Abhimaan's saga continues...

And then with God's grace their ranks in the WBJEE were also very close... And both of them landed up in GEMI... The first week when they returned home together in the weekends... Abhimaan was too happy that day... envisioning a great future ahead... He went on speaking, nineteen to the dozen... It took him some time to notice that Mallika wasn't exactly responding to him... She was a bit despondent... On enquiriing she just said she wasn't feeling well.

That was the last time they travelled together. Later that day, Abhimaan had received a message stating...

Abhimaan, I really thought about it... 

Our relation was nothing but a childhood 

infatuation... I deserve much more than 

an unsmart jerk like you... I don't love 

you any longer... Hope you too will 

realise soon... Do not contact me ever again...

Needless to say, Abhimaan got a nerve-wreck... Did whatever he could, she didn't respond back... And now, his last ray of hope was Swastika... He wanted to cling to it...

Abhimaan's saga...

...It was raining cats and dogs in Dohijuri... As far as his vision could lead him to, there was but a foam of white all around... No sane man would have left from his house that day... But this was different... totally different... She had asked her to meet him at the shed off the old cow-yard of the Ghose's... An usually abandoned spot... But then what piece of Earth in Dohijuri wasn't abandoned today... But then there was no chance to replan, postpone or reschedule this rendezvous... The command had been left on his old cycle, a chit stating the location and time, reason went unstated... But then when she called for, no guy in Dohijuri would need reason...

It was the first Kalbaisakhi of the season... The coconut trees were swaying madly, threatening to tear off their bases... Not an animal was to be seen... Even the swans were well hidden behind the reeds... The river was filled upto the brim and threatened to overflow at any moment... Any stranger would been petrified by the way the thunder reverberated in the open space... But he weren't a stranger, he could walk these lanes blind-folded... He knew every lane, every by-lane of Dohijuri... Another deafening thunder brought his senses back to reality...  He had almost neared the pre-decided spot, when a sudden thought sent tremors down her spine... What if she didn't come... He hadn't thought of this earlier... All the happiness that had started forming in him blew off in a second... Yet, he decided to try his luck... He walked on... The path that he would have covered in less than ten minutes on any other day, had taken over twenty minutes today... He was disgusted... Any now there was no one near the  shed... No one at all... At this moment, had it been possible he would have kicked his own butt... But that option being unavailable he kicked at astone ahead of him...

"Ouch"... panted someone... He turned to see her waiting by the banyan tree, drenched to her skin... She was stooping down and rubbing her ankle... He went towards her... picked her up... He was just going to ask her the reason for calling him, when a sweet coice chimed in his ears, "Abhimaan, I love you..." He didn't reply... or rather couldn't reply... His voice was choked... He just bent down a little towards the 5 feet frame and the softness of their lips touched each other...

A night... too long...

She didnt know for how long she had cried... But now she was even tired to cry... Her pillow was wet... Or drenched would be the correct word... Her eyes were stark dry... Eye lids were aching... Earlier crying had helped... But today seemed different... Her thumping heart threatened never to subdue... Unlike other times she was angry with herself... Angry with her audacity to dream again... Angry at her foolishness... Angry at the inability to stop thinking... Angry for being unable to forget...

Yes, she was unable to forget that booming voice... When she had expected to register the eternal three letter... they had deceived her at around 66.67%. Yes, the first two words hadn't changed. All the same, the third word had made all the difference. When she had first heard the name, the world had stopped for a while. The smile had been swapped by astonishment followed by despair. Swastika was never one of those who could control her emotions. Thankfully for her, Abhimaan was looking the other way. Possibly trying to avoid a blush. He was so engaged in his thoughts that he barely noticed the effect he had on the girl sitting beside her. Swastika kept on wondering... Of all people in the world why did it have to be this bitch...

He was lost... lost in the thoughts of his love... who was stranding him... and his was a lost attempt to save his life... He knew only too well that he would not be able to survive without her... And he wanted was to gain access to her via one of her friends. Sree would have been the best option for the job but then again Abhimaan couldn't pull himself up to talk to her. She was far too smart for him. The second best option was thus Swastika. So, he decided that he should tell every detail of those two years that he had spent before joining GEMI... The golden years of his life... When his life revolved around just himself and her... His Lady Love... Mallika...

New dreams...

Ever since the boy had said he wanted to talk to her, her cheek muscles wouldn't relax... giving a decided tinge of red. She was thankful about the fact that Sree was a bit absent minded today, else she would have definitely noticed. At the same time, Swastika was amazed at herself... When she had her last break-up, she had made an agreement with herself that life will never be so beautiful again. Never ever would she fall in love again. But today when he said that he wanted to talk to her, she was happy, very happy... A very well known tinge had passed down through her spine... Life would be happy again... Or will it... A dark cloud hid the sun... It became dark all of a sudden and the bell rang...

She informed Arushi that she would be leaving early. She had slipped into the library and waited for quiet some time until the college was almost empty. Then she slipped into the decided spot. A secluded spot between the trees, not easily spottable from the main lane. By the time she reached there Abhimaan was already sitting there, with his back to Swastika. For a moment she decided to turn and run. She could feel her pulse hammering at her adam's apple. Unknown to herself, a squeak left her throat... Abhimaan...

Standing over 6 feet tall with a lean frame and beetle-black eyes, he smiled down at Swastika. He asked her to sit. Swastika sat just beside him. A hairline's gap between them. They chatted about general things for sometime... This simple conversation was sounding so pleasant to her. His innocence, his genuinity... the way his face lit up... when he talked about his village... the open grounds... the way he used to catch fishes with bare hands... steal ripe mangoes from their neighbour's garden... when it would flood... they would make small boats... Abhimaan went on speaking... Swastika wasn't listening anymore... She was lost in her thoughts... A dreamstep towards a new life... Just then Abhimaan said, "Yeah... now the reason I called you is that.. I... "...

Arushi bewildered...

Arushi was overjoyed when she had found her deductions correct. She found Sree backing out of the class unnoticed by most. Arushi had followed. Today she didn't have to answer Swastika also, as the latter had already informed her that she had some urgent work and would be leaving college in a hurry. Arushi had quietly followed Sree. Down the coridoors, they had reached the stairs leading to the terrace. Infact when Arushi had reached there, Sree was already up the stairs. Arushi decided to take the other flight of stairs to the terrace. When she reached there, she took shelter behind the massive water tank. She could see Sree clearly from there. And Sree was totally a sight...

Streams of tears were flowing down her eyes... She was crying uncontrollably... Arushi almost considered for a second about going out to her... But she knew that would worsen situations... It seemed like eternity until Sree stopped sobbing... Arushi was confused like anything... Sree was the ones who posed solid-like-rock kind of image.... Then why in the world was she crying... Arushi couldn't find any reason whatsoever... Surprisingly, Sree composed herself as suddenly as she had broken down...

 She saw Sree walking towards the edge. And all of a sudden the contour of her face changed. Within few seconds... it was bewilderment... shock... sarcasm... Arushi didn't have a hint what had happened. She watched as Sree kept intently watching some part of the ground which wasn't visible from Arushi's side. All of a sudden, Sree broke into a run. Arushi was so surprised that it took her several seconds to realise what was happening. Finally when she started to move down, she knew she was no match for Sree in these parts of the college. She had to grope in the darkness all the way down. But by then she had lost Sree. She walked towards the entrance of the main building. Sree couldn't be seen anywhere near. She somehow had a hunch that Sree was still in there. She decided to wait in the shadows of the building. This time the wait wasn't long. All of a sudden, she saw Sree running down the garden side. What was she doing in the garden at this time of the day? It was almost dark... Sree was looking for something and quite certainly was extremely disappointed not to find it there. But Arushi was bewildered. She had too amny questions in mind. Too many why's to be answered. Disgusted with herself, she followed Sree out of GEMI.

Both the disheartened souls, left the college that day with a heavy heart. Each unaware of the other's reason of sorrow. Both found a commo solution, they decided to sleep over it...

And then there were none...

She waited there for another fifteen minutes. Nature's light was dimininshing by the minute. It was getting blurred. Sree couldnt see clearly any more. But she was certain about the fact that Swastika and the other boy hadn't left college yet. She thought for a moment and decided to take a circuitous route to the main gate of the college. The route that would demand her to cross the place where they were sitting. Though, that would also cause some explanations on her part about being alone in the college for so late. But she didn't care. For the first time that day, she had found her energy back. She took one last glance at that spot. Yes, they were still glued there.

She raced down the stairs. Skipping three at a time. It was pitch dark in the coridoors. She had to slow down and grope her way through. It took her 4 long minutes to reach the ground floor, an exact one and a half minute's loss. She walked out through the back gate and started walking towards the garden. It was hideous in there. The great boughs of the trees were like giant human arms closing in on her. She started cursing herself for walking down the garden at this time of the hour. Reasons unknown to herself, she took up a jog. She felt as if someone else was there behind her.

All of a sudden it started drizzling. Sree had to run. She wasn't far from the corner around which they were sitting. Adrenaline was pumping in her veins, desperate to make its presnce felt. Her heart was pounding like hell, almost threatning her to rip apart. She took a sharp turn round the corner. Ready for an encounter. But... But they weren't there!!! She was flabberghasted. Decidedly unhappy. Where could they go? The walk leading to the main gate was deserted. She felt heart-broken. She hated defeat. What puzzled her more was the fact that she had a weird feeling of being watched. She sweeped her eyes around the campus, atleast as far as she could see there wasn't anyone around. She shrugged her shoulders and started walking down the path with a heavy heart.

Another soul was also present in the college that day. Arushi... Time and again she had noticed Sree disappearing at the end of classes. Today she had decided to follow Sree...

Who is there?

Things were going full swing. The attendance sheet was out for the first half of the semester. And atleast there all three of them had percents well above nine-tens. Inspite of the fact that Swastika and Arushi sat together during the classes but Sree was always with them in the free time. Together they tramped in every part of the college, were caught several times for talking in the library, punished for surfing social networking sites in the net-lab and many more. Sree had got used to their mumblings and their usual reply whenever she asked about it-Just general, nothing much. But unlike before, she had learnt to live with it.

Inspite of all these adverse situations, Sree had started liking this college... she felt like it was her own... At times, after college hours, she wolud walk down the long coridoors in which she would walk alone... she would reach the roof top... where the stairs ended... the streaming lights of the setting sun made her feel uncanny... her shadows tagging behind... the only connection to this mortal world... she loved being alone... it gave her time to be away from the tensions of the world... to think about herself... her new life and the changing dimensions...

It was another of these days when she had sneaked into the roof top. She was sad that day. Sad due to several reasons. She had missed the physics lab for being three minutes late. Mrs. Jojongandha Chatterjee had thrashed her left and right. She could almost feel the tears welling up in her eyes but she hadnt let them find a path to the outer world. That would have been against self-esteem, the only thing she has come to love about herself over the years. To top it all, she had unable to talk to Rajanya mam during the last three days. She had been very busy. Today for the first time, even her favourite place couldn't lift her spirits. She decided to walk down back to the grounds. Just as she was turning back, something caught her eyes between the trees. She was dumbstruck.

Through the gap in the trees, she could see a guy and a girl sitting very close. No, that was not something to be surprised about and agreed, it was a very common scene in GEMI. But what had struck her was, from the dress that the girl was wearing, she could swear on her life that it was Swastika... But the question was who was she with??? Sree decided to hold on and watch for some more time...