11- "Let's get bored together. We'll be less bored that way."
« VANSH »
Our team members were gearing up for the weekly meet up. Files were shuffled, voices were muffled while the chairs were being shifted in the direction of the white board. Meanwhile, Irfan was inserting his pen drive into the CPU to display his presentation for today. “Heads up here, guys,” he announced, attracting attention to all the members in the room. “So today we are here to discuss the (insert technical terms). We'll start with the transverse section of block A.” With that he clicked on auto play.
There was a blank white screen at first. A diagram was to be expected next but instead, there was an unexpected sound. Or rather a music that everyone recognized all too well. And then—
“Oppa Gangnam style~”
The room that was seriously silent, moments ago turned into a series of snickers and laughs. Even Richie couldn't help but titter. Natasha and another teammate Angie had already started shaking their heads to the tune. “Op- op- op- op- oppa gangnam style...” they lip synced while another man was in the verge of performing that horse like dance step. Everyone fell for it, except one man. A red faced man named Irfan. While I watched my teammates reactions, feeling fucking high and mighty about it, I knew I was going to be a dead man after this meeting. Infact, if looks could kill, I would have died way earlier.
Before any of us could hear a popular song being heard after ages, Irfan switched the damn thing off. “No, why, dude?... My apologies,” Gary apologized when he witnessed those same raging eyes of Irfan that tried to burn me earlier.
Luckily, we had a friendly but only sometimes moody team leader, who didn't take the issue too seriously. He actually liked the surprise but also warned to not let it happen again, despite Irfan's constant attempts to claim that he was framed. Feels good in becoming the old Vansh again.
.
“Why?” I reasoned dramatically as I searched for the desired files in my computer, only to find the message 'Not found'. Now it was Irfan to throw a smile at me.
“You effing deserved it, man,” he spoke maliciously before walking away. What's his problem? Can't he take a fucking joke.
I felt a pat behind my back. “You had it coming, honey. You totally did,” Natasha gave her condolences. “By the way, that was an effective wake up call. I swear I was a minute close from blacking out.”
I rubbed a finger against my forehead, “In other words, you were sleepy.”
“Well, duh, same thing.”
Can anyone tell me why I was associating myself with these two weirdos again?
~
I had a love- hate relationship with my boss, Richie. He was a good person, considering he was our boss but just because he was the boss, he couldn't be entirely good. It was the universal truth.
I say this as I attend a seminar with my newfound companions, Natasha and Irfan on a Saturday afternoon. Richie, our great, great man, decided that it was okay to force us, junior architects, into a two hour seminar that talked about the architecture today, as if we were born a century earlier. It wasn't even affiliated to our company. What was he thinking?
But sometimes, just sometimes, my brother 'luck' decides to side with me.
Natasha stood up from her chair. “Sir, I have a doubt from the stats you've drawn. May I have your permission to come over there and ask?” she asked politely. The man or supposedly the lecturer for this seminar, gave her the green signal to go ahead. Everyone watched cautiously as she walked to the whiteboard, standing next to him and asked her doubts professionally. So far so good. She was nodding at whatever the sir was saying until she placed a hand at the side of the forehead and closed her eyes halfway. The lecturer was quick to notice.
“Is there a problem, miss?”
She leaned her head against the whiteboard, almost causing the lecturer to reach out to her, but stopped as she steadied herself. “My- my head sir. It's spinning—” then placed a hand over her mouth. “I think I'm going to vomit.”
The lecturer's face grew ashen but before he could try to help her out, I did the honors myself. After all, this was the most perfect opportunity. “Don't worry sir, I'll walk her out to the washroom,” I offered.
“And I'll take her to the nurse's office,” Irfan added, holding her right hand as I held her left. We surely looked like kidnappers right now.
Obviously the lecturer wasn't convinced. “I think one person will be enough, Mr... Ahmed,” he said while looking at the list of names written in a file on his desk.
“But sir, she—”
“I think I'm going to fall,” Natasha declared, her head shaking slowly, almost giving away but we held her. “Bwak!” she made a terrible gagging noise that freaked us all—
“Okay, okay, take her away...”
— Followed by a 'puft' chuckle from Irfan.
The lecturer was glaring at him through a policeman's eye. Irfan for once, was quick to defend. “Sorry sir, it was just unwanted gas.”
Unwanted gas? Before I could question his intellectual choice of words, he proved himself by letting out an actual, stinking fart, breaking the silence of the class as they broke into fits of laughter. Everyone except us three, who could only press our mouths to prevent from disclosing the act.
Natasha let out another gagging noise and without wasting another torturous second, we raced out of the room while dragging her. We continued walking towards God knows where until we spotted a lift as if it was our escape route from the Mario's castle. The world crashed down behind the elevator doors as we fell down to the floor, laughing hard.
Now our escape plan was total success but that wasn't why were laughing, hell no! It had something to do with a term unwanted gas and the person associated with it.
“H- how Irfan?” I managed to spat while still gripping my stomach.
He stood up panting. “Come on, guys— with the amount of food I consume, isn't it obvious? Well, I had to save my arse so I air- pooped my arse. I'm ever- fart- ready,” he stated proudly like he won an award then proved his statement by air pooping again a few seconds later.
At that, Natasha and I laughed even louder, “Oh God, I can't breathe,” she fanned herself. “That was a cool plan, Baweja. Wish I could have thought of it before but thanks for getting us out of that bore-zone. And you, my Irfan, you deserve an reward.”
“I'm honored.”
“Your acting skills were top- notch by the way,” I said to her, shooting a side glance at Irfan. “We had a hard time figuring out whether you were actually sick or not. Doesn't this remind of our school days?”
“Indeed but tell me one thing— how long am I supposed to be on autopilot, pressing these lift buttons? I'm taking us to the canteen.” he said and pressed G. We didn't argue since we all were craving for a heavy snack right now.
~
“And then the most unexpected thing happened, he farted. In front of the whole freaking class,” I told Ahana that evening and we laughed together. Ahana recalled the time when Dhruv and I had brought breathing lizards to class, then added that she was jealous since those two new found friends of mine were getting the privilege to be entertained by me.
“Not as much as we enjoyed fooling in college. At office, you have to be extra cautious at what cards to play otherwise you can kiss your job goodbye.”
“I guess you're right.” I could imagine her nodding. “That female collegue, Natasha was it? Does she still flirt with you? You mentioned about a fifteen day seduction challenge or something.”
I scoffed, “Not anymore. That challenge is long over. She was just playing. Infact she talks in foul language with every other friend of hers. Hm, do I smell something pungent? Something closely related to jealousy.”
“Says the guy who used to sulk at the mention of Nikhil, even when he never flirted with me. I was just a bit concerned since she's in your team, alright. On the other side of things, I'm happy you made new friends... Talking about girls and flirting— oh my Chester, how could I forget something so important? How did your Saturday night go? Details, details, I want details!” she spoke so loud that I had to move my phone a bit away from my ear.
“Easy, tigress, easy, I'll tell you,” I replied, chuckling. A few weeks ago, she recited her experience on going on a blind date, while also suggesting me to try something similar. It just hit my mind last Saturday when I went to a bar to have some drinks with Irfan. That I'd try flirting, just for fun sake. “I chanced upon two decent Asian girls at the bar and like most guys, bought them a drink each. I was a bit nervous at first, thinking I might scare them away but it was quite the opposite. They were very comfortable, like they were used to encountering with strangers. We chatted for two hours straight, had snacks and I even got to dance with the brunette one. What I previously planned to be sweet, flirty talk turned out to be a rather friendly one. I made them laugh by reciting about my colorful days. I even talked about you. They told me I was funny, interesting and honestly, I don't find a better compliment than that. Overall, it was fun.”
“Okay. Maybe it didn't went as you planned but I'm happy for you, wohoo!” She said, cheerfully. Well, I did realize something after that encounter— Flirting was not for me. Atleast when it came to stranger girls. I could fool anyone but I couldn't reach the level of comfort where I'd flirt intellectually. With Ahana, it was easy because I knew her. Coming to our relationship, I was glad we were comfortable enough to share things with each other. It left no room for careless suspicion. Gradually, we moved on to talk about our daily lives. These days, Ahana was helping her school friend, Nisha in some cloth designing work. She was even thinking of joining French classes. It was just like her to utilize her time by experimenting on different things. She was adventurous like that.
I ended the call since I had to pee and then prepare something for dinner later. I was thinking about it while lying on bed when Ahana called me again. I was glad to pick it up this time.
“I'm bored, Vansh.”
“I'm about to get bored too, watching this fan go round and round.”
“Then let's get bored together. Atleast we'll be less bored that way.”
I chuckled, “And how shall we do that, manqüer (miss)?”
I heard a faint giggle, “You tell.”
“Well, I've got a couple of ideas but let's make your creative brain do the work this time,” I said and stretched my arms before speaking through the headphones. “Think Ahana, how could two distant people have fun together?”
I heard a faint sigh. “Let's clean our rooms together and click a 'before' and 'after' photos of it.”
I snorted. “That's the most boring activity I've heard. Next.”
“Hymph, I thought it was helpful,” I could imagine her pout on the other side. I closed my eyes as I waited for her next innovative idea...
Seven minutes later, both of us were standing outside our apartments, gauging at the streets before us. We captured that view and sent it to each other. It was clear daylight in her picture while it was dark at mine. When we switched on to video call, both of us were wearing the same expression on our faces— excitement.
I could feel the adrenaline rush in my veins. The kind of rush that compelled us to do crazy things. Lots of 'em. “Chakde phadde!” Ahana yelled raising a fist at me. I repeated her action, naturally catching eye balls from the bypassers.
And then we moved forward like a race against time. “You remember the first word, do you?” She asked but I was too busy scanning the area until...
“There it is— the lamp post. See for yourself!” I said, shifting the mobile camera to the opposite side of the road, where a red lamp post stood out, admist it's surroundings. I crossed the road and magnified the image to get a clearer view. “And the first round goes to Vansh Baweja,” I concluded, thus patting myself.
“Not fair! I didn't even get a proper chance to look...” She whined. “Maybe we should look find a *pani- puri stall next.”
“Are you kidding me? There's no pani puri stall in Boston. It could be in a Indian restaurant though.” I mumbled the last part to myself.
“Exactly!” she said. “Okay, your turn. Also, make sure that object is not within your sight when you tell me.”
“Roger,” I said looking at the starless sky above. “Any Toyota car.” I announced the next word and started searching for the same amongst the cars that were passing by the road.
It was a simple game of finding an object first. Later on, we switched off our video to audio calling. We would simply click a photo of the discovered object and sent it. Stationary shop, bar, blue dress, green shoes, bench, flower— we began to search them one by one. It was quite an innovative game. It was fun wasting my breath from one place to another. It was always fun with her. We ended up finding fifteen different things before calling it quits. It was me who won with a two point difference. It was a close call.
“Next challenge- take a selfie with atleast five people. No, make that ten,” I said as I settled down on a bench to catch my breath.
“No, I'm tired. Besides it will be difficult convincing a stranger to take selfie with me,” she said, exasperated.
Guys might be willing but I didn't tell her that. “It's your headache,” I said at the same time when my stomach growled. I was both tired and hungry.
“Let's go to a restaurant.”
“Let's eat something.”
We both spoke at the same time and shared a laugh at that. Guess we were thinking along the same lines.
We both chose to go Mc Donalds in our respective places and ordered the exact same thing. We closed our call to chat instead since our ears were burning. She asked me to describe the place, instead of sending a picture this time. Funny, I didn't feel like I was eating alone. It was almost as if she was here, sitting alongside, laughing with me. It brought a sense of warmth in my heart that made me sentimental. It was at times like these, when I wished for the continents and the seas to vanish so I would see her right before me. I didn't think twice as I took another bite of my French fries and sent her a message—
I miss you.
I was met with disappointment when she replied back with a smiley instead. Guess I was the only one feeling heavy. After devouring our dinners, I insisted on going back home but she pleaded me to fool around a bit longer instead. She almost sounded desperate like she didn't want it to end. Naturally, I gave in.
We didn't play the 'find a random ass object' game this time. Instead, we just followed along whatever popped into our heads, starting with having five selfies with a random person each. She outshined me as she sent me two pictures she clicked before— One with a waiter and another with a Mc Donald statue outside the restaurant. She was clever but then again, I was too.
It was half an hour before midnight in Boston while two in the afternoon at India, when we decided to call it quits. By this time, I was sure we had taken fifty pictures, talked to a bunch of strangers, said something out loud, climbed on a random subway train and what not. Not to forget my mobile which almost ran out of battery. But it didn't stop me from feeling giddy and excited. It was the thrill of doing something crazy with my partner in crime after a long, long time. Even after I reached home, I made sure to plug my phone to my charger just so I could talk to her. I was growing insane by this point. I wasn't even drunk but fuck it, I didn't care.
After changing my clothes— more like stripping them to my boxers, I laid down to bed and called her. A minute later she was relaxing too. “Do you realize that it's 19th of August in here while it's 20th there? You're living ahead of me so I'm sure you can predict—”
“I want to see you, Van.”
Oh!
Of all things I felt, it was mostly relief. Relief that the feeling was mutual. I was about to reply when I picked up a faint whimper followed by a sniff. My dear Ahana. “You're only going to make it harder for me if you cry.”
“Shut up, it's Mumma cutting onions...” She sighed. “It's just that ever since our breakup, this is the first time we've spent time together so well. Yes, I'll call it spending time. It hardly felt like you were away. We never talked for this long. Either you were busy or sleeping, or either I was ignoring you for ignoring me— That's mostly how our first four months went, except that time when we virtually danced. I honestly don't know how long this magic will last. I want it to last but I know— I know after this day we'll move on to our daily lives as if nothing happened.”
I swallowed, clearing up my almost clogged throat. “Switch on to video. Just do it,” I insisted, my voice coming out hoarse.
I switched on a small light for a better view. “Better, atleast I can see you now,” I said, smiling as I saw her face lying on the pillow. Our phones were slanted against the pillow too. I took a good look at her. She wasn't crying but her eyes were glassy. My gaze moved to the hair strands that fell off her face, her slightly reddish nose, her flushed cheeks and her pink full lips. I wanted to kiss them all. She looked as adorable as I remember, if not, then more. I clenched my jaw tight, angry at not being able to do anything at all. “I swear I would have flown to Delhi, had I been living in Chandigarh or any part of India. That's how badly I wanna see you right now,” I said, feeling completely and utterly hopeless. Damn, I could easily land a punch right now.
“Calm down Van. Fine, I won't cry,” She said, wiping her tear streaked face. She looked at me for a good amount before her lips curled slightly. “I suppose you want to sleep now. Aha, don't lie, I can see your eyes becoming red.”
“But An—” I whined, blinking already. As much cheesy as it sounded, I didn't want the connection to end. I wanted to hear her voice till the last second I stayed awake. “Then stay with me until I fall asleep.”
Her face broke into a full blown smile, making my heart drop. “Okay, I'll sing you a lullaby then,” she teased.
“Shut up,” I said and threw a lazy kiss her way. She gave one back. “You're still as beautiful to me.”
“And you're just as handsome as ever...”
A spell had broken somewhere, allowing us to be lovers of the night. Our conversation slowly drifted to a romantic one as we whispered things to each other. I felt like a drunkard man, pouring his feelings at the same time as he felt while she reciprocated. I told— No, I begged her to visit me. Told her I'd show her around, introduce her to my friends, make her feel like heaven while she promised to think about it seriously. A part of me knew she wouldn't. Visa, passport— It was too much of a hassle. Nonetheless, I hoped she would prove me wrong. I hated this feeling. A part of me wished to undo this night just so I could ease the ache in my heart but then again, I wouldn't have been so grateful. It was a bit saddening but guess I'll have to go with it for now.
As I neared myself to slumber, she mumbled, “I think we have reached a step closer after this.”
“Hmm...”
“Vansh?”
“Keep speaking, babe,” I blinked slowly while holding my phone as if holding her in my arms. “Good afternoon Ahana.”
A faint chuckle was heard from the other side, “Good night, dear Vansh.”
A blurred image of Ahana formed in my head as I closed my eyes. Her breath tingling in my neck as she lay completely cocooned in my arms while I was smiling, taking the scent of the shampoo from her hair. I wanted to open my eyes, to see her face on the screen one more time before I fell asleep. And if we had already crossed the line for today, then I had one more thing to say. I fluttered my eyes open, relived to see her on line.
'Love you.'
I could almost see her lifting herself to plant a kiss on my forehead. It was as if I was touched by love. I slept like a happy child on Christmas.
~
AHANA
My heart fluttered against my chest as Vansh flashed a sheepish yet a vulnerable smile. It almost seemed like his lips were moving but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Subconsciously, I brought my mobile screen to my lips and pretended to kiss his forehead. It seemed futile but I couldn't help it. Not with my overwhelming feelings. I watched in awe as Vansh closed his eyes one more time and slept with a stupid smile on his face. I giggled softly when I noticed that he still hadn't let go of his mobile from his hand. After a few seconds however, I noticed his screen facing the ceiling. I brought my mobile close to my heart, taking in everything that I had been feeling for the last few hours before closing the digital connection between us. Covering my own body with a quilt, I slept through the remaining afternoon with a smile.
⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫
A u t h o r' s N o t e
Aww, my sweet babies (Vansh and Ahana). 😘😘 Damn, sometimes I feel bad for torturing them, wishing I didn't have to make a second book at all and let them live in peace.
But where's the fun in that? Lol!
Hope you liked this chapter, especially the Vansh- Ahana moments.❤ And Vansh's pranks lol. Do share your thoughts in the comments.
Happy good Friday to all.
I hope you're atleast glad to see Ahana here. Next chapter will be in her pov. Look forward to the next chapter. *mischievous laugh* 😏