Thursday, June 17, 2010

03: About the Realisation

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A lecture had just concluded, and the eight of these friends entered the cafeteria. There was silence around, and a couple was standing in between, everyone looking at them. And then the boy gave the girl a ring and proposed her.
"Sweet!" complimented Rishab, with a smile, nearly all over his face.
"Seventies..." commented Antara casually and moved forward.
Sunidhi quickly moved next to Rishab and whispered to him, "So? When do you plan to tell her?"
"Tell her?" he exclaimed. "Tell whom? And tell what?"
"If you want me to name her.. SMITI. When do you plan to tell her about your feelings for her?"
"Woho.. After I get those feelings!" said Rishab, with a stroke of laughter. His face loudly said 'Oh, Come on! Not the same old topic again'.
Sunidhi quickly replied "Oh! So that'll be two years back. I wonder how you'll do that. I wish I could come along."
"Eh No!" said Rishab, laughing at what Sunidhi just said. And before you draw any inference, science always struck Rishab's mind before jokes and taunts. He continued. "Moving back in time together is not possible!! You see, practically, moving in time together would mean conversion from physical to -"
Sunidhi growled with a look that loudly conveyed "Who's the idiot out of us? Here's a hint. Not Me!", and thankfully, he got it.
"And, anyway, I have never been in love with her."
"You'd say that! Forget it." snapped Sunidhi and moved away.
When they reached their table, six people were already sitting there. The good part was that there were three girls and three guys against the Eight of these. The bad part was that they all seemed to be regular at real hard workouts. While the guys out of them had their biceps bulging out like someone had inflated them till the skin began to crack, the girls seemed to have hands strong enough to break the table in one stroke.
"So? Does anyone feel like eating? Well, I don't" said Sunidhi and turned around to leave.
"NOOOOO!" shouted Smiti, breathing hard. "We have been challenged. We're not losing so easily. We are eight and they are six. So if each one of us handles Three quarters of a person out of them, the fight will be in our favour."
Rishab and Kanishk agreed, though fear rejected to leave their face.
Anish immediately threw his bag on the table and held one of the guys.
Armaan followed. Just that he took a girl, ehh, that too not for long.
Finally all of them jumped in..

[20 minutes later]
All eight of them were sitting in that table, panting badly. Eyes were swollen, and body parts seemed to be broken. Smiti and Antara however were hit less than the others. A lot less.. Actually they had not been hit at all.
"We got it!" declared Smiti proudly. "We made it, boys and girls."
Everyone mildly celebrated. "But I didn't think we would. They were really.. REAAAALLLY strong."
"You're welcome!" said Antara. "We might have never been in this table had I not told them about Anish's Feline Flu!"
Everyone looked at Antara with jaws dropped! She smiled, feeling proud of herself.
"Yeah! I told them that he had already given it to two more people. And that the disease is really contagious and horrendous"
"What? Who two?" asked Smiti.
"Don't worry about that. They don't know them." said Antara.
"But Feline Flu?" said Anish. "Have you started creating new species of diseases?"
"What do you mean? Cats give this disease. Stop questioning the power of Mother Nature" defended Antara what she had just done.
"Thank God! Thanks Antara." said Sunidhi to end the discussion before it starts, and all the guys looked with a "Really? Thanks?" at her. "So we are in the seat. Shall we eat something?"
"Sure! By the way, one of the girls and her boyfriend used to be quite good friends of mine at school only till they ate away my lunch"
"Oh that's bad!" exclaimed Sunidhi.
"Yeah!" said Smiti almost about to cry. "Her mother made the cake thrice for me. It was mine. And they ate it everytime..."
Everyone went blank. The reason was already weird. And then she added in a volume hardly audible to others, but clear to all of the seven of these. "... Out of HER box"
Rishab took a tissue paper and gave it to Smiti.
"Oh thanks!" said Smiti, rolled it and threw it in the Recycle bin and went away to get something to eat.
Rishab tried to find atleast one logical explanation but failed. Sunidhi came to rescue.
"She just threw that on those two!"
"What?" said Rishab with a hybrid of Confusion and Adoration.
"Yeah! See, she dumped the two of them, and what's closest to 'dump'?" she said, making the quotation marks gesture, followed by a shrug to mean "Obviously!"
Rishab was so impressed that for once he got the feeling that Science and Technology were probably not as good. While others kept talking, Rishab began to think about something.
"I appreciate everything she does, like all her theories, support every cause she raises, like to go everywhere she goes... eh probably not everywhere.. Anyway.. Do I really love her?"
"What?" said Kanishk.
"Yeah, what?" followed Anish.
"Whhhhaaaaat???" exclaimed Armaan.
"What? You guys say that all the time. I was just thinking that may be I do love her?" explained Rishab, and then he realized something. "But it was all on inside my mind. How did you hear that?"
With their mouths wide open in shock, they were all looking at Rishab. "Oh, you didn't!" Rishab drawled.
"Yeah, but since you've started, should we hear more?" said Anish, moving the ketchup bottle standing upright between him and Rishab aside.
"Nope! I don't like informing the worthless-but-loud people about my personal life" replied Rishab raising an eye-brow, and then continued. "You know what, I am leaving.. I need to reach home early today"
"That is what we all do, and everyday!" strongly argued Anish.
"Really? So you call reaching home after 9 early?" commented Rishab.
"Yeah" said Armaan very seriously, "that's too early.. You're such a kiddo..!"
They got up to leave when they saw a lot of crowd gathered near the service counter. They ran to see what it is, when Smiti's head popped out from between the crowd, and then she pushed herself out, as the people shouted things hard to understand.
"Run! Run!" she whispered. "Before they find out I'm gone."
"What happened?" asked Rishab all concerned. Smiti only gave a guilty smile.
"No.. You didn't do that." exclaimed Antara.
"What? What did she do?" asked Rishab as he looked at both Smiti and Antara, all confused.
"That lady was not giving me enough noodles for the money I paid.." slowly spoke Smiti, looking down.
"Well, so? You asked for it very sweet, didn't you?" said Rishab, his body saying "Say Yes and just stop after that!"
"Ofcourse" she said trying to feel a little less guilty, but failed. "Just that I guess, the punches are not counted as one of the sweet ways"
"WHATTTT?" shouted all of them together.
"Yeah, that's it? And they made an issue out of it?" said Antara, as she joined her hands thanking the God. "It's all karma.."
"What did you do then?" said Smiti. Hers got bright to know that someone did something bigger.
"This guy paid for more than he was getting. I told the lady on the counter to get him more. But she didn't budge!" Antara told the others.
"So?" they asked.
"Nothing.. I just took two forks from the counter.." she continued. By the way, the forks kept on the counter were metallic, good-quality ones.
"So, you took forks!! That's it?" said Kanishk.
"and apparently threw them on her when she was standing, her back facing me. She got the forks in a place that made it hard for her to sit for a month" she said, and then smiled at Smiti. Smiti however didn't feel any comforted by this.
The friends walked out of the cafeteria, when Kanishk's phone rang up.
"It's Pratigya!!" he exclaimed, but then controlled his excitement in front of the friends.
"Keep moving!" he said and moved a little away from them to talk to Pratigya.
The others kept moving, Rishab and the others trying to make Smiti feel comfortable, and ofcourse, avoiding any more of Antara's stories. Pratigya, on the call, was telling Kanishk about a big offer she had just got.

They were about to reach the main gate when the girl who had kicked Armaan, came running towards him, gifted him a portrait of his and then went away.
When they saw the portrait, the name of the artist was 'Divya', and at the back her phone number was written with a message.
'After that day, I've never stopped thinking about you. I kicked you because I hate it when the guys hit on me just for entertainment. In your eyes, I saw sincerity and commitment. Unfortunately, I could not see that before the kick. Will you be mine and let me have the best partner I could have dreamed of?'
"O-M-G.." exclaimed Sunidhi.
"Did she just propose Armaan!?" exclaimed Smiti.
Kanishk's call had just completed and he joined in with "Proposed Armaan?? A girl?"
"May be, she liked his innocence!" said Anish, with a smile. Armaan responded with a launch-of-merc-teeth-out smile.
"Or she liked his humour!" said Rishab.
"Or she liked his courage!" said Vineet..
"Or.." drawled Antara, "she got a high and now, she cannot see things clearly."
She attracted a loud 'WHAT?' look from all. She immediately responded.
"What? I thought we were trying to find reasons why she would propose him". Antara paused and then continued "with open minds!"
[The day concluded]

Saturday, June 12, 2010

02: About Another Bet Lost

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"I'm not getting up so earlyyyyy!!"
That was 10am, and the first lecture was about to begin. But who cares, when your attendance records are being taken care of!
"Kanishk" called out the Class Co-ordinator.
"Present" answered Rishab.
Antara's call was taken care of by Sunidhi. Smiti meanwhile was on call with Kanishk.
"C'mon, get up. This is no time to sleep! How will you learn things without attending the lectures?" said Smiti.
"Seriously, how do you do it by attending the lectures!!?? I am telling you, I am NOT GETTING UP SO EARLY! Now listen to the co-ordinator and let me doze off." said Kanishk and disconnected the call.
Smiti was surprised at something.
"What? Did he get up?" asked Sunidhi.
"No! But he wasn't screaming today. Wait, did he get high last night?" answered Smiti, her eyes filled to the brim with confusion.
"I wish I could believe that, but how would he ever buy any such thing?" giggled Anish. "Kids are not allowed to drink!!" Rishab and Vineet laughed along.
"That's not funny!" very seriously commented Armaan, and then turned to Smiti. "Really? Has he been drinkin for a while? Well, ofcourse not that I'll get company.. I don't drink, you know!!" he said with so much of modulation in his voice that noticing how false it was almost got impossible.

[After 45 minutes of lecture by Mrs. Kaushik (Caustic as the students called this Physical Chemistry lecturer)]
The activity in the class room had greatly reduced. Someone poked Smiti awake.
"What?" cried Smiti with a voice choked out of sleeping.
"Get up!! Lecture's about to be over" whispered Rishab, maintaining his "I-am-studying-guys" look.
Smiti replied with her eyes not opening to let even a single particle of air in, "See, this is for the last time I am warning you. I can't bear her blabbering. Let me sleep."
Before she could sleep again, another poke woke her up.
"Ohkay listen" she said, now a little more loudly, "This woman has been on with her useless crap for one hour, but I didn't stop her. Why do you stop 'me' from dozing off to save myself from listening to her big-time loser Chemical stories? I'd rather find talking to the test-tubes more interesting!"
"Well, sure you would! Let's go and see what else interests you!" said Mrs. Kaushik, as she stood right behind Smiti, staring at Smiti through her vintage glasses. Suddenly all drowsiness disappeared, and Smiti bounced up awake.
"What? NOoooooooooo.. I was not talking about you, Mrs. Caust.. Kaushik. It was Antara. She's been talking weird-" explained Smiti, and then Antara stopped nodding, 'actually' woke up and responded.
"Who?? Me? What did I do?"
She stood up, and Smiti followed. Mrs. Kaushik was quick to respond. She knew students were good at it, and so she didn't give them the time to make anything up.
"She says you've been talking to her. Weird stuff!"
"Yeah! Like I ever do. Infact, I was attentively listening to your lecture, till she made me realise how boring it was." said Antara, smiling like she had just returned after a long tiring day at work, completing a major task.
She only realised what she had done when Mrs. Kaushik told her the interpretation of what she had just said. "So, you've been sleeping through my lecture too?"
"Urrgg.. You're sucha bi-" Antara was going to complete it with Bitch for Mrs. Kaushik, if you're intrigued.
"Binderful teacher.." interrupted Rishab. "She has some pronounciation trouble. Last time she told me she had 'bin' (been) the competition. I said 'for how long?' And then I realised, she meant she had won." He laughed aloud at his own joke, his eyes begging Mrs. Kaushik for just one smile. But Mrs. Kaushik's expressions remained the same like she had been touched by Midas, after Midas changing his power from "turn-into-gold" to "just-stone-will-do".
"Oh! Now I get what this is all about" said Antara as she finally understood what was happening around her. "No, we were not sleeping."
"Yeah? Me neither, while you were making this whole story, which for your information was not entertaining, like my lecture, at all. So how do you like this? Let's go to the Dean's office and see if he gets amused by your little tale"
The three of them got up, and followed Mrs. Kaushik.
The class was silent only till the next weird response to this came in.
Followed by a yawn, a half-choked voice asked "What happened? Did Mrs. Kaushik just faint?" said Anish leaning sideways to see where Mrs.Kaushik stood.
"I don't think so" said Armaan, followed by another yawn, rubbing his eyes. "I think the people of my secret society were here.." Too much for Anish to remain sleepy after listening to.
Now you don't want to know how the rest of the people responded, right?

[An hour later, in the cafeteria]
Sunidhi and Anish were discussing something when Vineet interrupted. "Do you think that's a guy?"
Sunidhi made her eyes smaller and saw carefully in the direction Vineet was pointing. "NO!! Ofcourse that's a girl."
Anish casually slurped on the weird new shake they had just introduced. "Ewww.." he said, but then he looked around to see if anyone noticed. He didn't like to let people know that he made a wrong choice. The real punch is that people never let him realise that they knew it.
"Really? Why?" said Vineet, quite confident that it was still a guy.
"Well.. Look at how she's walking." Vineet gave an "Oh C'mon" look to Sunidhi.
"What? I'm telling you, she's a SHE!"
"Yehaah! And you really think I'd buy that?"
"Well!" said Sunidhi. "May be we can have a bet!"
Anish was still slurping, and listening to all this carefully.
"Ohkay! 100 bucks" said Vineet as he took the challenge.
"500!" strongly challenged Sunidhi. Vineet's expressions went from 10 to 3 on the meter of confidence.
Anish giggled, and was noticed. But nobody really said anything.
"Prove it to me that it's a girl!"
"For that," started Sunidhi, "you'll have to do a little something. Unbutton your shirt, and she'll hit on you. I can see that craving in her eyes."
"Huhhh No! I am not doing that." said Vineet. His eyes were back to open after a long interesting Challenge fight. But that did not happen with Sunidhi.
"Do I hear my purse telling me it's ready for a new family member? What? Did it just say, it's a 500 bucks note?" she said with a lot of excitement mixed with gravity.
Vineet thought for a while and then began to breathe like a Mad-bull. "You don't win, Sunidhi Manchandadi! I'm in"
Sunidhi boiled up. Well ofcourse, people had been making weird stuff out of her name lately. "Ohkay seriously, do you guys not like my name?"
But Vineet didn't hear a word. He took the shake from Anish. It was brave of him, because when Kanishk only shifted his food to the other side, he got punched in face.
Anyway, Vineet threw it on his shirt and then unbuttoned it and shouted "Oh My God! My shirt... The shake all over"
The girl came running. "Did I hear it right? I mean, you need help?" she said and then whispered into Vineet's ears, with a mild blush over her face, "May be I can make some free service. You seem to work out, by the way!"
Vineet was trembling. Sunidhi immediately got up and whispered into the girl's ears, "He likes you! Give him your number."
She smiled and gave Vineet her number and then went away saying "Here.. Call me. I am Naresh!"
Vineet and Sunidhi's eyes and hands were spread in shock.
And then Anish got up and said "You could have asked me, and saved yourselves a lot of embarassment. That's one of the cleaning-boys, new at cafeteria. But anyway, thanks for another story." He called up Kanishk. "Hey Kanishk, where are you? Funny story. Vineet just..." Spices were, ofcourse, added to make it wilder.

[Another lapse in time]
"I can't believe it!" exclaimed Smiti with a big smile.
"Yeah! He's such a nice man" agreed Antara.
"Ofcourse. Such a sweet, kind.. " began Rishab, but could hold it for long and said what had been ringing in his mind. "GIGOLO!"
"What? Why?" said Sunidhi. She was keenly interested in knowing the spicy story (for a gossip, ofcourse). But then she held her expressions back and looked more concerned.
"They were sleeping.. They were talking.. They were making stories up.." complained Rishab.
"Yeah, so?" said Sunidhi.
"He has been punished to sit outside his office in the place of peon for two days" said Smiti keeping herself from laughing, but then finally they all burst into laughter.
"Yeah, because apparently, he didn't like it much when I followed Antara and Smiti, and told him how stunning he looked in that 'tie'" slowly said Rishab, looking down at his feet.
"The 'TIE'?? You liked him in the tie?" exclaimed Armaan.
"Is it my fault that Smiti complimented on the 'Shirt' and Antara, on the 'Pants'?" wailed Rishab.
"Dude! But the 'Tie'? Think of his esteem. You could have combined it with his Underpants!" came the world's wisest advice from Armaan to numb everyone listening.

[A few minutes later]
Kanishk entered the cafeteria, and dragged himself down to their table.
"You don't seem fine!" said Smiti. Sunidhi, Vineet, Rishab and Anish got busy with the discussion of what had just happened with Vineet and Sunidhi.
"I am, I am! I just fell. Anyway, I met this girl -" Kanishk started.
"Fell in love, huh?" interrupted Smiti.
"No! Why would you bring that up?"
"It's written all over your face" said Antara, like she had just completed a study on Kanishk's face.
"Here!" pointed Smiti at Kanishk's left cheek and then on the forehead, "and here!"
"Just two? And that makes you say I am in love?"
"No actually, just one. The cheek one. Everywhere else, it's written that you are in Love!" said Smiti.
"No, I'm not! Guys, the girl is Pratigya, just another friend I made today. She's an amazing singer and is here to pursue it as a profession." said Kanishk justifying (atleast he believed he could) that he wasn't in love.
"Singer? Oh.. That's bad. These guys are so -" started Anish, as a girl's topic grabbed their attention.
"No! She's good. She's just great. Don't talk like that about her." argued Kanishk. Actually, nobody was really arguing back.
"You're welcome, guys!" said Anish as everyone smiled mischievously at Kanishk.
Kanishk's brows rose up. "You don't think I am really in love, do you?"
"Yes, we do!" said Sunidhi.
"And I don't agree at all" said Kanishk, forcing his body language into conveying that he didn't care.
"Don't challenge her, dude! She's evil" said Vineet still not able to come out of his trauma.
Armaan finally found an opportunity to be the hero. "I am with Kanishk. He's not in love. We are the Single bros."
"You know what, liars often get the punishment shared by their friends. So here's Armaan to share yours!" laughed Smiti at both of them. Strangely, her prediction went true. A girl came growling towards Armaan, gave him a tight-slap, swore at him, and then stormed out of the cafeteria. And then Sunidhi spoke. "You won the bet. And I won entertainment. This is the girl I kissed. I told her after the kiss that you had threatened me into kissing her or you would... You know what stories I can make up, don't you?"
"Aaahhggg.. The war is not over yet, Sunidhi Rajavansh Rai!" said Armaan. His left-cheek had gone all red.
"What's wrong with y'all?" cried Sunidhi.
"But I think now I like this girl more than the last one...!" said Armaan looking at the door she walked out of, with a lot of love in his eyes.
"Let's move.." said Rishab taking his bag up.
"Yeah!" said Vineet and everyone picked bags up and started moving. And then Armaan threw his last question to Sunidhi
"How good a kisser is she?"
[The day concluded]

Monday, June 7, 2010

01: Pilot

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It was a not-so-big but a decent College Cafeteria at the New Delhi Engineering College. Sunidhi and Smiti were sitting in their regular place, a table for eight, discussing a yet another serious girl issue, with all of their attention in each other. So much that some of the guys, who could not hear their actual conversation, lost interest in these otherwise extremely attractive girls, doubting their orientation!
"What? You don't mean it!" exclaimed Sunidhi as she grabbed another tissue paper to do nothing good out of it. Yeah! Just to rub lightly around her face, and then throw the poor thing, which probably could have been put to a better use, away!
"I do! I do! He's totally into you, honey!" replied Smiti taking a little sip on the chocolate-shake she had just bought, and then suddenly changing her expressions to a "Yuks! I can make it better!"
"Actually, I won't believe it even if you swear on your score for the next End-Sem. So you may stop trying to make me believe that he likes me. And that shake; I'm sorry, it's better than yours." snapped Sunidhi.
Anish entered the cafeteria, and reached the table with a shake, and two burgers and began to talk right away.
"You won't believe what happened today. I didn't -"
"What? You didn't suck?" interrupted Sunidhi trying to shut him up.
"C'mon Sunidhi! Don't be rude. Yeah! So you didn't, lemme guess, be yourself?! Instead you tried to be something closer to Homosapiens?!!" cracked Smiti another joke. And that was more than enough to keep Anish out of the conversation for another ten minutes. Anish didn't mind. He smiled casually and went on with his food.

[Inside a classroom]
"Ohkay! So you think she likes me?" asked Armaan into Kanishk and Rishab's ears, and smiled at the girl looking at him from the adjacent room. FYI, the three were sitting in the room doing nothing good. They had no lectures. Just a lot of time, and an empty room to discuss Armaan's fantasies! Guy-talk, you see.
"Totally! I think she might like the idea of going out on a date with you." said Rishab trying to make Armaan happy. Well he really did. Armaan's teeth suddenly came out on display like a new Mercedes on its launch event, all shining and glowing! He often did it, and was only repeating it. He hugged Kanishk and quite unclearly (thanks to his unstoppable, eh, uncontrollable smile) said, "Should I go and meet her and tell her how I feel for her. May be she's feeling shy." Kanishk and Rishab looked at the girl. She was really checking Armaan out.
"YES!" they said in unison.
Armaan immediately jumped out of the seat and rushed out of the door. He was so swift that he couldn't even hear Kanishk and Rishab telling him to go after the lecture she was in. And it was only then that Rishab noticed something. That in the closed windows, it was only the reflection from inside that could be seen in the Window glass, and worse, the girl was sitting in a room where all the windows were closed.

[Meanwhile, action was on at the cafeteria]
Antara stormed into the cafeteria like a News reporter digging into a burning Scandal news. Actually, she had a news.
"Guys!" she said pressing a 'Power break' on reaching their table, "This is what I've got. Armaan finally did it."
"Thank God, he did! But dear God, he told 'you' about that? It was a guy-talk! Is he turning into a woman!!!" exclaimed Anish.
"Oh my God! Is he? But he's doing great as a guy.." replied Antara, her eyes awestruck. Yes, she could believe any weird thing to be true.
"Like there is any way it could happen!" said Smiti pulling a hairbrush out of her bag.
"So you're saying it doesn't? Well, Madam Curie, did I miss your lectures on gender unchangeability? And how did -" began Antara.
"Ohkay, gender does change. I know five people who got their genders changed. So no discussion on that. What was the news? What did Armaan do?" Thanks to Sunidhi. With this, she brought the focus back.
"Yeah! I got this news from my sources, that Vineet likes Sunidhi. VINEET LIKES YOU! Yay.." Antara's eyes had an "I-am-so-good" look as she said this.
"Another news about someone who likes Sunidhi! Can we have some action people?" said Smiti coldly and then aimed an imaginary TV Remote at Antara, trying to change the channel.
"C'mon guys! I'm serious about this one. And he's going to propose you today.. TODAY!!" Antara said pointing her finger at Sunidhi, almost poking it into her eye.
"Alright! Alright! Calm down." said Sunidhi carefully taking Antara's finger away and placing it slowly on the table. "Oh my God! Now what do I do? I can't take another proposal!"
"Well, then say NO! Ofcourse if you can afford the taxes. No wait, I forgot! There are no taxes. A messenger from the God forbade you from using the word..." snapped Anish at Sunidhi.
"Urg.. What? I can totally say NO. See, I just did it! But what did Armaan do?"
"Nothing!" replied Antara casually. "I was only trying to find out if something's happening with Armaan that you people are trying to hide from me!"
A reason good enough to get all weird expressions in response.

[Time lapse, Smiti, Antara and Anish were sitting in their table, watching Vineet and Sunidhi talking at a distance]
Kanishk entered the cafeteria.
"Oh My God! Please tell me he's not discussing one more assignment with Sunidhi! I'm not doing any more of them." he said and grabbed Smiti's burger and took a big bite.
"Hey! That was mine." Smiti complained.
"Oh, I'm sorry"
Kanishk kept the burger back.
"I'm not taking it. You took a bite out of it" said Smiti pushing the burger towards Kanishk.
Kanishk gave a screwed nose look and said "Stop being a kid! Here, take it.." He pushed the chewed bite out of his mouth into the plate.
Smiti almost puked on this. "Eeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww"
"Yeah! Ewww.." followed Antara. "Though I don't get the reason. Kanishk only reduced your chewing effort. Appreciate the care, people! What has happened to the World.." Everybody stared at Antara for her stupid logic.
"Ohkay, don't thank me for the eye-opener. So, what's up with Armaan?"

[Sunidhi returned with Vineet. Everything seemed fine]
Sunidhi sighed out of relief.
"So? You wanna tell us something?" said Smiti as she took a sip out of a new milk-shake, Kanishk had just bought.
"Yeaaah! Uhh.. Actually, this is Vineet. He - " began Sunidhi.
"He's Vineet, and he likes you! Now?" interrupted Antara.
"Thanks for cutting this short story shorter!" responded Sunidhi sarcastically. "He wants to be friends with us. He is not interested -" and then looking angrily at Antara "NOT INTERESTED in going out with any of us."
"Oh, I thought you are interesting, Vineet! So, what's up with Armaan? Anyone?" said Antara brushing the Sunidhi-Vineet topic away. Anish was still interested, but no one else. Sunidhi was quick with a comment. "I don't wanna alarm you, but I think you are getting Armaanophilic!"
So, officially, a cold war had begun between Sunidhi and Antara. Smiti wanted to take part, but couldn't decide on alliance, and so tried to maintain a low profile.
Kanishk informed everyone about Armaan. "Armaan just entered a room during Char Lee's (read Charlie) lecture."
"Because?" drawled Smiti. Her usually busy hands were suddenly still as dead. Kanishk only smiled. Char Lee was actually Charan Prasad, a karate black-belt, who was unwillingly working as a teacher at the college and was really frustrated at this.
"No!! He took that bet too seriously.." said Sunidhi, clapping her hand on her head.
"What bet, Sunidhi? You wanna tell us something about the sin you committed?" drawled Smiti further as she stared at Sunidhi.
Before starting with her story she gave a long explanation for something. "Well, before talking about it, I wanna tell you all, I have always been a good girl, and if I ever do something wrong, please do understand, it is under some kinda pressure. I am not willing to do it."
"Spill it, Sunidhi! We won't give it a damn anyway.." snapped Antara.
So began the whole story told by Sunidhi. Sunidhi and Armaan were discussing about how girls and guys flirt in different ways and what they like. "I was telling him about what to do to impress a girl, when he claimed he knew it better. I challenged him to even dare to attempt to propose a stranger. And that was the bet." Before the story could advance further, Armaan entered the cafeteria smiling, evidently artificially. Rishab was walking along, nearly carrying Armaan in.
"He got kicked.." explained Rishab, and everybody's jaws dropped in shock. "over there...". Jaws dropped further. "by HER!". Everybody stood up in shock.
"Oh no!" sighed Antara.
"Yeah! Are you okay?" asked Kanishk. Before anyone else could say a word, Antara jumped up out of excitement after a brief deep-thought session.
"Oh yes! Now," she explained calmly, "I know someone who got his gender changed too. You are not the only one, Sunidhi Chandramukhi Chattopadhyay!"
"What? That's not even my name..." exclaimed Sunidhi.
"Yeah!" replied Antara coldly, "But your name was too short for me to express my excitement. Be happy, Patil!"
Two down. At this, Sunidhi went blank too.
Rishab said, taking his glasses off, "Before you find another reason belonging to your world, to be happy, Char Lee didn't get a chance to kick him."
"Yeah!" said Armaan still thinking about the girl, who had just kicked him hard. "Now I like her even more. She's fast and aggressive, and doesn't hesitate making the first move!"
"I'm pretty sure, Armaan's brain just had a power-cut!" whispered Smiti to Sunidhi.
"Of course!" responded Sunidhi in whisper, "His brain just got kicked.."
"Hey Armaan, Sunidhi was talking about some bet!" said Antara, and then turned towards Sunidhi, who, at this, was looking at Antara like she had just been whipped and was set for a revenge.
After this Antara said to Sunidhi without any sound, but only with lip movement, "You're Welcome! You deserved it!"
"This day's awesome. First, that girl of my dreams. And now the bet that I just won."
Armaan's day had just gone extremely wonderful. After all, he had just got more than he asked for in return for getting kicked.. THERE..

[Everybody was prepared to leave. They came out of the cafeteria]
"Guys, wait! I need to do something important." said Sunidhi, and rushed to a fresher (girl) at the college.
"So all the guys are after her, and she's busy with girls. You know, I'm seriously worried for her." said Antara, very the best of her seriousness. And then what they saw left everyone, absolutely everyone around NUMB!
Sunidhi kissed the girl for exactly - "TWELVE SECONDS!! Amazing.." shouted Armaan in excitement.
"You asked for this!?" exclaimed Smiti.
Antara seemed to have found something occult about it. Remember her worry about Sunidhi she had just mentioned? She then whispered, "Kanishk, just stay away from the Main gate. I'm afraid, my sixth sense is at its best today!" As if things were any normal already for her to start with her weird theories. "Ah c'mon!" said Kanishk and turned to Sunidhi.
Sunidhi returned and walked right away towards the main-gate without responding to anyone's call. Kanishk immediately followed.
"Sunidhi! Sunidhi! Whoooooops!!"
Sunidhi rushed out of the closing gate, and apparently, Kanishk couldn't make it before there was enough space for him to go through, nor could he stop himself from crashing into it.
"Oh my God!" said Smiti as she ran to see Kanishk.
"See!" said Antara. "I told you to keep away from the Gate.." Rishab stared at Antara. "Yeah! And you just be careful. I might kill you for one more of it."
"No, you won't. Not on my sixth-sense reception list. You, Armaan, keep yourself from your fantasies."
"What? No! That keeps me busy. How else would I spend my day. I'd prefer dieing. Tell the God, I'm ready, when he sends the next batch of Sixth-sense" cried Armaan.
"But I gotta say this," at last commented Anish, " Kanishk did even the Gatecrashing differently.. Inside out!"
People preferred taking Kanishk for First-aid than giving another reply...
[The day concluded]