GIRLS, GOSSIP AND GET-TOGETHERS

Is it really that easy to spot a person struck by the Cupid’s arrow?

I find it rather amusing how you can just tell when someone around you falls for someone. Even the most composed and expressionless of persons are not able to conceal it.

I happened to meet one of my friends – rather two of them – after more than a month recently. We’d been planning and failing to meet since very many days. And then a chance call right after Trupti had got back from the graha-pravesh of her brother’s new flat, had me and my Tejashree driving to her place.

It was a nice fun-filled evening as we all talked almost simultaneously on three very different topics, gobbling idli-chutney side by side, and yet in perfect co-ordination, and also without losing track of what each one of us was talking about. We poured our hearts out, amidst the sound of spoons and plastic bags as we dug into a packet of fresh Chitale bakhar-vadi and a box of kalakand; we talked about who had been up to what recently, and who was bugging who in class, and how we missed sitting next to each other in lectures. We wished we were all doing the same thing in the same college, somewhere far away from home; or that we were roomies in a hostel just so that we could go to different colleges and do different courses and still not lose contact.

Suddenly someone came up with the idea of clicking pictures.

‘But who will click all three of us together?’

‘Arre timer hai na!’ I said, flaunting my new phone which doubled-up as a camera.

‘4 megapixels?’ Trupti inquired.

‘8!’ I exclaimed.

‘Cool!’

We ran around the flat looking for ideal supports to hold my cell in place so that we could all fit into the frame of the picture – problem being the fact that Tejashree and Trupti are both almost the same height, while I am much taller than both of them. Finally after hunting for almost half an hour we had assembled a tall stool, the box of modem, and a mixer-grinder.

‘Mrunal be careful yaar. Your phone is going to topple and fall,’ Tejashree warned me.

‘Jalla tujha tond!’ I remarked and we broke out into peals of laughter. Meanwhile Trupti was humming a song from a latest Salman Khan flick.

‘Oh my God Trupti! That is such an outrageous song!’ I remarked. ‘You’ve heard it?’ I asked, turning to Tejashree.

‘Ya!’ she replied. Then there was silence for a few moments, and Trupti again began singing the same song all over again –

‘Munni badnam hui, darling tere liye…’

Me – ‘Abe oye jhandu balm! Chup kar na yaar…’

Trupti – ‘Aga mi kay karu? Mala pin lagliye tya ganyachi!’

Tejashree – ‘Nahi nahi asa nahi. Kuna sathi jhandu balm jhaliyes te sang adhi!’

Trupti – ‘Arre no one yaar! There is no one in our class worth becoming jhandu balm for…’

Incidentally they then both turned to look at me.

‘Tu kyu itni hans rahi hai?’

I looked at myself in the mirror. My face was in fact blank. But their remark planted a smile on my face anyway.

‘Mi kuthe hastiye,’ I said grinning ear to ear.

Trupti – ‘Meko lagta hai teko koi mil gaya…’ she then went on to do a step from the song. She spread her hands out like Preity Zinta and Hrithik and started singing ‘Koi mil gayaaaaaa!’

I turned to Teju for refuge – ‘Ae ae! Tuppi cha patent! “Meko teko”! Remember?’

Teju mock laughed and then made a grave face – ‘Vishay badalu nako.’

‘Abe yaar kay tumhi doghi…’ I said, now even blushing a little. ‘Koi nahi hai baba!’

‘Arre I’m not saying you are going around with someone! But someone sure has caught your attention recently, hai na? In fact “hai na” kya, I know it for a fact – its written all over your face!’ Teju said.

‘And since when can you read faces?’ I countered her.

‘Vishay badalu nako!’ Tuppu repeated.

I looked at their anticipating faces. Damn. They were my best friends after all; they deserved to know – even though there wasn’t much to tell. And so I went on and told them about the guy who I had noticed recently.

‘See! I knew it! Right when you walked in through the front door I knew you had news!’

‘Eeks Tuppu! “You had news” kay are…’ I said. ‘It’s hardly anything! For all I know he could not even be interested in me.’

‘Ya. Or for all she knows, he could be gay!’ Teju added.

We all burst out laughing.

‘Ae nahi yaar, aise mat bol,’ I said.

‘Haan yaar Teju, aise mat bol – warna uska dil toot jaega!’ Tuppu added.

I made a serious face.

‘Trupti Naik, are you actually sassing your best friend? Don’t you dare sass me!’

‘Hauuuu! Ghabarle mi! Sorry sorry sorry,’ Tuppu mocked me a little more. ‘But I am honestly glad you are over that looser.’

Aha. The ‘ex’ creeps up.

‘Tuppu, he wasn’t a – ’ I said, defending him as was my habit. Tuppu cut me halfway through.

‘Don’t you dare defend him Mrunal. A guy like that can only be a looser, with all his intellectuality or whatever.’

‘Intellectual looser,’ Teju chirped in.

‘Hey! New term!’ Tuppu said.

‘Yes, we have a new term added to our dictionary now! Intellectual looser – a guy – ’

‘Common Teju, be technical. You are writing a definition.’

‘Oh yes! So; intellectual looser – a male Homo sapiens with above average IQ – ’

‘ – but below average EQ.’ I added. Tejashree and Trupti both turned to look at me. And then both suddenly dived towards me and put their arms around my neck. I smiled, hugging them back.

‘That’s the spirit girl. You’ve been wearing black for far too long now; it’s time to shed it.’

And right after that we clicked many pictures. All on timer. (Apparently the stool plus modem box plus mixer assembly worked just perfectly fine and gave us some really good pictures; or shall I say good memories?) We finished all the idlis and the bakhar-vadis and the kalakand. We stayed at Tuppu’s place till almost quarter to nine. And we had a blast. We all logged into our respective facebook accounts and uploaded the pictures pronto. By the time we reached home there were some comments on them too!

‘I am riding with you after so many days!’ Teju said, as we were driving back home on my Activa. She put her arms around me and hugged me – ‘I miss you yaar!’ she said. I put my hand on hers and replied – ‘I miss you too honey’; and it was not far from the truth. I did miss these two stupid idiotic but absolutely loveable girls from my Bachelors, though I had made new friends in my Masters. I thanked God in my mind – of all the things that had changed in my life over the past year, this had not; and it meant a lot to me.

I am happy.