FF: A Heap of Broken Images, PT-8, PG-9 - Page 7

PART-8

Same Day, Towards Evening...

Walia Mansion
Juhoo

"Hey ma...I am really confused..." jai said looking at all the photographs of different sizes, some colored, some black and white, they were photographs of different objects, sceneries, people, landscapes, many things...spread around him...

"Papa wants me to join business... I don't know...I like photography and as you can see I am not that bad..." jai said picking up a snap, admiring it...

"But I don't want to disappoint papa...let's see..." jai said talking to his mother's picture...

Jai carefully preserved the pictures, writing down the dates below it, he had clicked the pictures during his short vacation in Matheran where he went after his final exams; it was a beautiful place with red dust...he cautiously kept them in his large folder... he had read about the new age digital cameras...he thought of buying it saving up from his money... but he still loved the old-fashioned camera...it had its own charm... ...

"Bhaiyya...you are not ready yet..." anu came barging in...

"I will anu..." jai said lamely...keeping the folder away...

"Acha...I am confused...help me select a dress no..." anu said...

"Anuu...seriously..." jai shook his head letting himself being dragged by his sister... after about half an hour he went down to overlook the final party preparations, it was to be held in the lawns...near the pool-side...he made a brief chat with the caterers who had arrived...finally after seeing that everything was fine he left for his room to get ready...

****

Jai smiled looked at anu who was having a ball of time with her friends...he clicked another picture...his smile turned into terror as he saw through the lens of his camera Pia Dixit walking towards him...

"Shit!!!" he muttered under his breath...

"Hi!!Jai..." pia said

"Hi!!!" jai faked a smile...

"Won't you dance with me jai..." pia asked, flashing her dark colored eyelids...

"Pia...papa is calling me...you dance with someone else...bye...' jai slipped away leaving a miffed pia behind...

Pia Dixit, an upcoming model was the eldest daughter of Nishikant Dixit, a business associate and friend of Uday Walia, Bani Dixit, her sister, the fiery bani was also anu's classmate and best friend....pia had always been interested in jai, and left no opportunity to make a move at him and jai always avoided her at any cost... running jai bumped into Tarun Sablok, Ranveer's best friend, a lawyer by profession...

"Hey sorry tarun..." jai steadied himself...

"Where are you running...???" tarun asked, though he was best friend's with ranveer he didn't hate jai as ranveer did, not very friendly but they always conversed well with each other...

"Huhhh...nothing...I am fine...enjoying the party..." jai asked...

"Ya!!It's cool..."

"Great!!I will see you around..." jai said going towards the bar, ordering himself a sazerac, the not so hard drink, the only type of hard drink he preferred to drink...

"Damn MEN!!!" he heard a swear, it was a female...sipping his drink he looked sideways to see bani... Bani Dixit, if anything in the world he was scared of after venomous snakes, it was bani dixit...unfortunately anu's best friend, he still wondered how his sweet anu got entangled with a firebrand like bani... he gulped down shots of his drink...they merely knew each other for years now...it had been about a couple of years ago...they was a party at the Dixits and anu had tagged him along forcefully...he had accidently spilled his cold drink on bani's dress, that was it, she had screamed her lungs out, leaving her scary pet dog snappy behind him which though looked like a cute white-furred dog but had the teeth of a lion, he had run all around her house like a madman, finally jumping into the swimming pool to save his life...it was after a lot of coaxing by anu that bani cooled down...he had never EVER tried to even come near her again...

"Bloody hell!!!!" she muttered again...

"Another chilled beer please..." she asked the bartender...

"Men are DOGSSs...no snappy is good..." pouring the chilled beer down her throat...

"Men are PIGSSss..." she cursed uttering some cryptic words again and again...jai looked amused by the number of interesting cuss words she was using, he admitted he didn't know half of them...he was suspired to find her brooding, sitting in a corner... she was a gregarious personality, who loved partying and always this high-spirited, energetic girl...

"I HATE LIFEEE!!!!' she cried out...

"I will kill that bas***d!!!! Rascal!!!" she stomped her foot walking away...not going towards the party but towards the terrace...jai thought for some time, she seemed too upset, and why was she going towards the terrace, what if she does something to herself, he looked horrified... keeping his glass, he leapt, quickly following her...

****

Bani removed her heels, climbing the boundary wall...balancing herself she stood on the parapet, feeling the gush of cool air blowing across her...her knee-length black dress flickering in the night wind...she looked down, then above...taking a deep breath, she lifted her leg... uplifting her arms in the open air...

Jai hurried to the terrace to find bani standing on the low boundary wall, one leg in the air, her arms twisted in a complex way...

"She is going to kill herself...GOD!!!!" he ran towards... picking her up, making her stand on the floor in a jiffy ignoring her scream...

"What are you doing...???? Are you mad...???Just because something happened you will kill yourself...??? You are mad bani...absolutely mad..." he went on rambling...

"SHUT UPPP!!!!" bani screamed...jai stood still...

"What???" he tweaked...

"Who told you I was killing myself..." bani asked with her hands on her hips...

"You weren't..." jai asked surprised...

"Of course NOT you idiot..."

"But then in the party you were cursing...then you walked off like that and you were standing on the wall...I thought...you were about to jump..."

"WHATT??? I was balancing...I was thinking of a new dance move..."

"How would I know you were doing some gymnastics in the middle of the night...standing on a boundary wall...no wonder...?" he stopped mid-way...

"No wonder what???"

"No wonder you are loony..."

"SHUT UP!!! You nincompoop..." bani seethed with anger...

"You called me nincompoop...you...called ME nincompoop..." jai stared at her...

"YES!!!So what!!" jai was about to give her a fitting reply, but then remembered her dog and shut up...

"Nothing...okay I am a nincompoop..." jai admitted sheepishly...

"All men are...bloody @@#$%%^^&*..." she went on till jai shut his ears with his hands...

"Why...only boys can say curses, girls can't curse...??" bani glared at him...

"Equal rights, girls can also curse your highness..."

"AAARRGGHHH!!!! I will kill someone..." bani said jumping on her feet with anger...jai stepped back seeing her charged like a raging bull...a second later he was astounded to find her standing against the wall...in a melancholy mood...

"Hey bani...what happened...???" jai asked gently standing near her...

"Ruchir!!!" she exclaimed...

"Is it a new name for a disorder...?"

"JAAIII"

"Will you tell clearly then...???"

"Ruchir is my class-mate, pig...he was dating me and I found him with another girl...he cheated me..."

"Oh!! How intelligent..." jai said...

"WHAT!!!" bani snapped...

"How intelligent of...of you to leave him...you should teach that guy a lesson...very good bani..."

"Ya, I did teach him a lesson...I made snappy bite him..." bani said looking least bit guilty...jai's eyes popped out...what a biological weapon bani had to kill people and she won't even go to jail...

"Is he dead..." jai asked after a thoughtful pause...

"No, hospitalized..." bani looked at jai...

"So what's the problem...?"

"Snappy...my poor baby, he lost one tooth..." bani covered her face with her palms, remorseful about her favorite pet...

"I love god!!!" jai said in relief...

"WHAT!!!"

"I love god because he saved snappy's life...God is nice..."

"But he cheated me...I hate him..."

"Its okay bani...maybe you both weren't meant to be...its okay, once failed in love doesn't mean your life ends..." jai said, mocking himself mentally over his stupid philosophy which even he didn't believe...

"That was well said jai...extremely well said..." bani sniffed...

"Thank you...you are okay..."

"Ya!! Feeling better...bloody love stories...so irritating..."

"Hey common love stories are not that bad..."

"You read them...don't tell me...I thought only girls had that madness...except me of course..."

"I mean I read Shakespeare when in school..."

"Oh!! Not him again, anu is enough to eat my head..."

"Let me tell you a love story...you might change your mind about them..."

"Mr. Shakespeare...I don't want to hear..."

"Just one minute bani..."

"One minute...okay..."

"A prince had a curse that he could speak only one word in one year...he spoke nothing for 3 years and waited to say I Love You...to a beautiful princess and the princess replied Please Repeat..." jai ended poignantly...bani remained motionless for a moment...

"That was heart-breaking...Oh!!! So sad...I would have strangled that princess's neck..."

"Bani... you seriously are a limit..." jai laughed...

"What!!!! I mean the poor prince loved her so deeply... and she heartless girl..."

"It was just a story..."

"Ya, but still..." bani mused...they remained silent for a moment...a kind of an awkward silence where no one knew what to say to each other...

"After that party, we never actually talked..." bani said...remembering when was the last time they met...

"After what happened...I was a bit baffled...I didn't come out of my room for a few days..." jai said...bani chuckled...

"That was the worst punishment one could get to have accidently spilled a drink..." jai said...

"I didn't do that because you spilled the drink on me and spoiled my dress..."

"Then why did you made me run like a lunatic...almost ended my life..." jai looked at her, aghast by the revelation... bani smiled at him slyly...

"Because I heard you saying that my snappy was a crazy dog which bit every person it saw and that it was my split personality..." bani said...jai looked at her with a poker face...

"Oh!!!" he said smiling feebly...

"I...didn't mean it...of course...I...it was...a joke..." jai fumbled...

"Of course it was...a humiliating one that too..." bani snarled...

"Oh snappy is not your split personality, it's the other way round..." jai said...

"Jaaii..." bani hit him...

"Sorry...I was joking..."

"Thanks...for hearing me out...I was really frustrated for days..."

"It's okay...I was just making sure that you don't do such life-daring gymnastics again...specially on my terrace... "

"That is not gymnastics...its contemporary ballet..."

"Oh!! You dance...I didn't know that..." jai looked at her surprised...

"I love dancing..." bani said proudly...

"I am hungry...let's go..." jai said walking ahead...

"Jai..." bani called him...

"Hhmm..." he turned around...

"Friends..." bani extended her hand...

"Only if you promise me that snappy will never attack me in near future..."

"No jai...promise..." bani laughed...

"Friends..." jai shook her hand...for a moment he kept looking at her face which shone under the moonlight...her hair fluttering in the wind... ...

"Let's go..." jai said retreating his hand...

****

Ranveer gritted his teeth seeing jai happily chatting away with his father...

"I have to do something Tarun..."

"What will you do buddy...?" tarun said...

"Jai is becoming a sore thorn...I have to remove it..."

"But what will you do my dear friend..."

"I don't know...but whatever it is I have to do it carefully..."

"You keep thinking...I will dance with pia..." tarun went towards pia...

"Hey pia... dance..." tarun asked her...

"Okay..." pia agreed, she didn't quite like him, but there was no harm in a simple dance since jai was not even paying her any attention...

"Hey ranveer...did you see anu..." ranveer looked to his side to see bani asking him with an animated expression...

"Helllooo...ranveer..." bani waved her hands before him...ranveer kept staring at her... bani left, not understanding his strange behavior...

****

God bless

dhani

That was a great part. Loved the insight into Jai and Bani's relationship. They were close. I love Snappy. I love Jai and Bani too. They're great. Please continue soon.