CHAPTER 1
An early morning in a not so crammed residential building at Andheri. People are all set to face the new day and are quite busy with their own chores while kids and some lazy youth who unfortunately behaves like the former group are fast asleep under warm covers.
Roli, clad in a pair of white track pants and ash colored loose T- shirt lazily presses the calling bell of flat 8-A as she is still drowsy. She scratches her head sluggishly through her already messed up hairs and yawns occasionally as she waits for the door to open up.
"Anita Aunty, just open na.' she cries as she taps on the door metrically.
Not so late from then, the door opens, showing Anita Bharadwaj, a simple and pleasant lady in her late fifties dressed in a pale blue salwar kameez.
"Roli!' she exclaims, as if she has seen some ghost while Roli continues to yawn lazily and makes it to the interiors of the flat.
"Aunty, Sid isn't up yet?' questions Roli while Anita watches her with the same surprised expression.
"What happened Aunty? Why're you staring at me like this? Anything wrong?' Roli questions puzzled by Anita's response.
"I must ask you this to you Roli! First of all you're at the door at 6 and now you're asking for Siddhant. Usually you both get up from the bed only when I and Amrita scream on top of our lungs. Is anything wrong?' questions Anita all confused.
Roli smiles and pulls Anita's cheeks hard, while Anita backs off, shoving her hands.
"My lovely Anita Aunty. Nothing is wrong. Woh, today is the last date of submission of my lab record. Sid told me he'll complete it and give me by 6 so that I can correct if there is any mistakes. Matter of internal marks right, or else who will wake up at this early morning. I'm still sleepy!' Roli says, letting out yet another yawn. Now Anita gets it and slaps Roli's head playfully.
"So that's it. I even thought that you both decided to reform. My madness!' remarks Anita hitting her own head.
"Ya Aunty you're mad. Roli and Siddhant will never get reformed. Not even if the whole earth turns upside down.' boasts Roli while Anita shakes her head in despair.
"We know it. So we've stopped trying. There's one him who's roaming around with the craziness of filmmaking despite being an engineer graduated from IIT and here you're, supporting him and being his partner in crime for all the nonsense. what use of advising you both? But tell me this; are you crazy to give your record work to Siddhant? You know na, he's very irresponsible.'
"Aunty. Don't blame my Sid okay. My best friend is very responsible and I know it. You just see, he would have completed even the last bit of work. You people too, always searching reasons to blame my poor boy.' Roli says with a grumpy face.
"Haan baba fine. No one is better than your best friend. Now go, he's still sleeping. See if your record is complete. By then I'll get coffee for you both.' says Anita while Roli nods and walks towards Sid's room still yawning. Anita smiles watching her and turns to the kitchen.
Anita dumps a spoonful of coffee powder in to the boiled milk and stirs it well as she smiles thinking of Roli and Siddhant. It's nearly 12 years since this special bond of them started and she's happy that it is still the same. Usually, such friendships between neighborhood children of opposite gender rarely happen in India especially when they share an age difference of more than six years. Even if it happens, it lasts only till the girl attains a certain maturity. But Roli and Siddhant have been very different. Their friendship started when she was 9 and it still continues when she's 21. It at first amused them and Roli's parents but soon they all got used to it, after all both the families were real close and neither of them were too conservative to keep their children away because they belong to opposite sex . Yes, at certain times, they heard a lot from the society, for giving their children the so called 'extra- freedom' and even warned them that they'll have to regret deeply for it. But so far, so good- their kids never brought shame to them. Their friendship is pure and strong and has surpassed the so called irresistible sexual attraction that might develop when a boy and girl are together. The only issue is that they're really notorious, making commotion in the entire building with their naughty acts. Of course, she and Roli's mom Amrita is the ones most affected with their pranks but to be honest, they enjoy whatever nonsense their kids do. Thinking all these, she keeps the sugar urn away and moves to toaster.
Meanwhile, Roli lazily opens the door of Sid's room and finds him fast asleep under the duvet. She sighs covering up her eyes watching the most pathetic state of the well furnished room which presently looks nothing less than a war field. The bed is so worse with the bed sheet curled here and there while his laptop, headset, cardboard, few pens, pencils, markers, a whole pack of A4 sheets, even covers of eaten wafers and chocolates lays scattered on it. The state of cupboard is no different but Roli ignores as it is a usual scene and looks around for her record. Much to her dismay, she finds it on the floor quite near the trash which is overflowing with crumbled papers. She flares her nostrils and picks it up quickly throwing few burning glances at Sid. She opens it and scrutinizes it only to find the first page empty. Anxiously she flips through the entire set of pages but alas, nothing new welcomes her. The pages are all sheer white even without a black spot on it. Roli grips the book hard and glares at Siddhant. Then without any second thought she stretches her right leg and gives him a solid kick right on his back, pushing him to the floor. There, Siddhant who was in deep sleep lands on the floor just like a jackfruit and grips his back hard in pain.
Edited by RoshniMenon88 - 8 years ago
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