Chapter2: The one with privacy

Tring! Tring!.......

“Hello….?”, Mausam said, ………. She may not be very good looking, but she did have a nice voice.

“Hiiiii……, wassup?”, I said and I hate that accent that I use while talking to girls I don’t know and I’m looking to please………, besides my big butts…….. just big enough for the people to notice them, this was one thing I wanted to be spared of.

“nothing much, boring classes going on”, she replied.

“Ohk….. I was sitting here at VT……..getting bored, wanna join me?”

“Ahh…… I really can’t miss this class, but we can see each other in the evening”

“So…. 5pm…VT… ok?”

“No….. not VT”

“Why?”

“It’s too crowded………what about ghats?......... we can have a bit of privacy there….”

whoa…… what does she mean “its too crowded”…….and what does she need privacy for?......we are just acquaintances…….. she doesn’t seem to have descent intentions…… I don’t wanna meet her……….. why am I doing this at first place…… as I thought all these apprehensions….. the time that one is generally allotted to reply back was finishing off, so a part of me rushed me into answering……….

“Ok”, was all what my defensive excuse making system could come up with… as my brain was busy processing the above mentioned thoughts…… well I know ‘ok’ doesn’t qualify to be an excuse, but it does qualify for a ‘get rid of situation’ reply.

“ok then……. Will see you at 5……. Bbye”.

“she wants to see me in private…… she wants to see me in private…..”, I yelled at Vijay who was the sole reason for this situation.

“Oh great, the girl likes you…… c’grats”, he said in his usual calm tone, which sounds even more irritating in such situations.

“I don’t want to have any kind of relationship with her……. I don’t like her…….and this is going way too beyond the line of friendship”, I said in a frustrated tone...finishing off my coffee with a long last sip.

After I came up with an excuse and successfully implemented it……. Life came back to normal until Vijay convinced……rather cajoled me again into calling her and asking to meet at VT(with general public around us this time), giving a stupid reason for meeting as surprise for Kartik on his b’day which actually was a week after the 23^rd of Jan……

“hiiii…”, I said to Mausam as she came to meet us at VT, with every part of her dressing sense dictating my sporadically stated fact that she didn’t look very good. That’s what wrong with almost all the girls in Banaras, no matter how beautiful they may be……. their dressing sense would hold them back.

“Hi Sourabh…”, she said and smiled as she simultaneously took out a greeting card…

“happy birthday Kartik…..”, she said.

“… and this is Vijay… a friend……”, I said ……continuing the conversation.

“Hi Mausam,………we will just get something to eat… me and kartik”, Vijay said and went outside with a cheesy smile on his face.

“So how are you? …… no call for so long…… I thought you forgot me”, mausam said.

“Oh common……. I won’t forget you……it’s just that our internals were on, so I was busy with them..”

“Oh yeah I know how mechanical department is ……. You guys really have to toil hard to score decently”

“Hey…… how do you know that?”

“everybody knows that……. Besides I know Sharma sir closely…. your HOD…. he was the cultural head of the BHU team last year”

“Oh…… that’s great….”, I said after which silence prevailed for the longest five minutes of my life…… for the obvious reason that I didn’t knew what to talk to her about……

“I have a lip balm, wanna use it?”, she said breaking the silence after she saw me fiddling with my lips.

“No…… its alright, I’m fine”

“Ohk…… where are your friends?........ its been so long they went out…”

“yeah its been so long….. I think there’s something fishy……, anyway I should walk you back to hostel……its getting late”, I said noticing the befalling darkness of the late winter evening as the beautiful lights of Vishwanath Temple forced themselves out of it.

“Sure …… its already 6:30, our stupid warden won’t allow a minute past 7”

Vijay caught up with us as we moved out of VT…….the birthday boy didn’t join as he had his basketball practice for the sports festival of IIT Kanpur to be held in February. We talked about a lot of stuff as we passed by the soothing smell of mogra from the nursery near the ‘Faculty of agriculture’ that reminded me of the well maintained small gardens in front of houses in posh area of Faridabad near my school……the little too extra yellow street light near the international hostel,…… and the stupid gang fight of dogs near the SBI-ATM.

“Be careful on the way back”, Mausam said as we left her in front of MMV(Mahila Maha Vidyalay).

“you sound serious……… is there something wrong?”, I asked as I sensed a bit of worry in her tone.

“There were three guys following us, I identify with two of them as my batchmates…”, Mausam said and looked at Vijay as he could comprehend the situation better than me.

Why is it a problem for us if they were following Mausam? What do we have to do with all this situation? I looked at Vijay with all these question on my mind as we walked past PMC(Piya Milan Chowk)……

“Her friends would not be very pleased to see us with her…… they obviously will have problems”, Vijay said as if he could hear all those questions out of my mind.

“You mean they like Mausam?....... Strange!..... and they would harm us for talking to her?.......”, I replied in a frightened tone as it was illogical to me.

“Yes…… this is Banaras,…… now hurry up and lets reach the market before anything bad happens…….”