41 likes, 68 comments, On the Wall...it's Complicated!

by vidit chopra

  Chapter 2: The first meeting

  Now that I was looking like a human being or rather was unwillingly made to look like one, we all moved for the party. We entered the house, greeted Tanya’s mom and sat on the sofa in the living room.

  “So where is the birthday girl?” Ayesha asked.

  “Tanya is getting dressed up in her room. She was calling you.” Tanya’s mom said.

  Ayesha went to Tanya’s room soon after. The agony had begun, I was sitting on the sofa uncomfortably trying to make small talk with Kabir and Simran which was difficult at someone else’s place given that most of the topics weren’t the kind to be discussed in public. Soon, the other guests started coming in. With them entering the room, the judging of looks and everything else began and the awkward silence persisted for a while till Ayesha came back and introduced me and Simran to her friends. She told me four names, with each round of introduction followed by a silent nod with a smile or a “hi” remark. Needless to say I forgot the names as soon as I heard them. I guess by portraying ‘not being attracted to women’ as of now draws an impression of me being a homosexual but I am not. Even if it did, it’s your right to judge me, I cannot help it.

  Anyway, soon, the wait began! We were all waiting for Tanya to arrive who was taking ever so long to descend from her room aka beauty parlor. This is one thing that I will never be able to understand, why women waste so much time in trying to look like someone they are not! The true beauty lies within. Am I getting philosophical? Well, that happens when I am irritated with stuff.

  Finally, the ‘queen’ descended from her castle as all of her slaves aka the guests all stood up to greet her and wish her.

  Once I saw her, my theory of women wasting time on makeup went for a toss. God she looked beautiful or what! She did look like a queen, a princess to be more precise whose beauty was being conserved by keeping her from the gruelling summer sun and from making her bathe with milk and all those other things that they use for fair skin, by making her walk on rose petals to keep her feet from getting dirty and to keep them soft. I was blown away by a woman’s beauty, for the first time!

  “Um……Vishal” Ayesha shook me. She had been calling me all the while I was lost in thought completely blown away by Tanya’s beauty. I kept looking at her face with my mouth wide open.

  “Yes…aa. Yes.” I said startled and a bit embarrassed.

  “Weird reaction. You do expect that from my brother don’t you Tanya.” Ayesha said.

  “Of course I do expect that. Happens all the time.” Tanya replied.

  “What’s with the attitude!” I said to myself.

  “Anyway, this is Vishal, my cousin, and Vishal this is Tanya, my best friend.” Ayesha said.

  “I will give you a photograph. You can then stare at it as long as you want.” Tanya said.

  “Well that was rude.” I replied.

  “Oh was it and staring at me and imagining things which I presume wouldn’t have involved clothes, was very kind of you wasn’t it.” She replied. Sarcasm of course.

  “It may not have been kind but it was appreciation of your beauty for sure. Bowling someone over by how one looks and that too a person like me, full points to you for that.” I said.

  “Oh really, full points huh? So in what all aspects have you already rated me as of now?” Tanya said.

  “Well I haven’t to be honest. It will take time to assess but you sure are going to lose points based on your behaviour towards your guests!” I replied. I didn’t like her and that was first and the last impression I had about her.

  “Oh break it you too. Come Tanya it’s time to cut the cake.” Ayesha intervened, amazed by the kind of interaction Tanya and I were having.

  I was surely enjoying the conversation. Beauty with attitude, always a bad combination!

  “Cute couple.” I said to myself and smiled.

  Simran looked back to stare at me. “What did you just say?” she said with a bit of surprise in her voice. I hadn’t realized that I had said it out loud.

  “What did I say? I didn’t say anything. Was I supposed to say something?” I replied as if trying to hide what she had already heard.

  “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Tanya.” I started to sing along with the others as soon as the candles went off. That very well cut down the conversation between me and Simran.

  “So she is a dear now. Huh?” Simran said as soon as the song was over.

  “Oh beep off. That’s a song sung at every birthday party. I sang that song at your birthday as well doesn’t mean you are dear to me.” I said and winked.

  “You are such a……” She said

  “Sweet and lovely boy.” I completed the sentence before she could pollute it.

  “That you are for sure.” Tanya said appearing right behind me.

  “Beautiful girl with an attitude said what?” I said.

  “So you think I am beautiful. About the second part, I am sorry for what happened earlier. I was pretty much angry because the dress I had decided to wear for today got all messed up and I had to end up wearing this.” She said and pointed at her beautiful dress.

  “You mean to say the dress you are wearing is your back up?” I said.

  “Yes, it pretty much is. Why?” She asked.

  “Well it looks perfect to me. You would have got a great idea about that by my first reaction when I saw you.” I said.

  “Well that was pretty much evident.” She said and laughed.

  “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have stared at you like that. If I were a girl I would have taken that as a complement but I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings so I am sorry for that!” I apologised. I couldn’t believe the way I was talking to her and it wasn’t just me who was surprised. While she and I were having this conversation Kabir and Simran looked on in amazement! They were a little far off now and hence couldn’t really get what we both were talking about. All they were doing was looking at us and smiling.

  “Who said I didn’t take that as a complement. Actually I was pretending in front of your sister, if I hadn’t done what I did she would have started off with the teasing and stuff.” She said.

  “Ah ha. No wonder you are Ayesha’s best friend.” I said.

  “We do get along pretty well.” She smiled and said.

  Someone while passing on the cake to the guests spilled a plate over and it fell right between both of us. We both bended over to clear up the mess, an instantaneous reaction by both of us which lead to our heads getting bumped into each other. Somehow, after that bump our eyes met and were locked into each other for a couple of seconds which appeared to be close to infinity. It all felt so Bollywood! All so bloody Bollywood!

  She had dark brown eyes which were neither too large nor too small; perfect is the word for them. They were beautiful, just as beautiful as the rest of her.

  “Oh I am so sorry.” The person who had spilled the cake intervened and spoiled the moment.

  “It’s okay we will clean it up.” I said picking up the cake and putting it back into the plate with a wry smile on my face.

  “Tanya please come here for a moment beta.” Tanya’s mom called.

  Tanya looked at me once again smiled and went away to meet her uncle.

  “Love is in the air.” Kabir said.

  “Really? Why do you say so? Somebody hooking up?” I said

  “Do I have to answer that question?” He said with a smirk on his face.

  “No, you sure don’t.” Simran intervened.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  They both were now staring at me and smiling as if I was a clown from the event management company hired for tonight’s party!

  “Oh no…no no no no no. Shut up! You guys are crazy.” I said after having interpreted what they meant.

  “Why do you ask us to shut up? Did we say anything about ‘you’? We just said that love was in the air. It’s such a nice party everybody looks welcomed which is possible only if it is
organized with the ingredient of love!” Simran said.

  Kabir’s smile broadened.

  “Oh stop your bullshit. You were sure talking about me and her. If you weren’t then what was that stare and the smirk all about.” I said.

  “Well that is nobody’s fault. You have such a lovely face, once a person sees it, one cannot stop laughing.” Kabir said.

  “Bug off. So I guess the party is done. Can we please go now?” I asked already pretty pissed at them for being such asses and for all the mocking throughout the evening.

  “Oh come on the party is just getting started and you still haven’t met all of Ayesha’s friends. I am sure you will find them interesting even though I doubt any of them would be as interesting as the one you have already met.” Kabir said, the smirk persisting on his face.

  “Seriously, where is all of this coming from? How can you even think of a thing like that? I am here because Ayesha wanted me to be here. I don’t have any other motive whatsoever. Besides, I didn’t want to come here in the first place remember?” I said.

  “But now that you are here and you have met ‘someone’, you are regretting saying that you didn’t want to come.” Kabir said and continued smirking.

  “What the…”

  “Simran di told me that you want to go back home.” Ayesha came and cut short my words.

  “How many times will I have to tell you it’s ‘didi’ not ‘di’. I just fail to understand why people have a problem reciprocating the two letters they just spoke. It just takes half a second more and yes I do want to go home. Can I?” I asked after clarifying my point.

  “You sure can but you will not! And about the ‘di’ bit, well it’s ‘di’ for me, if you like ‘didi’, your wish. We should keep it like that.” Ayesha replied

  “But why not? The party is practically over. The gifts have been given, introductions have been made, cake has been cut and food has been served. What else remains?” I said with a valid point for my argument.

  “The dinner.” Ayesha said.

  “What do you mean by dinner? We just had lunch. Dinner is like six to seven hours away.” I said astonished.

  “It’s a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong party if you understand what I mean and as it is there is no point whining because you will have to stay. Come let me introduce you to some school friends of mine.” She replied

  “I don’t want to meet your school friends. I have already met enough of them. I want to go home now. Will you two please help me on this?” I asked Kabir and Simran for help.

  “She is the boss today. You just can’t deny what she wants.” Kabir said.

  “Oh come on Vishal. She is your younger sister, you should fulfil her demand just like I, being elder to you have fulfilled all your demands.” Simran said.

  Ayesha too made a sweet little face, her ‘convincing face’.

  “Okay I will stay. Who knew 365 days could cause 6 hours of pain in the butt. As for you two, thanks a lot for your support. Life would have been hell without you both!” I said sarcastically of course.

  “We are always there for you!” Simran said as Kabir and she high fived on being successful in making me stay for a little while longer, which was surely going to be more than a ‘little while’, at that suffocating place.

  “And it’s 270 days that is going to cause your 8 hours of pain in the butt.” Ayesha said.

  To be honest, apart from the fact that Tanya looked like a princess of the real world, there wasn’t anything else interesting at the party. I was able to interact with her for a minute or two and then she would be called by a certain someone to meet certain someone else but I could have waited for another day to have that two minute conversation again with her. At first, I thought her to be rude, arrogant and a beautiful girl with attitude or rather a bimbo with attitude but as the time went on, the two minute conversations were able to clear the image I had of her in my mind which went on to prove the theory “First impression is the last impression” wrong!

  As time went by and I became familiar with the place I eased up a little. The small talk with Kabir and Simran didn’t appear any difficult now. Everything looked good. The only agony that remained was that every topic ended with me being mocked on the topic how Tanya and I made a good couple. Deep inside somewhere it did give me some sort of satisfaction but I couldn’t have shown it on the outside lest the thing which was ending all the conversations would have ended up becoming the only conversation topic for the night. Guests came and went but we were made to stay. Simran too got involved with Ayesha and her friends. I too was enjoying it now. Kabir introduced me to a couple of his friends and luckily we had a lot of mutual topics of interest so it got easier to kill time discussing almost anything that came to mind. I had an eye out for Tanya. Whenever she would get free from the bondage of standing with the elders of her family and the guests she had to meet, who appeared to be some big shots of the city, she would nod at me, I will make an excuse of going to get a drink or something and have that two minute conversation with the princess till she was called up again by someone or the other. The two minute conversations didn’t include anything fancy. It was monotonous the fourth time around.

  “Hi” I said with a smile.

  “Hi again” She replied back with a smile.

  “So who were you talking to there?” I asked.

  “Oh some big shot. Dad knows him. I do not care. He is a minister.” She replied.

  “Oh okay. Nice.” I replied.

  “So how do you like the party?” She asked.

  “It’s good. It’s good.” I replied.

  These were the first few constant lines. What came after, were a couple of general questions and general remarks more or less. Soon, as was expected, from some corner of the hall, Tanya’s name would be heard and she would go with apologetic eyes. I would smile back in a way to say, “I understand.” Getting too cute isn’t it?

  She was irritated for having run from one corner of the room to the other meeting random strangers she had never seen in her life and would arguably never see again in her life, apart from birthdays of course! Not that she knew me any better yet I was sure she was better off talking to me rather than talking to those random strangers. At least I thought so, or rather I hoped so!

  The party continued and she got a bit too busy with the guests so I didn’t get any more opportunities to interact with her, not that I wanted to but she appeared to me to be the only sensible person other than Simran, Kabir and Ayesha in a crowd full of school girls who were busy bitching about something or the other. Simran and Ayesha were busy talking to the bitches, gossiping about stuff and Kabir was busy on the phone talking to his girlfriend, I had to resort to the two minutes conversation I had with the girl who arguably was one of those, “Beauty and brains” kind of a phenomenon. How soon your opinion about someone can change!

  By around 11 almost all the guests had left. The only ones that remained included Tanya’s family, her relatives, who were going to stay for the night and us. I was sitting with Kabir dead tired waiting for Ayesha and Simran to arrive so as to be able to go back home. They both were in Tanya’s room and soon came out. Tanya accompanied them to the door. On their way Tanya looked at me and whispered something in Ayesha’s ear to which Ayesha’s first reaction was of astonishment soon after which she took a glance at me and started smiling.

  “They sure are talking about you bro.” Kabir said looking at Ayesha’s reaction and the constant stare that they both gave me.

  “Oh you think?” I said with obvious sarcasm.

  “Yep. Pretty much.” He replied.

  “So what do you think they are talking about?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. May be Tanya just said to Ayesha how cute you are or I don’t know. Women speak too much than they mean. It can be any part of it!” He replied.

  “I will second that!” I said and started moving towards the main entrance to go back home.

  We met Ayesha, Simran and Tanya at
the gate where Ayesha hugged Tanya, wished her happy birthday once again. Simran followed the same routine.

  “Thanks a lot di. It was nice meeting you.” Tanya said to Simran.

  “You know calling me your di makes him your brother as well!” Simran whispered or rather said it out loud in Tanya’s ear for all of us to be able hear it.

  “Oh come on di. I don’t mind being his sister!” Tanya replied. For a moment my heart sank but the very next moment I said, “Neither do I. Good night Tanya. Happy birthday once again.”

  Kabir too wished her before leaving.

  Finally, after having attended arguably the longest birthday party I had ever come across, we walked back home. It was a tiring day which meant there was no energy left for the late night fun and movie. I cursed Tanya for that. If it was not for her party, we all would have been wide awake maybe watching a movie or maybe playing Jenga for that matter.

  Or maybe I was mad at her because of her last remark. Maybe I was over reacting. But what the hell, I was used to it by now. We all slept like babies that night. Now even though we did partly agree to the early to bed clause of the ‘great man’ but we were in no mood to follow the latter half of the saying. No one was in a mood to get up early but we all did wake up fairly early by our own standards.

  The four of us used to sleep in the same bedroom for staying in different rooms would have disturbed the sleep of the elderly and who wants that to happen given that the more they are up, the less noise we could make and the less noise we make the less fun we have. No puns whatsoever were intended over here! I am talking of brothers and sisters over here! Have some ‘decency’ of thinking ‘dirty’ at the right time at least!

  The three of them were already up while I, as usual was in no mood of getting up yet even though I did at around 11.30. I was sleeping on the left side of the bed and even after waking up I was having my after nap thinking session and it included the events of last night. I was staring at the ceiling lying perfectly straight and thinking about it all.

  “What are you thinking?” A familiar voice which sounded to be that of Tanya came from the right side of the bed.

  “You.” I replied thinking it to be my inner self talking to me.

  “What do you mean by ‘you’?” The voice asked. It was here I scanned the right side of the bed and was completely startled when I saw Tanya sitting there.

  I was startled to such an extent that I stood up on the bed. This, had to be the best sleep breaker I had ever witnessed. I had gone from lying in bed half asleep to standing straight up in my bed in a matter of three seconds!

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked still taken aback by her presence in the room.

  “Ayesha invited me over and by the way what did you mean when you said ‘you’ as the answer to my certain question?” She said.

  By the time she asked this question Simran and Kabir came running into the room alarmed by hearing me scream.

  “What…What happened?” Kabir entered the room and asked.

  “He was scared by my presence in the room.” Tanya replied spilling out the words laughing.

  “What do you mean by scared?” Simran asked perplexed.

  Tanya went on to explain to them what had occurred but keeping the last bit, ‘the question and the answer’ to herself. Soon after her tale was over, Kabir fell on the floor laughing. It was as if the words that came out of Tanya’s mouth were still tickling him.

  “You don’t really have to LPOTZL” I said.

  “LPOTZL?” Simran and Tanya said in unison.

  “Just the Indian version of ROTFL.” I replied.

  “Full form being?” Tanya asked.

  “Loting Poting On The Zameen Laughing.” I replied.

  All of them laughed again.

  “Are you done yet?” I asked frustrated.

  “Sure I am but hey I just remembered something that’s making me laugh again.” He replied still laughing.

  “And what’s that?” I asked

  “The story that Tanya just narrated!” He said and started laughing all the more louder. This time Tanya and Simran joined in.

  I left the room for I couldn’t bear it anymore. In the meantime Ayesha came out of the bathroom after a bath and was made to hear the story all over again. She too, as expected, started laughing like a jerk. Believe me or not it’s pure agony yet fun having brothers and sisters like that! I then went on to get equipped for breakfast cum lunch for both were taken at one time, lunch for the elders and breakfast for us.

  You might have heard of Sheldon Cooper’s Dinefast but we believed in Lunchfast or maybe people popularly call it brunch.

  It was as if we were living in two different parts of the world, one in India and the other maybe in London, for our cycles of getting up, getting ready, breakfast; lunch, dinner and sleep were more or less five hours apart. Needless to say the elders, being the oldies were “Early to bed, Early to rise” followers making them live in ‘India’ and making us live in ‘England’. Somehow this comparison did amuse me. Living in England wasn’t that bad an option after all.

  Tanya also joined us for breakfast cum lunch, a bit confused about what she should be having given that she already had breakfast once, she decided on having breakfast again, which would have been my personal choice as well. Now as the five of us were sitting on the same table, Tanya included, it meant the rest three were surely going to be on a troll spree. There would be a number of double meaning jokes hurled my way.

  “So Vishal, Tanya just told me about what happened when you woke up.” Ayesha said.

  “Oh she did. I thought she would be mum on that and take that secret to her grave.” I said with obvious sarcasm.

  “Well I sure am taking a part of it to the grave.” She replied and moved her eyebrows in a way to state, “Should I tell them what you said when I asked you the question.”

  “Sorry.” Was my instantaneous reply.

  As soon as the word came out of my mouth Kabir, Simran and Ayesha’s jaws dropped in astonishment. It felt as if I had said some real bad words about Tanya’s family or for that matter anyone.

  “Did you hear what I heard?” said Simran still amazed about what she had just heard.

  “I don’t know about that but did he say what I think he did?” Kabir said still in a state of shock.

  “Oh I bet he did.” Ayesha said still awestruck.

  I was visibly flushed.

  “Am I missing something guys?” Tanya said unable to understand what the amazement was all about.

  “If this was Matrix and I was Morpheous, I would have said ‘You are the one Tanya’ but over here none of that matters. All that matters is, you surely are the lucky one Tanya!” Kabir said.

  “Woa, woa…What do you mean by the lucky one?” Tanya asked stressing on the words ‘lucky one’.

  “Nothing what you are presuming it be.” Simran said and winked.

  “It’s just that this chap over here who for some reason just uttered the word ‘sorry’ has never apologized even when he has been wrong but today, he did, to you. You sure are the lucky one Tanya.” Ayesha said and winked with a smirk of naughtiness all over her face.

  “Oh……So you have a big ego.” Tanya said bluntly.

  I didn’t say anything nor did I look up. Concentrating on my bread omelette was the better option rather than listening to what these chaps were saying.

  “Sure he does!” Kabir replied for me.

  “So how about we play a little game over here. Who is interested?” Tanya said.

  “I am.” Said Kabir

  “Me too.” Said Simran

  “Me three.” Said Ayesha

  And then they all looked at me for a reply.

  “I am not.” I replied.

  “Oh come on.” Kabir said.

  “Let it be bhaiya. As it is he is the game so he can’t be a part of it!” Tanya said with a smile which was fairly naughty and yet made her look all the more beautiful.


  “Looks like I am going to enjoy this.” Kabir said and rubbed his hands to show his enthusiasm and excitement.

  “So what’s the game Tanya?” Simran asked.

  “This is a betting game.” Tanya said.

  “A betting game?” Ayesha said.

  “Yes”

  “What do we bet on?” Kabir asked.

  “Anything but it should be something reasonable. It means that you can bet on something that you think you can do. It’s like giving a dare to ourselves but once you decide on the dare you tell the rest who are playing and if the others find it worth a challenge and not too farfetched the person will have to do it. If the person fails to do so, he or she is out of the game.” Tanya explained.

  “Interesting. We like it!” The three of them said unanimously.

  “So who goes first?” Ayesha asked.

  “Um I think Tanya should go first. She is the one who introduced the game `. If she goes first she would be able to show us how it is to be done.” Simran replied.

  “Fair enough. Tanya you go first.” Kabir said supporting Simran’s point of view.

  “Okay.” Tanya replied.

  “So what do you bet on?” Ayesha asked.

  “I bet on………” She said and paused.

  “On…..go on.” Kabir said.

  “That I can make him say sorry three times right now.” She said pointing the index finger of her right hand towards me. I didn’t notice it for I was busy eating but then I looked up to see whom she was pointing to. As soon as I saw the finger pointing in my direction, the churned up omelette entered my windpipe and made me cough.

  “What the……” I shouted but stopped myself realizing I was sitting on the dining table of my uncle’s home.

  The three of them thought that could this be done or not and then they unanimously came to the decision. “We think you can do it.” Kabir replied representing the three of them.

  “Oh come on guys.” I said extremely frustrated.

  “What? It’s just a game. Play along and I am sure Tanya is going to lose the bet. You are never ever going to say sorry and that too thrice, practically impossible!” Kabir said.

  “Sure………Aunty these people are playing a betting game!” I shouted out to Kabir and Ayesha’s mom who was the only other occupant of the house at the moment.

  “Oh yes ma we are and I think you should see this too. This is going to be history in the making. Your grandchildren will talk of this day as the day when their uncle succumbed to a girl and said sorry to her thrice.” Kabir said.

  “Oh you people and your silly games. I am working here. You guys carry on.” She replied.

  And hence my last card failed too.

  “It’s on!” Kabir said.

  Tanya made the same eyebrow movement as she had done earlier when I said sorry. This time I didn’t utter a word for I knew if I spoke that word will surely spill out of my mouth.

  When her initial movement didn’t work, she shortened her eyes so as to stare and trying to say, “Will you say sorry or should I start speaking.” It was as if she was talking to me through her eyes. The only difference, this time it worked.

  “Sorry.” I said and I was as much amazed as the rest. I never wanted to say it yet I did.

  “You are a genius Tanya.” Kabir said awestruck by what she had done.

  I got all the more frustrated and it showed on my face.

  Tanya got visibly upset on seeing my sunken face.

  “Okay guys I forfeit. It’s getting too much.” Tanya said.

  “Oh come on Tanya don’t break our hearts. Hearing him say sorry feels so nice.” Ayesha said

  “No Ayesha I can’t. I am sorry Vishal. I shouldn’t have forced you.” Tanya said getting all the more upset.

  “Oh you don’t have to be sorry!” I said to calm her down.

  “That’s two!” Tanya said and started laughing and jumping with joy.

  The rest three joined her in the laugh.

  “What the hell I don’t like any one of you.” I said, very upset with Tanya for doing what she just did. I left my breakfast cum lunch or whatever and went to my room which was right next to where Tanya was standing and closed the door behind me. As soon as I closed the door Tanya shrieked in pain. I couldn’t understand what had happened. I opened the door to see that Tanya was sitting on the floor sobbing, holding the index finger of her right hand which was bleeding. I thought her finger was trapped in the door while I was closing it. Her sobs were slowly growing as the pain increased.

  “Oh shit. I am really really sorry Tanya. I never meant to do this!” I said pretty much angry with myself for hurting her even though it was unintentional.

  “It’s ok and that’s three!” Tanya said getting up and started to laugh in joy yet again.

  “Oh boy. You are good. You are real good. You scared us all for a moment.” Simran said.

  I was still analysing what had just occurred

  “Where did the blood come from?” Ayesha asked.

  “Blood? Which blood? Do you mean Tomato ketchup?” Tanya said and licked the ketchup from her finger.

  “You are awesome Tanya.” Ayesha said.

  “Sure she is!” Kabir supported.

  Ayesha hugged Tanya as she looked at me with her perfectly shaped, dark brown eyes.

  “Want some ketchup?” She asked pointing at the little bit that remained on her finger.

  “No thanks and this is not over!” I said and left the room in disgust.

  “Never mind.” Tanya replied still happy with her victory.

  Since then, Tanya started staying at our place a lot more than usual. Apart from Ayesha, Simran and Kabir too were very fond of her and that meant she would sleep over whenever she wanted more often on insistence of Simran and Ayesha. Even though she was fun to be around, I hated her from the core of my heart. So what she was beautiful, so what there appeared to be sparkling chemistry between the two of us, she was mean and cruel and a lot of other things which I will not like to bring up. In a conversation which involved her, I rarely said a word. She tried to converse, yet I backed out all the time. Maybe I was too mad at her or maybe I just wanted to stay away so as to be able to stay away from any trouble and pranks that might be making their way in that woman’s tiny but smart head. She was fun though, some of the stories she told were rib tickling fun yet neither did I laugh much even when the rest three were falling off the bed laughing nor did I give my inputs which could have made the story all the more funny.

  Then came that dreadful night, the last night before we were supposed to leave and go back to our home. That night, I don’t know for what dreaded reason, we decide to play the game of truth and dare. This was the last night so Tanya was staying for the night which meant trouble all the way. Since Tanya’s entry, I had become the soft target so I had to be extra careful to be able to survive the night.

  The game started and the plastic cola bottle was rolled to decide whose turn was it to spill out the truth or do something silly. The game was running pretty smoothly. Tanya was sitting at the spot to the right of me which meant there wasn’t a possibility of her asking a question or giving me a dare so I had eased out. It had to be Kabir who was supposed to ask the question or give the dare which he did when the bottle pointed at me. The game continued as we all continued picking up truths and dares asking each other to do ridiculous stuff! It was around three in the morning that we decided to give the game a rest for we had to leave at around nine in the morning. So we decided to go off to sleep after the last spin and as luck would have had it, it pointed at me. I was in for a truth this time.

  “So what’s my question?” I asked as it is I was feeling pretty sleepy and wanted to get this over with.

  “Let’s make this a little bit more fun.” Kabir said with a sheepish smile on his face.

  “How is that going to be?” Ayesha asked.

  “I would like to pass and give Tanya the opportunity to ask a question from him.” Kabir said.
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br />   “That’s not fair. I object. This is against the rules.” I said.

  “Okay fair enough. Let’s do a vote. All those in favour that Tanya should ask this question raise their hands.” Kabir said.

  Believe it or not, my brother and my sisters had their hands up and on the other hand, Tanya who was always the first one in line to mock me didn’t raise her hand!

  “So it’s 3 as opposed to 2. Tanya, go ahead and ask a question.” Kabir said.

  “Okay.” Tanya said and started thinking, maybe thinking of an appropriately inappropriate question!

  I waited patiently for the question to arrive. I was wide awake; all the sleep that had filled my eyes a couple of minutes back was all gone. I was trying to concentrate hard to prevent any humiliation, for the question might have an underlying meaning which I might fail to understand.

  “My question is why did you say ‘you’ that day?” She asked.

  It was a pretty straight forward question yet very humiliating.

  “What? What are you talking about?” I said trying to fake a frown and tried to convince her that I didn’t understand what she was saying.

  “You want me to say it out loud?” She asked.

  “What do I want you to say out loud? I don’t want you to say anything. I just don’t understand what you are talking about.” I said pissed at her for bringing up the topic again.

  “Okay. Okay. I will frame it in simple words for you. Why were you thinking about me the morning when you were scared by my presence in the room?” She said and that got a bit too straight forward. The three of them who were filled with sleep a moment ago were now listening to our conversation pretty intently.

  “I wasn’t thinking about you.” I said.

  “Yes you were.” She argued.

  “No I wasn’t.”

  “Yes you were. You said so!”

  “Did I? I would have mistaken you to be someone else which actually was the reason I was startled.” I lied.

  “And that’s the truth?” She asked.

  “You are allowed to ask only one question.” I said.

  “But you still haven’t answered my question. You are just beating around the bush. Answer my first question and I will let you go.” She replied.

  “As I said I wasn’t thinking about you. I mistook you to be someone else.” I said.

  “Okay, break it you two.” Kabir intervened.

  “Shut up and sit down Kabir. I am pretty much enjoying this. Let’s see where this is headed.” Simran whispered to Kabir.

  “I too am enjoying this. It’s a bit confusing but it sounds fun.” Ayesha said.

  “Okay. Who wanted to intervene anyway, I just wanted to fulfil the formality. This is awesome!” Kabir said.

  “So you weren’t thinking about me.” Tanya continued to argue.

  “No I wasn’t.” I said.

  “Okay chap, if you weren’t then right before you woke up why did you take my name and smile in your sleep.” She said.

  “What! I never did that. Now you are making things up.” I replied.

  “I am not. That’s what you said.” She said.

  “I did not.”

  “Yes you did.”

  “I did not.”

  “Yes you did.”

  “I did not.”

  “Well then wait for the proof.” She said and took out her cell phone. She clicked on some icons and a video popped up. It was a video of me sleeping and after around ten seconds I smiled and said ‘Tanya’. This was the first instance I came across where I spoke in my sleep.

  “I can’t believe this. The video is rigged. You changed it.” I said accusing Tanya.

  “And you seriously think I have that much brain and that much time so as to be able to ask you this question which, oh I got by chance because Kabir wanted me to ask the question.” She said with sarcasm filled in her voice.

  “He is in the plan with you. You all are against me.” I accused all of them.

  “Woa… Woa…Woa…No one is against you bro. None of us had a clue about all of this I assure you of that! By the way Tanya why were you filming Vishal sleeping.” Kabir countered and asked.

  “That’s not important at the moment. So Vishal are you going to tell me why were you thinking about me that day?” She asked again.

  “I wasn’t.”

  “Yes you were. Now tell me why were you thinking about me?” She pressurised.

  “Because I liked you.” I succumbed to the pressure and spilled the truth.

  “I was thinking about you because after those brief moments of conversation with you I started liking you but not anymore. Ever since you played that ‘sorry’ prank on me and ever since I got to know you better, I have started hating you.” I completed what I had to say.

  There was stunned silence in the room. No one spoke. No one had anything to say.

  “Well I am really sorry Vishal. I didn’t mean to trouble you so much. I got a bit carried away and never realised you were just a little girl.” Tanya broke the silence and started laughing. After a moment or two the rest of them joined her as well. That sort of cooled down the air but it wasn’t clear as yet and may be it wasn’t supposed to get clean. It had to end like this and so be it. It will end like this!

  “It’s time to go to bed. It’s already 4 in the morning. You guys only have a couple of hours of sleep; there is a train you have to catch in the morning. Sleep off.” Kabir said as everyone got ready to go off to sleep. Ayesha and Simran had already dozed off. I went to the washroom and by the time I came back Kabir too had slept and Tanya was setting up a bed on the floor, where I used to sleep. This wasn’t the first time she was sleeping over but then there was never a problem of lack of space. I entered the room and looked at Tanya. I had no intentions of talking to her.

  “I would have slept up on the bed but Kabir bhaiya has already slept so I thought I shouldn’t disturb him.” She said.

  Kabir and I used to occupy the bed on the floor which was the reason the problem of space didn’t arise but now that he was already asleep up on the bed, Tanya had to sleep on the bed set up on the floor.

  “It’s okay, no problem. I will sleep on the couch outside, you sleep here. No worries.” I said, switched off the lights, said an awkward sounding good night, went to the living room and tried to lay on a four feet couch trying to fit my six feet body in it. I tried for about fifteen twenty minutes and then decided to quit. Sitting up and sleeping appeared to be a more convenient option.

  After around five minutes a mobile light flashed as a voice said, “Don’t be afraid if you are awake.”

  It was Tanya.

  “I am not afraid and yes I am awake as of now.” I replied with a smile.

  “You too unable to sleep?” she asked.

  “Yep. The couch is too huge for my liking.” I said with obvious sarcasm.

  “It appears to be so.” She replied.

  “Why aren’t you able to sleep?” I asked.

  “Well to be honest, I am feeling terrible. Maybe I got a bit carried away and troubled you a bit too much. I am sorry.” She said.

  “Oh it’s alright. I also want to say something but only if you promise you won’t tell the three of them in the morning.” I said.

  “Sure. I won’t tell them. Go on.” She replied with a smile. She looked all the more beautiful in the darkness and the faint light of the mobile phone. She looked like an angel to be honest, the first one I had ever seen!

  “I am sorry too. I think I didn’t take your pranks the way they should have been taken. I wasn’t sporting enough. Maybe because I didn’t expect that from you. So I am sorry. There I said it again.” I said and smiled.

  “That’s so sweet.” She said.

  “Oh please not that!” I said.

  “What?” She asked.

  “Nothing. Will tell you about it, maybe some other time. I think you should go to sleep now.” I said.

  “I think so too but before I do I want to ask you something.
” She said.

  “Again? I don’t think we can waste an hour again talking about nonsense.” I said.

  “Shut up.” She said and started laughing sweetly.

  “Okay what do you want to ask? Go ahead.” I said.

  “Can’t we both forget whatever happened in the last week and just be friends again, as we were on my birthday.” She said.

  “Sure we can. It’s a deal.” I said and shook hands with her.

  “Nice to meet you friend.” She said and smiled. I smiled with her.

  “Go to sleep now.” I said.

  “Okay.” She said and got up to go back to the room.

  On her way back she stopped and turned around.

  “If you want you can sleep on the bed in the room.” She said.

  “No I am fine here. You sleep on the bed.” I said.

  “No I mean you can sleep there too. We can share the bed.” She said.

  “Are you crazy? It’s a single bed!” I said.

  “So? I didn’t say we are going to ‘sleep’ together. Not tonight anyway, for God’s sake your siblings are in that room and as it is we are underage. How can you even think of such a thing? Idiot. I said we can share a bed.” She said.

  “Well if you don’t have a problem then neither do I. It’s just that when these chaps get up in the morning they will infer a completely different meaning of it all. Moreover uncle and aunty wouldn’t like it.” I said.

  “Oh don’t you worry I am not a sound sleeper like you and as it is I don’t think we are going to sleep. It’s almost five already, aunty will get up at around six and then I will go back to my house.” She said.

  “What are we going to do for an hour?” I asked and winked.

  “Talk about life. You are such an asshole.” She said.

  “And you are such a tomboy.” I said.

  “I won’t deny that considering what all I have done to you in the past one week.” She said and laughed.

  “Shut up.” I said and then we moved to the bedroom.

  As it was a single bed and it wasn’t easy for two people to lie on it. Even though Kabir and I did share the bed but it never was difficult but with Tanya, I had to maintain a distance. We tried a lot of ‘positions’ (no puns intended whatsoever) but ultimately it was me lying in one corner, pillow under my head and my left arm at ninety degrees to my body was being used as a pillow by Tanya.

  “So you ever had a girlfriend?” She asked.

  “Girlfriend?” I said and laughed.

  “What’s there to laugh? It was a fairly simple question.” She replied.

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “I think……” She said and paused.

  “That……” I continued her sentence.

  “Yes you did have a girlfriend. Not one but a couple of them.” She replied.

  “What makes you think so?” I asked.

  “Oh so now Mr. Vishal wants to be praised by a pretty beautiful girl who is lying right next to him using his arm as a pillow. Fair enough. I guess you deserve this much for providing me with a pillow.” She said and paused.

  “Go on. I am listening.” I said and smiled.

  “You are handsome, you have a charm, you are sober and a perfect gentleman apart from the fact that you are a bit egoistic and a sweet little girl and a cry baby.” She replied.

  “Well that was some praising! I myself couldn’t have defined myself better.” I said appreciating her effort and also trying to fit in my loved sarcasm.

  “So, did you ever have a boyfriend?” I asked.

  “First answer my question.” She said.

  “There would be no answering of questions. You just believe what you think. That’s it. So do you have a boyfriend?”

  “What do you think?” She said.

  “Oh ok. So we are playing. I think…” I said and paused.

  “That…” She continued the sentence.

  “I think that you had a boyfriend who was very handsome, just like me.” I said.

  “And why do you think so?” She laughed and said.

  “Oh so now Ms. Tanya wants to be praised by a rather sober guy who is lying right next to her and is lending his hand as a pillow for her. I guess you deserve this for letting me lie down.” I said.

  She smiled. This one was pure and this made her look beautiful, “angel” as I described earlier.

  “Go on. I am listening.” She replied.

  “Well I think so because that stupid boyfriend of yours broke your heart which ultimately converted you into a tomboy and since then, you started hating handsome boys, which is the reason you treated me the way you did.” I said and laughed.

  “Oh come on Vishal I have already apologized for that. I said I am sorry.” She said a bit irritated.

  “I know. I was just fooling around.” I said.

  “I think you should sleep now. You have a long journey ahead of you!” She said.

  “Okay. You too sleep. No need to worry but I think I should give you a prior warning my hands and feet frequently move a lot while I am asleep.” I said.

  “Oh don’t worry about that. Your one hand is controlled by my head and if the rest of your body moves, I am going to break your nuts.” She replied.

  I started to laugh.

  “I am serious. Now go off to sleep. Hope to meet you soon. Good morning and good night.” She said.

  “Same to you.” I said and slept off.

  The next morning or rather the same morning I woke up at 7.30 after just a couple of hours of sleep and Tanya was nowhere to be found. That she had gone back to her house, was the only plausible conclusion. I got ready, ate my breakfast and then Simran and I left for the railway station to board the train.

  It was quite a week with its ups and downs but I most probably will remember the upside of it all.

  On our way out of the house, after moving a couple of feet away, after everyone had seen us off I looked up at Tanya’s house. All I could see was a window and didn’t know whose room it was, but I kept looking at it for as long as I could just to see her for one last time before leaving. Just to say good bye to her but it just never happened. It had been just an hour and I was missing her already!