Chapter 3

-Nive-

@-Nive-

Chapter 3

Pragya cursed herself for not having her phone fully charged. She felt bad for the the sorry state of affairs in MM. She was having second thoughts about her decision of staying away from MM. But if she went back to MM, will everything return to normalcy? The bus conductor's whistle stopped her from thinking for few seconds. She started getting lost in thoughts as she walked to her apartment. She couldn't let him be like that but she didn't know what could she do. She felt that she needed to talk to him but then thought whether he would really listen to her words. She looked at the black screen of her phone and got reminded that her phone was dead. As soon as she reached her apartment, she plugged in her phone charger.

"Abhi. I want to talk to you about something", said Purab with hesitation.

"Is it about the concert? Did you find any sponsors?", asked Abhi while keeping his eyes and hands on his guitar.

"Akash is talking to some people. I think it would turn positive. But I want to talk to you about something else"

"Tell me"

"Why don't you talk to Pragya di?"

"Purab, I have already told you that we can't talk about this. If you have something else to talk, talk or else leave me alone now"

"Why are you so stubborn? You talked with me, Daadi and everyone else but why are you not talking to her? You know why she did all this. It was..."

"I know" Abhi interrupted Purab's talk and continued his talk

"I know she did all this for me and I know this that she would be as hurt as I am right now but that doesn't change anything"

Purab came towards Abhi and sat on the floor near Abhi.

"But Abhi"

"I didn't ask her to leave"

"But you could have stopped her"

"Why should I? It was her decision"

Abhi put his guitar aside as he felt like breaking something and he didn't want it to be his guitar. Daadi, Purab, Akash, even Rachana asked him to talk to Pragya. Why was everyone asking him to do something when she was the one who left him? Why didn't they ask her to come back or Is it that they asked her to come back but she didn't listen to them? If she didn't listen, why should he listen? But he missed her. He wanted to talk to her if not for anything else, at least to know the reason why she left him. He sipped a glass of water from the glass that was near the couch.

Did she leave him because she was hurt by his questions and felt that living with him was not worth anymore? He wasn't even shouting at her or blaming her. He was asking her some questions which anyone would ask at that situation. Had she told him the truth, both of them wouldn't have suffered this much. He had his fuggy by his side but felt he lost her. They lost Bulbul, Maa got kidnapped and she suffered murder attempts multiple times. What was the need for doing things in spite of all this? Why would he not believe if all of them told the same thing? If he didn't believe them as they said, he would have atleast tried to investigate the matter. He couldn't digest the fact that there was so much damage done in the name of saving him. He threw the water glass on the floor.

"Robin", shouted Abhi. Robin came there the next second and saw the mess.

Abhi left his room and was passing by Daadi's room when heard her phone ringing. He went inside and saw that Daadi wasn't in the room. He took the phone in his hand and called Daadi's name aloud. It seemed Daadi wasn't around and he looked at the screen.

"Pragya", the name aroused some emotions in his mind. Before he could decide whether to pick the call or not, the call got cut. He was hesitating whether he should call her. He clicked on the missed call and was about to dial when she called again.

"Hello Daadi. I am sorry. There was no charge in my phone. That's why call got cut", she said anxiously.

"Hello", he said.

The voice affected her in some unknown way that she was nonplussed. He was expecting her to talk but there was absolute silence.

"Daadi is not in the room. I will find her and give the phone. Wait", he said wanting to sound indifferent. But his voice didn't sound indifferent but it had a tint of disappointment. He was disappointed that she didn't even reply to his Hello.

"You? How are..  How are you?", she said.

"Uhhh.. Hmm. Fine. How are you?", he asked in return.

"Hmm"

A drop of tear fell from her eye as she heard him talk to her after so many days. He wanted to talk a lot but didn't know from where he should start. Daadi entered her room and Abhi saw her coming.

"Daadi, there's a call for you", he said handing over the phone to her.

Daadi saw that it was from Pragya. Pragya explained about her phone battery. Daadi was about to tell Pragya what she actually thought when the call was cut but stopped when words tried to come out of her mouth. Pragya excused herself saying she had some work to do and ended the call. She wondered why she couldn't talk anything to him when she was thinking about talking to him just few minutes ago. He also wondered the same.

***

She was sitting in the canteen with her lunch box. She saw Suresh looking for a place to sit. The canteen was full of students. She looked at him and he also looked at her. He came and sat on the chair opposite to her. Suresh had 2 samosas in his plate.

"You didn't bring lunch?", asked Pragya as she opened her lunch box.

"Didn't have much time in the morning", he replied.

"Your mom is not at home?"

"She is not staying with me. I am here alone."

Pragya looked at him wanting to know the reason behind him staying alone.

"I want to be away from everyone", he said without looking at her.

"Why?"

"I could ask you the same question."

She was a little taken aback by his statement but managed to reply that their situations were quite different. When Suresh tried to continue the discussion, she politely requested him to change the topic.

"So are you planning to give me?" Suresh asked her an incomplete question. She gave him a perplexed look.

"Food? It has been so long since I ate food cooked by you", he said smiling.

She took a paratha, placed  iton her lunch box lid and slowly pushed it to his side. Suresh praised her cooking skills and said the paratha was tasty as usual. They talked about their favourite dishes. Pragya had a good time with her friend and he was a little happy that she was smiling occasionally during their conversation. She even invited Suresh to her apartment for lunch the coming Sunday.

***

She was feeling good that she got a chance to cook for someone else other than herself. It was very boring to cook for herself as she would just cook less time consuming or easy recipes. After all she was the one who was going to eat the food, so she didn't cook dishes with much attention. Some days she would not even bother cook/eat because she felt tired. But this time it was not only for herself but also for a friend. She heard the doorbell and opened the door. Suresh had come. She asked him to sit on the couch and sat on the chair opposite to him. Suresh gave her a conference flyer. The conference was to be held in Mumbai.

"I don't think I can go to this. I am not a English Professor now"

"Who said only English professors can go? You are interested na? You can go. Management would give permission if you are interested. I know they are understanding people."

"But.."

"It's in Mumbai."

She felt awkward that he was guessing her hesitations correctly.

"I will go get you some coffee", Pragya left the place immediately with this excuse.

After few minutes, Pragya came to the hall with two cups of coffee. As soon as Suresh sipped the coffee, his face went awkward. Pragya drank her coffee and it was perfect for her. She asked him whether the coffee wasn't good. Suresh calmly replied that coffee was good even though it wasn't.

During their lunch, Suresh tried to convince Pragya to go the conference. Finally, Pragya said that she would think and tell. Suresh thanked her for inviting him home and added that he felt really good spending time with her. He said that he wouldn't feel alone anymore and left the place while pointing to the flyer for the 100th time. After Suresh left, Pragya was doing the dishes in her kitchen. It was just when she saw the coffee cups, she remembered that she had put cinnamon in the coffee out of habit and that was the reason for Suresh's reaction.

***

Everyone was at the dinner table while Akash came into MM with a happy news for Abhi. He said that he managed to get some sponsors for his concert and the concert was planned to happen after 2 weeks. Abhi was more than happy with that until he heard something.

"They want the concert to be held in Pune", said Purab.

Chapter 4