‘Quite a personality this Chaits’ thought Priti as they drove back.
“Natasha!” Natasha was engrossed in capturing the fading glimpses of Jungle Homes “Natasha!”
Natasha came back to her senses “What?”
“Tell me something – this guy Chaits, he is so popular and I’m sure he knows how girls fall for him – does he have a girlfriend?”
Natasha laughed and kept on laughing for few minutes…
“What’s so funny?” asked Priti.
Trying to control her laughter, Natasha could only gasp and all Priti could understand is Chaits does not have a girlfriend.
“What?” asked Priti – a bit in disbelief, “Chaits doesn’t have a girlfriend?” Priti was still not able to digest this information when Natasha’s eyes had twinkled when she started off and Priti had thought Natasha who also was good looking was Chaits’ girlfriend…
Finally controlling herself Natasha looked at Priti and said, “If you have any ideas – keep them safe with you. He won’t fall for any girl”
“I don’t believe this” said Priti, “something wrong with him? I mean – isn’t he a guy?” and bit her lip remembering that Payal had wondered in a similar way about herself.
“Noooooo!” That was a real big No from Natasha, “Well actually he’s in Love – totally head over heels” and started laughing again…
Though Priti was not concerned yet she felt a pang of jealousy because Chaits did not fall for her beauty as other guys did. And who could this competition be to her beauty…
“Natasha, please stop laughing away, share the joke with me”
“Well he’s madly in love with Alisha…”
“Alisha?” Priti dıd not know anyone by that name in college or vicinity around.
“Alisha – Alisha Fire” said Natasha and laughed away again.
“Who’s this Alisha Fire?”
“You don’t know Alisha? She’s the hottest news reporter of India. No doubt she looks very hot but Chaits has been bowled over by her daring sting operations and never misses her weekly show “Alisha Fire – Fires…” and don’t you dare utter her name when he’s around – you can expect a flowery round of words the whole day till your ears burn with jealousy…”
Priti dropped Natasha home and drove back to her home pondering over all the information she’d received in the evening. After dinner, she was in her room sitting in front of her PC. The first thing she did was Google search.
As the main search page opened up, she typed in ‘Alisha Fire’ and Google opened a lot of links. She selected what looked the most informative link. As she went through the information, she looked up at the calendar and then turned toward the clock…
“Oh! My God!” she muttered beside herself and dashed across the room and put on the TV. As she selected the channel TV… the TV played suspense music and those magic words appeared on the Screen -“Alisha Fire… Fires”
Priti was not bothered about what Alisha was reporting; she was engrossed in looking at her, her dressing, her ornaments and her glamorous style.
She was adorned in tight trendy black top over tight black jeans. She had two big necklaces hanging over her breasts. One made of what is called colourful American diamonds and the other over lapping with pearls or lookalike beads. She wore similar pearl long earrings that touched almost her shoulders. There also was a small sized pearl necklace around the neck. Her slim waist held her tight jeans with a help of metallic belt. The black shoes were trendy and looked tough enough to kick someone’s balls off, if need be. She let her long black hair with a tint of burgundy which looked more silky and shiny due to treatment.
“She looks almost similar to me” thought Priti and stood in front of her dressing table measuring the length of her hair.
‘Obviously’, thought Priti, ‘she is neater with her well clipped eyebrows and other features that she must be doing parlours regularly’ and realised how seldom she visits the parlour for her beauty treatment. ‘It’s her job to look glamorous; I’m just a silly student still trying to get a degree…’ she thought.
She had looked at Alisha enough to feel uncomfortable and thought I need a gym, I need to go to the parlour – I need to update my wardrobe with more colours.
Priti slept an uncomfortable sleep haunted by Alisha and her glamour.
Next few weeks were busy with Semester exams round the corner. They spent more time in the silence of library than the noisy canteen.
Finally the exams were over and they had a week dong holiday. The college was hosting some corporate seminar and campus interviews and Management did not want the routine noisy kids around.
Everyone said byes and CUs to each other, they got the news that the management had extended the leave to two weeks now and they were very happy to know this…
For two weeks Priti and others kept on meeting each other. But Chaits was not to be seen around. He was busy with his project and project report.
They had fantastic time. They rode to nearby scenic and picnic locations. They really enjoyed the holidays but missed Chaits on all occasions…
Soon the college reopened and everyone returned to the normal grind. Chaits had worked hard in those two weeks and had completed his project and the report on time to submit it to the HOD.
The hard work showed on his face. He had developed dark circles under his eyes. His sense of dressing had simplified to T-shirts and a pair of jeans. He looked tired for the first time. He was sitting quietly in the canteen lost from the topics, others were relishing.
“Pinky.” said Chaits suddenly…
“The name’s Priti” said Priti quickly.
“Ok… Priti… How comfortable are you driving long distance?”
“Quite comfortable… Why?”
“I’m bored and tired of all the hard work I did for past few weeks. I’m not feeling like riding the bike for long distance either. Could you drive us long… I mean real long…”
“Ya! Why not? When would you like to go?”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday – how about an outing – let’s go to Mahabaleshwar or some lovely beach in Konkan” suggested Amit.
“Good Idea” others echoed. They ran to the library to look at the map and to decide the place. After a lot of excited discussions they decided to visit Mahabaleshwar…
Priti woke up sharp at 5 am. She was excited, after all, for first time Chaits had asked her for something. She gave wake up calls to everyone’s cell phone and sharp at 6am was waiting impatiently at Payal’s home. Then they picked up Chaps and Amit. Then came in Natasha and Deb and finally they picked up Chaits who was already waiting for them to arrive…
Off they sped toward highway. Priti had got her dad’s Scorpio car and initially did find the control and drive a bit awkward. However, she was a good driver and soon sped the highway to reach Mahabaleshwar as early as possible.
She picked the Mumbai-Bangalore over regular Goa road to Mumbai expressway. Soon, they crossed Pune and reached in about five and half hrs.
“Whew! That was some thrilling drive…” said Deb as he got out and stretched to release his cramped legs.
“Pinky – sorry – Priti” asked Chaits “I spent entire time watching your speedometer and the road – do you always drive so fast?”
“No!” said Priti, this was the first time I tried speed driving. This car doesn’t have a speed limiting gadget installed by Dad’s wise mechanic – my car fails to touch 70 kmph”
“Your dad’s a wise man” said Chaits and they laughed.
Chaits looked at the scenery around and took a deep breath of fresh air filling up his lungs completely and exhaled it quickly. He repeated this few times and then smiled. He looked quite relaxed compared to what he did a day before.
“Mother Nature” said Amit, “mother Nature works wonders on him…”
They had a hearty breakfast and then decided to go sightseeing to few points before turning back for lunch and then home bound…
Mahabaleshwar is a place located amongst the high hills of Sahayadri Range of Western Ghats near Mumbai. It is full of explicit scenery on every turn you take. It is mainly dominated by dense forest and a range of hotels catering to every person’s pocket who visits there. Some points though are breath-taking… yet are dangerous to tread if you do not keep to the road. On one such point to get better photo, Natasha climbed the railing and peeked further. She lost her balance and almost tumbled down a deep valley. Chaits scolded her till she had tears in her eyes and then he made up for his scolding by wiping her tears off and hugging her…
Priti was enjoying every moment, yet watching Chaits closely. On the way back the excitement and heavy late lunch started taking its toll on Priti and she started to tire and felt sleepy. Chaits was quick to notice and offered to drive for some time.
Priti gladly turned the wheel over to him and relaxed on the seat next to him keeping a watchful eye on the road and speedometer in turns. After all, Chaits was the only one who was allowed to speed in the campus…
Chaits took over the wheels from Priti and the first thing he did was to put on the FM radio which was almost blaring and then shouted above the din “One for the road…”
Everyone took a deep breath and braced for the speed… however Chaits drove the car that cruised at a speed of 70 kmph consistently. Priti was surprised at his safe driving – and this guy, she thought, takes part in dirt track races?
It took longer for them to reach home as they drove at a speed slower than what they had in the morning. All the way Chaits kept on singing with the radio and Priti wanted to shut down the radio – she wanted Chaits to sing -‘he really has a golden voice’ thought Priti.
Her thought process continued – ‘Since Chaits stays away from his family, his friends are his family here and that’s why he scolded Natasha out of his concern. He is really concerned about everyone in his group I’m glad to be one of them…’ He dropped everyone and drove to his flat as Priti sat on the wheel again, “Chaits, you don’t seem to be the dirt track racer”
“Madam Pinky – sorry – Priti – I had to bring you all back – in one piece” Priti smiled and drove back home…
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