CHAPTER-30
FALLEN
Dhilip’s POV
“Hey, it's six-thirty. Shall we connect?”, texted Rohini.
“Yeah, wait…”, texted I.
“Link? Shall we reuse yesterday’s google meet link?”
“That's what even I’m confused about.”
Oooo, we had just started using such tools to attend online conference calls. Reusing an old link was always the biggest dilemma ever. Yes yes, now you, me, indeed everyone out there is aware of reusing links for months together! But, let me remind you, it was back in November 2020. Hardly had we attended online lectures or scheduled online meetings, as mere students, earlier.
“What if some Koreans join our meeting and be like hey why are you here? Are you stealing our data?!”
“Yeah, exactly that's what scares me too!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“It's better if I schedule a new meeting and share the link with you. Wait”
“Okay!”
We started the voice call in the next five minutes.
“Hello, Dhilip saar!”
“Hi, Rohini medam!”
We chuckled.
“Umm…yeah, I’ll share my screen”, said I, presenting an Excel sheet.
“Great! Let's schedule the mini-project presentations alternatively for your CT and my CS branches. So, who is going first?”
“My team is ready. We can do it tomorrow.”
“Fine, my team will do after yours.” We started updating the sequence column against our project details.
Sexy! Life is like a dream. I still feel like it was yesterday when both of us volunteered to be class representatives for PD. Hmmm, “Dhilip and Rohini”-the way Ayesha ma’am used to keep taking our names together and calling us in the daily calls to assign tasks, continues to echo within every inch of my heart.
Just look at how time flies! Our tag had always signaled our togetherness. We used to unmute our mikes and agree to acknowledge Ayesha’s lectures. Every time, I repeat, it was only her and me. Why me with just her out of everyone else in the batch?!
“Yes, I asked Ridhima. Their team is ready. She will teach Charan to everything…”
“Fine! Hmm, in CS, I am not sure but yes, Sultan’s team we can trust them…”
“Ok, mark off…”
I blushed, folding my hands and sitting straight as I discussed and she edited the sheet.
“Oh no! What's this? What is she even saying?”, Rohini suddenly raised her voice.
“Fuck! What’s wrong? What happened?”, asked I, with my meek and hesitant voice growing stern. I switched on my camera at once.
“Oh my god! Oh my god!”, Rohini trembled, breathing hard.
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’
“Hey, chill. Turn on your webcam. You don’t seem to be fine. Quick! What happened suddenly?”
I heard her sobbing. “I don’t know. I didn’t do anything…Why is she troubling me?...” Her voice seemed to break despite the stable internet connection.
“Rohini!”, called I, bulging my eyes and shrugging, “Please switch on your camera. Don’t panic. Whatever it may be, let's discuss what to do. Rohini, listen to me…”
At last, she turned on her camera, only to display her clean brown face illuminated by the tube light overhead. She blew hot air into both palms and kept her eyes closed. I rolled my meek and hesitant eyes upon her dark red shirt.
“Speak out, Rohini. Who is troubling you? I will help you…”
She sighed and nodded. She displayed her phone. She narrated, “Dhilip, Caroline has been forcing me to include her in my capstone project team. But, in the last semesters, when we worked together, she has never contributed anything to the team. The entire team has been looked down on due to her reckless delay during presentations. She has been spamming me with calls and messages for the past two days. Now that I have blocked her everywhere, including her friend’s mobile through which she contacted me, she is pestering me on old project groups including just our team, that she would SUICIDE if I don’t unblock her. Take me in your team or I’ll die…”
She slammed her forehead and rubbed her palms restlessly. I shook my head.
“Your teammate is so stupid. Why doesn’t she understand? Ooo, what's this screenshot you have shared all about? She is acting like a guy pestering to reunite with his girlfriend after a breakup. No matter whether you love me or not, I will always love you because God loves all …..”
For a minute, Rohini smiled widely and burst out a round of laughter. I too nodded and chuckled along. Sexy! I transformed her state of panic into a bed of roses. But, why were you worried, Dhilip? While she panicked, why couldn’t I breathe too? Isn’t she just a random classmate?! When her other friends in the WhatsApp group she referred to, didn’t bother much, why did her problem affect you?
“Yes yes leave it now. Don’t text her with emoticons. Turn off read receipts, that's all. Don’t open any of her creepy messages. Aye, no no, leave, don’t screw her with such pics and stuff….”
Ooo, why was I so concerned? Why was I offering her tips to handle the situation as if it was our problem? Aye, Dhilip, chuck it. It's her problem. Involving in such dangerous problems means putting yourself at risk. That's why her friends ignored her. Why do you care? Stop!
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Since then, our chats were filled with me helping Rohini handle this wasp stinging her.
“Urgh! Why does she wanna know with whom I am teaming?! Go, Dev, Sonakshi, Eymir, Reyhan….”, she grumbled, hitting her fingers on her tablet’s flat keyboard.
“About this, let's come up with a follow-up reply by night. As of now, leave it like this.”
“They are all serial characters-one from Hindi and another from a Turkish drama!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line. I shook my head and skimmed through my notes. Dhilip, don’t do this. Her problem is just hers. The next time she asks you what to reply Caroline, you won’t, you shouldn’t help her. It can be a police case in case anything happens to her foolish friend. Why are you putting yourself into deep trouble? Who is she to you? Stop! Stop!
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“Dhilip saar, I’m done with this girl. Neither can I risk blocking her nor can I team up with her. Urgh!”, Rohini ranted, as her text popped up on my screen.
I discarded my cloud of thoughts into the bin as I grabbed my mobile at once, that evening. I chuckled at the chat screenshots Rohini had shared.
“Aye, no medam, don’t even ask her to google it. Just ignore. She will stop spamming you in the long run.”
“I want to archive her. chat”
“What’s the point? Chats archived will reappear when a new message pops!”
“Urgh!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
I shook my legs restlessly and rolled my meek and hesitant eyes hither and thither as I wondered why I was against my mind’s decision when it came to Rohini. Stop helping her, Dhilip. She has to deal with it by herself. Why do you care? Who puts themselves at risk for a third person? You aren’t best friends. After all, you’re just working together to submit assignments and projects this semester. Why does she mean a lot to you, then? Have you fallen for her?
I froze with my mouth open, standing opposite the dressing mirror.
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Wait, what? Aww, does Dhilip love Rohini?!?!
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