‘The thing is,’ she began to reveal her big funny secret, ‘I wanted to do something simpler, something the least stressful, you know, like law or mass communication. When I told Dad that, he advised me to fill up whatever form I wanted to. I filled up twenty-seven forms for eight different things. The funny thing is there was nothing except COMEDK that I was actually able to clear.And here I am.’
‘Wow, twenty-seven forms. That would take five kilogram of guts and a pretty rich dad that doesn’t mind splurging on you,’ I said as a compliment to her father.
‘Dad? Dad loves me very much. Now that Bhaiya, is married and stays in Delhi, I exclusively receive all his attention.’
‘If you don’t mind my asking, what does your dad do?’
‘We had a sugar mill in Bhopal.’
‘What do you mean by “had”? Someone took it from you?’ I asked with grave concern.
‘No,’ she chuckled. ‘Oh, my God, you’re so mean. You wanted our sugar mill to be taken, huh?’ she said and smacked me lightly on my arm. ‘Actually, Dad has retired from work now and has given the mill to someone else on lease. Mom is a homemaker. Both of them are enjoying life in Bhopal, and here I am, crossing swords with my network management and unix pipes. Oh, this thing is so tough I wonder how people like you exist.’
‘Please,’ I insisted, ‘stop describing me like that. I’m nothing, really.’
‘At least, you don’t feel like going off to sleep when you open those boring textbooks.’
‘Geetika,’ that was actually the first time that I called her by her name, ‘we’re on a holiday trip, we are not supposed to talk about studies right now, okay?’
‘Oops!’ she apologised quickly. ‘Okay, tell me about your family. Do you have a sister?’
‘No, I don’t have a sister and neither do I have a brother, which makes me a free bird. My dad and my grandfather live in Kanpur. Dad is assistant manager at a bank and is posted in Kanpur, while Daadu, my grandfather, is a retired postmaster.’
‘And what does your mother do?’ she asked the usual question people did, while talking about family.
‘She’s no more; she passed away when I was thirteen.’
‘I’m sorry,’ suddenly, the chirpiness from her voice vanished.
‘Oh, it’s all right.’
‘It must have been tough for your dad to raise a child, wasn’t it?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. I was a very easy-to-handle child,’ I said, attempting to bring the playfulness in her to the surface again. But her bleak smile forced me to admit, ‘Actually, Daadu was always there to lighten the burden on his shoulders.’
‘Hmm, I see.’
At that moment, our train halted at some random station. I didn’t bother to check what place it was, for it didn’t matter a hair.
‘I’ll go get some chips.You want something?’ I asked.
‘Will you get me a mango drink, please?’ she requested.
‘Sure,’ I said, ‘I’ll be back in a while.’
I stepped down from the coach and moved towards the refreshment cubicle.There, I purchased a bottle of Maaza, a packet of Uncle Chips and a Dairy Milk Chocolate.
‘I thank thee for thy kind gesture, sire,’ she said, attempting a medieval British accent, as she took the bottle.
‘Here, have this,’ I said, as I offered her the chocolate.
‘What did you buy this for? I’m not a kid. I don’t like chocolates.’
‘Come on, you don’t have to pay for it,’ I said and winked. ‘Besides, ten out of nine girls like chocolates. And when did I say I’m going to give you the whole of it?’
‘You’re funny,’ she said and laughed. ‘But tell me how much did it cost?’
‘Nine thousand in cash and twelve million in bonds. Come on, you need to learn to give this habit up. If you keep offering to pay me like this, it’ll only make me feel like I’m a mere slave at your bidding.’
‘But it doesn’t feel right,’ she said, making that puppy face again.
‘It will, when I make you pay for a bellyful of a meal, at a restaurant in Mumbai, how about that?’ I said and smirked.
‘Oh, my God, this man is planning to rob me!’ she said, cupping her face with her hands and feigning alarm.
Random conversation rose between us, as she offered me the drink and I placed flakes of chips into her mouth, at regular intervals. We shared the chocolate too. She, in fact, only had a single cube, saying she was health-conscious and chocolates would make her chubby. Her? Chubby?
In what seemed like a blink, evening fell and our brief dialogue came to an end. The eight of us resumed our group conversation, and soon enough, the entire bogey was singing and hooting in unison. Amazingly, one of the hawkers who sold tea in the coach, impressed and entertained by the free show we provided, emptied his kettle, offering us his all for free. What’s more, he made light of his charity.
Night fell, as did the silence. Girls and boys went to their respective berths, as the staff members ensured that couples were singles in the dark.
The next day saw its sun in a rather different manner. Most of us were asleep, when two or three boys in their segment started heehawing. Their decibels grew as one of them yelled ‘be##***d!’. Of course, Nirmal Sir, the manin-charge came running, but only found everybody asleep. Thereafter, people woke up rather more quietly.
We fooled around like noisy children till the coach stopped at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai. Two pre-booked buses, which were going to be our transport for the entire trip, led us to our hotel, at Borivali East. It wasn’t exactly a seven-star, just a place to lodge us and our baggage in. Four people were supposed to share one room, and Geetika wasn’t elated by the first impression of the place. Her face expressed a typical girlie ‘ewwww’, but somehow she managed to park herself comfortably.
We did nothing other than eat, fool around and sleep that day.The next morning, our buses arrived to take us to Essel World Mumbai, the most popular fun park in India. We had entries to Water Kingdom too, which is situated just adjacent to Essel World. Hence, boys and girls were advised to carry their own shorts and bermudas with them.
After an hour’s ride, we reached the Gorai creek. We boarded a ferry from there that led us to the other end of the waterway. In half an hour, we were at the entry to the fun park.We had to wait, while the in-charges had finished paperwork. And while we waited, a DJ rocked us to his beats. Everyone broke into dance, but I, being the non-dancing type, took my stand away from the crowd. Geetika too joined me, after she’d had her share of fun.
Soon, a couple of open golf-carts arrived and drove us all to the centre of the park, making double trips to accommodate so many of us.
Brightly painted rides, eateries, a disco and more surrounded us. Geetika and I didn’t rush to board a ride; we invested the first few minutes in taking it all in. Finally, she suggested with mounting excitement, ‘Shall we go there?’ pointing to something called Sr Dodjem (portmanteau of ‘dodge them’).
‘Sure,’ I said and we walked to the station.
We had to wait in a long queue of jumpy adults—and even some senior citizens—for our go at the racing single-seaters which derived their energy from a towering iron rod that propelled them. While for some it was total fun, for others it came as a medium to bump into people they held a friendly grudge against.
‘Isn’t this fun? I don’t know a thing about driving, but if it lets you barge into one another like this, perhaps even get a chance to break the nose of a total stranger, who cares?’ she said, pogo-ing in anticipation of the joy that’d come to her.
‘Right then, whom are you threatening? Let’s meet in the battlefield,’ I said.
In fifteen minutes, we were leading the queue before we finally got our drones. Before I was a rapist, I actually did things like that. It was total fun.This thing was nothing like a normal car. You turn the steering wheel one inch to the right and it takes you a full circle. We careened around, bumping each other hard.Aft
er crashing into her a couple times, I had evidently slammed her ego. She turned her car around and came roaring from behind before she rammed me hard.A bang on my head from behind, by the head restraint that was supposed to prevent my neck from snapping, and I started to remember certain things. For a second or so my vision was clouded by memories of a past that could rend me apart if I gave into them. However, before I could go too far, she hit me again and I was back to my present.
‘Oh, that was fun. I didn’t know you were such a loser at dodging!’ she teased me as we left the ride.
‘Come on, I only went there because you asked me to. It was such a girlie thing to do,’ I said.
‘Really? How about doing something boyish then?’
‘All right, how about that one there?’ I said, directing her to a giant wheel, which would first spin horizontally and then elevate to spin you vertically so fast, you’d end up screaming.
‘Ummm,’ she hesitated. ‘How about you go first?’
‘Me first? Why? You’re scared, aren’t you?’
‘I’m giving you a chance to prove your manhood,’ she said and stuck her tongue out at me.
‘Right then,’ I said and bravely, manfully, joined the queue for the ride.
In order to impress her, I took on quite a number of thrill rides—Thunder, Shoot-’n-Drop,Top Spin and similar head-spinners. At the end I walked back to her feeling actually tipsy, like an inebriated old man and slurred, ‘It’s your turn.’
To which she cleverly replied, ‘I’m done with all this—how about brunch?’
We ate and drank at a café.
The only thing she did at the Essel World, besides Sr Dodjem was go on a roller coaster with me, which was daring enough, I’d say. She also sat on Rainbow, a ride for the kids and went with me inside a dummy ship that was there. After a while, we went to the Water Kingdom. We were to stay there until five. Unlike the Essel World, she went on plenty of rides; we ate ice cream, and she freaked out in the rain dance there. In the evening, we returned to the hotel and gossiped until it was time for dinner, at nearby restaurants of our choice.As soon as we came back, we had to pack our things as we were leaving for the Ajanta caves. Nirmal Sir told us it was a full night’s drive, about half a thousand kilometres, so we could sleep on the bus. At the request of almost half of us, the in-charges agreed to let boys and girls go together on the buses. Of course, Geetika and I sat together. She had the window seat; I sat to her left.
‘It was so funny,’ she whispered to me, nearly at midnight. Except for a soul or two on board, everyone was asleep.
‘What was funny?’ I whispered back.
‘The way you were walking after you came down from that ride, before we went to the coffee parlour,’ she said, as she covered her mouth with her hands to conceal her laughter.
‘It was all because of you,’ I totally agreed with her. ‘You had me all geared up for it, to make me prove my manhood, huh?’ She started laughing harder this time, ‘It’s so much fun to make my popat, no?’
‘Yesss,’ her eyes twinkled in the near-darkness.
‘You aren’t afraid of water though, are you? And of course, heights?’
‘No, heights don’t bother me, spins do and that’s the reason I let you have all the fun at Essel World,’ and she chortled, yet again.
‘I’m having all the fun, huh?’ I asked.
‘Aren’t you?’ she said and folded her legs onto the seat. She wasn’t really skinny, but she managed to fit quite comfortably into the space. She pulled her shawl up and was looking at me with her gleaming eyes.
We didn’t speak for a minute. Everything was still between us, though the bus moved like a rocket. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I only smiled like an idiot, until I was finally able to say something. ‘How do you feel about me?’ I bluntly asked and didn’t realize just then that it was a question highly uncalled for, until her pupils dilated, making her eyes look bigger. To cover up, I said, ‘I mean do you feel comfortable, travelling with me like this?’
‘Yes, why do you ask?’ she asked nicely.
‘I mean, are you not scared to be with me?’ I asked cockily.
‘Why?’ she asked the question with emphasis. ‘Are you a bhoot?’ she baby-babbled.
‘No, I’m not a bhoot,’ I said laughing.
‘Achcha, tell me something,’ she asked, sounding a little serious this time. ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’A strange question.
‘No, never had one,’ I said, mixing a little embarrassment in my voice.
‘Never? Never liked a single girl?’ she asked.
‘Umm, not really. Also, to have a girlfriend, someone should like me too,’ I said, attempting at a clean escape. Of course, saying anything about Malvika would’ve been a terrible idea. ‘What about you?’ I asked.
‘About me?’
‘Yeah, what about you? Do you have a boyfriend? I won’t buy it if you say nobody ended up falling for you.’ That, perhaps, was my first compliment to her, however oblique.
‘Sorry to shatter your confidence, but I too never had anyone in my life. Never found anyone like that.’ She parroted that same old-fashioned, out-dated dialogue that they still repeat in the movies: ‘It’s the first time I’m with an idiot like you.’
Oh, my god! What did she mean?
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean it’s the first time I’m going out with someone who’s not a girl, and that too on a trip so far.’ I bet she meant what you and I think. Had I not asked her that silly ‘what she meant’ thing, she would’ve never said what she’d just said.
‘Oh, I’m glad I’m that idiot,’ I said beaming the gentlest smile, with no irony.
‘But you agree you’re an idiot, right?’ she said, pointing her finger at me and giggling.
‘Yes,ma’am,I agree,’I said and smiled too. ‘How about we go to sleep now, or else tomorrow will be a mess?’
‘You sleepy already?’
‘Not really, but I don’t want to accompany you in this one hell of a bus, with your head aching, while others will be having the time of their lives. After all, I’d told you I’d take care of you the night we planned to go on this trip, right?’ I said.
‘Okay, let’s go to sleep,’ she pouted.
We slid shut the window to ward off the cold wind outside. In no time, she was fast asleep. Soon, her head balanced itself cosily on my right shoulder. Of course, I didn’t ask her to return to her own seat.That would’ve been rude and crass and uncultured.
***
The next day commenced with Nirmal Sir’s yelling of orders. It was seven in the morning. Our bus had stationed itself at what they called a line-hotel, about seventy kilometres from the Ajanta Caves. He went inside both the buses, to announce it was our chance to brush our teeth and generally freshen up, as the bus wouldn’t halt again, before reaching its destination.
‘Geetika, wake up,’ I said, holding her by the shoulders, trying to place her comfortably into her seat. But she didn’t stir. I asked her to wake up a few more times.
‘Yeah, what happened?’ she said, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn, before she noticed the bus had stopped. ‘Where are we?’ she asked drowsily Why are we here? This doesn’t seem to be the Ajanta Caves, or is it?’
‘No,’ I said and chuckled briefly. ‘We’ve stopped by a line-hotel for a while.You may brush your teeth at the basin over there, if you want to. Our next stop will be only at the caves.’
It took her time to get over her morning lag. She pulled her satchel down from the compartment overhead and took out her brush, her tongue cleaner, toothpaste, and mouthwash. She went up to the basin I’d pointed out to her, freshened herself up, returned to the bus, came back up to her seat and went back to sleep again.
I had to wake her up again, when we reached our destination point.This time she rose and shone, as if she was prepared for it.
After the bus was parked at the bus stand, we stepped out and had to walk for a while.We then had to move
up a few steps and walk again.Alongside that pathway were about thirty caves and I, surrendering to Geetika’s determination, had to visit each one of them.
‘I’ve invested in this trip; I’ll see things worth every penny of mine.You will have to come with me,’ she’d said.
We were there all day.After having visited all the thirty caves, a few boys had a refreshing shower under a waterfall situated there. But I didn’t. I didn’t want Geetika to be left alone and get bored, nor did I want to lower my image in her eyes, after knowing she’d tagged them with the description of the jungli jaanwars that they were—wild creatures.
‘You like these things?’ I asked, as we sat alongside a platform on the main path that was linked to the caves.
‘Yeah, did you know that these are some of the oldest remains in this country? They are said to be the finest masterpieces of the Buddhists and are said to have been constructed between the 6th and the 3rd century BC. That’s something, no?’
‘Oh my god, you have a knack for history, don’t you? I don’t know how good an engineer you’ll make, but a fine historian? For sure you can, provided the right opportunities,’ I acknowledged.
‘You’re making fun of me, huh?’ She punched my arm with a fist. Oh, that did hurt. I’d definitely underrated her feminine strength. ‘You think you’re too smart?’ she said, as she punched me a few more times, only less intensely.
‘Okay, okay, you’re trying to kill me. It hurts,’ I said, trying to make her stop.
‘Yeah, so don’t make fun of me when I’m serious,’ she said playfully and punched me again, for the last time.
We rose and mingled with the crowd.The sun had set. It was 5:40 on my watch.After everybody was over clicking random pictures to show back home, we had to board the bus.
We left for a hotel in the locality and had dinner there.
***
At 8 am the next morning, we bid farewell to the hotel and hopped into the transport that would take us further. Geetika looked radiant and on-the-go in a red kurti and a white patiala.
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