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Chapter 1
I was late. Very late. My lunch party was supposed to be at 1 pm, not 2:30 pm. I was still stuck in traffic. Koel had already called me thrice and Samarth had texted me twenty times by now.
"Hurry up, Shraddha!" Koel had said "We can't eat without you."
"Guys, please start without me. Vaise bhi, tum logon ka khaana main pichle che saalon mein maine Bohot khaaya hai. Aar mere hisse ka bhi khaa lo."
"Oh please, hum log teri Sarah besharam nahin hai, ki kissi ka bhi khaana lekar thoos le. Ye toh tera kaat hai. Tu hai khaana woh toh bata de."
"Arrey, abhi abhi court se nikli hoon. Bas paanch minute mein pohonch jaungi."
"Case abhi bhi chal raha hai?"
"Aur nahin toh kya?" I replied. "Ye judge log apna verdict sunane mein Itna want lagate hai, by God! Hum lawyeron ki toh pungi baja dete hai."
"Acha, baba theek hai. Relax kar. Jaldi aaja, peth mein chuhe, billi, haathi, kutte...sab dod rahe hai."
"Arrey aati hoon re baba!! Aur poora animal kingdom bol deti! Aur zyaada convincing sound hota hai."
"Shraddha, zyaada dimaag mat chala. Bhook .ke maare jaan nikal rahi hai aur iss ladki ko mazaak soojh raha hai!! Jaldi aa!!"
I laughed. She was the same old Koel Sengupta, who would groan at my PJs all the time. From our batch, she was the only one who i love to irritate. Koel had always been the sensible types, who had a no-nonsense-tolerated type attitude.
And it was precisely this attitude that compelled me to bug her. I would feel simply elated in doing so.
I smiled as I continued to recollect my memories from school. Today, most of my classmates were meeting in Mainland China for lunch and later, we would hit Cafe Coffee Day for a swig of the old beverage. It is after ten years that we would be meeting up again. Well, actually ten years for me. All of them had met in between but I had stayed away, mostly because of them my law school pressure. After my twelfth boards, I had become obsessed with law. So engrossed was I that I never had time to meet my 'langotiya yaars'.
But today, I was finally getting a chance to meet my pals.
All of them must have changed so much, with their jobs and families. I was pretty surprised to find out that all of my class girls were married. Koel, Aishwariya, Bruna and Amrita; they even had kids. Of course, even I belonged in the mommy category, with Dhruv and all, but my case was different. They had husbands to love; my husband-sorry, ex-husband- was an incorrigous bas***d.
Suddenly, I felt extreme anger and pain rush through my veins and settle in my heart. That sickening feeling nearly choked me. I could feel my eyes fill up and blur my vision. ' Oh God, Shraddha, you absolute fool!!' I cursed myself. 'How can you still pine for that little piece of shit? You don't need him anymore...'
'In fact, you need no one.'
"I've got Dhruv." I said aloud. "And thats all I want."
Don't need anyone.
Just want to be alone.
"Well, Shraddha sir that she'll be here in fifteen minutes." Koel said. "She just came out of court."
"Case still going strong?"
"As always."
I raised my eyebrows a bit. Shraddha seemed to be a very busy woman. Everytime he had spoken to Amrita about her, she would be all like, "She's handling a new case now. She'll probably be in court."
At the beginning, I was pretty impressed. All those helpless people in the world seemed to find solace in Shraddha's capabilities. But now, it was getting rather suspicious.
Now, I'm not saying that Shraddha was showing off, no way. In fact, as far as I know her, she won't take up any responsibility on her own, specially a case, unless she's being forced to, she was that lazy. You had to coax and cajole her in order to simply pick her ass off from the bed.
But all that craziness, those fun moments, all had simply disappeared after her divorce with Bobby.
Now, it seemed like she was trying her level best to keep herself away from her personal life. Running away from it. She knows that if she keeps solving other people's troubles, it'll abstain her from thinking about her own ones. Looks like she wants to stray off. And she's probably doing a pretty poor job at it.
You must be wondering that how in God's Destiny's child can I speculate all this, considering the fact that I'm actually meeting her after ten years.
It's because I know her.
I know her waaay too well.
So well, that even if her personality does a plastic surgery and come, I'll still be able to recognize it.
Of course I'll know.
After all, she's the only one I've observed so carefully.
She was my friend. I had to look out for her.
"Oh God, will you look at the time??!" Viraj exclaimed, snapping me out of my reverie. "It's nearly three. Kab aayegi Woh??!! Badi bhook lag hai!!"
"Abbey, o bhukkad!!" Amrita exclaimed as sat down beside him. "Thoda patience rakhna seekh. Tees seal ka hone waala hai, abhi bhi bachpana nahingaya Tera? Hain?."
"Haan, bhai! Tu toh jaise bohot mature hai." Viraj snapped.
"Arrey, hogi kyun nahin?" Koel said. "Shaadi karke ek joint family ko sambhaal rahin hai, uske upar se do bachchon ko paal poske bada kar rahi hai..."
"Aur abhi toh ek aur addition aa raha hai family mein!" Aarav said, pointing at his wife's stomach. Amrita blushed. Out of the entire batch, it was only Aarav and Amrita who had ended up being together. From then on,they had been nicknamed as the only "successful" childhood sweethearts.
My gaze wandered off to Amrita's baby bump. At six months, it was unusually large.
"Kunal! Meri biwi .ke peth ko ghoorna bandh kar, kutte!!"
"Abbey oh, main apne bhaanje ko dekh raha Tha! Teri moti biwi ko nahin!"
"HAW!" Amrita exclaimed. "Kunal, kaminey! Agar main pregnant nahin hoti na, toh maa kasam, aaj toh Tera Ram Naam Satya kar deti, haan nahin toh!"
"Eh chal chal, badi aayi Rambo Rajkumari!" Samarth said. "Dhang se toh tujhse hila takh nahin jaata. Murder karegi!!"
"Eh!" Aarav sounded pissed. "Meri biwi ko Kuch bhi bola na toh..."
"Arrey, Aarav! Sam mazaak kar raha tha! Chill!" it was only his wife's voice that soothed him down. He returned back to normal and as a bonus, even Sam apologized.
"Arrey, ye aayegi kab?!" Viraj exclaimed "Abhi toh sach much bhook lag hai! Aur kab takh juice pita rahunga. Ab toh pant geeli karni ki nobat aa jaayegi!!"
"Cheee, Viraj!!" Amrita exclaimed . She had always hated it when someone talked about bathroom during eating. "Gandi baat karta hai humesha!! Rukh main call karti hoon usse!"
I was late. Very late. My lunch party was supposed to be at 1 pm, not 2:30 pm. I was still stuck in traffic. Koel had already called me thrice and Samarth had texted me twenty times by now.
"Hurry up, Shraddha!" Koel had said "We can't eat without you."
"Guys, please start without me. Vaise bhi, tum logon ka khaana main pichle che saalon mein maine Bohot khaaya hai. Aar mere hisse ka bhi khaa lo."
"Oh please, hum log teri Sarah besharam nahin hai, ki kissi ka bhi khaana lekar thoos le. Ye toh tera kaat hai. Tu hai khaana woh toh bata de."
"Arrey, abhi abhi court se nikli hoon. Bas paanch minute mein pohonch jaungi."
"Case abhi bhi chal raha hai?"
"Aur nahin toh kya?" I replied. "Ye judge log apna verdict sunane mein Itna want lagate hai, by God! Hum lawyeron ki toh pungi baja dete hai."
"Acha, baba theek hai. Relax kar. Jaldi aaja, peth mein chuhe, billi, haathi, kutte...sab dod rahe hai."
"Arrey aati hoon re baba!! Aur poora animal kingdom bol deti! Aur zyaada convincing sound hota hai."
"Shraddha, zyaada dimaag mat chala. Bhook .ke maare jaan nikal rahi hai aur iss ladki ko mazaak soojh raha hai!! Jaldi aa!!"
I laughed. She was the same old Koel Sengupta, who would groan at my PJs all the time. From our batch, she was the only one who i love to irritate. Koel had always been the sensible types, who had a no-nonsense-tolerated type attitude.
And it was precisely this attitude that compelled me to bug her. I would feel simply elated in doing so.
I smiled as I continued to recollect my memories from school. Today, most of my classmates were meeting in Mainland China for lunch and later, we would hit Cafe Coffee Day for a swig of the old beverage. It is after ten years that we would be meeting up again. Well, actually ten years for me. All of them had met in between but I had stayed away, mostly because of them my law school pressure. After my twelfth boards, I had become obsessed with law. So engrossed was I that I never had time to meet my 'langotiya yaars'.
But today, I was finally getting a chance to meet my pals.
All of them must have changed so much, with their jobs and families. I was pretty surprised to find out that all of my class girls were married. Koel, Aishwariya, Bruna and Amrita; they even had kids. Of course, even I belonged in the mommy category, with Dhruv and all, but my case was different. They had husbands to love; my husband-sorry, ex-husband- was an incorrigous bas***d.
Suddenly, I felt extreme anger and pain rush through my veins and settle in my heart. That sickening feeling nearly choked me. I could feel my eyes fill up and blur my vision. ' Oh God, Shraddha, you absolute fool!!' I cursed myself. 'How can you still pine for that little piece of shit? You don't need him anymore...'
'In fact, you need no one.'
"I've got Dhruv." I said aloud. "And thats all I want."
Don't need anyone.
Just want to be alone.
"Well, Shraddha sir that she'll be here in fifteen minutes." Koel said. "She just came out of court."
"Case still going strong?"
"As always."
I raised my eyebrows a bit. Shraddha seemed to be a very busy woman. Everytime he had spoken to Amrita about her, she would be all like, "She's handling a new case now. She'll probably be in court."
At the beginning, I was pretty impressed. All those helpless people in the world seemed to find solace in Shraddha's capabilities. But now, it was getting rather suspicious.
Now, I'm not saying that Shraddha was showing off, no way. In fact, as far as I know her, she won't take up any responsibility on her own, specially a case, unless she's being forced to, she was that lazy. You had to coax and cajole her in order to simply pick her ass off from the bed.
But all that craziness, those fun moments, all had simply disappeared after her divorce with Bobby.
Now, it seemed like she was trying her level best to keep herself away from her personal life. Running away from it. She knows that if she keeps solving other people's troubles, it'll abstain her from thinking about her own ones. Looks like she wants to stray off. And she's probably doing a pretty poor job at it.
You must be wondering that how in God's Destiny's child can I speculate all this, considering the fact that I'm actually meeting her after ten years.
It's because I know her.
I know her waaay too well.
So well, that even if her personality does a plastic surgery and come, I'll still be able to recognize it.
Of course I'll know.
After all, she's the only one I've observed so carefully.
She was my friend. I had to look out for her.
"Oh God, will you look at the time??!" Viraj exclaimed, snapping me out of my reverie. "It's nearly three. Kab aayegi Woh??!! Badi bhook lag hai!!"
"Abbey, o bhukkad!!" Amrita exclaimed as sat down beside him. "Thoda patience rakhna seekh. Tees seal ka hone waala hai, abhi bhi bachpana nahingaya Tera? Hain?."
"Haan, bhai! Tu toh jaise bohot mature hai." Viraj snapped.
"Arrey, hogi kyun nahin?" Koel said. "Shaadi karke ek joint family ko sambhaal rahin hai, uske upar se do bachchon ko paal poske bada kar rahi hai..."
"Aur abhi toh ek aur addition aa raha hai family mein!" Aarav said, pointing at his wife's stomach. Amrita blushed. Out of the entire batch, it was only Aarav and Amrita who had ended up being together. From then on,they had been nicknamed as the only "successful" childhood sweethearts.
My gaze wandered off to Amrita's baby bump. At six months, it was unusually large.
"Kunal! Meri biwi .ke peth ko ghoorna bandh kar, kutte!!"
"Abbey oh, main apne bhaanje ko dekh raha Tha! Teri moti biwi ko nahin!"
"HAW!" Amrita exclaimed. "Kunal, kaminey! Agar main pregnant nahin hoti na, toh maa kasam, aaj toh Tera Ram Naam Satya kar deti, haan nahin toh!"
"Eh chal chal, badi aayi Rambo Rajkumari!" Samarth said. "Dhang se toh tujhse hila takh nahin jaata. Murder karegi!!"
"Eh!" Aarav sounded pissed. "Meri biwi ko Kuch bhi bola na toh..."
"Arrey, Aarav! Sam mazaak kar raha tha! Chill!" it was only his wife's voice that soothed him down. He returned back to normal and as a bonus, even Sam apologized.
"Arrey, ye aayegi kab?!" Viraj exclaimed "Abhi toh sach much bhook lag hai! Aur kab takh juice pita rahunga. Ab toh pant geeli karni ki nobat aa jaayegi!!"
"Cheee, Viraj!!" Amrita exclaimed . She had always hated it when someone talked about bathroom during eating. "Gandi baat karta hai humesha!! Rukh main call karti hoon usse!"
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