Of course I missed the Shah Rukh shoot. But I did manage tohave a long, lazy weekend at home, licking my wounds and being coddled by Eppaand Dad, with no calls from office at all. They were all excited because myhorrible brother Rohan was back for a break after some kind of commandotraining course, looking completely hideous. He'd been catching and eatingsnakes cooked in hollowed-out bamboo stems, was tanned deep purple and hadthese really wiry muscles everywhere. Ofcourse Eppa thought he looked reallygreat.
Eppa: ek sainik kee tarah
she then started a third serving of her Balls curry into hisplate
He wolfed it all down, gnawed on a particularly chewy bit ofball and grinned at me manically.
Rohan: So how are you, Gaalu?'Sunk the company's fortunesyet?'
Basically, Rohan's thing in life is to make fun of me.
His face is shaped like a cashew nut, all long with aprotruding chin, and he has the gall to think my cheeks are a hideousdeformity. No wonder he thinks my job is a joke. Even after three-and-a-halfyears, he finds it hugely funny that people are paying me salary to work for them.So then my dad told him:
Vikram: No, Rohan, Riya is doing well, she was even sentabroad on company work.
Rohan: Dhaka isn't really abroad, anyway how the experience had been?
I gave him a carefully edited version of events, sans anymention of my brawl with Arjun . Even thinking about it now, three whole dayslater, the aftershock was huge. Because, of course, the moment I'd said it, Ihad been appalled. What had I been thinking? How could I have been so rude tosomebody so important? I kept imagining he'd get me sacked or blackballed fromadvertising or just command the universe to stop liking me or something....
Both Rohan and Dad were disgusted to learn that I had goneall the way to Dhaka and watched the matches in my hotel room.
Dad: Oh well,When has she ever been interested in sports?Riya, I hope they will pay you more from this April. You are workingso hard -these people take you for granted - at least they should give you overtime.
Riya: Dad, I'm not a driver,
I said, rolling my eyes at him.
Riya: They don't give overtime in management jobs...andanyway they pay me enough to get you guys presents from Dhaka!
I'd got shirts for him and Rohan and a pale pink-and-whiteDhakai sari for Eppa, which had softened her face and given a halo-like glow toher iron-grey curls.
Eppa: lekin mujhe kyu beta; tumhare chichi ko dena chahiye
Dad: upar chalo, tum dono . Rinku Chachi wants some chicken,She's bought a new grill and is testing it out making pizzas.
Awesome! Rinku Chachi's pizzas were legendary. They wereloaded with tandoori chicken, achaari paneer, Amul cheese and hara dhaniya andno Italian would ever recognize them, but they rocked. So both of us got intoour pajamas and trooped up the rather steep and narrow staircase, Meeku at ourheels, tail held jauntily high.
Rinku Chachi had opened the door even before we banged onit. There was a yummy wafting smell of masalas and her hearty, happy voicegoing:
Rinku: Arrey, Riya! Rohan! G. Singh, the children are here!
Gajju Chacha was inside, pottering about his study. Wechorused a formal,
Riya and rohan: Namaste, Chacha
Then happily ignored him after that. He is one strangelittleman. But once, when he was fourteen, he'd grabbed a heavy copper ladle out ofthe daal ka donga and hurled it across the table at his brother Yogu with suchferocity that it had embedded itself into his scalp, standing upright forforty-five seconds before teetering and falling off. Yogu Chacha got seventeenstitches, and was permanently brain-damaged as a result, according to my dad.
Rinku Chachi is a little lonely now because Gajju hasdispatched both his kids (our cousins Roshya and Roshtu) to boarding school in Ajmer.Which is why she loves having Rohan and me around.
Rohan started on the pizza with ecstatic moans, all thewhile grossing Rinku Chachi out by flashing the pus-encrusted blisters he'd gotat the commando course, his appetite amazingly unaffected by the three kilos ofBalls curry he'd polished off downstairs.
Gajju : So how was your cricket experience, Riya?
Riya: Uh, good, Chacha,
Then realizing with a sinking heart that he must want totalk cricket. The last thing I wanted to do was chat with him.
Gajju: Did you have the opportunity of meeting Mr JogpalLohia?
Riya: Um...who's he, Chacha? I don't think I've ever heardof him.
Gajju smiled smoothly.
Gajju: He's the president of the IBCC, child,A most powerfulman, a good man.
Riya: Uh, no,I just met the Indian team, really.
Gajju: The new captain's not bad,Not bad at all. Not in thesame league as earlier skippers, of course.
Riya: Oh? But I thought, statistically speaking, that Arjunrawthe is the most successful Twenty20 captain of his age, and has already ledIndia to more One-day tournament finals than any other skipper and also hasthirteen ODI centuries in international cricket to his credit?
Gajju just nodded tolerantly in alittle-knowledge-is-a-dangerous-thing way, but Rohan's jaw dropped.
Rohan: Arrey, not bad, Gaalu! Never thought I'd hear you spoutingcricket stats!
I went pink. Okay, so I'd been, as Roshini would say 'oglingand Googling' Arjun rawthe a bit. I'd checked out all his stats on the Net,proving myself to be a masochistic loser who obsessed about people who weresuper rude to them.
Gajju: Tell me,do you think they could win this tournament?
I didn't know enoughabout cricket to comment, but Rohan looked up and said, with his mouth full ofpizza,
Rohan: What win-shin, Chacha? Don't you know what happenedtoday?
Gajju's face went all self-righteously pious.
Gajju: How can I know? Yogu cut my cable wire, it had onlybeen repaired half an hour ago...
There was a full story in there but I didn't want to knowit. Hurriedly I turned to face my brother.
Riya: Rohan, what happened today?
Rohan: We lost,Dad and I watched the whole match while youwere sleeping off your transcontinental jetlag.
Riya: Not to - ?
Rohan: Bermuda!
Riya: That's impossible.
Gajju: Nothing is impossible for India,
Gajju quietly and shuffled away to his study, a broken man.
I couldn't believe it! A match whose outcome had seemed sototally obvious had turned the Champions Trophy around! The Aussie-tamer Indiawas out and the minnow Bermuda was in.I reached for a slice of pizza in astunned kind of way.
Rohan: It was a complete rout, Gaalu, Painful to watch. Theentire team, scurrying around like headless chickens, calling wildly, gettingeach other out. Total disaster. And the umpire was a jerk. Okayed some verydicey appeals.
Riya: But they're still in the reckoning, right? Isn't therea point system or something?
Rohan: it's a knock-out tournament,Not league. You lose onematch, you have to go home.
Still not wanting to believe him, telling myself it was sometwisted joke he was playing on me, I sat back and switched on the TV. Sureenough, the news was showing the Indians coming back, blazers on, pushing theirtrolleys through Calcutta Customs.
Of course, my mind was in a whirl. A smug little part of mewas going
Riya (m.v) : Hah! Serve the Arjun -thing right. He was sofull of himself that night.
But my heart beat for India enough for me to feel bad aboutyet another crappy end to our cricketing dream.I sat there, staring at the TV,watching Arjun rawthe have microphones thrust into his face, and thought aboutwhat he'd told me. That I could do a lot of damage to all the hard work he'ddone, if the guys started to believe I was lucky.
Arjun: I can't have them putting their faith in you insteadof themselves.
Riya(m.v): At thatpoint I'd thought he was just being insecure.
I wasn't that sure any more.
Then I thought about what chotu had told me. About how mostof the players were pretty immature.
Chotu: They are superstitious ,Sam and Shree really believeyou're lucky, Riyaji.
Sam hadn't exactly covered himself in glory at the Bermudamatch. He'd got out for a duck, to be exact. Shree hadn't taken a singlewicket.
Rohan: It's the glorious uncertainties of the game, Gaalu, Andanyway, there's still the World Cup. Don't look so stricken.
But I couldn't help feeling guilty. I wanted to punishmyself. So I pushed the last cheese-and-pineapple-laden slice of pizza at asurprised Rohan
Riya: Here, you can have this.
I hit office just a little after 9:40 a.m. on monday. Rohandropped me, and was even intuitive enough to ask, halfway through the drive, ifI was quite all right. Of course I said I was absolutely fine.
Rosh: Hey! Riya!, Give, girl, give! How were the Men inBlue?
Riya: Unbelievable! Tell you all about it soon!
Riya: Right after you report to Sandy!
Rosh: I'll order us both a cold coffee in my cabin. Andthere are Greasy Crispy Breadrolls for breakfast, you want?
I walked to Sandy' cabin and looked in. He was busy stuffinghimself full of GCBs (Greasy Crispy Breadrolls) while talking on the phone, soI bobbed my head in and mimed hi, I'm back. He looked up, grunted and gesturedfor me to sit.I sat, looking around, fiddling with stuff on his desk till hewound up the call and banged down the receiver.
Sandy: You look like shit.
Riya: Thanks, Sandy, you don't exactly look like a branch ofblooming bougainvillea yourself.
Sandy: What the hell have you been up to in Dhaka?
Riya: Huh? Nothing! Just been working very hard. Getting youshots of every possible cricketer from every possible angle! Don't tell mesomething I missed?' I knew the images would have come in on Thursday. Neelowould have worked all weekend getting the prints and making poster layouts.
Sandy waved the shots aside like he hadn't been haranguingme about them for the last week.
Sandy: That's not what I mean. What have you done that Zing!wants you off the account?'
Oh no. This reeked of Arjun Rawthe. And to think I'd beendefending him to Gajju last night.
Riya: I haven't been up to anything, Sandy, But I have noproblems working on some other account if there's any issue.
Sandy: Shut up, Riya, I have a problem with you working onsome other account! Fat lot of work I'd get done around here if I startedlistening to everything the clients say!
Riya: kya kaha usne
I asked a sick feeling in my stomach. I mean, I love my job.(In fact, according to my friends and family, I was my job.)
Sandy: That you're a loose cannon, you overstepped yourboundaries, or something. What have you been up to, kiddo?
So I told him the whole story. Sandy's (slightly bulging)brown eyes got even bulgier as he listened.
Sandy: But you haven't done anything unethical, Nothing atall.
Riya: Yeah, but I'm in trouble, And the client knows it.Rawthe must've called them and complained. After all, I did call him a loser.
Sandy: Now, that wasn't exactly a good intelligent move, wasit? I really don't know if I'll be able to save your sorry job, kiddo.
I nodded miserably.
Sandy: I'll work out something, Now, get out of here.There's tons of work to do!
I crawled out and staggered into rosh's room.
Rosh: What happened? What'd he say to knock the stuffing outof you like that?
I told her. It was a very long story that got longer withevery retelling.
Rosh was hugely concerned. She stopped me now and then toask me some very Rosh-like questions: rosh: What did the team eat forbreakfast? Did you wear perfume in the elevator? Is it true that Laakhi's gay
I told her everything and then wanted to kill someone whenShiven rushed in going:
Shiven: Hey! How was Dhaka?' He was followed by the otheroffice kidsasking the same question.
Riya: It was good, okay? I've already told the story twice.Ask Rosh for the details
Rosh rolled her eyes.
Rosh: Please! You've told Totaram and your Bijnaur-waalimausi and the canteen guy. That's three people. Who else asked me
Fighting back a sudden rush of tears, I walked over to mycabin and switched on my comp. It didn't. Work out great, I mean. Basically, myStanding in thee Society fully plummeted, because Sandy had to take me offZing! and put me on Maximilk. But just for three months.
I got a lot of curious looks from the Maximilk gang, who area committed and down-to-earth bunch. They do wholesome, non-celebrity ads andlook down on cola advertising for being basically shallow and relying tooheavily on celebrities to make it look good. I nodded intelligently, trying notto look too depressed
Animesh(oh forgot to say he is the head of maximilk wing): Ourtarget audience is Moms twenty-eight to forty-five years. Bullseye thirty-five.Middle class, usually with two kids or more with some elderly people, in-lawsusually, whom they have to look after too.
Riya: Great, Thanks, Animesh.(And under my breath added,) And,thanks, Rawthe, you bas***d.
I was painting my toenails a hot orange on Wednesday eveningwhen Eppa rushed into my bedroom screaming,
Eppa: Riya, Riya, tumhara photu paper mein aayyaa hai!
She rushed into the roombrandishing
Sakshi anand's Gupshup column in her hand. With a sinkingheart I saw an image of me dancing with Shree at that club in Dhaka. Across ourfronts the headline screamed, 'RAWTHE PAHAAD, NIKLI RIYA'.
Damn.
I grabbed it and read:
SAKSHI ANAND GUPSHUP
Did you wonder why our cricket team's been acting so erraticlately, darlings? At least earlier they lost predictably to everyone! Then theymanaged two big wins and got us all excited only to break our nazuk littlehearts by losing to Bermuda! Riya -jiske liye Shree Sen ne dil khoya!Riya, it seems, is blessed by the GreatBatsman in the Sky. She was born at the very moment India won the '83 World Cuptwenty-seven years ago and if she nibbles her morning naashta with the Boys inBlue on the day of the match, they win! If she doesn't, they lose. It's assimple as that. But after she clinched two big matches for his team, Rawtheordered her home! Being the big strong man he is, he felt he could take onBermuda without Riya's help! Bet he's really sorry now, girls...
My first instinct was to roll the paper, shove it into mymouth and chew it down to destroy the evidence. But I couldn't do that withEppa watching. She was looking at me, all bright-eyed and tremulous, waitingfor me to read it out to her.
I cleared my throat and said,
Riya: You're paagal or what? That's not me in the picture!You know I don't have a shirt like that.
Eppa looked unconvinced so I tried to stare her down. Itdidn't do a bit of good. She peered down at the picture again, gave adisdainful sniff and went:
Eppa: Kucch ghapla kiya hai tumne, I know! You can't bluffme, Riya...
She flounced out, but she let me grab the paper from her asshe left.
I read it again.
It was nasty all right. This Sakshi anand babe obviously hadit in for Rawthe. She didn't really say anything mean about me, though. Allshe'd done was make that lucky charm theory public. Thankfully, it soundedpretty stupid in print. Oh, and she'd called me Shree's lady-love, to which Icould only say I wish for
So that evening at the dining table, I slid Sakshi anand'sarticle under Dad's nose right after Rohan and he had finished eating.
Riya: I'm in the news
Dad and Rohan pored over the paper together, Dad's lipsmoving slightly as his bifocals travelled slowly past the news paper.Finally,Dad put the paper down on the table with a little tchai! sound and Rohan fishedout his red Swiss knife and started cutting some bright-orange Dussheri mangoeswith it, whistling tunelessly between his teeth.
Riya: What? Hello, you guys, say something!
Dad just shook his head but Rohan said simply,
Rohan: We know you're lucky, Gaalu
Rohan(after some pause): I used to take you with me to allthe mohalla and inter-school matches I ever played,We never lost a single one.
Riya: What? Why didn't you ever tell me?
He looked at me as if I were nuts.
Rohan: Obviously, because you'd have got all pricey or askedme to give you money so you could save up to buy firecrackers.
What? I couldn't believe this!
Dad: Your Ma knitted you a V-necked white cricket sweaterwith cables down the front, You won us a lot of inter-regiment matches too.
Riya: And why didn't you tell me, Dad?
He shrugged, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
Dad: By the time you were old enough to understand, mycricket playing days were over...and after your Ma died...I guess, I justforgot.
There was a little silence, broken only by the sound ofRohan sucking noisily on the table. I sat there and stared at them. I couldn'tprocess what they were telling me - that I really could make people win matcheswith my very presence.
Riya: So, Dad, how many cricket matches have I attended in mylife?
Dad: Nothing pukka, but about...twenty?
Riya: And the team I supported always won?
Rohan: Always. You didn't even have to stay for the match.I'd bring you in, make you have a Campa Cola or a snack with the boys, and thenEppa would take you home before the match began.
Riya: So you never lost a cricket match in your life?
Rohan: I did. Lots oftimes, whenever Ma said I couldn't takeyou. In the cold weather in Kalimpong. And of course, at the IMA. But I never losta match you came to, Gaalu,
Dad: Your mummy did not like it, Riya. Aur maine jo sochawahi hua? (getting serious) yeh shree?
Riya: dad I am not really serious abut him wo bas mera dosthnot even friend papa
Rohan: Of course not, Dad,
Rohan said as he got to his feet and stretched luxuriously.
Rohan: He's not the one you have to worry about!
He sneaked a beady, knowing glance at me and then stuck outone sticky-with-mango hand, grabbed my dupatta from the back of my chair andstarted skipping with it.
Rohan: One, two, three, four...
he went, bouncing upand down, his stupid bathroom chappals slapping against the floor.
Dad: Kya kar rahe ho, Rohan?, Don't exercise after eating,you'll feel ill...
Rohan: Arrey nahi, Dad,
my worm of a brothersniggered, skipping madly.
Rohan: I'm doing it for Gaalu. She likes skippers, you know!
Riya: rohan ki bache wo arjun naam se chid rahe ho mujhetujhe toh….
***
I just couldn't get over what Dad and Rohan said to me thatnight. It was so weird, it was like I'd discovered I had a third eye or asecond nose or something. You know, another whole organ I didn't know about. Icould make people win cricket matches. Not a great power to have, one wouldthink. Not quite up there with making the lame walk or the blind see. But,hello, we're talking twenty-first century India here. People who can wincricket matches are just about the richest people in the country today.
Riya: The thing is, could it actually be true? Could Ireally do it? Why me?
Because, there's nothing very specialabout me - is there? Imean, okay, I was born on 25 June 1983 but isn't there one Indian baby bornevery second? That means there were 86,400 kids out there with the samebirthdate as mine, if I was doing the math right.
Dad of course swears that I was born at the very second thelast wicket fell and therein lies my luckiness. He says the gynaecologist washovering in wicket-keeper stance before my mom, shouting encouragement,shifting her weight from foot to foot, gloved hands spread out to catch me, andthat I plopped out just as India clinched the last wicket. And the other thingthat Eppa had come up with? That was just plain spooky. But so fair, somehow.Like a natural progression of lucky at cards, unlucky in love.
And if you stopped to think about it,nothing good hadhappened to me since I started breakfasting with the team, had it? Rawthe hadbawled me out, I'd practically lost a job I loved.
And things got worse the next day. Rohan called at work andtold me he'd seen Rawthe fielding questions on Star News. Then the Aaj Tak guyssurrounded Shree somewhere and he triedto pull a no-comments but then suddenly broke and told them all about my'lucky' kiss and the hat-trick that followed.
And while I was stuffing GCBs into my face in office thenext afternoon, my cellphone rang and some clipped-sounding dude said he wasfrom NDTV and wanted to ask me to come on his chat show panel tonight. Ipanicked completely, said no thanks and switched off my phone.
Sandy , of course, was totally ballistic on the subject.
Sandy: The problem with you girls;is that you can't keepyour mouth shut. How the hell did this get out?
Of course I was asking myself the same question. I playedback the whole set up in Dhaka in my mind...the team, Wes, Chotu, Karan.... Itcould've been anybody.Anyway, I figured it would die a natural death soon. Ijust had to pretend I lived in a circus for a little while. That evening ArjunRawthe was on the news. We all watched it together. It was some sporty show andRawthe was being interviewed by one of those guys who sound eerily like PrannoyRoy. They discussed all kinds of other stuff and then the guy asked Rawtheabout me. Well, actually, what he said was:
Raghav: So what's this about a lucky charm, Arjun?'
Rawthe, looking darkly dishy in a white-collared shirt openat the throat.
Arjun: Well, I don't believe in luck, Raghav. I feel theonly way we achieve anything is by working hard, focusing, and keeping a coolhead on our shoulders. Good luck is a short cut. I don't believe in short cuts.Bad luck is an excuse. I don't believe in excuses
Wow. He looked hot saying that. I felta peculiar mix of Lustand Loathing as I looked at him, wondering if he'd made that dialogue up rightthere or rehearsed it.
Pranoy: But what about the loss to Bermuda then, Arjun?
Arjun: Well, there were a lot of reasons. Bermuda playedextremely well, the crowd was backing the underdog, we lost the toss andcertainly the boys were starting to place their faith in something other thantheir own abilities.
Raghav: And Shree's hat-trick?
Arjun's face hardened: Shree Sen got five wickets includinga hat-trick because he is an extremely talented bowler. He insults himself ifhe believes otherwise.
Raghav nodded several times and shuffled some papers aroundon hisdesk. Then he asked,
Raghav: A lot of cricket fans want Riya mukherjee to begiven some kind of an official designation and be allowed to travel with theteam. What's your view?
Arjun wrinkled his brow thoughtfully - the Lust and Loathingmix sloshing around inside me intensified a little - and shrugged.
Arjun: Well, I think it would be detrimental in the longrun. Ours is a superstitious country and a precedent like this could lead tochaos in the future.Besides, a very busy career girl like Riya, may not bewilling to travel all year round with us
he shook his head and smiled a little and I got the oddestlittle goosebumps watching his lips curve around the syllables of my name .
pranoy: Well, thank you very much, Arjun. And best of luckto the Indian team .Go Indians!
After the initial rush of hearing myself discussed on TVwore off, I started feeling really pissed off with the guy. I mean, this guyhad lost me the Zing! assignment I loved because of which my promotion waspretty much nixed this year. He had made nasty insinuating remarks about me.And it was all his fault that every time his mug came up on TV, my moronicbrother made idiotic baboon-like gestures. And now he was sitting there on thenews and being all gracious while the truth of it was that he didn't wantanybody to get the credit for his stupid team's victories besides himself.
**
I attended a Junior Maximilk research session the next day.It was an active session, held in the little drawing room of a tiny secondfloor flat in Lajpat Nagar. We had just played some videos of add and then arecorded script narration when my phone rang
I flushed bright red, muttered an apology and hurried out ofthe drawing room, bumping into one of the two one-seaters as I did so. My phonedidn't recognize the number, but I recognized the voice that went,
Otherside: Riyaji? Hello, Riyaji?'
I stepped out onto a shady-looking balcony where a massivewater cooler rumbled noisily.
Riya: Shree?
Shree: Riyaji? Are you on a motorboat?
Riya: No, on a balcony, Why are you ji-ing me, Shree? I'm supposedto be your girlfriend.
He cleared his throat nervously.
Shree: Arrey nahi,these newspaper people are crazy. Riyaji, you have to do something for me, somethingvery, very important.
Riya: What?
Shree: I don't want to discuss over phone like this, Let'smeet somewhere and talk.
Riya: Okay, Message me. I can't talk right now.
Shree's message said: bed@7. I stared at it in completeincomprehension for a while till I decoded it to mean that I was to meet him atThe Bed Lounge, a desperately trying-to be-in nightclub in Gurgaon.
I entered the nightclub at seven sharp and looked around. Itreally was shady.
Shree: Psssst, Riyaji!
I turned around to see Shree lurking behind the curtains ofa 'bed'. With relief I noted that it wasn't really a bed - there was a cosytable for two inside the bed frame, with plates all laid out for dinner.Iclambered over the bed frame and took my chair.
Shree: Isn't this a great place? My close friend from schoolowns it. He's asked me to drop in whenever I can. Kehta hai it's good forbusiness
Riya: So what's up, Shree? Kaise ho?
Shree (smiling): Fine. And you? Sab khairiat?'
He was kidding, right? I laughed ironically, but I don'tthink he got it.
Riya: Yeah, everything's just great. So why did you want tomeet me?
He rumpled his copper curls in an uneasy kind of way andthen said,
Shree: I want to invite you to eat breakfast with ten of myfriends.
No subtlety about our Sen. No beating about the bush. He wasseeing only thee eye of thee cupbirrd, wasn't he, just like his captain.
Riya: No way;
Shree: Please, Riyaji, just one last time. It's very, veryimportant to me.
Riya: Listen, it's very sweet of you guys to have so muchfaith in me, but my job and my privacy are very important to me. You guys haveband bajaoed both.
Shree: Riyaji! What is privacy? Arrey, where's yourpatriotism? You have been specially blessed so that you can serve your country!
Riya: Shree, I'm sorry. It's late. In fact, I wish you'dtold me what you wanted over the phone. I would have said no then itself.
He hadn't heard a word I said. Instead, he just startedshredding his paper napkin efficiently to bits. Shree: What is this about yourpost? What has happened?
I told him. He looked totally shocked.
Shree: Skipper complained to your client? I don't believeit.
Yeah, of course he would think the sun shone out of the(admittedly cute) Rawthe posterior. I sighed tiredly
Riya: : It's all true, Shree.
Shree: Phir toh you have to meet him . Ask him why he didit. Demand your old job back. Sort it out( after a pause)over breakfast.
Riya: Does Arjun-sir know that you're inviting me?
He nodded.
Riya: And he's okay with it?
Shree: Then what! In fact, he said it was an excellent ideaand that he was "all for it".'
Amazing huh? The mighty sure had fallen, if not on TV, inprivate at least.
Riya: Okay, then I'll come,
I nodded feeling an absurd upswing in my mood. I didn't dareanalyse why the thought of meeting that horrible Arjun Rawthe again was so oddly irriitating
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