Aradhana Sehgal
It's the 31'st and I am quite bewildered with how I didn't even notice the days passing by. I felt a sudden prickling realisation that the vacation was coming to an end soon, but I pushed the thought away quickly as I put on a face mask on Nishtha's face.
All six of us are gathered in Nishtha's room, which is conveniently organised and spacious. We click silly pictures and sing songs with a clay face mask on.
It's not long after we finish singing 'I Feel Good' by Vishal Dadlani that Nipun comes in, screaming from the washroom with his face mask washed off, snatching the tube of mask from Nishtha's desk and reading the label.
"WHAT THE FUCK? KYA JAADU TONA HAI YEH!" He exclaims out loud and ends up stashing the tube away in his pocket despite Jheel's protest stating how expensive it is.
In no time we're all in our separate rooms, getting ready for New year's Eve.
Chills is the only way to describe it. It was the first time ever that I was celebrating the new year with practically strangers. Growing up as a pampered sheltered child was a whole adventure in itself. Big polished and poised parties all orchestrated closely by my mother who was making sure that everything from the decor to the amount of sugar in the treats is perfect was something only a few get to witness. To come from those parties my whole life, to this in the middle of nowhere party with strangers as adults, let's just say, is interesting.
My nerves are all over the place, and I really have inherited my mother's genes as I feel myself secretly praying for absolutely nothing to go wrong. For if it does, I will cry.
Abhijay Narang
It's about 10 PM as everyone gathered by the deck as well as in the connecting banquet. Glitter and champagne are abundant, blinding and blurring all visions. Besides all the glimmer, is our little spot by the poolside and our tiny table with a bottle spinning for our entertainment.
The bottle spins, lands on Jheel again, her redhead groans and goes back in frustration.
"THREE TIMES!" She exclaims, as she is once again bombarded with embarrassing questions.
I zone out in the middle of her incident with an ex-boyfriend of hers, glancing at Dhruv who's whispering a comment to Aradhana as her face contorts into pure delight, giggling and falling upon Nishtha.
As the next spin stops on Dhruv, a smirk makes it's way up my face.
"Soo Dhruv, tell me more about the hug"
"Tu mujhe kabhi shanti se nahi jeene dega" he deadpans as Aradhana shakes her head.
"What hug?" Nipun asks in, putting to words the confusion of everyone but us three.
"Isne mujhe aur Aradhana go ball game wale din hug karte huye kya dekh liye, peeche hi pad gaya hai"
"Well of course peeche padega, we all know you're his man-crush Dhruv" Nipun comments as I blow a kiss towards Dhruv, affirming his statement.
Once Dhruv is done pretending to throw up at my kiss, he starts talking.
"Basically, Aradhana eliminate hoke bahar ayi- OW!"
"Elimination batana zaruri tha" Aradhana grits while jabbing her elbow at him. He rolls his eyes and simply continues.
"I had my camera out. She saw. We talked. I cried. And we hugged."
Oh.
Wow.
I'm an idiot.
Aradhana Sehgal
I'm not surprised that the space fell silent immediately. Of course they all knew what the context to Dhruv having his camera out was. I could see Abhijay tinted a little pink, perhaps due to the chill air, while he sipped from his glass silently. It did not take us a lot of time to realise it was close to midnight, so we abandoned our silence to attend to the loud crowd by the deck.
YOU ARE READING
Khair, Tum Batao?
Romance"Time. It's just a matter of time Aradhana. I promise." I breathe deep after noticing how strained his tone is, as his unabashed eyes bore into mine. "Well you're wrong." I swallow, trying to stabilize my breathe but the moment he brushes his lips a...
