Abhi-Pragya fiction: RESTLESS
"Pragya Ma'am!!", Harisha came running to the lecturers' room as I was about to leave for home.
"What's up Harisha?", I asked the girl who was almost out of breath.
"Ma'am, I just wanted to have your permission for the song we are choosing to perform on inter college dance competition", Harisha said in one breath.
"Which song you girls have chosen?", I asked with curiosity.
"Happy love song, Ma'am. Rockstar Abhi's", Harisha said with a glint in her eyes.
"That song? Well...", I was not really amused given that was the most popular song around.
"Ma'am we know you don't like all these popular music. But you know what, our competitor Xavier's students have chosen Abhi's Dance with the Rockstar song. It's my inside information. We can compete them only with another of rockstar's song", Harisha explained.
"Alright. Let me have a look once you guys are done finalizing the dance. I got to go", I took Harisha's leave.
Although I was not a dance teacher and taught psychology, the students somehow depended on me for coordinating cultural events in my college. There was no dance teacher in the government college I worked for and the other staff did not take interest in cultural activities. Not that I was skilled at it, but I liked to encourage the students. And I was going to do the same thing for this inter college dance competition.
I got out of the college compound and waved at a taxi. I was not surprised when I heard Happy love song in the taxi as the driver played fm on his radio.
For the last few weeks, perhaps months, rockstar Abhi had been everywhere. His songs were played non stop on radio channels, his music videos would just appear every now and then on any TV channel you switch on, if you turned into a all-news channel, some ridiculous news about him would come out for sure. And the most shocking news for me was to see him even on national geographic channel where he advertised for a save the tiger campaign. Even if I didn't listen to the radio or watch TV, I could not ignore the humongous billboards that displayed him on the way to my college.
And now that my students were going to perform on his song too, I knew the song was going to drill into my ears until the inter college competition was done with. The point was there was no escape for me from rockstar Abhi how much ever I tried.
I finally reached my apartment that evening after half an hour of taxi ride. I had taken taxi instead of my regular bus to arrive in time as my sister Bulbul was going to visit me. My mother and her lived in Pune along with my maternal grandma. I have been living in Mumbai for the past three, well almost four years now. I am trying to convince my folks to shift to Mumbai but they have been reluctant. Now that Bulbul is trying to find a job in Mumbai, I believe I can finally make my mom and grandmother leave Pune for good.
Bulbul was late as usual. She was supposed to reach by 6.30 pm but it was almost 8 by the time she arrived.
"Diii, I got Time magazine from your mail box. Can I keep it with me? Please Di", Bulbul had her demand before even saying a Hi to me.
"Give me a hug first, Bulbul", I hugged my darling sister.
"Only if you allow me to keep this week's Time magazine", Bulbul demanded again.
"What's so special about it?" I wondered.
"It has Abhi on the cover!!!", Bulbul almost jumped.
"Abhi? Here too?" I rolled my eyes.
Bulbul and I sat at the dinner table talking about our mother and granny. We had our dinner and Bulbul wanted to sleep early as she had an early morning interview the next day. I cleaned up the dining table, did the dishes and finally thought of calling it a night. As I walked pass the tea table, my eyes fell on this week's Time magazine again.
I sat on the sofa holding the magazine.
I looked at the face that Time magazine called India's heartthrob. I traced the stubbled cheek of that engaging face.
I clutched the magazine to my chest and closed my eyes.
The point was there was no escape for me from Abhi how much ever I tried.
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Cricket
