ANIDITA: IS LOVE ENOUGH

Chapter 9. An important negotiation

After finishing their lunch Batuk looked at his watch. There were only ten minutes left for the recess to be over even though they both had rushed into it, practically shoving it down their throats.

"Boudi, look na even though we tried , only ten minutes are left. It's not enough time for you to even start your homework, just going to class to get the notebook and then making a detour to library would take that much time, you won't have time to even look through the books. " Batuk said sadly.

"Hmmm.. You're right Batuk. It not practical to do that. It would have been more beneficial for us to take the extra ten minutes and savour our lunch " She replied in a sad tone.

" Right " He sighed
No matter how much differences these teenagers had food was the one thing that they both were passionate about.
Maybe because of their same age, they were always fighting each other and were competitive too. And the only way they could ever reconcile was food.
It was like an unofficial pact between them, if one of them upset the other one or hurt them, he/she had to give some share of his/her 's sweets to the other one. And this had never changed even after they both had grown up.

"Well let the bygones be bygones, we've already finished it, it's not going to come back. Instead let's just do something else." She said trying to cheer him up

"Okay Boudi " Batuk mock saluted her.

" Why are you calling me boudi today at school, you never used to adress me as boudi in school before" Bondita asked.

Batuk has never called her boudi before in school he would always use her name. It has been like this from day one, she knew Anirudh was behind this as she had heard him ordering Batuk to call her by her name in school so as to not get made fun of by his friend.

But now she hardly believes that this was the reason, he must just not wanted his family to acknowledge her as anything other than his "zimmedaari". And Batuk now addressing her as boudi in school was getting on her nerves.

" Why? What is wrong with me calling you boudi, my only sweety boudi ? " He asked with cheeky smile.

"Well you never addressed your sweety boudi as 'boudi' before in school. " She said sharply.

"Wrong, it's not that I have never called you boudi in school, it's that I don't adress you as boudi in front of my friends." He said cheekly.

"But... " Bondita tried to argue but Batuk cutt her off, not letting her interrupt him.

"I knew you were getting old beyong your age boudi" He taunted her.
" If you're forgetting, the first time you ever came to school was as my boudi, as my guardian. "
Bondita suddenly felt was wave of memories rushing through her. The first time she entered the school just after her marriage was as her devar's guardian. How she was even smaller than the table, so much that the head master couldn't even see her. How she met Gandhi ji, and it changed her life. How she than insisted on getting admitted to the school.

Batuk waved his hand in front of her eyes ,  snapping her out of past.

"Oh looks like you finally remember my forgetful boudi" He said stressing the last words.
Bondita stuck out her tongue in response

" Back to point, I always have thought of you as my boudi, it's just a little embarrassing to call someone of my age 'boudi'  in front of my peers. But now I ve finally learnt to own up to it and call you boudi. Why should I be embarrassed to call my boudi as boudi. " He said with seriousness in his voice.

For a minute it looked like he was trying to assure Bondita that her position as his boudi was irreplaceable to him. The thought of it made her eyes tear up but before she could fully let herself get consumed in emotions Batuk came back to his old self.