It always starts with the hit.Pari dwaddled his half can onto the floor.I inhaled the scene in with the last puff of the joint.'Antidote' played in the background.
The marijuana had formed a faint mist around the room and the conversation suddenly fell too dull for me.Stuffing the rolling paper into my pocket ,i stole a moment
when everyone else was engaged and stealthed out of the room.
Crashing on my bed , i closed and began drifting off to sleep. Sleep deprived for the better part of the past 24 hours, i was drowsy. Shweta would have to get used to
it now. She had to learn not to rely on me.
"Or, you could simply do something different today"
It was one of the rare moments i did not reply back to myself.Opening my eyes i looked up at the roof.Sunlight reflected in solemn shadows off it.I rose.It had to be
black today.
Two competing ice cream vendors had set up stalls outside the college gates. Stuffing my hands into my pockets, i looked about. There was a multitude of
women swarming about and apparently no guys.Shweta appeared outside the gate, and i couldnt help smiling, i had seen her after quite a while. She looked ridiculous
and cute as usual.We exchanged short talk and she walked me the 50 feet to the college courtyard. Women's voices filled the air in unision.
Looking up at the confusion i noticed that it was directed at me. My hands went deeper into my pockets.Registering the faces i made out that most people in the
group were known to me. The girls joined in their cheerfull celebrations and the two other guys and i exchanged embarassed looks together.
The only redeeming feature yet was that the bengali chick was there.I had met her only once , a few months back and she had done an amazing air mouthing of
'sajna aa bhi ja' ,complete with the seating position and the hand gestures. That memory still made me smile.
An hour passed , and the guys left, all of us agreeing to meet up at my college later that night. Alone and without any fixed company i turned back to the open stage
on which a middle aged man was singing pop songs and pretending to be 25. It was an amusing sight. Fixing my eyes on the stage i let my mind free .
And in she twirled to my side.The bengali girl. Looking directly into my eyes she spun , jumped and skipped into my world. She was flowing with the music, and i forgot all about
the song and its singer.She twitched her eyebrows , and i had no answer for her. Shaking my head i just stood there. She just danced. Unfazed.
Shweta brought in some pretty girl from behind and introduced her to me.
"Are you from really from iit?"
I nodded.
"Do you have any....umm.......nice friends? i have this friend who really finds them really smart and would like to date one."
Like ranvijay in every episode of roadies, i was stunned.
Noticing my utter lack of conversational skills the girl backed off with a "i dont really have any friend. I was just joking". Smiling i looked around for Neha.
Apparently the enticing bengali girl had a name.
Five minutes later i was by her side, learning to dance. Compeleting 2-3 awkward steps just so that i could see her laugh, i declined further lessons. But she was
not yet done with me. We continued to talk standing there , she breaking off every few minutes to jiggle a few steps .The smirk on my face had become permanent.
We met up later that night at my campus. The girls had gone off for a quick fresh up at someone's house and i had reached my college early.We drank,smoked,confessed,
ate,danced,laughed and cried that night. It was beautiful.
The guests left in the morning, and the next night was even more eventfull with some other friend crashing his car and getting hauled up by the police and the saddest
of comic scenes being played out at the police station between my drunk friend and the 'thullas' . So inbetween budding romance,drama,accidents,police,emotions,'chaud',cash,contacts
and sentiyaap , life was pretty hectic.
The next day, ie the day after the day after the first night out, suddenly i find myself at a monument with neha and shweta and her boyfriend. My direct conversation
with Neha had been minimalistic till now. A joint or two.Or three.
//edit part 2 coming up
