#2 - The Call

A week or so later, I was sitting in a park with Shine. He was like my only friend outside of school in those days. And that was our favorite pass time, just sitting... and thinking. I sat there, looking at the sky trying to draw pictures out of the clouds; while he was busy making what looked like ancient hieroglyphics in the sand with a stick. Seriously, we gave a complete new meaning to hanging out.

He broke the silence.

“What happened, Vilas, any problem? You look lost.”

Yes, I was lost. But what pissed me more than that was his calling me Vilas. It was his favorite way of annoying me, ‘coz he knew how much I hated my real name, and also how much I loved being called Will. But what did he know, not everyone’s father was gutsy like his, who chose to give his son an English name by going against the whole family. Anyway, arguing with him was like wrestling a pig. If you lose “How could you lose to a pig man?!” and if you win “Dude! You wrestled a pig..!!” (and either ways you have to enter a shit-arena in the first place). So I kept quiet. So he asked again, and again, and again so much so that finally, I had to oblige him.

“Raina is my only problem yaar,” I said, “ I have been calling her up like 4-5 times daily, and she just refuses to talk to me. I really miss her. Life sucks man!!”

“Hmm...” He looked skywards, as if consulting the almighty for solutions. “You know, Vilas, what else sucks?” He paused for effect, “Vacuum cleaner!”

Now, he was my very good friend and all, but dude, there has to be a sense of timing for a joke like that if you don’t wanna get killed. “The Hulk” was kicking inside me, but I suppressed my homicidal tendencies, and bade a cool farewell to him.

Back home, I found my mom’s temper soaring high. Reason, some girl had called, and her name was something they didn’t remember, but it was definitely not Shaila. The problem is that my parents hate any girl who comes near me, except for Shaila, the daughter of our “family friends”, who’s been with me since I was a 2nd grader and is a really really close friend of mine, so they don’t really have any say when it’s her. But if it’s any other girl, then my butt comes in line for some serious kicking from my parents.

Of course I had to listen to a re-run of the lecture where mom tells me about how girls are just looking to lure intelligent guys like me into their “love-nets”, ‘coz they want to secure their future with sure shot go-getters (I know that I am nowhere in the list of even marginally eligible bachelors, but then, that’s mother for you). But beside the fact that I had listened to that lecture countless number of times (and like any other teenager, I never listened to them anyway!), there was another reason why I wasn’t really paying attention to it. I was thinking, “If it wasn’t Shaila, who else it could be? Who could’ve called me? And what for? Who called upon me while I was out?” OK OK... Of course I knew it could only have been Raina, I was repeating those Sherlock Holmes-ish questions just to kill time while my mom went on and on.

So finally, I thought, I had been successful in proving to Raina that I loved her and only her by persisting, even when she kept slamming the phone down on me (not literally) as soon as she heard my voice on the other end. I was ecstatic, and hence, I ran towards the phone, as soon as I was free and alone (obviously, I could never call up a girl with my parents around). As I was about to pick up the receiver, it rang. I picked up. It was Nisha, a friend of mine from school.

“I called earlier, where were you?”

So it was her, not Raina. All my evil plans of putting on airs, whenever I would talk to Raina again, got screwed right there in front of my eyes. I was too surprised to speak.

“You there? So, I called to tell you that today is my birthday and as expected you forgot to wish me.”

God knows I didn’t want to disappoint her by telling that I hadn’t only forgotten to “wish” her, but I had forgotten her birthday altogether (but I guess she knew it anyway).

“Heck no, believe me yaar, I was about to do that, anyway, happy birthday Nisha!” I hate myself!

“Thanks, and never mind even if you forgot, just remember to come to Sagar Ratana’s tomorrow at 12. Everyone is coming and I’ll wait for you, so don’t be late.”

“Sure thing, don’t worry.” I said.

Really sad. Here was a girl, for whom I didn’t really care a damn, still she calls me on her own birthday to get wishes, and then there was Raina, who wouldn’t even throw a shit-cake in my face even if I asked her for it. It couldn’t be worse, or so I thought until the next day...!!

2 comments:

DevilTima said...

hmmm...

Gaurav said...

isske baad wat happened???
plz temmi