Episode 6: Before boarding the Shahjahan!

At 7 am in the morning, Nikhar got off from the Taxi and headed towards the grandeur of Gateway of India. He always thought that it wasn’t the monument alone but the emphatically beautiful surroundings that made that place extra little special.

On the corner he saw his friends Satya Ranjan, Shray Desai and Aaditya Jaju. All of the three no matter what time of the day it may be, had their throats burning and aching in pain i.e. they always needed a cigarette. Meet them whenever, wherever the first thing that they would cry for is “talap lagi hai yaar!” and the others were there too.

To speak of the others there were Satya Ranjan’s and Aaditya’s girlfriends Richika and Deepali… Oh! Sorry…Deepali and Richika respectively. Richika was an ordinary emotional girl with a strange Punjabi accent. Strange not to her and for people like her in her provinces but to people like Nikhar whose lives prior to the graduation college had been so constrained that he used to think that there are only four languages English, Gujarati and Marathi and some alien languages like the one that they speak in China. But Richika was a fun-loving, hard-hitting girlfriend, as the only picture that conjured up in the mind of was the slap happy relationship that Aaditya- Richika had. No matter good or bad they kept on slapping each other, funny, odd but lovely couple. On one hand you had Aaditya- a true addict of everything (Work, Girlfriend, Games, Music, Daaru, Sutta) who also seemingly had a weird habit of biting the sleeves of his t-shirt when he was thinking intently, while Richika who couldn’t be an addict of anything (if she were to then she wouldn’t exist, that paper-thin was she! So was Aditya! Curious isn’t it? Everyone in this group is either a dwarf or a victim of malnutrition) else but his man.  

On the other hand Nikhar knew fairly little less about Satya and Deepali. They were essentially Shubhankit’s friends. But the little that Nikhar had known of Satya Ranjan, he seemed to him more cynical than any other he had ever met. He said nothing till everybody had spoken and then would specifically choose a person whose case he wished to take and he did that every time effortlessly; whereas Deepali, to Nikhar looked a rather frail and a well-protected princess of Satya Ranjan.

This sadist prince and the frail princess also had a deputy- Vaibhav Chaudry. He had many pet names, the famous ones being Babba and Randsa. He was a jovial deputy and an affable person, funny at times but largely an underdog. But then there were other dark secrets clouding him as well. His relationship with Shubhankit had been the talk of town. Some considered them to be an item. Some enthusiastic friends had given a combined pet name R ON D to them. Now what that meant remains a mystery as Babba and Shubhankit always shrug off people’s queries regarding their link-up.

The only thing that Nikhar thought of seeing all those people was that, ‘Damn it! How is it that chain smokers get girlfriends and clean-virgins like him don’t?’But then there were exceptions as well- Shray Desai and Onkar Jotkar. Ofcourse there were different reasons that they didn’t have girlfriends.

Onkar was a smart chap who hardly ever cared about things other than Liverpool, the daily dose of suttas and Cricket, so had never cared to woo girls, not that he couldn’t. Had he ever tried he had the best sense of humor of the lot. But that’s the whole point of it- he never tried.

On the other hand, Shray Desai was a born leader (that’s what he thought). But then there’s a leader’s curse as well. He was more of a boaster. The most prevalent piece of his boasting was the piece of qualification attached to every mail that he sent, which went like this- Shray Desai, Head of this (Largely some shitty committee in the college!), Head of that, CEO of some company (Logics…Oh sorry! Logyx! Yeah!! Ain’t that cool?), Phone numbers (filthy try Shray! as if expecting a chick to call on that number). So that classified him as an over-Trier. But none the less he was popular amongst girls. 

Talking of girls brings us to Ketaki Rastogi who had arrived to Gateway of India in her full excitement. She was wearing Pink shorts and a black tee. But that doesn’t mean that you readers should expect some bold blonde looking absolutely hot in the shorts! Instead when thinking of Ketaki try and picturize somebody full of excitement, way to tiny (you can imagine her as a dwarf in front of Aamir Khan!), always ready for a meal and having a mesh of wiring like curly hair. Unlike other human beings who happily lived on earth, Ketaki always roamed and frolicked around in her personal world like a free bird. She was absolutely lost in front of so many people with purpose and that’s why Nikhar considered her safe, because unlike others who thought that they were there to take a birthday party from Nikhar, Shubhankit, Abbas and Arpit, Ketaki thought that she was there to enjoy herself no matter whatever is going on.

And what can the author write about Arpit? He was a person who had reached Nirvana. He was not a normal human being. He was believed to be by the people the most sacred person, someone who had seen God. He talked Philosophy like the back of his hand. He preached God as if he was the head of marketing department in the heaven. But the crux of Arpit, Nikhar thought was similar to his- a middle class boy, shoulders of responsibility. Personally Nikhar found solace in Arpit.

And then there were many others who were standing in queue buying ferry tickets to Alibag. So a huffing and puffing Onkar came up to Nikhar and asked,”100 bucks for the ferry dude.” And the miser counted in his wallet 100 down, more X to go (Can’t reveal the amount). As he gave the money Onkar asked,” By the way, who’s financing for the ferry?”

It was then that everything began when Nikhar said that the ferry charges were not his liability. Well say whatever, a tinge of misery was definitely hidden behind that statement.