Our Story Needs No Filter

by Sudeep Nagarkar

  ‘It was planned,’ Chris revealed.

  ‘Planned?’ Raghu was surprised.

  ‘Yes. It was planned. No one hypnotized me or anything. We had lost all hope that you would ever come back to us. Jai had a very strong feeling that Krishna was involved in some other activity. Something big and equally dangerous. We never thought it would be as big as the black money racket but we knew he was up to something fishy. That’s when Jai planned to make me go undercover,’ Chris told him with a wide grin.

  ‘What the fuck? Seriously? Oh man . . . shit, I just can’t believe it.’

  ‘Yes, we had to find some way of cracking Krishna’s inner circle. So when Megha stood for the students’ elections, we planned Chris’s entry as an undercover agent too. Krishna didn’t doubt us as Chris was attacked with you once. So we took advantage of that and fooled him into believing that he had his full support. Krishna in turn decided never to introduce you two as members of the same party,’ Jai explained.

  ‘Megha knew all this?’

  ‘No. She had no clue and that was why she was shocked when Chris told her everything,’ Jai said.

  ‘Wow, I can’t believe you convinced Krishna!’ Raghu said, looking at Chris.

  ‘Chris has talent, man, don’t underestimate the power of a common man. Didn’t you see Chennai Express?’ Chris laughed.

  ‘You and your movies . . .’

  ‘Okay wait, I remember you saying that you had got something worth recording. What was that?’ Chris asked.

  ‘Yes, that was prior to Krishna locking me up. But I got some recordings after that too.’

  ‘Locking you up?’ Jai looked puzzled.

  Raghu narrated the entire story of what had happened with him and showed them a couple of video recordings that he had captured on his phone. The first one was blurry but the second one was decent enough.

  ‘I wanted to share this in campus that day but didn’t, fearing he would attack Ruhi. But alas, it’s too late now. Tomorrow is the day of the election.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s too late. Well done, Raghu. This is something huge!’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘Certainly. Even ABCP has been suspecting something. I have a plan,’ Jai replied. They didn’t know if things would go in their favour, but having come this far they decided to give it one last shot.

  16 July 2016

  The D-day had finally arrived. Krishna’s victory would mean another year of a series of misadventures. He was confident of his victory and walked with the gait of a winner. Akhilesh had already lost all hope. Ruhi was not seen with him, which was expected after their falling-out. Chris and Raghu were once again assigned a task, this time by Jai, for the sake of many other Raghus of the university.

  ‘The voting is about to begin. Have you guys done what I told you to?’ Jai asked.

  ‘Yes, now we’re just waiting to see if our trigger has hit the right spot,’ Chris replied.

  ‘What about the social science students?’

  ‘No, we haven’t touched them. They are all pro-Krishna and we feared that would have leaked out everything,’ Raghu replied.

  ‘Smart move. You have used your brain for the right thing for once.’ Jai grinned.

  ‘The rest is all done. Fingers crossed. Till now there have been no reports of a leak.’

  ‘But where is Megha?’ Jai questioned.

  ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since morning,’ Raghu answered.

  ‘Neither have I,’ Chris added.

  ‘Damn, I had assigned her an important task some time back. Without her, it’s impossible for us to win. She’s the face of our campaign.’

  Jai instructed them to call Megha while he looked for her around the campus. Chris called her but she didn’t pick up.

  ‘Where could she be?’

  They were beginning to get worried, when Ruhi called Raghu to inform that Megha had a severe migraine some time back.

  ‘Are you with her?’ Raghu asked hurriedly.

  ‘No, I am in the middle of some other work. I got to know from one of the hostelmates.’

  The boys ran towards Megha’s hostel, and after taking special permission from the hostel warden—which was arranged by Ruhi—they went in. Anyway it was easy for Jai to get in. Jai barged into Megha’s room and saw her lying on the bed. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, worried.

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘What happened?’ Chris followed behind. ‘In the morning when I was about to leave, my head started to ache all of a sudden. Even after taking medicine, I didn’t get the usual instant relief. In a short while the headache turned severe and I had a blackout. I just woke up a few minutes ago. A hostelmate saw me like this and I asked her to call up Ruhi,’ Megha explained.

  ‘Are you feeling better now?’ Chris asked.

  ‘Yes. I am much better.’

  ‘The election stress got to you, right? Every time you take extra stress, you face a blackout. I told you to keep calm. But still . . . ’

  ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Plus our work is done.’

  ‘Done?’ Jai asked, surprised.

  ‘Yes. I had passed on the job to Ruhi. She would have done it by now.’

  ‘Ruhi?’

  ‘Yes,’ Megha smiled. ‘Ruhi has been supporting us right from the beginning.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ Jai asked with a quizzical expression.

  ‘Yes. When she got to know Krishna’s true motive, she came to meet me even before she confronted you about it.’ Megha looked towards Raghu and added, ‘My form was rejected and we didn’t know that Jai could take over. But after knowing Krishna’s involvement in such illicit acts, I didn’t want him to win in any case. Which is why I told Ruhi to join Akhilesh’s wing and show him Krishna’s true self. Ruhi had a point when she asked why Akhilesh would believe in her, but such people are just hungry for power and Ruhi assured that she would give him an edge over Krishna. But by the time she joined Akhilesh’s party, Jai’s form got accepted. I told Ruhi to continue with Akhilesh because if she had started supporting us abruptly again, she would have been in trouble.’

  ‘Whoa. This is insane. You have some painkillers?’ Raghu asked.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I need them right away. All this is too much to be taken in by my little head. First Chris and now Ruhi. Crazy, man. You people should actually join politics.’ Raghu was bowled over.

  ‘What about Chris?’

  Chris took over, ‘Actually, I was with Krishna as per Jai’s instructions. Sounds familiar?’

  Jai and Megha looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  ‘Now I get it. That is why you were so cool when she came to the hospital to meet Chris,’ Jai recollected.

  ‘And that is why you were so cool in the hospital when I pounced on Chris for betraying us,’ Megha said slowly.

  ‘Whoa, whoa! Why are you people in college, man? Join some fucking intelligence bureau or a political party,’ Raghu exclaimed.

  ‘Not interested, brother. It’s all because of you, by the way . . .’ Jai grinned.

  ‘And what about the work you were talking about?’ Raghu had almost forgotten from where it started.

  Megha chipped in, ‘Jai knew that no matter what we did, we could not win against Krishna. But after knowing everything about him, we couldn’t let him win so easily as well.’

  ‘Why can you not win?’ Raghu was curious.

  ‘That’s because the social sciences department plays an important role in deciding who’ll be the president. More than 1000 votes are from that department, which is totally pro-Krishna. We know it because we are from the same department. That is why we practised Krishna’s strategy of keeping student parasites. He forced his ideologies on the students of the hostels, while we explained our beliefs to the students of our department in an ethical manner. We made them understand over a period of time that no caste or religion is bigger than humanity and eventually the source of everything is truth. We are all frie
nds, and that’s the culture of MGU. We believe in spreading love and positivity around us,’ Megha concluded.

  ‘Yes, that was the plan and she had to monitor the activities standing near the social science building on the election day. Now I feel we have a better chance of winning. Ruhi is monitoring the social science department and the rest has already been sorted by Raghu. His revelation is going to be a game changer.’

  ‘Superb!’ Megha exclaimed.

  ‘Damn! I think I’ll need the entire bottle of painkiller,’ Raghu declared, before adding, ‘I have one last doubt.’ He looked at Megha.

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Chris was with Jai, Ruhi was with you, but I really want to know one thing right away—does Ruhi still love me or is there a story behind that too?’

  Everyone laughed at the silliness of his question.

  ‘Why don’t you go and ask her for yourself?’ suggested Megha.

  Twenty-One

  When Jai passed the social science building, he saw Ruhi monitoring the crowd sincerely. Seeing him, she broke into a big smile. Jai smiled back and it was enough to put an end to all the complications in their relationship.

  Once the voting got over, she ran towards Raghu who took her to his hostel room. The results of the student union elections were yet to be announced, but the verdict of Raghu and Ruhi’s relationship had already been declared. Though apart, their love for each other hadn’t shaken an inch.

  ‘You are the sexiest thing in the world and I couldn’t be more attracted to everything about you,’ Ruhi said, giving him a peck on the cheek.

  ‘Now that’s a lie! How many boys did you date before I met you?’ Raghu teased.

  ‘Umm . . . about twenty?’ Ruhi continued the teasing game.

  ‘You liar,’ he said smirking.

  ‘Wanna call them and confirm?’ Ruhi winked.

  Raghu smiled, and pulled her into a tight hug. ‘I almost thought I had lost you,’ he said softly.

  ‘You really thought that I was dating Akhilesh?’

  ‘Never,’ Raghu answered confidently.

  ‘Don’t lie. I could tell you were desperate to be back with me.’

  ‘Yes, but I knew you wouldn’t date him.’

  ‘Why?’ Ruhi was curious.

  ‘That’s because no one can tolerate you, honestly, apart from me.’

  ‘Fuck you.’

  ‘Come then. I am ready.’

  ‘Get lost.’

  Ruhi rested her head on Raghu’s chest and hugged him back tightly.

  ‘Jai mentioned something about you revealing some proof . . .’ she said, taking in the warmth of his body.

  ‘Yes, when Krishna locked me in the apartment, he went to another room for a few minutes to fetch some papers. I used that opportunity to turn on the video recording of my phone and kept it in the pocket of my shirt. Everything that Krishna said and did in the room afterwards got recorded. Later he took my phone, but luckily didn’t switch it on, and handed it back once I returned to the campus,’ Raghu revealed, as Ruhi listened intently.

  ‘In the recording, Krishna not only spoke about Chris and me but also about the missing student Mani and his organization’s involvement with his disappearance. Krishna is just a puppet of some political big guns who want to use student power for their benefit,’ he concluded.

  ‘So what did you do with that recording?’ Ruhi asked out of curiosity.

  ‘I had a few other recordings of Krishna too, before he had kidnapped me. In those, he talks about the tasks he gave us. I had mentioned vaguely about it to Chris, prior to his accident. When I told Jai about these recordings yesterday, he came up with this brilliant idea of broadcasting the video on WhatsApp not only to our supporters but to everyone in college who had neutral opinions and were nowhere connected with AISC so that the recording doesn’t leak. Towards the end of the video, we requested students not to leak the video and to vote for who they felt was right after evaluating all parties thoroughly.’

  ‘You were confident that students won’t leak the recording? What if even one . . .’

  ‘We knew someone or another would ultimately leak out the information, but we also knew that till the time they did, the votes would be cast in our favour. You see, we broadcast the video hardly an hour before the voting process began.’ Raghu smiled triumphantly.

  ‘Wow . . . I am speechless. That means we will win.’

  ‘Fingers crossed.’

  Raghu wrapped his arms around her and brought her face close to his.

  ‘I am sorry, I misunderstood you,’ Ruhi apologized.

  ‘You don’t need to say sorry. You actually made me understand what was wrong and what was right. I should be thankful to you.’ Raghu kissed her forehead.

  ‘You didn’t force yourself on me even once and that’s what I loved about you.’

  ‘So now you should also not force me to stop eating chicken.’ Raghu smirked.

  ‘No, please . . . that’s excluded.’

  ‘Eating you then . . .’

  ‘That’s included.’

  And they made love . . . something they could linger on for a lifetime!

  By the end of the day, all votes had been cast and counted, and the results were ready to be declared. The whole college had assembled to witness this momentous occasion. The selection committee took to the stage to announce the president’s name.

  Congratulations to Jai—the new president of the student union of MGU.

  The crowd broke into a huge roar and ABCP supporters danced in merriment.

  Krishna couldn’t hide his displeasure and started swearing loudly. Just then someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned around to see the police waiting for him. The video had reached them and they had come to put him behind bars in the long pending missing student case, along with a host of other crimes, including bribery and fraudulent practices.

  The administration of MGU, on its part, expelled him and took away his fellowship, making the university’s stance clear. Professor Nair, unaware of his illicit acts, regretted supporting him and wrote an open apology to the students as well as the administration. Even the AISC disassociated itself from Krishna, who had faked his ideologies.

  Akhilesh walked up to Jai to congratulate him. He even announced that SCI would cooperate with ABCP for the betterment of students and the university in general.

  Megha, Raghu, Ruhi and Chris celebrated their victory with the rest of the ABCP members. The day not only symbolized the victory of good over evil but also the reunion of a group of close friends. Their river of life twisted and turned but had a continuous flow; they were carried along different routes but reached the same ocean of friendship—vast, endless and peaceful.

  Jai, as the new president of the student union, was asked to address the students. And he spoke from his heart.

  I am no professional but I respect your decision to choose me as your president and I will try to live up to your expectation by bringing about a positive change. But we have to realize that first, we need to bring that change within ourselves. We are not divided by caste, but by inhumanity. In the desperation of representing a particular caste or religion, we forget that we are humans first. We fight because we have forgotten humanity. If you look carefully you can see the thread of universal truth hidden within religions. No religion or caste is bigger than truth. Apart from that everything is an illusion. If you zoom out the country on the map, you will not see the boundaries of the districts; our divisions are nothing but illusions to deter our own growth. To eradicate discrimination, we should throw out pseudo-nationalists like Krishna from campuses. Spreading love is the only religion and should be the only religion.

  The café looked peaceful once again. No slogans, no protests, no mob—just a few people discussing their lives over a cup of coffee.

  ‘I want someone who will always keep me happy,’ Megha said, looking at Jai.

  ‘Really? Why do women fall into the trap of wanting to find a man who’ll provide everything,
make them happier than they’ve ever been before? A man like that doesn’t exist. And even if he does, I haven’t seen him,’ Jai said sarcastically.

  ‘I am sure my boyfriend will be so jealous of you. I am going to start the comparisons from day one.’ Megha grinned.

  Jai and Megha were the kind of friends who were often mistaken for a couple. No matter what, they loved each other.

  ‘Will you stop discussing your own love life and think about me for a change? Find some good-looking girl for me too,’ Chris pleaded.

  ‘Go find one yourself,’ Megha replied.

  ‘I think I’ll have to go back to watching SRK–Kajol movies.’

  ‘Here comes your wife,’ Megha told Jai as she saw Raghu and Ruhi entering the café.

  ‘Who, Ruhi?’

  ‘No, Raghu.’

  ‘You people are just jealous of our bromance,’ both Jai and Raghu declared in chorus.

  Megha took out her phone and clicked a selfie to upload a story on Snapchat. She even uploaded the selfie on Facebook and checked in at ‘Our friendship adda—MGU café’, captioning it:

  Our friendship to me will always be a lighthouse. Standing strong, no matter how rough life’s seas are. Together we’ll weather any storm and our friendship will always shine as it has from the beginning, until the very end of time. Our story needs no filter. Our story has not ended . . . friendship never ends!

  Acknowledgements

  All the people I thank below were my strength while I was writing the book.

  My millions of readers for their unflinching love and support! You mean the world to me.

  Jasmine Sethi, my wife, for giving me strength and boosting my morale throughout the writing process.

  Ashish Chauhan and Sunil Ambekarji, for their timely inputs and support whenever I needed.

  Mom, Dad, my sister, Shweta, and my grandparents, for keeping the faith in my work.

  Zankrut Oza, for guiding me patiently and for his brotherly love.