Chapter 7
Harshad and his classmate Kaustav, who normally sat with him and the back benchers in the bus, slowly trudged their way through the play ground, taking the short cut, on their way to the bus.
Harshad had never particularly liked Kaustav but apart from the slight unease that Harshad felt around him, Kaustav seemed like an okay guy.
"You got water bro?" Kaustav turned to Harshad.
"Nope. Sorry." Harshad responded.
"Nose kaisa hai bhai?" This time Kaustav had an almost demeaning smile on his face. "I heard kisi bandi se pith ke aaya hai tu."
"Aisa kuch nahi tha" Harshad responded, as he felt his neck growing warmer with every passing second.
"Really? Manik had a different story to tell." Kaustav sniggered as he walked on. He never realized that Harshad had suddenly stopped walking.
"Tu Manik se kab mila?"
"Break mein bro."
"Break mein? Toh main kahaa tha?"
"You were busy. Chasing your pyaar ki ganga"
"Shut up Kaustav. I was not doing anything of that sort. I dint even go to the washroom."
"Harshad." Kaustav had his eyes squeezed shut. "I did not remember asking you about your washroom habits. Please don't tell me things that will permanently scar me. Okay?"
"Stop overreacting bro. We both know what I was talking about."
"You know what Harsh. I regret bringing this up in the first place. You and your washroom habits can stay safely in your own mind. Thank you very much" Kaustav said as he jogged ahead in an attempt to get away from Harshad.
Harshad followed quickly behind, as they got into their bus.
Kaustav rushed ahead and took his usual seat on the window side right opposite to where Cabir and Dhruv sat.
Harshad however had a surprise waiting for him on his usual seat in front of Kaustav, Nandini Murthy.
"That's my seat actually"
"So sorry Harshad. I dint know ki tumhara naam likha hai iss seat pe" Nandini gave him a sugary fake smile.
"Listen, main normally iss seat pe hi baithta hu." Harshad was slowly starting to lose his temper.
"Its okay Harshad. Always remember change is the only thing constant in-"
"Listen, please go sit somewhere else, right now." Harshad's voice had a menacing note to it.
"Nahi toh?"
"Don't mess with me Nandini. I'm not in the mood for this today"
"That's funny. Real funny bro. Because yesterday, when I was not in the mood, I wasn't given the 'no one can bother you because you're not in the mood for it' card."
"Listen just-"
"Harshad!" Nandini cut him short "if a rule applies to me, the very same rule applies to you as well. If you have the right to bother me when I have just had the worst day of my life, I don't think you have the right to expect anything better from me."
Harshad stared at that ugly, annoying girl's face in front of him as he wondered whether he should crush her skull or should he cut off one finger at a time off of her hand.
But before he could go ahead and execute any of his dirty plans, Kaustav interrupted him by tapping Nandini on her shoulder.
"Hey. I'm Kaustav." He had his hand held out to her which she surprisingly took.
"Nandini." She responded with a smile.
"Are you done Kaustav?" Harshad stared at Kaustav in annoyance. Yes, go befriend another few people who broke my nose.
"Chill bro. I'm just introducing myself to this cute chick here."
"Cute?" Harshad sniggered.
"Absolutely. I love her dimples." Manik interjected.
"And her fluffy cute chotu pony also is adorable haa." Cabir added on.
"Oh. So this is the plan today. You guys are going to take my case?" Harshad stared in irritation at the gang who was suddenly now siding with Nandini. "Years of friendship and this is what I get? I'm hurt." The entire bus was now watching the ongoing drama.
"Harshad" Manik was looking at Harshad with an extremely serious expression. "Brother. Mard ko dard nahi hota" There was a moment of silence after which the entire bus erupted in laughter leaving Harshad looking flustered and embarrassed.
In a final moment of defiance, Harshad threw his bag on the floor and went to stand near the backdoor of the bus, his veins pulsing on his forehead. He was so angry and lost that he missed the wink and the smirk that Manik and Nandini had just exchanged.
Bringing him out of his reverie was the girl he had had a crush on since a year now, Navya.
"Hey Navya" Harshad smiled like an idiot as he watched Navya settle into the seat right in front of his current position.
In response, Navya merely rolled her eyes and adjusted her glasses.
Harshad stared at Navya with a new plan plotting in his mind. Who cares if those losers were gaming up against him? He could use this time to get to know Navya a bit better.
But whether it was on purpose or out of genuine good intentions, Harshad would never know, but Cabir had chosen that exact moment to call out to Navya.
Yes, he never speaks to her normally. But the one time when I'm going to make a move, he has to butt in.
"Navya?" Cabir called out.
Navya merely raised one of her eyebrows in response.
"Uno?"
Navya stared at him with an uncensored curiosity before she got up and walked up to him.
"You know how to play right?" Cabir asked her as she stood near Manik's seat waiting for the game to begin.
"You have to ask?" Navya wasn't the friendliest of the lot.
"Excellent." Cabir smiled trying to reduce the tension as he whispered in Manik's ears "I can never catch a break, can I?" To which Manik merely smiled.
"So Nandini Navya join me on this three seater. And Kaustav bro come here and sit or stand next to Cabir." Manik said as he arranged them around the back seat and the three seater on which he sat for playing the game.
Manik was just about to start distributing the cards when a voice sounded behind him "can I play too?" It was Harshad.
Manik and Cabir exchanged a glance before Cabir responded with "why not."
And with that Cabir was back on his feet.
"Kaush bhai, you wanna sit? I don't feel like sitting." Cabir said as he pointed towards his seat next to Dhruv who was still not showing any interest in the game or the people around him.
Harshad cursed Cabir under his breath as he found himself stuck in a tiny narrow space between Cabir and Kaustav where as the place he wanted in the game, next to Navya, had been leached away from him right under his nose by Cabir.
Well, they were all going to get it from him in the evening when they went out to play football. That's what happens when you mess with Harshad over an ugly chick, thought Harshad as he continued giving Nandini dirty looks.
The game works such that, since they were seven people, there would be a total of six rounds. In each round one player would be eliminated leaving two people for the last and final round. Kaustav being the worst player among the seven found himself getting eliminated in the first round and also found himself being buried six feet under with the jeers and the laughing as he finished his pathetic play of cards.
The teasing stopped when Cabir taunted Kaustav saying "you are such a shit player man." Kaustav wasn't very bothered by the teasing and jeering, but apparently someone else was.
"At least he gets much more action than you do." Harshad retorted back, trying to get Kaustav back onto his side. Except there was a tiny flaw in that extremely smart plan of his, that being not one person of the remaining six laughed or even commented. They all simply went back to the game as if Harshad hadn't opened his mouth at all.
"I know, it's been like an entire round of UNO already, but introductions are in line. Navya this is Nandini. Nandu this is Navya." Manik said trying to break the tension.
"Manik. Really?" Nandini was staring at Manik in surprise.
"Umm. What?"
"For someone who practically spends all his time in my class with his girlfriend, I would have thought that you'd know we were both in the same class and obviously know each other." Nandini was smirking at Manik.
Navya interjected "I don't blame him. He has his tongue down her throat the whole time, how is he supposed to notice anything else."
"That's enough." Manik said making a face at the two girls who were bonding at his expense.
Nandini punched Manik playfully on his arm before she noticed that his attention had been diverted to another place within a span of a few seconds.
Manik was busy trying to figure out what Cabir was trying to tell him.
Curious as always, Nandini also stared at Cabir deciphering word by word what he was trying to tell Manik. Nandini got it before Manik did as did she get the urgency of the situation.
Nandini turned to Manik and pulled at his shirt sleeve trying to make him look at her. He was ignoring her, his eyes focused only on Cabir with his brows furrowed.
Left with no other option, Nandini did what she normally did to her brother when he wasn't listening to him, she pinched him with all her might. The reaction was swift and immediate.
Manik yelped while rubbing his arm as he turned to Nandini with an 'I am going to shoot you in the face' look before he whispered angrily in her ears "What!"
"Abbey duffer. Cabir tujhe bol raha hai ki harshad ke paas ek hi card bacha hai which is a six in blue. We can't let him win, remember? You have a wild card, and your turn is gone. Pass the wild card to me, I'll pass it onto Navya and she will pass it onto Cabir. And he can change the color " Nandini whispered back in his ears.
"Abbey gabbar ki grand daughter. Violence is not the answer to everything. Yeh batane ke liye mujhe pinch kyun kiya? Seedha kaan mein aake bata nahi sakti thi?" Manik continued to seethe with anger at that tiny annoying creature standing beside him.
"Tu bachpan se hi andha tha ki yeh koi new discovery hai? Dikhta nahi hai? Tu khambe jaisa lamba hai aur main pikachu jitni chutku. Udke aau kya main tere kaan me bolne ke liye?" Nandini glared right back at him.
Manik studied Nandini for a minute before he playfully whispered in her ears. "I have a new and more appropriate nickname for you. Chota gabbar."
"Not funny and not cool" Nandini whispered right back to Manik as Manik pulled at her pony to annoy her.
They were both so occupied in annoying each other that it took Cabir three differently sized paper balls bouncing off of their heads for them to realize that they were still a part of the game.
Cabir was staring daggers at Manik which reminded him that he still hadn't passed the wild card on.
In a pretense of getting his water bottle out of his bag which was below his seat next to his feet, Manik bent down and placed the wild card on the seat which Nandini swiftly passed ahead to Navya using her knee which Navya further passed ahead to Cabir by pretending to hold onto his arm, distracting Harshad while actually placing the wild card on to the deck.
"I don't have any blue cards. Let me check the deck" Cabir said as he over acted his own over active self in pretending to be surprised on finding a wild card as the first card on the deck.
"He is making it so obvious. Oh my god, a wild card? Aren't they an extinct species?" Nandini whispered in Manik's ears causing him to choke on the water he was drinking while fighting the laughter causing the entire group to erupt in laughter.
Meanwhile, Harshad was eyeing the entire group suspiciously. First Cabir suddenly finds a wild card in the deck and then when he does they all start laughing? It was so obvious that they were all cheating. But he had no proof to prove it, and till he dint find proof he couldn't accuse them.
So this time around, he watched more carefully for any foul play among the players, specifically among the line consisting of Manik, Nandini, Navya and Cabir.
He was half way down the line watching Cabir's hand and his cards when he realized with a stench of dread, that Manik, Navya and Cabir had just one card left each. He had to do something, and that too quickly. Beside them, Harshad had almost overlooked Nandini, who was busy taking full advantage of his lapse of judgment. While Harshad was plotting as to how to stop Cabir, Manik and Navya from winning, Nandini was busy putting two absolutely useless cards back into the deck trying to reduce the number of cards she held in her hand.
But beyond all plotting and reading them down, Harshad still could do anything as Manik, Navya and Cabir finished the game one after the other leaving Harshad to compete with Dhruv and Nandini.
Dhruv was an excellent player, it would be very hard to beat him, Harshad thought to himself. The only way to win at this point in the game, Harshad decided, would be to beat Nandini. This thought cheered Harshad up slightly, he could tell by the game so far that Nandini was only an average UNO player.
He amused himself by telling himself that beating Nandini would be like a piece of cake. But the smile vanished off of his face when the game began again. One after the other, Dhruv and Nandini skipped and reversed his turn, as if on purpose, till they were all out of cards and he was the only one left.
"I know what this means. Harshad you're out." Navya gave Harshad a teasing smile as Harshad leaned back and sat down next to Kaustav. At least she knew his name.
The next thirty five minutes of the game, saw the steady elimination of Nandini, Manik and Cabir. The tension in the game had spirally increased up until the point where in only Dhruv and Navya were left out.
"All the best Navya. Make me proud" Cabir said as Navya rolled her eyes at him.
Harshad, not wanting Cabir to be getting ahead of him with Navya, added on "I'm on your side Navya!"
"Maine poocha?" Navya glared at Harshad in irritation.
"No. Par-"
"Then shut it." Leaving Harshad looking like a deer which had just been scratched by a tiger's claws, Navya turned her attention back to the game almost as if there had been no interruptions in the first place.
Meanwhile Nandini found her curiosity getting the better of her as she sat between Navya and Manik trying to get to know Manik better.
"So how do you and Navya know each other?" She asked him, hungry for answers.
"Aaju baaju bus stops."
"I don't get it. You live on the same street as I do. So why were you on Cabir's bus stop with the other guys?"
"You mean today in the morning when you broke Harshad's nose?" Kaustav added just to pull Harshad's leg.
Least bothered with the interruption, Manik continued "Mom had to work late yesterday. Toh main uthke aa gaya iske ghar. Waise bhi Dhruv isi ke building mein rehta hai na, toh his house is sort of an adda for us, you know?" Nandini nodded alongside, absorbing every detail of what he was telling her.
Harshad who had been listening intently to their conversation decided to interject.
"And I was on the bus stop because-"
"I don't remember asking you" Nandini responded back coldly.
Harshad glared at Nandini for a moment, his hands quivering to just take her ugly, tiny head and bang it against the windows or one of the poles. But the consequences of those actions would be too many. So he did what he had always done when faced with a difficult situation. He screamed and walked off.
"SCREW YOU UGLY SHIT HEAD. SCREW YOU ALL" Harshad screamed like a baby at the entire lot of them before he grabbed his bag and got off the bus, leaving the other back benchers looking amused and nearly the entire bus in jitters.
"Mission accomplished?" Manik whispered to Nandini in her ear.
"Aye aye captain." Nandini responded with a wink to which Manik smiled and pulled at her adorably round cheeks.
That afternoon when Nandini got off the bus, her cheeks were red as a tomato, and it wasn't because of the continuous cheek pulling trauma she had been put through in the last fifteen minutes of the bus ride.
***
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