"You always do this to me!" she said as she threw a pillow at him. He just ignored her and kept on collecting some stuff which littered around. "What do you think of yourself? Are you the only person who is so great with all your silly ideas and all!?" Lights were off and she continued following him wherever he roamed in her house. After sometime, he lost himself, out of control, burst open, "Stop it Priyanka!" loud voice of his made the walls deaf in there. And slowly when both of them had nothing to say, one tear drop from Priyanka's right eye sniffed out slowly and talked a lot then.
I was with Shefali. We were roaming around at Bandra fort. She told me about Priyanka's break up. How it happened and everything, except the guy's identity. She too didn't know who was he. By someone mutual she got to know about Priyanka's break up.
We were walking by the garden.
"It's been four months Manav. When are you gonna stop being so weird?"
"What weird?"
"You went off Facebook just because you thought that the guy who Priyanka dated seemed familiar? And you even cut out yourself from other contacts too! Didn't meet anybody, and only after four months you call me here, why?"
"How does it feel when a ton of memoriesdepend on the identity of a person who you might know? If it is that knownperson, your memories are shredded and blown into this wind around us." I saidas I pinched the air. "And if it's not, you again go into the search of that person. Dependency remains."
"Jeez...how can you think so much?"
"Atleast, you don't ask me that."
"Okay...so tell me, why did you call me here?"
I left by keeping her unanswered. Now this move. This would make her think about this ignorance from me. She'll get curious to know what has happened to me? How did I change in those four months. A perfect illusion. She followed me. Called out my name a couple of times. I didn't deliver any attention. I came out of the park, removed a cigarette out of my pocket and started searching for a lighter. She came.
"What the fuck was that?" she said with her arms stretched fully.
"Give me the lighter."
"What?"
"Its in your back pocket. Come on, give me. I need it."
"What?...How did...how did you?" she said and gave me the lighter.
I took it and lit up the cigarette. One strong puff in, it was a remedy for a lot of things. She kept on looking at the cigarette. I offered her. She denied.
On taking in one more puff of that airy snack, I asked her,
"I know you do." I offered her again. This time she took it. So let me tell you what was going on here.
Shefali recently went through a break up. Shewas dating a guy since a long time and he turned out to be a freak. Youremember why she always sat quiet in her own world? This was the reason to it. She understood the world a bit more than others, because, thanks to her ex-boyfriend who made her learn those things. Anyways, matters were closed between him and her but obviously, we are humans, we tend not to forget that person who we loved. So after that whole break up thing, she got inclined to booze and stuff. Anyways, how did I come to know about all this? She never told me. But still I knew. I do one kinda magic trick. Even I don't know the true secrets to it, but I know how its done. And yes, it works.
"How did you come to know the lighter was in my back pocket?"
"I know some stuff Shef, about you." She didn't utter a word. For she had never seen me like this before. Even I didn't see myself like this. But I was loving this upgrade of mine.
"You've grown your hair a lot. Cut it a bit." She said. I smiled.
* * * * * * * *
My phone beeped while I was on the terrace. I was lying on top of the water tank. A perfect place to feel solace. My eyes were closed. But my phone beeped.
'And in this life of life and death, we all are broke once, for too much of sadness is a drug of happiness with turns'
That's what I sung. It beeped again. One more time and I would get up to check what was this small world of mine trying to show me. First there was a message from Dev and a notification from Instagram. Also there was a message from a girl.
Message from the girl :
Hey
Hey
She was online. I replied her through Hike.
. . .
She was typing. Till then I went on to check Dev's message. He didn't know I was on Hike and Instagram. I mean no one knew except that girl. So Dev had sent me a normal text message.
Message from Dev :
Meet me tomorrow at 5 its urgent!
Urgent? What's up with him now? I went through his facebook and Insta feed. I couldn't find any post or update regarding anything urgent happening in his life. Maybe it was so urgent that he didn't put it out there on social.
It's nice talking to you nowadays Manav.
The message from that girl, I mean, Priyanka.
It was necessary now for me to go and check that Instagram notification. It said Priyanka had posted a new photo. She always smiled in her photos. That was good about her. This photo was also like other pics.
Me too.
I replied her. I also added a smiley. Yes, I was talking to her. We were talking. Me and Priyanka. Oh, you want to know how did it start?
* * * * * * * *
I felt very peaceful at my small window. Istood there for a while and Rishi had a look at what did I do on my laptop. His face dropped and he was forced to be in silence. No words at all came out of his mouth. The only thing which I had done was, that I deactivated my Facebook account.
But Rishi couldn't resist himself and activated my account again. He knew about my email id and password. He called me out. When I came to the table, there it was, Priyanka's reply.
Hey
How are you?
Good
I see you accepted my friend request. Are we good now?
She paused for a while and then she replied.
Yes.
Wow! I'm so happy Piyu! Thanks! Oh...sorry, I meant Priyanka
Its okay. You know you can call me Piyu.
Thanks :)
:)
And then, it just took off from there. Maybeshe understood that it was time to start with a new beginning. Still we didn'ttell each other what had we written in the chits and whether we read it or no.I thought, lets not fuck this up again. I didn't bother about the chits now. Iasked her about those two weeks, where she was? And why she didn't come online?She said that she had gone out of town with family, and I knew it. How? Hersocial media update.
Okay, so basically, I had a fake account on Instgram through which I followed Priyanka, Dev, Shefali and even Omkar and Tanmay. It was the same with Facebook. After talking to Priyanka that day, I somehow managed to bring her to Hike and then I shut my account down. I kept an eye on everyone close to me.
I met Shefali at Bandra fort for a reason. Now my life was working on reasons. She was like a door. She would pass me the information regarding others unknowingly and let my information pass to others. Somehow I couldn't find who she dated. Maybe she also maintained this anonymity of her life. I liked that. But she was going through this break up phase, so she wasn't that useful to me. I tried searching for her boyfriend, if I could find him, I would destroy him. But its Shefali's boyfriend, he had to be different.
Anyways, it had been four months, and I needed answers.
And for that, whenever I tried to dig in, there would be times when Piyu intruded my attention, and while talking to her it made me feel more resistive towards her. Because ultimately she was the one who dated that emoji guy. My mind was struggling over all this. But I kept faith that I could solve it.
* * * * * * * *
Sip! That's what Dev did as we met at Di Bella café. I stared at him.
"So?" I said.
"So?"
"What's that thing you wanted to tell me? You said it's urgent right?"
He kept the cold coffee aside. With his hands folded on the table, he said,
"Yes. This meeting was urgent."
"What do you mean?"
"What does it mean? God sake, its been four months Manav. You've lost contact with everyone of us. Moreover, that Shefali is something up with her life."
"What is it?"
"I don't know, she is acting too weird. But hold on, where were you?"
"I...is this the way to call me here? Saying that its urgent?"
"Yes, because otherwise you wouldn't come. I should have tried this earlier, nevertheless, do you even know what's going on with your best friend's life?"
I knew exactly what was going on with his life. He was finally dating a girl. And when I say 'finally', that means I mean it.
"Oh, again that silent look. Okay...I'll just tell you right away even if you're not interested. I've been dating a girl since two months."
"Wow, that's good. Congrats." I said and asked for handshake.
"Do you know who is she?"
"No, who?"
"Okay, so please don't judge me here Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the one I'm in love with is Naina."
I know right? How did this happen? You remember her? That annoying girl?
"What dude! How can you cancel the plan?" I said.
"I'm sorry Manav, but I guess I had texted you. Didn't you get my text?"
"Yes I got it. I read it just now. And I'm already at Shivaji Park."
"Oh! Extremely sorry brother, I'll catch you up later, I'll call you...I'm a bit busy right now."
"Alright...umm...busy? Is Naina talking about some of her 'personal life' incident which happened some two months ago? And that when you might have asked her whether that incident got sorted out, to which she might have replied affirmative; but now, you are a close person to her, and so you are listening to the saddening story. Am I wrong?"
"Yes you are wrong."
"Oh, come on. Spit out the sweet truth."
"...Okay, you are right, but that's what friends, close ones do. You are very much experienced in these matters, aren't you?"
Now do you remember? That's the same Naina, Dev fell for.
Dev kept on looking at me. And after a while,
"Oh. Okay." I said.
"You aren't astonished?"
"No, I mean it's your choice. You can love whoever you love to."
"That's nice of you. Thanks." He said. "So how's college?"
I gave a blank look as if I had heard about college for the first time.
"You know your college has started right? I guess you are going to college?"
"Oh, well, no. I'm totally unware about what's going on."
"What has happened to you Manav? Are you okay?"
I was perfectly okay. And I knew college had started, because I was attending it. The reason why I didn't admit in front of him? It was due to that one person who was in my college. The person with whom Dev was now in relationship with - Naina.