I think it’s around 4.30am. I am in sub conscious state of my mind as I am sleeping right now. Previous night was one of craziest and most adventurous night of my life so far. I was waiting for a night like this from the day I joined my graduation and here it was without even any idea what would be following.
“You must be wondering what was so special about this night that it could be best night of someone’s life.”
This was a regular evening like any other evenings of my life in Chandigarh. My coffee mug along with the
book ‘Asura’, is how I spend my regular evenings at my PG. This all started with her call…‘Hello?’ she started
‘Hello!’ I replied
‘kya kar raha hai kutte?’ she usually talks to me like this and frankly I don’t have any problem. Actually I like it.
‘Bas kuch nai yaar vohi apni book and coffee. Aur kya hi karunga’
‘I have a plan.’
‘What?’ I asked with excitement.
‘Maine abhi weather forecast check kiya hai, aaj zor ke baarish hogi. Ghumne chalna hai?’
‘Are you nuts?’ I asked knowing the answer.
‘Yaar aise hi toh maza aata hai and I want you to come with me, please don’t say no’ she was super excited.
“Going out at night knowing it’s going to rain cats and dogs, what was she up to? Should I say no? or Should I go? This girl is insane.”
‘Okay. Thodi der me dinner kar ke aaunga.. but mai ready nai hone wala. I ll be in my SLIPPERS only.’
‘okay. Come soon. Bye’
‘Bye.’
I had no choice. Grabbed my wallet, phone and slippers after the dinner and started walking on the road towards her house. The sky was preparing itself for a heavy shower of water missiles. Lightning! And I am saved by fractions of seconds from entering a water puddle. 10 minutes of scary walk to her house and I am still not sure to walk. There are only traffic lights on the road which are not even working properly. Finally, God listened to me, somebody is calling me.
‘Mom! I am walking down the street to get some grocery.’
‘Okay beta. Take care! Message me before sleeping’. She wished me and hung the phone.
I had covered most of the distance with the help of this phone call. I am almost there. Phone rings again. It’s her, Geet! She is the girl for whom I had been walking for last 15 minutes on such a horrible road. She told me to wait 10 minutes as she was waiting for her landlord to clear the gate. “Fuck! She was sneaking out. If somebody sees us, I am so dead.”
It was better than to keep walking rather than to just stand outside her gate. Once again, I was walking towards the lights on that dark road with no clue of the road. A drop fell on my cheek, second on my nose and third one on my arm. It’s raining! That was the last thing I expected before seeing her.
I was already wet in the rain and had no idea of her plan yet. The clock was ticking 11.30pm and there was no clue of her.
”Okay leave her. Why don't I eat something? It will help me keep out of this waiting loop.”
I saw a field with a tree in it. I walked towards it. The field had become a marsh area because of such a heavy rain. My senses were asking me to stay away from it but my hunger was forcing me to get the fruit on the tree. I had no idea about the fruit. Brain said, Brace yourself, while heart said, go ahead. I could barely recognise the fruit in the lightning. God was pouring water on earth that it seemed like he wanted to drown away everything. I walked slowly and saw the fruit. It was an apple. So beautiful! How could I pluck this beautiful apple for my own hunger? This would be unfair with nature and beauty of the apple itself. But I had to. I ate that apple and sat down the tree still waiting for her.
I saw her. She was dripping with water. She was wearing a light blue coloured lower and a pink top with her ‘Doremon’ slippers. Her hair were tied. She had made a bun of her hair. She walked towards me jumping and dancing with her bicycle.
“Why is she looking so cute? Does she always look like this at night? Any boy can fell for her these looks.”
‘I am sorry Assseeeeemmm!!’ she had now reached me.
‘This is height Geet. Itna wait thodi kartwata koi.’ I was angry. ‘Anyways what’s ur plan miss?’
‘Asseem as such koi plan nai hai. I want to just spend some time with you. Tu bhi free tha , toh socha bula lu.’ She was smiling while saying this.
‘Yaaaaarrrrr Geet, islie bulaya bas? Huh! Pagal hai tu. Anyways ab aa gaya hu toh kuch kar hi lenge. Aaja baith jaa.’ I told her this with mixed feelings.
‘ Nai maine nai baithna. Tu uth and chal khada ho.. let’s walk!’
‘Nai yaar I cant. I ll catch cold.’ I told her.
‘Oh yaar.. Baad ki baad me dekhenge. Abhi let’s enjoy!’ extending her hand towards me.
I took her hand and got up. That apple was so huge. I couldn’t even stand on my own after eating such a huge apple. We were now walking along with her bicycle in the rain towards any imaginary destination lost in our own world. She was thanking me of my compliment of her looking so cute. Obviously we both were dripping with water but she was looking cuter than any teddy bear in this world.
Once again, I had my focus on her talks that I didn’t even notice the puddle coming right under my feet. I fell in mud. She laughed like she had seen the funniest scene of all time. For that moment, she was in her own world with her friend into mud on a random road of the city. I was so happy being part of her world.
‘Dekh kya rahi hai? Utha muje.’ I extended my hand towards her.
‘Nai yaar tu andar hi reh. Hahahahaha!’ taking back 1 step.
‘Geet muje utha. Apple ki wajah se utha nai jaa raha.’ I tried to get up.
She finally held my hand. This was the moment, moment for me to play my part. Before she could pull me out I pulled her in the mud.
“This is it babe. You are in mud too. Oh yea! It’s my turn to laugh. But why is she laughing too?”
We were both laughing seeing each other’s face. We knew rain would clean us but still it was fun to see each other. We, best friends, lying in mud in such a flawless rain on a dark road with only light from lightning and some street lights, had no fear at all. We got up and saw one of my slippers broken. Gosh! Why slipper? So it’s decided. We can’t walk with my broken slipper. Then the last thing I would expect happened. I was riding her bicycle. Not actually riding but sitting behind her and she was pedalling. Holding my slippers in hand I wasn’t even sure that she could lift my weight. Tring Tring! There we were riding.
“Riding a bicycle sitting behind a girl half of my weight is somewhat shame but damn it is too funny and full of adventure. Believe me, this is the love between friends that doesn’t even bothers about weight or any such stupid things.”
She rode good, talking with me whole time, laughing and trying hard to pedal until something got her attention.
‘Ice Cream!! Asseem I want Ice cream.’ She shouted.
‘Ice cream? Did you say Ice cream? Babe you stole my words!’
‘Let’s get an icecream each.’ She rode towards the ice cream vendor.
‘Bhai 2 Chocobar dena badi wali.’ I spoke offering vendor the money. All my currency notes were almost wet but not enough wet to be rejected.
We were again riding the same way, talking and laughing but this time we had our ice cream in our hands. It was almost 30 minutes before I broke my slipper. So how could we two stay out of trouble for this long? Something needed to happen. This time Geet did it, crashed us in a field of wheat by the side of road. This time it was wheat field in which we were lying with all our ice cream on our clothes. We had been into mud, grass and now ice cream with still raining water bombs. And there it was her wild laugh. We were again laughing seeing each other soaked in grass, water and ice cream. It was freezing cold but who cares. We were on an imaginary trip with no one to disturb, no one to fear and no one to stop us.
“Water, mud, grass, ice cream, cold, darkness, broken slipper, broken bicycle and night suits- What a night. It already became best night but I hope for more to come to us..”
The rain had stopped now. We are still wet but the last few minutes of rain had cleaned us. It was clear sky now. We were now walking without her bicycle towards any other direction other than going back; we didn’t know which direction exactly. We walked under the infinite pearls in the sky making the perfect moment for any couple. The clock ticked 2.00am.
‘There is a light.’ I said pointing towards the light.
‘Could be anything.’
‘Might be a house. Let’s go and find out.’ Taking her hand and pulling her to walk with me.
‘Omg Asseeeeeeeeeeeeeemmm! This is a café.’ She shouted with excitement like she had found a treasure in an ocean.
‘Yes Geet. Let’s go and check if it’s open.’
‘It’s closed Asseem. Let’s sit here. Someone might see us and let us in.’
‘Hey see there is some firewood. Also we have some wood logs here. Let’s create a Bonfire.’ I suggested her eagerly waiting for her reply.
‘That would be nice.’ She replied.
‘The wood is wet, it won’t burn.’ She spoke after making so many efforts to burn it.
‘Arey yaaaaaarrrr, ab kya kare?’ I asked.
‘ Asseem waha ek lantern hai.. vo rakh lete hai paas. What say?’ She pointed towards the lantern.
I rushed to get the lantern safely. We now have a lantern between us and sitting on two pieces of logs. The moment is perfect. Sitting on logs with a lantern placed between us under the twinkling stars in the sky and freezing cold.
“Omg, I am loving it. This is so beautiful. This is best. This is life. This is rhythm. What could possibly happen now?”
Is she singing? No way. Yes she is. She is singing a song raising her voice slowly. The only voice I could hear was her singing a beautiful song. I recognised the song, It was the same song she sent me few days back on whats app. ‘Let her go- Passenger.’ She was doing it like a professional singer. No useless up’s and down’s. I left my place and sat next to her. I took her hand and held into mine and joined her in the song. We were singling like we were new born birds ready for our first flight and that happiness was running in our veins. There was black bag lying near the gate of café. Perhaps it was of some child that lives there in the café. She was still singing the song and watching me as well. I got the bag and found a lantern balloon in it. As I took out the balloon she suddenly stopped singing and snatched away the balloon from me just like a child had found his long lost toy. I could see happiness on her face. She was so much to see that balloon.
‘Let’s make it fly Asseem.’ She spoke with a lot of joy and excitement.
Although I wanted her to stop because that belonged to some child but I allowed her as I didn’t want to lose that smile on her face. We flew that balloon writing
‘May our friendship rise along with this balloon. May our relation reach new heights of the Sky. Cheers!’
‘Par jab iski hawa khatam ho gayi toh niche aa jayega apni dosti ki tarah’ she broke into laughter.
‘Haan but it depends on us, we have to keep fuelling our friendship unlike this balloon.’ I replied.
“A balloon with our name and date written on it, how sweet! Our names were in the sky under the shining stars. It’s perfect!”
‘It’s 3:07am Geet!’ I shout.
‘So?’
‘Don’t you remember The Conjuring?’ I was afraid.
‘Oh ho Asseem. Calm down baby! It was just a movie’ She tried to relax me. ‘ Asseem, movie me jo hua so hua.. real me nai hoga so chill. Tu muje bata mere se badi bhootni koi ho sakti hai?’
‘Hahahahahaha!’ I broke into laughter hearing her last line.
I saw my watch, 3:08am. I calmed down. Taking a deep breath I asked her that we should get something warm as it was freezing cold that time. We went into the café by the window. I fetched a blanket from the store room. She put the lantern in between us and got us wrapped in one side of blanket each. The clock is ticking. She suddenly presents me a mug of coffee to me that she prepared when I was fetching blanket.
“She made coffee for me? Wow, she is so caring. She knows I love coffee.”
One, two, three and four horror stories followed my mug of coffee. The only light around is the light of lantern. Her face even looked scary in dim light of lantern. And it must have been same with me. We talk, we laugh and we repeat looking each other’s face. That was a perfect horror feeling with something touching my thigh. I thought it to be a stone but that was a toffee in that balloon bag. I was sitting on the balloon bag. I was relived finding out that it a merely a toffee.
‘Hahahahaha!! Asseem Darpok hai, ek toffee se darr gaya.’ She broke into her wild laughter once again.
‘chal oye! Aisa nai hai. Meri jaha tu hoti toh tu bhi dar jati.’ I tried to get hold of situation.
‘Chal jaa oye darpok kahi ka. Leya toffee de hun.’
She divided the toffee into two halves and gave one to me. Yummy! That toffee was delicious. Chocolate toffee after such a long time that too half of it sharing with my best friend, it had to be delicious. There were lantern, toffee and my best friend sharing a blanket with me under the darkness of night. What else would I want from the night?
‘I am thirsty. Asseem.’ She looked at me like an innocent baby.
‘Okay, tu yahi wait kar and mai pani lata hu.’ I took coffee mug from her.
I didn’t have any idea about water but I had to get water anyhow. I thought of breaking into the house of café owner for water but I knocked the door. I knocked again. There was no reply from inside. Perhaps there was no one inside. I had to think and get water for her. Idea! I ran towards the trees nearby. The rain had stopped a hour and a half ago but there might be water collected on leaves. I found a ‘Neem’ tree. The water will be pure of this tree as it’s the one of the purest trees of our world. A single leaf had 8-9 drops of water. Oh god! I needed to work a lot. After 6-7 minutes of collecting water I was unable to collect half a mug of water. I was happy taking water back to her. And I couldn’t see her.
“Holy shit! Where is she now? Where has she gone? This girl is mad. How could she even go anywhere without waiting for me? Has she gone for pissing? This night is getting bad again.”
I saw a light burning in the storeroom. I had a little idea it could be her in there. I placed the mug aside and rushed for the store room. There she was.
‘Geet, Are you mad or what? How could you even leave that place? I told you to stay there only.’ I shouted in anger.
‘Listen to me asseem.’
‘Are you nuts? Tuje kisne kaha tha waha se jane ke liye?’ I kept shouting.
‘Meri baat toh sun..’
‘Acha bol, kya reason hai?’ I stopped.
‘You were taking so much time for fetching water so I thought to come in here and see if I could find something to repair your broken slipper. You were roaming here and there for water without your slippers and even your feet are bleeding.’
I had no idea my feet were bleeding. My anger had made me forget the pain. I saw my feet. They were bleeding indeed. Then I saw her. She had tears in her eyes. A tear fell on my cheek from my eye. We both had tears. This moment was so emotional. We had tears and were smiling simultaneously. I felt so helpless.
“She tried to repair my slipper. She noticed my feet bleeding. She is in here for me. There are Tears in her eyes because of me. Why am I so selfish? Why couldn’t I stop myself from scolding her?”
I carried her in my arms and brought her back to the blanket and asked her to wait there only. This time I tried to adjust my feet in her slippers and went for water again. This time I brought back a mug full of water. She drank like a child. I felt happy. I smiled. She smiled.
Someone came out of the café. It was a woman. She identified herself as the waitress of the café. She woke up hearing our loud conversation inside the store room. She was looking at me with some different looks. I didn’t understand then. She offered us water and asked me to come with her inside. I went in despite of Geet trying to stop me. I was waiting near the table when the waitress approached me with a knife in her hand. It took me a second to understand what she was up to. I ran without wasting a single second and came back to Geet. She followed me but for my surprise Geet got up at her place and started abusing her badly in Punjabi. The woman left cursing us and not letting us in the café to sleep as we had requested her earlier.
‘Bola tha mat jana but toh manta hi nai.’ Geet exploded at me.
‘yaar muje laga pani de degi and shayad andar sone de hume.’ I tried to explain.
‘Chal koi nai, chad ab.’
‘I am sorry.’
‘It’s okay kutte’. She laughed out loud.
‘Asseem, um tired.’ Her smile went away.
‘So am I Geet.’ I responded.
‘Let’s find something to sleep’.
We gathered our guts and headed back into café. What could we possibly do to sleep in such a cold and under sky? – That was the main concern. Curtains! We spoke together and laughed at our timing. I pulled a curtain down and tied it around my neck in a superman fashion. She pulled one and tried to wrap it around her like a sari. We got some more curtains and headed back to our so called bedroom only with lantern and blanket. Now we had curtains. We needed pillars to make them stand. Firewood! The firewood which couldn’t burn can help us in making walls of our room stand. We made firewood stand somehow and then put the curtains on it one after other. We made ourselves a tent. It looked beautiful. Nothing is better than self-made sleeping place. The tent had blue curtains, a blanket in it, a lantern, some water and two friends. All we needed was sleep.
I had a small piece of wood that hit me when I was making our tent stand. I placed that under my head and tried to sleep. She noticed that I was hit by a wooden piece. She took that piece away from me and threw it out. Her next move was sitting in cross legs posture and placing my head in her lap.
‘Tu kitna kutta hai asseem. Wood lagi tere sir pe and bataya bhi nai.’ She said looking at my head.
‘Faltu me tension ho jati tuje.’ I explained.
‘Jyada toh nai lagi?’
‘Nai re .. mai theek hu.’
‘Chal fir soja ab, u need rest’
‘Haan tu bhi soja.’ I replied.
I noticed the time, 4:10am. I don’t know when I feel asleep in her lap but all I can remember is saying ‘ Good night girl’ and she planted a kiss on my forehead. I am still sleeping and I don’t know what she is doing.
“She might be sitting nearby me caressing me or watching me or perhaps snoring and lost in her dreams. People have best friends, fake friends, caring friends. She is my ‘Best Friend’. She is the best thing happened to me in my graduation life. She is Geet."
-Asseem
