“Shagun, wake up! Till when are you going to sleep? Lazy monster!!” Yami shouts while quickly washing her coffee mug as she was getting late for her class. She goes downstairs, pours some tea from the kettle and puts two hot onion paratha on a plate, and comes back to the room, just to find both sleeping Shagun and all her taunts going in vain. She carefully kept the mug and plate on a table as it already had a bunch of stuff over it, a laptop connected with a charger, a half-eaten burger, and two notebooks. She picks up a pillow from her bed and throws it over Shagun. “ What the hell do you want? Can someone not even sleep in this room now.” shouts Shagun, giving a reaction but much more than opposite to Yami’s action. “Wake up Shaily, you have no idea what has happened. Also aren’t you getting late for college.” While making a bun of her completely messy hair, Shagun asks “ What happened? And I am not going to attend Negi’s class. Not in a mood to make notes in the morning.” Swallowing almost half a paratha in one go Yami said “ Aunty knows about last night” and sipped some tea. “ So what? We haven’t done any crime, just a night out.” Yami feels a little disappointed with that casual reaction however considering that she has to attend an 8:30 class ignores it and puts the notebooks in her blue bag and locks the almirah. “Can you speak a little slower? I don’t want to make it news for the whole PG. And do talk to aunty before going for college. I have already. Bye!” “ Okay, I will. Listen, buy a washing soap, the one in the bathroom is almost finished. Bye.” “Hmm.”
After taking a bath and wasting time equivalent to a single episode of a daily soap finally selecting a yellow and green Kurti to wear, Shagun had her breakfast while watching her favorite show. One of the many reasons for which she is made fun of but she ignores it. She believes that you should not change yourself until you want to. She washed her coffee mug, kept it over the table, and carried her bag without even checking it once and locked the room. While coming down the stairs she shouts “Rajat bhaiya, please clean the room today. It’s almost a week.” “Okay, Didi. I will do it definitely” but his voice showed that he does not care. As she came to the ground floor surrounded by the smell of boiling potatoes from the kitchen on the left and on the other side was uncle involved in his share market rates, so much that he did not even notice her. She ignores all this and goes straight to the aunty’s room which is just next to the kitchen. “Ginny aunty, I am sorry. Will not happen next time,” says Shagun to the aunty who was busy making an omelet for breakfast. “ No problem beta ji. Since it’s your first time we understand. And you are new here so a little bit of excitement is expected.” “ Sure. Thank you.” and Shagun turned back to go to college. “ Just we will cut the fine of Rs. 500 from the security amount. It is important for discipline beta ji. Otherwise, you will do it again.” says aunty grinning and keeping one of her hands on Shagun's shoulder. Shagun also grins in reply and says “Okay.” and goes out of the room blabbering to herself. She moves out of the house and by default gets a look at the hoarding saying ‘Ujiyara PGs: a Home away from home above the main door. Looking at it she thinks that this slogan only must have tempted her dad to get robbed by this greedy buffalo. How can someone be that eager to earn money ? Thinking about all this and calculating all the possible earning sources for Ginny aunty she reaches her college. The college building has nothing which can tell that it is one of the esteemed institutions in the country in which students come from different states to study. A two-floored white color building with a detailing of red color. A center ground where most of the cultural events occur and an auditorium for annual and large-scale events. Except all this was a library, the only place on the whole campus which has an AC, a big enough reason to tempt students to spend time there. Shagun showed her ID card to the guard at the gate and went straight to the classroom. She peeped through the gap between the door and wall to see the scenario of class. Mrs. Aparna had already started the 9:30 class by writing the notes on a blackboard. Except for the first two rows no one was interested in her teaching. All were busy gossiping or stalking over social media. Shagun opened the door, and Mrs. Aparna looked at her through the spectacles and nodded. She came inside the class and sat beside Dhruv who had kept a seat for her. “Take your bag.” she said. “Yami told me that your PG wali aunty knows about yesterday night,” Dhruv says, keeping his bag down. “ I don’t understand why she has so much interest in our lives. Maybe because she finds reason to earn. This time with a fine of 500 bucks.” “ These PG people I tell you very well know how to make use of the situation to make money.” tells Dhruv. Mrs. Aparna while speaking in a slightly harsh tone frowns at both of them. “Keep mum, D. She has already warned,” Shagun tells Dhruv. Both of them started making notes sincerely. After a lecture of about 40 mins, Mrs. Aparna left the classroom with a a fake smile on her another lame joke.
“Bhaiya, three samosas with chutney,” shouts Yami from the crowd at the canteen. After waiting for a sufficient time in which the canteen guy got her attention and gave her three plates of samosas, she took them and went to the table. “D, you are right we should take up the last four questions,” says Yami, while keeping the hot samosas over the table. Dhruv pulls down the earphones from Shagun’s ears and says “ Are you even listening to us?” “What guys? Why are you people so boring and impatient? We have been submitting these assignments for three semesters. It is the fourth time we will do it.” Shagun stuffs her mouth with samosa and continues “ Look at this video. It's crazy.” “Show me,” asks Yami and puts one of the earphones in her ear and they both enjoy the play by some college students. Meanwhile Dhruv scrolls through the assignment to choose the questions they can do as Negi wants to know it by 12:30 and the assignment by Monday. “I think 6,7,8 are fine for us. They all are from the conductance, also the 7th is in KL itself.” “D, it is just an assignment. Choose any three.” Shagun advises. Yami while laughing on some joke in the video says “No, choose easy ones D, the internals are also there from next week. Don’t want to waste time on this useless assignment and that too by Negi. He never repeats questions.” After eating their samosas and selecting the questions the trio went to the library.
Librarian with his usual frowning look carelessly checks the ID cards of the trio and asks them to keep their bags into the racks. Shagun and Dhruv went into the library, leaving Yami talking to Miss Aparna regarding her doubt in today's class. "Shaily, look at Raima and him,'' said Dhruv in a poking tone. "Shut up!", she denied, like not believing it. "I am serious, come fast see by yourself." "Okay. Now this is a little weird.” She takes a little pause. ”Maybe they are looking for books to solve assignment questions right.” she said, trying to explain more to herself than him. '' In the geology section?" " He is a crazy man, this Anant!" "I shall tell Yami". "No wait D. We aren't sure.” While they were discussing all this Yami comes after her brief argument with Mrs. Aparna regarding a product formation in the organic reaction discussed in today’s class. "What are you guys talking about ? Conspiring against me." she says in a sarcastic tone. "Shit they went just now," Dhruv whispers to Shagun. "Who?" asked Yami. " His roommates. He forgot his key today. So he wanted to ask them for one" clarifies Shagun and pat Dhruv signaling him to keep mum. “I feel something fishy.” “Yami, don’t be nosy. Nothing is fishy, except your face.” mocks Dhruv.
The three of them then went to get the stuff photocopied that they collected from the library. However, there was a constant murmuring between Dhruv and Shagun regarding the view they both saw. They were not able to conclude whether they should say it to their friend or stay mum and wait for the truth to unfold by itself. “Madam, your copy is done. 120 bucks.” Dhruv kicks Shagun’s back and says “Shaily. He is calling you. Stop being in your dream world.” He knew though what she was thinking about. “There are three copies, right? It is 150 rupees. 30 was pending.” “Okay. All balance is done.”
It was 4 in the evening, they were tired, so Dhruv insisted to go having tea before they departed to their hostels. However, Shagun was still thinking about the same thing. As they were about to go, Dhruv’s phone beeps. And he replies “Hello Ani. I am waiting at Shayama’s.” After seeing his reply, a little disappointed Yami says “ Shaily let's go to PG”. “I knew it.” blabbers Shagun after making a firmity of what he thought would be the truth regarding Anant. “What did you know?” asked Yami in confusion. “Nothing, just an answer struck me.” “Anyways. Anant has to do some assignments. So he is not coming to Stars today. We might go tomorrow.” “It's okay. I am with you. We will watch Big Bang today. Season 7. Done.” A high five was shared and both of them left Dhruv at a turn from where their paths deviated.
Both the girls spent 3 hours watching BBT and then in a panic scenario wrote the summary of the last Inorganic lecture. Finally, the lights of the room were off and both tried to sleep. However, Shagun was not able to sleep and was constantly thinking of questions...What if Anant is cheating on Yami?.... Should I tell her or not?... If I am wrong then it will create a misunderstanding between them. But if I hide wouldn’t it be unfair on my part as a friend?
“No. You are kidding. This can’t be true Shaily.” said Yami in a state of shock. “I am telling you the truth. Even I considered him a good man until I saw it with my own eyes. D was also with me.” “But how can he do that? How can Prof. Gada just fail one of his students because he left his tuition.” “I know. He just gave him a big 0.” “Who is he?” “I wish I could see the name.” So the morning of two girls started with the bitching about their professors. After this long discussion filled with sympathy for the failing student, the duo geared for their college.
“Come fast. Otherwise, we are gonna miss the last bench. And I cannot afford to sit in front of Mr. Bhatia’s lecture. He will kill us with boredom.” yelled Shagun while pulling Yami with her hand. Yami in a combined tone of irritation and sarcasm yelled “Okay. But you are not failing an exam. Calm down a little.” Both laughing and whispering enter the class and grab the seat in the second last row. After fifteen minutes in which the whole lecture hall was filled with commotion, Mr. Bhatia entered the class and asked for the homework. “D. He asked for homework,” whispers Yami while rubbing her shoulder over his. However, Dhruv was so engrossed in his mobile that he does not realize it. Yami took his hand and raised it, which finally brought him back to the class. “This Ann..” he stopped realizing that Yami is listening and puts his phone in his bag with a little anger. Meanwhile, Mr. Bhatia sent one of the first benchers to explain the geometry of the octahedral complex with different ligands. “I know this. I wish we had sat in front today.” tells Shagun. “Ya. Poor Shaily could not brag about her intelligence because of us.” replies Dhruv trying to look at Shagun as Yami is sitting between the two. “Shut up guys. I need to listen, if you both don’t.” Yami says. After a few more examples and some old-time stories of Mr. Bhatia the lecture ended.
After slogging their minds for two more lectures, they went to the ground to do their assignment. It was a sunny afternoon so not many students were there on the college ground. The trio chose one of the trees and sat under it. There was a pin drop silence, Shagun was busy copying the example from the book, Yami was busy thinking about the derivation which seems wrong to her and Dhruv was again typing on his mobile. “There is something wrong in this derivation.” Yami breaks the silence. “Guys I have to go. I have some urgent work,” says Dhruv. He packs his bag and goes toward the main gate of the college. “He looked tense since morning. Shall we ask?” Yami says with concern. “Na. He will tell us if we can do something. Maybe it is something with Anisha.” says Shagun. “Maybe. You please check this derivation. I am tired of it.” says Yami with little confusion.
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| Photo Credits: Dreamstime.com |
It was around 2 in the afternoon. Shagun and Yami were going back to their PGs talking about Ginny Aunty. “She can sell the seed after eating mango. A complete business woman” says Shagun while pulling her bag as it was slipping from her shoulder. “No. It is not possible,” says Yami in much surprise. “It is completely true. She can do that.” laughs Shagun. “Shut up Shaily. I am not talking about that. Look there.” Yami points her hand towards Dhruv. “Is he D? And who is that girl with him? Is she Anisha? Why did he not ask us for shopping.” “Seriously. You are concerned about shopping. How can he even do shopping with someone?” “ I don’t understand. He can Yami. It is just awkward that he did not ask us.” No, he cannot.” “But why? I don’t understand. Why you are overreacting? It is not that big deal.” “It is a big deal. Because….we are in a relationship. He cannot just go shopping with some girl holding hands, and that too without informing me.” There was an awkward silence after that. Yami stands still trying to realize how big a revelation she has made to her best friend and roommate. Shagun goes towards the PG in shock with tears in her eyes.
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