My mouth fell open in offense. “How insulting? Let me tell you which one are you like... ” I said, searching amongst the pile while he chuckled. I settled on a green monster since I couldn't find any other disgusting animal. The house felt eerily quiet except our voices that almost echoed.
After he was done with showing off his collection, I began tying up my shoe laces to leave. “Today is Saturday right? That stunt reality show— it's going to air in a few minutes,” there was a pause. “Wanna watch it with me?”
I held back a sigh and instead craned my head to meet his eye. “Piyush, it's getting quite late you know.”
He pressed his mouth, nodding in understanding. “Yeah, it definitely is,” he said while looking towards his window and I think I heard him sigh. “Let's drop you home, princess.”
I turned to the front, tying my other shoe lace before getting up. “It's fine. I'll go by myself.”
He turned to look me as if I was retarded. “Ahana, it's getting quite late you know,” he repeated my words from before and a smile escaped my lips.
“Fiiine.”
It was almost ten when I reached my residence. It was on a completely opposite way of his house. Even though our surroundings were safe and sound, these boys still made a point to drop me at my doorstep like I was a new born baby. Each one of them have dropped me home at some point but it was Vishal, most of the time. If he didn't accompanied me then they made a point to tell each other like how Aman told Piyush before going. In a way, they felt grateful to my father for allowing me hang out with them or maybe it was out of respect for him. They should probably thank me for exposing a gentlemanly side in them.
“What are you laughing at?” Piyush asked, staring at me weirdly.
I pouted, “Shut up, it's just me and my soul sharing an inside joke.”
He scoffed, “Bet it must be joking about how insects taste like... What? We were just talking about how people overseas ate cooked insects.”
My hand went to cover my neck, the nausea starting to hit me. “Dude stop! Any more and I'll vomit on your shirt.”
He backed away immediately, causing me to chortle, “Fine, I'll stop, it's my favorite shirt.” I proceeded towards the stairs and strangely he followed although I didn't question him. “That stuff I told about you behaving like a parrot... ” he started out of nowhere, making me halt on my steps.
“What, you wanna insult me more?”
He frowned “No, idiot, I'm getting to the good part,” he told me and I zeroed my eyes on him, curious. “Well its true, duh. You're loud and whiny like a parrot minus the mimicry part but on the other side, you are like a bird who keeps flying off here and there. Just how you flied off to Toronto, leaving your family and us. Even a busy bird gets injured sometimes. It deserves a short rest. Maybe it fell down to fly even higher next time.”
I had a huge smile on my face by the time he finished saying. I was touched by his genuine words. “Aw, that's sweet of you to say, thank you!” I said, reaching out to squeeze his arm. Just when I let go of him, he reached for my palm instead and dropped the parrot rubber I refused to accept before.
“Since I sprinkle such sweet words into the sour ones, maybe you could accept this now.”
I didn't argue this time. “Fine but why a parrot? You could have just gifted me that blue bird eraser you had instead.”
At that, he simply smiled while still holding onto my hand, “Because they are beautiful.”
I wasn't used to such complimentary compliments. I don't even remember when was the last time Vansh complimented me like this, so excuse me if I felt a pinch of blood rising my cheeks. I mumbled an awkward okay and resumed walking in style while he chuckled, realizing my embarrassment very well. I bet he must be celebrating inside. Finally after reaching my apartment, we bid goodbyes and parted ways.
I felt my body giving up as soon as I sunk into my bed. My legs were beginning to hurt too due to the excessive workout it had today. But at the same time, it was equally satisfying. I got to spend time with my boys after all. I was staring at the bird eraser that was given to me, getting lost my web of thoughts until a beep in my phone disturbed it. It was a text message. The name of the sender made me both happy and angry at the same time.
“Are you free? What time
is it?”
So his highness finally decided to grace me with his time. I contemplated for quite a while before typing away an answer.
“No, I'm not. It's late and
I'm feeling very sleepy.”
“Oh...” I could very well imagine his disappointment right now. The word 'typing' flashed on the top of the screen while I waited.
“I'm sorry. I was quite busy
these days so I didn't pick up
the phone and eventually, it
slipped out of my mind to call
you. I heard what happened
from Pragya. It's really
unfortunate. Few startups get dissolved due to inflation but
no worries, there will be more opportunities to come, infact
even greater than what you had.
Don't lose heart, An. Meanwhile
you can pass your time by
disturbing your neighbors,
watching re- runs of One piece or
GoT or... Ok, enough, I'm starting
to envy you now 😂😂”
“Can we talk? Just for two
minutes, please. 🙏”
He sure was putting me in a bind here. A part of me desperately wanted to give in to his pleas, to hear his soothing voice and spill out my troubles while another wanted to ignore his sweet ass message and go to sleep. How ironic it was that when I lost my job, the first person I wanted to tell was Vansh and now, he was the last person to know. I felt betrayed. He sure had guts, messaging me after five days and putting me on an endless wait. I didn't have the energy to recite the same bullshit story that I already did to several people before and ruin my mood once again. Not after I had such a fun filled evening. If he was keen on replying me after days then I was determined too on giving him a taste of his own medicine as well. At last I typed—
“I wish I could talk but I'm
super sleepy now. 😴 Had a
blast with my four musketeers
this evening. Played cricket.
Call me tomorrow. Gn. Tc.”
With that I exited Whatsapp to play games on my mobile instead. Soon after, I fell into deep slumber.
⚪⚫⚪⚫⚪
D e d i c a t i o n
SneHa0651 for her lovely support on my story. ☺☺
A u t h o r' s N o t e
First of all, I want to clear out a little something. Here's my thoughts process
*Le me after roughly framing out Serious in Love- Hm, this Natasha character sounds blah, blah and blah.(Natasha readers can fill in the adjectives 😜) She deserves her own, separate story. Maybe I should think about it.
*Starts thinking about it- For starters, I will create a character to match her frequency... Yes, yes... Ok, now I can start...
And that's how her story was created in my mind. What I wanted to tell you was I thought of her story after her role in Serious in Love. Not before. It's like how I'll write Pragya's short story after completing both Stupid and Serious in Love. Not before. It's like extending a branch of a huge tree into another smaller tree. Get it? It's not precisely a multi universe, crossing of worlds or a cross over. It's a spin off. There is a difference.
Coming to the chapter- How was it? Since Vansh and Ahana are living continents away, I'll alternate between them to show what's happening in their individual lives. That much is obvious, I guess. What do you think about her circle of friends and what you think will happen to her job life now?
PS- Happy belated Holi to all Indians who celebrate Holi. Hope you had a blast. I certainly did to some extent.
PSS- Does anyone watch Vampire Diaries? It just ended. Have you seen it? I watched it through YouTube but goddamn that ending. *cries* 😭😭
Look forward to the next chapter, my lovelies. 😈