Gauri had a good time listening to Rudy's diet schedule. Shivaay and Om, who had heard it multiple times, rolled their eyes. Shivaay left in some time citing Annika as the excuse, while Omkara didn't even bother to look interested and took out some account files he was struggling with.
Gauri didn't mind being regaled by Rudy's in-depth gym routine. Privately, she felt this was another of one of those ameer logon ke chonchle (the coquetry of rich people). If only they travelled by public transport, or did a bit more physical labour around the house, they won't need to rely on the 'gym' so much. But she liked the enthusiasm which Rudy had for his hobby. It was in stark contrast to Omkara's almost worried and annoyed expression at the files before him.
Rudy got another call at that moment, and looked irritated at being interrupted thus. He excused himself again. Gauri peeked over at the files and asked, "Whats bothering you?"
"This. This is stupid. I hate this. And I can't figure out why we are losing money here." said Omkara frustrated.
Now Gauri didn't understand English very well. But she certainly understood figures and statistics well enough now, courtesy her open education classes, and how hard she worked at them. She pored over the files for a while. Something was wrong about the data, but she couldn't exactly place her finger on what. Gauri had handled accounts of her shop and related business for years alone, so she wasn't exactly new to all this. She asked Omkara hesitantly.
"Do you mind, if I click pictures of this file? Just for studying you know. Maybe observing all the graphs and all will help me in statistics?"
Omkara smiled. He wanted to help out Chulbul in his education surely, but these were confidential files of his company, could he trust Chulbul with this information? Definitely. Chulbul had proven trustworthy and more than that.
"Of course, you can, though I don't know how much of a help these will be to you." said Omkara
"You don't mind?" asked Gauri, a little taken aback that he agreed so easily.
"No, I trust you." Omkara said simply.
Crash. Gauri's heart fell to her stomach. Why did he trust her like this?
She shook her head, and took out her phone to click pictures of the file.
"Oh, so you have a phone now?" asked Omkara
"Yes, Dandi bhaiyaa got tired of playing kabootar ja ja (a song about a messenger pigeon) between both of us. So, I got a phone, to relieve him of the stress." replied Chulbul.
Omkara looked amused.
As Gauri slipped her phone back into her pocket, she noticed something familiar on Omkara's table, buried under the files.
"My payal! (anklet)" squealed Gauri, forgetting that she was Chulbul, overjoyed to find her payal which she had lost on the day of the jagraata.
"What do you mean your payal?" asked Omkara, surprised and a little embarrassed.
"I mean, this is not yours." said Chulbul
"Yes, its not mine, obviously. But what do you mean its yours? Do you wear payals?" asked Omkara, a little irritated.
Gauri was trapped, so she turned his words on him.
"Do you wear payals? Why is it with you?" and without waiting for his reply, she took it from beneath the files.
"Hey, Chulbul, give it back to me." said Omkara.
"I won't" said Chulbul, and started backing away.
Omkara was in disbelief.
Chulbul was not going to make him run after him, was he? But it looked like he was. Chulbul jumped over the bed, trying to get to the door first, but Omkara chased after him. Omkara wouldn't let that payal get away from him, it was his only connect to that mysterious girl.
"What's going on here?" asked Rudy, looking slightly dumbfounded. He couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. The Omkara who avoided sports and play, and would hide in a corner with his sketchbook, was actually running after a kid, chasing him over and around his bed and sofa.
Omkara and Chulbul froze in their positions, and realized how stupid it must look to Rudra, and to them too, for that matter. Omkara recovered first, and tackled Chulbul to the ground, and got the anklet out of his hand. Gauri, who recovered a little late, was shocked to have a big, heavy man, kabaddi (an Indian sport)-tackle her, and before she could wriggle out of his reach, he got the payal from her.
Fine, let him have the payal. Gauri had many more. God knows what he's going to do with it? Wear it on his hair? These rich people and their fantasies. She devoted her attention to adjusting her hoodie jacket properly, so that her identity remains protected.
Omkara noticed it and asked, "Chulbul, its April! Why do you wear such heavy clothes in this weather? And we have a centralized AC in our house! Take it off, I feel stuffy looking at you."
"What? How dare you? I mean, how could you ask such a thing. Hum jaa rahe ab, phir milte hain (I am going now, see you later)", and saying so, looking extremely affronted, Chulbul rushed from Om's room, and house.
"He's so weird." said Om, looking befuddled over Chulbul's antics
"Its not him, its you who is weird, O. First, you chase that boy, then you climb on him and then you tell him to take off his clothes? Hey bhagvaan! yeh kya ho gaya O ko! (Oh God what has happened to O?)" said Rudy dramatically.
"Look O, I am going to meet Sumo. I hope when I see you next, you are fine." said Rudy, in mock worry, as he left the room.
"Stupid boys. Both of them. God! I am surrounded by insane people!" Om exclaimed to himself.
**********************************************************
Soumya was a little anxious. She had decided to break it off with Rehan, full and final. Whatever, emotions she had for him, had long evaporated, and there was no point stretching their relationship anymore. Still for what is was worth, she had spend some months of her life in relationship with this man, so she didn't want the break up to be ugly.
Soumya didn't know why she asked Rudy to be there, but she just felt that she should take him up on his offer to give her moral support. Chubby agreed to come with Rudy too. So both of them would be reaching the cafe in some time, and mostly Soumya would leave with them.
Soumya hoped that everything would be fine, she wanted to let down Rehan gently, without any drama.
"Hi Soumya." said Rehan, as he reached the table, where Soumya was waiting for him, since the last five minutes. He was sulking, that was not a good sign, thought Soumya.
"Hi Rehan. Sit no? Why you're standing?" said Soumya casually. She asked him about his college and his future plans.
"Rehan, look, I'm sorry about how I have been behaving since the last few days. Its rude, I was rude, and you deserve better than this. Thats why, I am going to be honest with you. I think the when we broke up the first time, whatever feelings I had for you, just faded away. I know we gave our relationship a second chance, slowly and steadily, but somewhere I couldn't feel it, and I don't want to be unfair to you. I don't envisage a future with you Rehan, and we shouldn't prolong this relationship anymore. Everyone deserve someone who is fully committed to them, and thats not me, in our case. So, I think we should end our relationship here." Soumya breathed out, after letting it all out. She looked at Rehan hoping he would not be too upset.
"You are breaking up with me?" said Rehan, sounding angrier by the second. "Its I who should be breaking up with you. I knew from the beginning that you were not worth my time, thats why I broke up with you the first time. I thought maybe we could make it work, because you seemed sensible, so I gave it another chance. But you got up and sat on my head. What airs Soumya! You pretend to be so level-headed and sensible but you know what you are? A hypocrite! Who would date you after the video of your drunken marriage showing on all tv screens? I did. Who would think of a future with someone like you? I did. You know what that makes me?" At this point, Rehan was cut off by someone else.
"A fool." said Rudra as he arrived at the scene. "But not for your apparent generosity towards Soumya. You are an idiot because you are eaten-up in your self pride. You only thought about yourself in your relationship. You want to get engaged to Soumya, you want the two of you to study together, you want this, you want that. And what does Soumya want? Did you ever ask that? I wager not." Rudra folded his arms, judging Rehan thoroughly.
"But of course, you had to show up. Now I see, why suddenly Soumya is breaking up with me. Because she has bigger fish to catch. Because.." goaded Rehan
"Because you are an idiot. And I am an idiot to think we could end this amicably after last time. What is wrong with me, I should have never gotten back into a relationship with you again. But I'm done. Goodbye!" said Soumya, getting up and without giving any explanation, just went out of from there.
Rudy smirked at Rehan, but more out of pity than anything, and then he left to join Soumya and Chubby, who were outside the cafe by now.
"Ugh! I feel so stupid now. He made such a fool of me and himself and you as well." said Soumya, looking at Rudy.
"Oh its fine. He was a moron anyways." shrugged Rudy
"Guys, I have a perfect plan." said Chubby. "Lets celebrate Sumo's break up with that guy, with some pubbing." said Chubby excitedly
"I don't think it is a...." said Rudy, but Soumya interjected. "Sure, sounds like a great idea."
"Cool, I'll call our other common friends too." said Chubby, and went to make calls.
Rudy wasn't feeling too happy about this plan, but deciding that maybe Soumya just wanted to get over all this, he agreed.
P.S. Happy Diwali people!