PART 6 : ~MONEY TRANSFORMS~

             A month had not passed and he had enough money to buy a flat. Now even I feared to be with him. He was absent in the tuition, in the playground .He was busy bribing the police whenever I saw him. Soon, he was one of our richest friend circles.

           I started missing him. After all he was  my best friend.   One day I called him up.

            “Hello...”

            “Vaii..!” how are you?” he was excited in excitement.

            “Can you meet me today afternoon at the park, I wanna talk to you”, I said firmly.

            “Ok darling, I’ll be there at 6pm sharp”, I hated whenever he called me darling.

              It was six. I was waiting there for him, nearly 20 minutes he came and sat beside me, life a cigarette which seemed longer than his fingers, it was some unknown European brand.

            “What are you doing??” I started .

            He looked at the cigarette and started at me,”what? This?” he thought   I was telling him about the cigarette.

            “No you stupid! Your business!” I cleared his anguish .

            “What about my business? It’s running smooth”.

            “You turning inhuman buddy”.

            “Why??” that was the question he bolted in return.”

            “Do you think now you are n anyway better than a prostitute? You are drug broker!”

            The word ‘Drug Broker’ hit his heart, I knew it would.

            “”Please, don’t say like that, you that I’m doing all this for my love”, that was the only reason he could show.

            “But do you think that if you’re, so called ‘LOVE’ comes to know about your reality she’ll be ready to be with you? You plan to start a new relationship, new life with Black money?” I said.

          

             He was quite, maybe he was thinking.”Leave all this, straighten to your life, you are wasting your whole life year”, I shot again.

           He was thinking still, it was queer to see the veins had pumped up in his body, his face had grew red even his dark complexion could not hide his expression.

           Suddenly he jumped to stand straight facing me, he shouted at me,” You’re jealous, you are just jealous that now I have money and you don’t. What are you talking about love? What do you know? You don’t even have a girlfriend!!”

           That was the first time I realized only money had the power to completely changed a man, break a friendship.

PART 5 : ~MAD IN LOVE~

              “Tringggggggggg……………..” The alarm clock went off and didn’t shut its bloody mouth until I slapped it on its head in utter frustration . Girlfriends and alarm bells have this awkward ability to detonate the moment your dream is at its dream and you are ready to explode. An hour long flight of fantasy had tired me up. Apsari had painted my dream pink and my under pant white.

             It was seven in the morning. I got ready and walked to my English tuitions much to witness a wonder by best Supom; he was sitting alone and quite by the park before the tuition class.

             “Hi!” I said he was absorbed in some thoughts.”Why are you sitting alone?” “Where are others?” Questions were fired in succession, but he didn’t care to reply. I doubt if he had even noticed me.

             “Everyone has left for class “, he said after a pause of two-three minutes.

             “Then what are doing here?” I asked .

             He was silent.

             “Are you alright? Did you have a spat with Suparna?” I asked repeatedly.

             He nodded.

             I should have figure out the root of the cause, after all only girls can depress men so much. A study says 90% of the problems that an average male faces in his entire life are female oriented. But even with these soaring figures one can’t live without them. Ask me, they are simply irresistible.

             “Sunny! Please sit beside me. I’m feeling very lonely. I got thing to talk to you “, he said.

             To be really frank, these attitudes of him of a questioned my mind if he was gay.

             Sunny, keep yourself away from Supom, he might be GAY and might someday …, my inner voice always warned me.

             But, you often don’t listen to your conscience when it comes to love and friends.

             “Yes, what happened?” I asked, to crack open the silence of the morning.

             “Her mom is a paid prostitute “, he mumbled.

              “Whaaaat??” I nearly screamed him to death.

             Suparna belonged to a middle class family. I didn’t see her often but yes she shared similar looks to Kangana Ranaut. Just a little bit healthier. She was party animal. On top of that she was intelligent enough to outdo her classmates not in studies but in kissing her boyfriend. The way she kissed Supom it seemed as if the world was to end the very moment the kiss ended. But to me she was decent enough to have the word ‘Prostitute’ related to her.

             “Yesterday, a relative of her told, me all about her mom”, he said, literally trying not to breakdown into tears.

             “So?? What to do now?” I said, with an utter blank expression on my face.

              “I’m gonna runaway with her to some other place, else maybe she could have been also lured to her mom’s filthy business”, he said, in a rigid voice.

             I paused a bit, maybe the smoke from the cigarette that he inhaled had already messed up the nerves of his foolish brain and churned up the little intelligence that he had.

             “But how? “ I asked in disbelief, “Do you know how much money you need? You don’t even have a job”, I was firing questions at him. I knew he was Einstein when it came to earning money for useless works. Maybe God had gifted him the power that he could even collect money from thin air. But this was different, this was serious stuff, he could even be put to legal notice for this action.

             “I’m going to sell Brown sugar”, he toughly answered.

             I always knew he was a dumb head but even in dreams I could have never imagined that my best friend could have such a lame idea that had every possibility him ending up in jail.

             But as I told before you often don’t listen to your conscience when it comes to love and friends. He was mad in love and I was blind in friendship. I lend him Three thousand rupees to start his crooked business.

PART 4: ~APSARI~

             The next day, morning broke with the same old routine but the nights were always beautiful for me. After school I returned late and hurried my to tuition which  took 10 minutes by walk but my bicycle ride took nearly 20 minutes as it had to stop at every possible places on the way where my friends gathered.

             As usual I reached my tuitions 15 minutes late of the time scheduled to start. “Where is she?” I mumbled, and my eyes searching for Baisakhi.

             She was sitting on the second bench. I walked straight and sat behind her, opened my copies my seriousness vanished as if a flame in candle popped out. My eyes searching for everyone excepting if someone was new or the old sloths were again to accompany me in my quest of gliding through what Sir said in class.

             Just then my eyes fell on a girl on the left side of Baisakhi, a new girl.

             The sight of her soft skin fit short Punjabi dress that enhances the looks of her well-shaped body was the reason why I was lost in beauty for nearly an hour. It was not every day that an average Indian boy like me could witness someone so hot even in an Indian outfit.

Her semicircular projections of the body were struggling to accommodate within the restriction of the clothes. Her pen fell. While reaching out for it, she bowed her hands, and the gap at her neckline broadened to highlight her hemispheres.

             “Wow!” I mumbled . Sometimes my mouth automatically opens wide. They were mind blowing. Even when I still think that God had created the world upside down but I still I thanked God, some of his creations are so pleasant to the eye that you can keep looking at them forever. I was lost in her, and impulsively a loud voice cracked my feelings.

             “Where is your homework?” Sir shouted right beside my ears.

             “Oh shit “, I murmured.

             “Where is it?” he said.

             “I am really sorry sir “ ,attempting to be with flow of being an obedient student , but even sir did not heed any attention to my attempt of submitting the homework which I never  did but always forgot bring it to class. Maybe he just wanted me to put my greedy eyes off from her to his blackboard.

             Hours seem like minutes when you are having a nice time. The class was finished. As usual I walked with Baisakhi towards her house but this time a new lady had joined us.

             “Hi, I’m Sunny”, I looked at her .She was just what the doctor had ordered, simply amazing. That was the first time we saw in each other’s eyes. I never read poems but I am sure that the ‘eyes’ described by the poets were very similar to hers. Her slim, silky, double –toned   hair looked excellent. I glanced at her body the   neck, there to she was flawless.

             “I’m Apsari “, she introduced herself, and she belonged from some missionary school. We introduced ourselves pretty well, much to exchanged our phone numbers.

             That night her SMS from an unknown number flashed in my mobile. Previously, having bad experiences about unknown numbers I ignored the text. Later, when I read the message I saw it was a sweet love shayari. I bounced up on my bed, I replied,

             “Who is this?”

             “I’m Apsari, didn’t you save my no.?”

             And in no time we were engaged in a conversation much to forget how late at night it was.

PART 3: ~RELIEF COMES IN BOTTLES~

              Next day, I still don’t know how but Baisakhi knew that I had a talk with Uttam (which Uttam obviously thought as one of my acts). She asked me about what had happened. I knew that she didn’t talk to Uttam neither did Uttam get a chance to talk with her. This is my chance. I can be her hero now. I spiced up yesterdays happenings and ultimately resulted in spoiling the matter but not failing to make myself the Superman in the stupid story which included a street fight with Uttam and his raced fight, ending up in bandages, a mob gathering incident.

              Slowly, days passed by, Uttam pressed more upon me. One afternoon we had a fight, a real fight! He tore my shirt, gave a blow in my lower jaw which restrained me from having dinner that night, I too gave him a punch right in the face enough to bleed in his mouth. After the fit we sat together, both of us panting for breath which ultimately led to a peaceful chat between us. I came to know many things about Baisakhi’s life, why they broke up, why she had changed her school, why her dad didn’t send her to tuitions far from home, why she always accompanied her on evening tuitions.

              That night I had many things to think about. First, if my face was to swell by morning what answer was I going to give to my parents? Second, maybe Baisakhi was not right for me she had told me so many lies about her. Well, I think in a relation if one lies, the other will not be invincible from doing the same.

              Next day, I got money from my parents who were instructed to me to be spent on tuition fees. Women and money are the two sides of the same coin, you can wait a lifetime for them, but the very moment they are with you, you can’t decide what to do with it. But the only difference is that the former heats you up faster than fire and the later chills you faster than a refrigerator.

              I decide to buy a beer, to get myself forget all the disturbances my simple school life had faced lately.

              Beer was more than just a drink for me. To be precise, it was liquid syrup which could cure every problem of my mind. I put the bottle in my bag and raced my bicycle to my playground, where I sat alone with my only companion, the beer bottle, and with nobody around to disturb I felt as if in heaven.

              The drink trickled down my quenched throat. It was a much needed stimulant to unwind my messed up life that had encountered lots of tribulations throughout my life.

             The night was declared; I had to return home by ten’.

PART 2: ~SIDE EFFECTS OF LOVE~

One fine Thursday, I had my biology and mathematics classes back to back. I was very happy that day, because then I could spend nearly six hours with my lady gorgeous. It was 6:30 in the evening; I was accompanying her from the biology class to our mathematic class. She kept on groaning the same old story about studies and tuitions and school and studies. But I was never bored of hearing it. I don’t know why but girls have that extra-ordinary power in them which make even their foolish talk interesting. In fact you don’t get bored even if they continue their blether for hours. So, there I was nearly close to our mathematics tuition.  We were close to our tuition gates when she said – “He’s that guy, I fell in love with”.

                                I couldn’t see the boys face in the dark, but his white dress flashed in my eyes. I asked, “Who is he?”

                “My ex-boyfriend, Uttam”, she whispered

                “Damn! He looks funny”, I pranked, even when I couldn’t see him. I was never as happy when I heard the word “Ex”. I was never someone’s ‘ex’ maybe that was the main reason that made me happy. I don’t know maybe still I don’t want to know... I do better not know many answers to my life. Maybe knowing all the answers to life can really make one’s life really miserable.

                “We had breakup nearly a year ago”, she said.

I put on a blank expression on my face so that she could not get a glimpse of my feelings for her. That night I asked her all about how they broke up, what she liked in him, why he did not make it, just to make sure I did not make the same mistakes. The next day I was off for school, when I returned I saw my cell phone registered four missed calls from an unknown number. I was always excited when I got calls from unknown numbers which often turned out to be the customer care calling me to have lousy song as my caller tune. But even still it didn’t lose my interest in unknown numbers. I was excited; could this be a girl’s number?? Am I into something? I had passed my 10^th standard and still didn’t have a girlfriend, while my friends were working on their fourth breakup. I had become desperate for a girl in my life. I never wished for any physical relations with anybody, but the loneliness was killing me.

                The numbers flashed in my screen... I couldn’t wait, I dialed.

“Hello...?” said a mainly voice from the other side of the phone. My heart sank; I disconnected the call, and cursed my luck.

“Tringgg……” the polyphonic ringtone in my cell phone rang up.

“Hello, who is it? I asked.

“I am Uttam”.

“Who Uttam”? , I had practically forgotten his name, and tried hard to recollect it but to utter failure.

“Uttam, Baishakhi’s boyfriend”, he said.

“Oh! Now I remember,”I mumbled

“Boyfriend or Ex-boyfriend?”I said in rough voice.

“I still love her I don’t know what she things, but I still consider myself as her …….?”

The other side of the phone continued.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Can you meet me today?” he asked.

“I am busy, for such nonsense”, I said pretty roughly and hung up.

        Meanwhile, I had been telling Baisakhi that I had a girlfriend long back, her name was Tina who had died in a car accident, and that Baishakhi’s eyes were exactly the same. But I don’t know why, but she knew from beneath that I was bluffing, but still she gulped it in

“Trinnnnggggg……..”My phone rang again.

“Hello who’s it?”

“Why did you disconnect the phone”, said a voice which was making ruthless efforts to meet me.

“I can’t meet you today, I will any other day, and I have tuitions. Got to go. Bye”, I said.

“Why do you fear me?  I am not going to harm you. I just need to talk to you “.

Now, these words heated me up! Did he just think that he could something to me and be alive? My blood started boiling. “Meet me on 5 at Hastings’s park”, I said hung up. I met him that day. He was a sharp faced guy, almost my figure, but a bit taller. I remember well, I was in an orange full sleeve hooders and he was in a white shirt which made him look as if he was returning from office. He was accompanied by a fat slut who owned ambassador by his dad’s grace.

The peaceful conversion lasted a few minutes and soon he was treating me to stay away from her. Nevertheless I didn’t fell to assure him of serious consequences if he didn’t resent staying away from my life. The conversation what so ever ended with both of us screaming to each other – “Let’s see? what happens”.

PART 1 ~ When I First Met Her ~

It was in the middle of March or April, I don’t really remember the date, I entered my biology tuition class for the first time, and my eyes fell on Baisakhi (well you don’t expect European names like Janet or Julie from a boy Indian family to see). Yes! a boy, then I was in XI standard, just passed out my middle school examinations and was enjoying the freedom of teen hood, which was fast, insane, and miraculous. Growing up lately to know what love was, but failing enough to distinguish a broad line between love-affection-infatuation-and sexual attractions. Whatever it was, I still don’t know, and the best part of it is I don’t want to know either.

                                Days passed as we listened to gibberish talks of our Biology teacher. Pretty not much could describe him except that he was divorced three times but still hit on every single girl that came unto his life. His queer odd looking beard hid his big lips which seemed as if was hanging from his mouth. He always wished everybody in his class would turn up ending Doctors, but maybe I was too dumb for that.

                                I rarely heard what he said, I was engrossed in Baisakhi’s face, maybe it resembled a lot too much to Priyanka Chopra I thought……………

                                Meanwhile I had started taking mathematics tuition in Air’s Sir’s class, Damn! He was a boring teacher. I use to to have my classes on Tuesdays and Fridays . My maths tutor was enough handsome  even at the age of thirty,to top the list of youngsters having the ability to mould a girl’s heart at the first sight . If I was gay trust me I would have fell in love with him.

                                Whatever, he had a bad habit, drinking excessibly, smoking frequently. But, the most

Astonishing of him was that he didn’t lose control of himself even after drinking tones of vodka. May be the tremendous and extensive pain which he had and was experiencing in his life restrained him from being out of his mind even for a second.

                                In the mean time my affection for Baisakhi started arousing as days went by. I heard that she had a bitter love experience lately. And, may be that was the time when I thought boys were really smarter than girls.

                                “He’s that guy, I fell in love with”, said she pointing her eye brows to a boy around 17-18 on the other side of the road the guy was in a Punjabi and blue jeans holding a little girl in his hand. He was looking rather funny as if he was the father of two children. I didn’t look much, just a glance was enough.

                Oh! I forgot to tell you …………

                                Every Saturday me and Baisakhi use to attend our biology class. I always searched a moment to start my converses ion with her, but eventually fell in.  But finally one day I got my chance.

Even having an old school friend with his notes ready for me I turned him down and asked Baisakhi that I wished to photocopy her notes. Well that was a chance, at the photocopy shop the xerox machine had gone of. God had blessed me!! I took her phone no and promised her that I would call her and return her copy the very next day. She left.

                                I felt like dancing of a plane at that moment, but at the very next moment I remembered that I love my self more than her and I control myself from jumping of the plane (even though I never had the money to get a plane on the first place, but this thought didn’t come to me at that that moment). It was around 5pm when I called her up recharging my account balance which usually never had crossed the highest limit of rupees 8.

                                                                       “Hello! How are you”, I asked as an act of chivalry. 

“I’m good, so you are bringing my copy on tomorrow evening, right?” she was quick.

“Yes, yes! Believe me on that I never break promises”, (may be that was the biggest lie I had ever said to anyone.

“Anyway, what are you doing?” I was pretty bad at continuing a conversation which usually for me never lasted for more than 40 seconds with friends.

“Text me I will reply”, she said.

“Okay”, (maybe she didn’t know but I thanked her for saving my balance)

But the very next moment an awful thought on my mind.  How can I text her?  My SMS typing speed was slower than the walking speed of tortoise. But still I gathered my wits walking towards the recharge counter twice that day, (usually I dropped in once a month with a ten rupee note in my hand, even the shop keeper smelt something fishy). I recharged my account with rupees 11 which gave me nearly 100 free text. It took nearly 5 days to send 100 text s, I was no more but whatever the case I had blended myself with her mind, I was no more a stranger. I used to accompany her every day after biology class convincing her  that I had to go her way so as to buy fish food which as if was available only near her house.

                                In the mean time I had joined Bengali tuition at Ananta Sir’s. He had classes only on Tuesdays which conflicted the classes with my math tuition. I talked to my math tutor and changed my batch from Tuesday to Thursday.

                                The first day I entered my changed class on Thursday I felt as if the whole world had prayed a hundred hours only for me. It was Baisakhi in the fourth bench second row of my new batch.

“God bless me “, I mumbled. I sat just behind her, and miracle happened –mathematics class was no more boring! But I never heard what sir said (except for the funny parts of course. Whatever the case, I started attending my classes regularly.