‘Your engagement. Now relax,’ Swapnil shouted. I was speechless. These were my friends for life. They were giving me something which I had always dreamt of.
I went close to Riya. They all started clapping and whistling.
I took Riya’s hand in mine and put the ring on her finger. They applauded in joy. It was Riya’s turn. She reciprocated the action by putting the ring on my finger. I could see happiness in her eyes. I could almost hear her heart beating. I could sense what she wanted to say.
‘I love you a lot,’ she said.
‘Love you too.’
We went to our bedroom while the others watched the movie in the living room. I could feel the satisfaction in her eyes. I could sense her heartbeats saying we are engaged now. We will always be together. Some things cannot be said but felt. We didn’t speak a word. But we still knew what we felt at that moment. We slept in each others’ arms and looked at the ceiling. She kissed the ring on her finger and looked into my eyes. When she saw that I was almost on the verge of tears, she came closer and wiped off the tears from my eyes. We came outside in the living room. Everyone was engrossed in the movie.
Suddenly the doorbell rang. I saw the time. It was 6 pm. Time for mom to come back home.
‘It’s mom I think. Now what? We will be killed.’
‘Now can’t do anything. Go open the door,’ Riya said.
I peeped through the keyhole and saw mom standing outside. I was afraid. Riya and mom were going to come face to face for the first time. Will they like each other? I could not go against either of them. At the same time, I could not live without either of them. I opened the door and there stood mom in front of all of us.
‘My friends Swapnil, Sameer, Anup, and Riya are here. We are celebrating since exams are over,’ I said in a nervous tone.
Mom came in and looked at each one of them. Especially Riya. Riya gave her a broad smile. I was so nervous. Mom did not speak a word and went straight into the kitchen. She made maggi noodles for all of us. After some time, mom called Riya in the kitchen.
‘Riya, be nice. Don’t argue and don’t tell her about our relationship. Please,’ I told her in a low voice as she went to the kitchen.
I could hear my mom saying something to Riya. I was trying to listen to their conversation.
‘Aadi…just let her go. Riya wont do anything silly. Trust her,’ said Sameer trying to reassure me.
‘I trust Riya, but I also know how my mom is. She will ask her everything. I hope she doesn’t go into panic mode.’
After about 30 minutes or so, Riya came back to the bedroom. I was looking at her and was just about to ask what had happened when she said, ‘Aadi…your mom is so nice. You are lucky to have such a mom. She told me everything about you. I think she knows we are in a relationshp. I will be really happy to marry you and live at your home with your mom.’
‘What? With my mom? You have to live with me. Not her,’ I said jokingly.
‘You won’t understand a girl’s feelings, Aadi. What it feels like to have a good mother-in-law and a good family after marriage. All these things mean a lot to me. When I leave my house and come to yours, you have to promise to take care of me.’
‘Yes I will. Don’t worry. Now let’s have dinner and think of the upcoming exam results.’
‘When will you grow up yaar? Riya has such sweet things to say about your future and you are telling her about the results. So unromantic,’ Anup said.
‘Dude, when the results are declared, all the romance will evaporate through your ass,’ I replied. We all laughed and went to have dinner.
Everyone left soon after. I asked mom what she thought of my friends. She knew I was asking about Riya. Not ‘everyone’. ‘They are all nice. Riya too is sweet and innocent. She looks good with you. But concentrate on your studies for now. If you have a career, you can have a good life.’ I was glad that my mom liked Riya. Our relationship had gone one more step ahead. Was everything happening too quickly?
Finally the results were declared.
We called each other up and went to the college at around 7 pm. The results were put up on the notice board outside the library. There was such a big rush that we could not even see the board clearly. Riya was out with her parents and said she could not come. We decided to check the results again after some time. We went to the tapri outside. All of us were tensed.
‘What do you think your result will be?’ I asked both my friends.
Swapnil expected 1 KT and Anup expected 2. Sameer expected three. I was expecting one. It was a tough time for all of us. We were worried.
After a quick round of smoking, we went to the college. The crowd was much less than before. We went near the board and started searching for our names.
Swapnil was the first to see his name. One KT. As expected.
Sameer was the next to know that he had got 4 KTs. One more than expected. I was still looking for my name. Sameer’s result made me nervous.
Next was Riya. Two KTs. This almost gave me a heart attack. She had got a KT in BEE and Mechanics.
Next was my turn. I had got 1 KT in CP.
Anup got 2 KTs.
Everyone had cleared Computer Programming. It made me feel low. Riya was not present at the scene. I so wanted to tell her about the results. But she was spending time with her family. She had got 2 KTs. I wondered how her family would react to it. I did not want to tell her the results over the phone and spoil her day. I called my mom. She was not happy. But she did not say anything. One KT was fine when a few months earlier I never even wanted to do engineering. Mom asked me about Riya’s result. I did not say anything and kept the phone down.
I called Riya a few hours later. She was with her family. I did not tell her about the results.
I messaged her later.
Results are out. I have got 1 KT. Sameer four. Swapnil one. Anup two. And you two as well. In BEE and Mechanics.
There was no reply. I was worried. Was she upset? I messaged her again.
What happened? Is everything okay? Did you tell your parents about your result?
This time also there was no reply. I was tensed. I called her up but she did not pick up the phone. That made me more tensed.
I went back home and retired to bed soon after. When I got up in the morning, I saw there was a message from her.
Sorry, I was busy with my family so could not reply sooner. I hope you’re not angry with me. Sorry again. Anyway congrats for the result. Call me when you get up.
I immediately called her up. She picked up the phone on the first ring.
‘What the hell is this? Where were you all day yesterday? I called you atleast 20 times and left you so many messages. Were you really with your parents? Or were you out with someone on a date?’
‘Aadi…why are you being so rude? You know I was with my family. I had told you that. They were around me all the time. How could I have talked to you in front of them?’
‘I don’t care. You should have. Get lost. I do not want to talk to you. I hate you.’
‘Fine. Do as you feel like. You are extremely rude. Hate you too. Bye.’
I was really disturbed by the result and Riya was behaving very badly. I knew I should not have shouted at her but I had lost my temper. For the first time we had fought like this. I felt bad. However, it was her mistake this time and I wanted her to realize it. I did not call back.
Let her go to hell, I thought. I had called her non-stop for almost 10 hours. I had even left her so many messages. Not getting a reply from her was too much for me to bear.
I did not talk with Riya for one whole day. I was disturbed about my result. I had got 29 marks in CP. Somehow I wanted to clear the paper. I had heard that there were a few professors who would charge around 10,000 rupees and get the paper cleared in revaluation. I was ready to do that. Swapnil and I went to meet a few of those professors. Finally we were able to track down one of them. But he was asking for 20,000 rupees. It was not a small amount for us. Though he
told us to give the paper for revaluation, he did not look trustworthy. I desperately wanted to clear the paper in any possible way. I had tried everything. If Riya had been with me, my confidence would have soared. But I was alone.
Realizing that she was not going to call me, I took the initiative and called her instead. As soon as she picked up the phone, she started crying. It hurt me to see her cry and made me realize I was wrong. I aplogized to her. She cried even more.
‘Jaan, I am sorry. Please say something. Stop crying, bachcha. Please forgive me.’
‘Why didn’t you call me for so long? I was waiting for your call from the time I kept the phone down. You don’t care about me. You have started taking me for granted. Why Aadi…why? I had told you everything that day. I needed you the most when my parents shouted at me for the exam results. But you were not there. I hate you Aadi…’ she cried.
‘I said sorry, baba. Let’s go to Bandra tomorrow. Mount Mary.’
‘Okay fine. Dare you fight with me again. Please. I can’t handle this. Love you. And sorry once again.’
‘Don’t be sorry. It was my mistake and I will not repeat it, I promise. See you tomorrow.’
We met the next day. She was still upset for whatever had happened. I knew how to make her happy. I had a surprise for her.
‘Are you still angry with me?’ I asked her after taking a rickshaw from Bandra.
‘Ya, somewhat,’ she replied looking at me with swollen eyes. I cursed myself for having made her cry so much.
‘I know how to make you smile, don’t I?’ I said kissing her forehead.
‘What? Don’t tell me you have a surprise for me?’ she said with a quizzical impression.
‘Hmm…kind of.’ I opened the zip of my bag, took out the wrapped gift, and gave it to her. She kissed me so hard that it left a big love bite on my neck. She started unwrapping her present.
It was a T-shirt with a smiley at the centre and the word ‘Sorry’ written right below it. She hugged me as tightly as she could.
It is such a wonderful feeling when your love kisses you and hugs you after a fight. We had not talked to each other for almost two days. But here we were after two days, kissing and hugging each other, crying in each other’s arms as if nothing had happened. We both knew that we could not live without each other.
I told her about the revaluation and that I had had a talk with a professor who would clear my paper. Oh God! I wanted to say ‘our’ paper but had said ‘my’ paper by mistake. She did not take this very well.
‘Good. Very good. You did not feel like telling me this in the past two days and here you are accusing me of not having called you. You took such a big decision without even asking me. I understand we are not talking to each other but did you forget that even I had a KT? You could have told him to re-evaluate my paper too. You have changed Aadi…’
‘I didn’t mean it. Why would I tell him just about myself? I have not decided if I will go for re-evaluation or not. Why are you overreacting? For God’s sake, please stop fighting.’
A long silence followed.
She suddenly burst into a big smile. She did not want to waste time in fighting. I went and kissed her. All the tension between us evaporated in a second. We went to Mount Mary. Bandstand—kissing, hugging, fondling each other, looking at the waves of the sea. But in my heart I knew our relationship would never be the same. Little cracks had begun to appear. Small fights today, bigger ones tomorrow. I didn’t know where our relationship was headed.
A New Semester
It was the end of our vacations and the beginning of the second semester. Going back to college was not an exciting thought at all. Riya had reached college before me. I told her to collect the marksheets for both of us. When I reached college, I met Riya in the quadrangle. We both went to the notice board to note down the subjects and timetable.
1. CP 2
2. ENGG DRAWING
3. APPLIED SCIENCES 2
4. MATHS 2
5. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The subjects were not as difficult as the ones we had in the first semester. Of course Maths 2 and CP 2 were a bit tricky. However, the rest of the subjects were manageable. We went for our first lecture of the second semester. I gave Riya a missed call in the middle of the lecture and she looked back and gave me a naughty smile. We fought often, but still loved each other from the bottom of our hearts. It was barely the first day of the second semester, and love was in the air.
We were having lunch in our classroom when I went out to attend a call. I was approached by two boys when I was on call.
‘Do you know that girl?’ both asked me in unison.
‘Who are you talking about?’ I asked. They pointed to a girl in the class and I peeped in to look. It was Riya! They were asking me her name. I tried to avoid the question. I gave them a different name.
‘No, don’t try to fool us. That’s not her name, we know. Her name is something else,’ they said. However, I did not reveal her name to them. Judging that I was not going to reveal her name, come what may, they left soon after. I went into the classroom and sat next to Riya. Swapnil and my other friends were sitting on the last bench. I was talking to Riya when I again saw the two boys standing outside the back door. They were gesturing for me to come out. I chose to ignore them and continued talking to Riya. She was telling me about her brother’s upcoming exams.
Suddenly they entered the classroom and came and stood near us. I wanted to keep Riya away from them. I thought they were going to ask her for her name or something else. But nothing like that happened.
They came closer to me and said, ‘What’s your problem?’ Before I could reply, they slapped me hard and ran away. I was shocked. All this had happened in a fraction of a second. Everyone in the class was looking at me. Sameer and Swapnil came running towards me. They were equally shocked. Riya just kept staring at me. She did not know what exactly had happened. Who were they and why did they hit me?
Sameer came rushing towards me and asked, ‘What happened, Aadi? Who were they? Did you say anything?’
‘I really don’t know. They had approached me when I went outside to attend a call. They asked me about Riya and left. I ignored them at that time. This time they came and before I could say anything, they just slapped me. I would have grabbed them and hit them hard if I had the chance. But it all happened so quickly that I had no time to react.’
‘What the fuck! How can someone just come and hit you like this? Let me look into the matter,’ Sameer said.
‘Even I don’t know. I don’t even know their names,’ I said. I was getting increasingly frustrated.
We went out of the classroom to search for them. But we could not find them anywhere. We came into the classroom and attended the lecture. Everyone was disturbed. Riya was looking at me throughout the lecture. She was more disturbed than I was, especially after knowing that they had hit me because of her. She had that guilty look in her eyes. I messaged her and asked her to concentrate on the lecture and not worry about anything.
Sameer and I decided to find out more about the two guys and take appropriate action. The next day we came to know that the person who had hit me was Rishi. He was the son of some local minister. Minister or a peon’s son, we did not care. We had arranged for a group of boys to hit him back. Riya was unaware of our plan. I wanted to keep her away from all of this. I did not want her to get into any sort of trouble. We waited outside the college gate patiently. After some time, we saw him coming. Since he knew me by face, I went and stood away from the group. Sameer called him and asked him what had happened the previous day in college. He did not say anything about me. I went near them. He saw me and remembered.
‘You bastard! You thought you could hit me and run away so easily, didn’t you? I don’t care who you are. I dare you to look at Riya again. If you even ask about her, I will kill you.’
Sameer came forward and slapped him. He also counter-attacked us. But we were in a group and he was alone. We clearl
y outnumbered him. We hit him badly. He fell down on the road. We were still hitting him when Sameer stopped us. As he got up, I slapped him hard and said, ‘Last warning.’
He said sorry immediately and admitted that he was not any minister’s son. He was just showing off in front of the first-year students. He also promised never to look at Riya again.
We left the scene. I did not utter a word about this to Riya. When she enquired about my whereabouts, I told her that my phone was on silent and apologized for not taking her calls.
Riya was still worried about the incident. I consoled her and told her that everything was normal and that he wouldn’t trouble us again. She smiled and we went for our practicals.
The annual college function was about to begin in two days. We were all very excited. I was happy as there were going to be no lectures during that time. Riya and I decided to attend college only on the days when there were some traditional functions or when it was a sari day. For the rest of the time, we decided we would spend some time together hanging out somewhere.
Then came Black Day, a day when we were all supposed to wear black coloured clothes to college. I told Riya that black did not suit her complexion and asked her to wear something different. I wanted my jaan to look the best. She said she would shock me by her outfit. I was eagerly waiting for her near the college gate. As she approached me, I was stunned.
She was wearing a gorgeous dress. It was short, barely covering her bottom. She was looking like an absolute beauty. We went into the college and met everyone. From there, we went to a nearby restaurant and ate paav bhaaji as usual.
Each day had something new to offer. The sari day came next. It was tied up with the Miss Fresher competition. The girl who got the maximum roses would be crowned Miss Fresher. Riya was looking absolutely gorgeous in her blue sari. And her blouse was backless. We did not wait in college. I wanted to spend time alone with her. We went to Grant Lane, Vashi.
‘You are looking so good. I can’t believe I have the pleasure of having you in my life,’ I said.
Few Things Left Unsaid Page 8