"How's the Josh Kabira", I shouted standing at the edge of the balcony, as I watched Kabir Chaudhary, get out of his white Honda city carrying his very famous black Sky-bag sack, on his right shoulder which had the words "Kabir Chaudhary" inscribed on it in gold (golden color).
The description about his sack is so very important because his black sack with his name inscribed in gold, was famous in the entire school.
Also, many rumors were spread all along the school about his classy bag, the most spoken fact/rumor being – "Kabir ke bag mein bohat saare secrets hain yaar, he carries many distinguished articles in them, most of which are generally not needed, in our school days."
And, the answer to the most asked question, "Who has the entire information about these secretive things" was very simple, "Abhimanyu Mantri, Kabir's BFF."
To be frank, I was indeed proud of the fact that Kabir is my Best friend, because he was indeed an attractive boy. Kabir usually scored between 85%-95% in exams. He was a state level football player, with an amazing physique and had interest in playing guitar as well.
When it is the topic of the other gender, Kabir has many friends in girls but no girlfriends. The entire credit goes to his best friend, me, because I am a very capable advisor, in any topic or situation.
And yeah, we shared the passwords of our Netflix and Amazon Prime account, through which you can definitely make out our strong bond. Taking into consideration the fact that Kabir always held me in high esteem and he was more interested in my equation with the other girls.
We shared all our secrets (though I have a single interest among the other gender – Russia).
At the end, the most crucial or known-to-all fact about Kabir is that only Abhimanyu has the right to call him "Kabira" and no one else in the school.
He opened the main gate of my house, a bungalow with 1 floor above the ground floor, and a beautiful balcony edging outside the parking with a long swing-chair.
The place where I used to sit and swing and write my personal diaries surrounded by pots of various flowers including roses, marigold, Tulsi (although it has no flowers) and many more shrubs and bushes, natural and artificial both.
My mother is very fond of gardening, shrubs, bushes and greenery. Thanks to her interest, we also have a small garden in the parking arena with lush-green soft grass, where we seldom used to arrange family dinner on weekends.
I asked Seema aunty, Kabir's mom to accompany him to my house, but she said she was busy today and left in the car. Yet, she did not forget to inform me that she was going to come back at 8:00pm to pick Kabir back.
My mom opened the gate for him, as he wished her hello and through the stairs entered my room. The first thing he did, on entering my room was, he changed the date on the calendar to 1st August,2020 as it was still showing 31st July, before he entered.
Which means, THIS SCENE IS FLASHBACK.
(This scene is taking place - Before the MUN)
He exclaimed hurriedly that, "Dekh, sirf 3 ghante hain aur bohat tayaari karni hain, toh please jaldi printer start kar, tab tak main laptop nikalta". And, yes he was speaking about my laptop.
Obviously, when you are Best Friends, the condition "Joh tera hain who mera hain, joh mera hain woh tera", is applicable to everything that belongs to us, including our family members but excluding our love interest (to be precise, LIKE interests), that too, IF WE HAVE ANY, which neither of us had.
(Chal jhootha – this was the line I spoke to myself)
Kabir had attended only one MUN previously that too without me, so he needed some help with his speeches and questions (actually – much help). The next day, we had the 1st day of our MUN conference.
However, the more important fact was that, it was for the first time, our school was conducting an MUN conference. So, most of the students of my grade, my batch-mates, were attending it for the first time.
Everybody knew, that I was an experienced Munner. So, as expected, I received many calls from the students of my batch, with their confusing questions about different aspects in MUN.
As I said, I am a very intellectual person, giving amazing advice on any issue, I answered them satisfactorily.
Okay, okay, no more self-praising.
Kabir asked me, "Abhi sun, Shweta ka phone aaya kya?"
I answered with a slight disappointment but no expectations saying," NOPE BRO".
We had a small discussion about some class mates of ours, especially the girls, about their countries in the MUN, their previous experiences if they had any, and what was my strategy in order to win the Best Delegate award tomorrow.
Speaking in general, talking about ones' batch-mates or class-mates, that too very freely, with your best friend by your side, gives you so much pleasure at heart. I am sure you might have experienced this feeling.
"Ek baar try kar ke dekho, acha lagta hain."
For the next 2hours 30 minutes, to be precise, we indeed worked vigorously and prepared ourselves for tomorrow's conference.
In between, I received a few calls from my friends, about the conference itself, and answered them swiftly, as Kabir stared at me every time, when the call duration exceeded 600 seconds (10 minutes), but he used to say 600 seconds with much exaggeration.
At 7:45pm, Priya Didi called us as the dinner was ready, and Kabira was supposed to leave by 8, according to the strict instructions of his Mom.
Kabira left, dad and didi had their dinner, while I was serving them and mom had fast that night, so she was supposed to take fruits and dry fruits.
"Kuch bhi bolo, typical marwadi moms, chaahe kitni bhi modern ho jaaye, kuch baatein kabhi nahi chodte, including upwaas", these were the words which I spoke, while going upstairs towards my room, for the further preparations.
My views, about the above spoken statement would be – I adore these ladies, especially my MOM very much, for their determination. After all, I believe, they do these things majorly for self-satisfaction.
And, Self-satisfaction is directly or indirectly the reason behind every action and reaction in this world.
A little bit more philosophical, but this is Abhimanyu Mantri at his best.
Half-an-hour later, Priya Di came in with her phone on, as she was on a video call with Aashvi, my real bhanji and the daughter of my eldest sister, the cutest member of my family.
My parents have 3 children. Neha Di, my eldest sister, who is married and has a 4 year old daughter, Aashvi, the star of our eyes. Priya Di, the second daughter, who has completed with her Bachelors in Architecture with an amazing percentile and distinction, and is now studying for Masters, and Me, a 10th standard kid.
Priya Di and Neha Di are the closest people of my life, even before Kavya, Pratyush, Kabir, Shrushti and other close friends.
You will definitely get to know about them, just a bit later. Patience!
Then, after the video call, it was just me and didi in the room. She asked me about my preparations, the phone calls, all my uniforms and accessories etc. All the small-small things which I required for the 2-day conference.
I think, this habit of discipline and pre-preparations is what keeps me a little ahead of all my other friends and the major credit for this goes to my family.
Usually, we, Priya Di and I, sleep together in one room itself, but as she had her projects to be made, she said she would be working in the drawing room, upstairs, on the first floor itself. If I needed any help, she was there. While leaving she asked me the most controversial question of that moment,"Sun, woh teri shweta ka phone aaya kya?" As I said, my sister knows all my secrets.
To which I answered blushing with a very horrible smile, "Mere naseeb mein tu hain ke nahi, tere naseeb mein main hoon ke nahi." Singing this song loudly. Both of us laughed, as I, running towards her, hugged her from the back, and we walked to the drawing room.
Mom-dad were sleeping downstairs. She sat down on the carpet, with a soft-long pillow at her back, turning on the speaker, already connected with her phones. I played songs and browsed through her phone, as she started working on her laptop.
10 minutes later, I was going back to our room, with HER phone still in my hand, when she suddenly asked, "Tujhe phone se kaam hain kya? " My sister is strict and loving, both at the same time, after all she was a better student than me as well, when she was of my age.
I answered," Haan, I will give you as soon as I finished."
A few seconds later," I shouted to her," Nahi, Nahi, Nahi, koi phone nahi aaya bro."
She answered, laughing with little concentration towards me, as she was engrossed in her study, "Ek kaam kar, tu hi laga le, hahaha".
I entered my room, flicked the AC remote in the air, switching on the AC, just dropped my body on the floor and started doing push-ups for no reason. I had the phone right below my chin, wherein the TOI app (Times of India) was open, because I have immense interest in news and general knowledge.
As soon as I completed 10 push-ups, on the bend of the 11th one, a name flashed on my sister's phone's screen.
I am pretty sure, all of you might have guessed it correctly, because I suddenly imbalanced myself, and fell to the floor, as I read the name of the person calling, aloud in my mind – Shweta Kalantry.
I remembered, my mom calling 11 as a LUCKY number. (11TH push up)
With my eyes wide open, I saw the time on the phone – 10:33pm. I pressed the lower volume key, to silent the ringtone and regaining the balance of my body, sitting on the bed, I picked up the phone.
"Hello", the first word which both of us spoke together, though she was the first one to speak.
"Abhimanyu, is that you?" she asked.
"Yes, this is a Abhi", affirmative reply.
"Hey, hi, this is Shweta Kalantry here, disturb toh nahi kiya na?"
"Nahi nahi, bol na" I answered smiling.
She exclaimed," I hope tu soya nahi hain, bcoz usually toppers sleep early na ", with a sense of laughter in her voice.
"Nope, I am not one of those topper, you see", this was one of the rarest moment, when I called myself a topper, in a conversation.
Warna main khud ki zyada taarif karta nahi hoon!
So, in this way, our conversation began.
To be frank, it all began about the MUN conference, its rules and procedure, some guidelines and tips about the speeches and debates and so on.
As I said, it was her first MUN, so she was a bit tensed and needed some help, and I, am a very intellectual person (again praising myself).
At once, Priya Di entered the room, and through her hand gestures, she asked – who was it, on the phone, at such an hour.
I gazed at the clock – 11:30pm.
"Just a second haan", I said to Shweta as I showed Didi the screen. She was not quite happy, and told me to cut the phone, that is, disconnect the phone in 5 minutes.
Then, she left.
I took a sigh of relief and we continued. Since I, was the happier person, in this conversation, although, her doubts were being solved.
Then, the topic of our talks, was no longer those intellectual ones, it ranged from friendships, to our hobbies, to sports, to our best friends, to our common interests of watching movies, teachers etc.
All of a sudden, I heard the sound of some footsteps, and looking at the wall-clock of our room, with a photo of the 3 siblings (three of us), I was terrified.
Because, it was 00:48am (12:48am).
Interrupting in between, I suddenly spoke to her, "Arre listen na, its quite late, so I am sorry but I will take your leave now".
To which she replied," Yeah sure, sorry haan Abhi, maine tumhara bohat zyada time le liya ".
With a simple reply," No-No that's completely okay, I hope tumhare sab doubts clear ho Gaye, because that is actually more important", I spoke to her.
" Thank you so much Abhi, main actually thoda confused thi, whether I should call you this late, but then, it was indeed nice and helpful talking to you" she replied.
My major aim was to stop the conversation, but I still continued saying," No worries Shweta, anytime, you can call me anytime, Chalo, all the best for tomorrow's conference, kal milte hain".
Her last sentence, "Just one question, I hope you don't mind calling you ABHI."
"Why would I mind, I am always happy, when you call me by that name...(I continued, correcting my statement, blushing)
OH I mean, when my friends call me by that name", was my answer.
Did I just blundered and spoke something too cheesy!
We disconnected our phone call and as soon as I was taking up my quilt to sleep, she messaged – "Thank you so much Abhi, for these speeches you made for me, especially at such an hour, it is just perfect. Good night. Will meet tomorrow. Thank you sooo much once again"
Though, I did not reply anything, but let me tell you guys, in our long call of a total duration of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 11 seconds, (11 being the lucky number now, not only for my Mom but also for ME).
In this time, I made 2 speeches for her. The factual content from Google (Google chacha ki jai) along with some good words, phrases and quotes. Thanks to the mind of the class topper of 10th A of Delhi Public School.
(Again PRAISING myself).
The next day, she spoke both the speeches very well, out of which for one, she got a melody (chocolate) from the Judge, as a mark of appreciation. And she broke it into 2, and gave 1 half to me.
Kabira was staring at me, as ate 1 half of the chocolate, probably the most delicious melody, I ever had.
(I am sorry but breaking a small melody into 2 smaller pieces, yeh bhi koi baat hain, main Judge se ek khud maang ke kha leta tha Yaar.)
Nevertheless, the conference ended on a good note, as you know, I won 2 important things –
1. Received the Special Mention award, which made my parents proud again.
2. Her writings on my placard with her NEW phone number.
Sunday
4th August
10:00am
PRESENT DAY
What could be better than an ordinary Sunday in your very monotonous school life! It all began at 6:30am in the morning as I woke up and went to play cricket with my colony friends.
Let me tell you, I am indeed a very lucky person, because the group of colony friends with which I am blessed, is just Wallah!
Out of these 9-10 teenagers of nearly the same age, there is a group of 3 friends, with the title "TEEN TIGADA KAAM BIGADA "given to our Whatsapp group. The members are –
a. Kavya Zhanvar
b. Pratyush Biyani
c. Abhimanyu Mantri
We 3 know each other, since 11 years, and I pray to Krishna Bhagwan, that we are together forever.
Now, speaking in general, every human being has these peculiar inner instincts of something which is going to happen.
And, I am not at all different. I definitely had this sense of happiness, as soon as I entered home and got ready.
Suddenly, I received a video call from Aashvi and in her ever-sweet voice she said,"Mamu, jaldi aapke cupboard mein drawer khol ke dekho".
I was curious and excited. Rushing to my room, I unlocked the cupboard, opened the drawer and to my greatest astonishment, I found a brand new Samsung Galaxy M31 64pixel quad-camera mobile phone.
With my highest spirits, I ran towards my dad and hugged him while he was reading the newspaper. He kissed me on my forehead and asked me to thank both the didis for this amazing gift. This was the best Sunday of the month, as the month had only began, and that day, It was me who helped mom thoroughly with the preparations for lunch.
I am not a master chef, but I am good at doing the pre-preparations and cleaning the stuff after the meal is over. The main work is supposed to be done by ladies only.
Finally, at 2:00pm in the afternoon, I went up to my bedroom, got onto the bed, examined and set up all the configurations in my brand new phone.
"Koi bhi ho, kaisa bhi ho, pehle phone ki toh baat hi alag hoti hain"
At 4:30pm in the afternoon, after successfully sharing my new contact details with all my friends, I finally dialed the one number, which was the 5th saved contact in my phone. (Mom, dad, both didis were the first 4)
(Sorry, to my BFFs from school and the members of TEEN TIGADA)
Okay, so I took a deep breathe in, and the call was on. Picking up the phone, in her ever-sweet voice, she answered, "Hello". A tone with a mixture of rhetorical question, wherein the question is asked as if it's the answer.
"Hey hi, this is Abhimanyu" I exclaimed, joyfully.
"Hey hi Abhi, new number liya TUNE? Oh sorry, TUMNE", spoke Shweta.
Probably she had the same doubt as we have while writing the final equation of a 2 page long mathematics sum.
Whether to talk with a "TU" or a "TUM".
"Yeah, that's my new number, my own. Save it that way. And haan that "TU" suits us comparatively more." Confidence was seeping through my veins, I felt.
I also continued," Tumne tumhara new number dia tha, toh ek baar Call karna, toh banta hi hain na!"
"Yeah sure Abhi. By the way, I actually had this thought in mind to call you, you know, ek baar, thanking you again for your help in MUN aur tumhare result ke liye bhi...
(Exaggerating her next statement and correcting it, at the same time)
Tere result ke liye!"
To which, I was capricious and a bit confused at the same time. Shweta herself wanted to call me, is that so?
This understanding or misunderstanding (whatever you call).
But this conversation full of "TUNE" and "TUMNE" seemed very cute and adorable.
And secondly, I love the fact when people call me Abhi, and when such people call me Abhi (Russia),
"Kabhi bliss of solitude wali feeling experience ki hain, coz I get those Vibes!"
I was about to say something just before which she started," Yaar, Abhi ek baat bolu, you know, I actually felt that you deserved...."
(I deserve...what?)
(Please scroll down)
TO BE CONTINUED...
"Sochta hoon ki har shayari mein teri taarif karu...
Phir sochta hoon ki kahi padhne wala bhi
Tera deewana na ban jaye..."