CHAPTER-7
TWIST OF INTIMACY
Chapter Highlights…
I felt someone fall upon me, resting their hands on my chest, and tightening my shoulders.
“Aaaah Ahhhh, Dhilip!”, I heard Rohini’s voice, sounding soft, for the first time.
“Dhilip!Dhilip!Dhilip!”, I heard it pierce through my ears like an echo at a hill station; I felt the romantic echo. I dived my eyes into hers for an entire minute as her eyeballs rolled hither and thither to notice mine.
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Dhilip’s POV
“Machan, let's hang out at the Forum Mall. What do you say?”, Sameer exclaimed. Jacob, standing right beside me, bulged his eyes and shook his head. Five others nodded readily and cheered along with hitting a hi-fi with our planner.
“Hey, come on. It's Friday evening. Let's enjoy it for a while today. Rest tomorrow, da”, I consoled Jacob who was engrossed in massaging the back of his neck as he scrolled the mobile. I chuckled at Sameer and two other guys raising their voices full of excitement, as they filled Jacob with enthusiasm to roam.
“Please bruh, let's play, hog, and leave. Simple!”, said I, wrapping my right hand around my friend’s shoulders and pulling him closer. “What’s your problem? Oooo, do you have an appointment with your GF? Sexy!”, said I, giggling at Sameer and others who, in turn, shrugged at me and exchanged puzzled faces with each other.
“What? Am I wrong?”, asked I, grinning at my startled gang. Sameer bet his own forehead and sighed. Two others coughed and looked at the opposite wall.
“Bruh Jacob, what’s wrong with these fellows? Have they gone mad with the sudden meet-up plan?”, I commented. I then turned to my right. I threw my mouth open catching Rohini raising her eyebrows and swallowing her madness at me. Fuck! I showcased my meek and hesitant eyes, noticing my arm around her. I shook my head as I withdrew my hand at once.
“I’m sorry, Rohini. When did you come? I thought it was Jacob…”, I began, looking around and spotting Jacob standing beside the lifts and blushing to himself over a call. Fuck! When did he walk away from here? I could feel Rohini gnashing her teeth behind the screens of her lips.
“I don’t what’s your problem”, she said, sighing along, “In fact everyone’s problem. Everybody waits to laugh at someone or the other; laugh and roll as if one witnessed a monkey playing on the slide at a park…”I burst out a round of slight laughter at it while my friends hid their mouths with their palms and laughed at each other.
“Look, I told you. But, I don’t know why I am the target today?”, she complained, sighing again.
“Hello, please mind your words”, said Sameer, “Dhilip mistook you for Jacob as we were engrossed in our conversation and he didn’t turn that side. Anyways he apologized, right? Drop the matter. Above all, we guys are only interested in beautiful girls. I hope you got it…”
“Machan, stop it. You are being rude…”, I interrupted him. Rohini looked down and swallowed her tears. She lifted her head up to fake a smile at me.
“Sorry, Dhilip”, said Rohini. She continued, with a trembling voice, ”Sorry guys but don’t be a racist. It hurts. External appearances are unfortunately not in one’s hands. It's whatever you get at the time of birth and remains almost incorrigible…I can’t do anything about the fact that I lack beauty. I was just mad about something else…”She looked away to force her tears back into her eyes. She turned about and walked away.
“Hey Sameer, why Machan? So sad”, remarked Jacob running down the five steps in front of the block outside which we stood.
I turned back and couldn’t take my eyes off Rohini tying a light green dupatta with black stripes on her face as she headed towards the gate. Her point on external looks echoed within my heart. I felt my pupils dilating looking at her crossing the path juxtaposed to the fountain pool on whose banks a couple of students sat. She lifted her right palm up to wipe a drop of tears as she stepped out with many other students.
“No Machan, I just said it in a flow. Why would I hurt anyone like that?”, said Sameer, shrugging and packing the mobile in his pants pocket.
“She seems to be quite sensitive”, commented Jacob, pointing out, “Didn’t you guys check out the video links she shared on our class group a few minutes ago? She has claimed her pronunciation to be right as there are two different ways including the British and American accents. She used one while we used the other…”
“What are you talking about da?”, asked a friend.
“Circuit lecture. The last class today”, said I, at which Sameer too bulged his eyes and nodded, recollecting some of the frontbenchers laughing at Rohini’s pronunciation calling it wrong.
Hmmm, one thing that's pulling me closer to Rohini is her ability to claim it if she was right. She just can't tolerate it when one finds fault in her while there wasn’t any, on her side. No doubt, she would definitely raise her voice at that point and become her own defense lawyer. Being laughed at, unless she had indeed intended to crack a joke, irritated her to the fullest. It was good enough to ruin her day. Sexy!
Above all, she breaks down at her downside: dark skin. How many would have excluded her citing her lack of skin color? Don’t worry, Rohini medam. Now that Dhilip saar is here, I will drive your pains away. A cool breeze was continuously incident on my red T-shirt as I stood there, blushing to myself. When complexion wasn’t in our hands, why prioritize it and stop a beautiful love story from kickstarting in the first place?
Yet, what an intimate moment it was. Aye, it was a new twist in my reliving journey! I sighed and blushed as the scene of my eyes hugging Rohini’s as my arms wrapped around her shoulders and she clung to me. Divine heavens, you added colors to my reliving journey with the twist of intimacy.
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“Oh shit!”, exclaimed Sameer as Jacob laughed at a gentleman dancing to a party song in the office conference room. We were watching a funny English show on our laptops. One afternoon, our classroom housed Rohini and Sithika on the front bench of the middle row while we, my guys' gang of around ten, occupied the last three benches of the adjacent row.
Rohini turned back. Her eyes glanced at my gang. She then returned to resume her conversation with Srithika as she nodded and pushed spoons of rice into her mouth.
“Shh! Shhh!”, I whispered, placing the finger on my lips and gesturing for my gang, especially Sameer, to enjoy at a quiet volume.
“Machan, why should she have a problem with everything? After all, it's a long break now. Let her enjoy it and let us enjoy it as well!”, said Sameer.
Jacob added,” Machan, you don’t aggravate. Sameer ailed as if he suffered from severe arthritis and his femur was breaking. That's why she apparently turned back to see what happened, out of curiosity. Look at her.”
I turned to face her chuckling and gossiping with Srithika. I blushed at her wide beautiful smile triggering deep dimples on both corners of her lips. Hmm, Rohini medam is so unpredictable. I thought she was pissed while she proved to be cool. When I thought she would be cool back on that day, she was pissed. Sexy! My lover is a true mystery…Lover? Urgh! No, I meant if I managed to see her with eyes of love…
As we relished a few more minutes of watching and dining, “What! It isn’t disgusting.”, exclaimed Rohini, raising her voice. We turned to look at Tanmesh, my friend from the other section, shaking his head and raising his eyebrows as he stood in front of the first bench. Rohini got up and shrugged at him. She grabbed her tiny curry box with a dark green lid.
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery
until we feel the love!
Following the same lines, one thus ends up falling for a bad partner-the wrong love. It's fine!
Making a wrong decision is common among ordinary homosapiens like you and me.
However, correcting our blunder and returning to our right love is a worthy question whose
answer may either be a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ or sometimes a combination of both! There is only one
superpower that can answer this query: ‘TIME’
“Would you like to taste some radish?”, she offered him, extending her box. Sameer and Jacob chuckled at each other.
“Why does he want to go and dig the trouble as if it was the borewell for his domestic drinking water?”, grumbled Sameer at which Jacob nodded and hissed to pity Tanmesh.
“Hey Rohini, what happened?”, I enquired. She turned back and frowned. My meek and hesitant eyes chuckled at her strolling towards me like a mass CEO planning to fire this poor Dhilip guy. She peeped into our lunch boxes, some having chapatis or rotis with dhal while most had mixed rice and a handful of raita, and then forced a smile of achievement.
“Wow! Glad to learn that we share the same food habits..”, she shared, looking back at me and arguing, “Yet, why does your friend find mine disgusting? Look at these slices of cooked radish. Do you even know how tasty my home food is? How could your friend give it such a weird look?”
“So, today’s topic is radish lecture”, grumbled Sameer, massaging his heavily bearded chin and chuckling at Jacob and others.
“No, I don’t like radish sambar. That's why I felt yuck…”, Tanmesh justified.
“Whatever, but it hurts”, Rohini replied to him. She faced me, sharing, “Dhilip, you and your entire gang are pulling my legs. Why? That day, you, followed by Sameer and this noon, this guy, and then who else?...”
“No, Rohini. It's a coincidence. Why would we target and hurt you?...”, said I.
“As if we don’t have any better work”, Jacob grumbled, as Sameer returned to following the episode on mute and just with the subtitles. As Rohini frowned, I gestured for Jacob to stay quiet who turned away and shook his shoulders, laughing to himself.
“Dhilip, you are so annoying”, Rohini shouted. I faced her with my meek and hesitant eyes adequate to substantiate my innocence.
“Dude, leave it. Let's finish our lunches and go for a walk in the corridor before the AD lecture”, suggested Srithika, waving at Rohini.
“A normal day goes as usual until you stumble and cause trouble. Why are you spoiling my mood, Dhilip?”, Rohini argued, at which I shook my head.
“No, I didn’t do anything. Trust me”, said I, to reassure her but she just wasn’t ready to get convinced with the damn thing. She tilted her curry box to pour radish sambar on my face.
“Hey, no see this is bad”, I argued, closing my eyes and turning left. I also brought my left hand in between to protect my face from getting dirty. I felt someone fall upon me, resting their hands on my chest, and tightening my shoulders.
“Aaah, Dhilip!”, I heard Rohini’s voice, sounding soft, for the first time. “Dhilip!Dhilip!Dhilip!”, I heard it pierce through my ears like an echo; I felt the romantic echo. I opened my eyes only to lose them in hers. I dived my eyes into hers for an entire minute as her eyeballs rolled hither and thither to notice mine.
“Yuck! I hate radishes! Eww!”, Tanmesh exclaimed, wiping his T-shirt with a hanky. My other friends were busy laughing at him. Rohini and I too faced him, shrinking his eyes and protruding his tongue out like a chameleon captured in the discovery channel. Srithika burst into a round of laughter as she got up and walked towards us.
I chuckled. I turned at Rohini and bit my teeth diagonally to control my laughter. She closed her eyes and let out a burst of laughter. I laughed along.
“Yuck! Help! That's why I gave the disgusting look. Nothing else. No offense, dude”, Tanmesh justified, rushing outside the classroom like a bomb from the cannon. Rohini turned to me and laughed to invite tears. I blushed at her dimples swollen more than they did when she smiled. She stood very close to me; her body vibrated as she laughed.
My eyes went over the bag strap protruding from under the bench before mine. Ooo, she must have stumbled on it and slipped on me. She happened to notice her hands on my chest.
“Oops, excuse me”, she said, withdrawing her hands and tying them back. I nodded, chuckling and blushing along.
“Rohini, your lunch box”, said Sameer, laughing and offering it to her. All of us laughed over what happened, once again. This time, Rohini released a silent round of laughter. Hmm, at last, we broke the ice. I looked up, thanking the holy heavens, in my mind.
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“Silk board”, announced the orange lights running across the black digital board of a local bus painted in dark green. I, accompanied by Sameer and Jacob, crossed the road and rushed, spotting the KR Market bus, at a sightable distance.
“No dude”, said Rohini, elaborating, “Let's wait for the Banashankari bus otherwise we must board two buses…Indeed, I must board three. No, it will be hectic including the twenty-minute walk to my home from the last stop.”
“Fine then let's wait. What’s the hurry though?”, said Srithika, bulging her eyes and nodding. My fair face was enlightened with the last rays of the Sun before sunset, as I closed my mouth and jogged to catch the market bus arriving at the stop. I was busy focusing on passengers pushing and rushing through the back door. I held the black bar on the side to get inside but there was hardly a unit area of space for my toe to get inside.
“Eyy jargo! Jargo! (Move)”, yelled a slightly stout worker, pulling a heavy dirty sack inside. He pushed many including me.
“Hey, ucha neevu? (Are you mad?)”, exclaimed I, falling behind, from the last step. I dashed and fell with my back upon someone. I got up at once.
“Sorry, a passenger pushed me”, said I, in my meek and hesitant voice, as I turned behind. I smiled at her eyes and a triangular-shaped red bindi between her thin and straight eyebrows. She had tied a white dupatta having black circular designs on it. It covered the rest of her roasted brown face. I felt my own heartbeat in my mouth.
Sexy! Looking at just her eyes overloaded with curly eyelashes, I could recognize that she was none other than Rohini. What a lovely experience my reliving journey has gifted me with! I had never felt this way ever before…I mean, I have never been this close to a girl ever before. Would my love story with Rohini have indeed been a colorful life? Wait, in the first place, was I falling for her?
“Dhilip, don’t you have manners? Falling on girls like this…such a creep”, she rebuked me again.
“Come on dude, he must have slipped. Come, our bus has arrived”, informed Srithika, dragging Rohini into the bus. As they stood together, holding the seat bars and displaying their bus passes to the conductor, I blushed at Rohini who then looked at me with her red eyes as the bus left me behind.
Hmmm…life is a book of surprises. Someone said it just right. But, if those surprises are known upfront, I believe that life will be even happier. During such encounters with Rohini, all I wonder is her extremes of love toward me. Every time I see her, during the reliving journey, I feel special noting that I know someone mortgaging all her heart for this random guy, Dhilip.
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“Guys, it seems that the AD lab is on fire. Our CS classmates have it now, right?”, alarmed Sameer, binging into our digital logics lab.
“Yes, it's Thursday today. They have it every Thursday forenoon”, Jacob agreed. The others exchanged puzzled anxious faces at each other.
Fuck! Rohini! I threw my mouth open to myself as I completed the connections and Kareena began recording the readings. I felt tears like current striking my nose and goosebumps appearing on both hands despite wearing my usual green hoodie.
Will Dhilip manage to save Rohini?
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