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]