7.d

Samuel Johnson once said “Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.”

“Maa ki aankh!!...”

I have a vigourous mind.

I couldn’t sleep after letting Piyush alone with Shamita. I was laughing aloud within. I was dying to see the how Piyush would behave in the close company of a girl. That too the one he is trying to woo. I jumped out of the bed, pulled on a T-shirt, pulled up a jeans and ran down slipping my feet into slip-ons to follow him.

I see them walking together at s distance. I maintain my pace to keep the distance constant. They take the turn. I walk faster now. I reach the turn and see them walking slowly. Piyush has tucked his hands into his pockets and is kicking his legs each time he’s taking a step ahead. Shamita has wrapped her arms around her elbows and is looking at her own feet as she walks. Once in a while, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear gently with her slim fingers.

They enter Aunty’s Café. I stand at a safe distance, far enough for them to neglect and close enough for me to observe.

I kept my eyes on them. And they kept a distance between them.

Awkwardness lingers between them, filling them up to their brims with an insipid embarrassment. They walk together to the centre of the Café and seat themselves in a position where they can attract everybody’s eyes. And they do, feeling much more awkward and embarrassed than before. After fifteen seconds of the wordless rezendevous they start looking around for escape. They need saviours. And I don’t want to budge from my position. Doing it meant spoiling Piyush’s hard put in effort and defying his trust in his gods. I stood there awaiting action. The situation had come unprepared for Shamita. Piyush was a classmate, but not a classmate who would ideally take her out for a breakfast. And going out with such an acquaintance on a sudden basis was suffocating her. She hugged herself tight in her discomfort. And as for Piyush, he was too prepared for the situation. So prepared that he couldn’t figure out what his exact course of action was. He was in a position every unprepared student is when the question paper lands on the desk before him like a stringless kite. He knows all the answers well, but has forgotten the questions to them. Both sit before each other as like strangers in the waiting lobby of an airport.

“Good morning all passengers…” The announcement blares on the speaker above their head. They look up. They look left. They look right. They look down. They look for it everywhere. It remains to be the untraceable speaker that rung in their ears and disappeared somewhere. They keep looking for it with restless moments of their heads and eyes without budging an inch from the positions their artists had sculpted them in.

Technology has always changed people’s lives. Then it transcended to change their individual lives and later their stand alone moments. Like it did for Piyush and Shamita now. Shamita looked into the mobile in her hand and typed something. Piyush jumped into the depths of his mobile to never surface back soon. Shamita started looking around again. And by the boon of technology, Preeti turns up there and sits beside Shamita. Piyush is outnumbered. But he doesn’t care. The depths of the mobile are too intriguing for him than the new ally his contender has gained.

Shamita and Preeti ask him something. He looks out of his mobile phone, answers briefly nodding his head and drowns in it again. They get up and leave the café without a breakfast.

I get hit by a small chip on my head. I look up. Sneha is standing on the terrace drying her hair. She smiles naughtily. I look around and smiles naughtily winking.

She pulls her smiling lips together and collects them to form a kiss. She sends it across. I send one back. This is more interesting now. Much more than watching those failed conversers head for their respective rooms. Sneha pretended to scratch her chest quickly flashing the tenderness of her ripening breasts contained in a pink brassiere and ran her hand over the satin, seducing me within a fraction of the second. Bitch! She knew how to give me a hard on. I ejected my tongue slowly and mimed a lick. I received a fiery smile in return. I could’ve walked up the wall to reach the terrace. I began walking towards the café. More precisely towards the wall that lead to the terrace. He stood leaning upon the railings, stripping virtually only for me. Her skin grew all over her clothes, pulling me towards her. I am about to set my foot on the huge pathway of whitewash that ended at her. I raise my foot. And the mobile phone in my pockets vibrates harder than it rings.

I stop half way. I take out my mobile and check its display screen. I see the expected name flashing on its screen.

I gritted my teeth and answered the call.


(Contd.)
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