Moving On

Chapter Two

So, I made two new friends at the grocery shop in this new place. They are Girish Mahatma and Swaresh Mahachandra. At first they seemed to be very much weird to me but as we came to know each other well, they are a little less weird now. But somehow I liked their weirdness and became friends with them.

Girish always acts as he is the toughest boy around. But by this time I knew that it is all just an act. There lies a baby behind his tough face. On the other hand his cousin Swaresh is one of the funniest men that I know. He likes to crack jokes every now and then and can turn everything, even a very serious matter into a comedy.

It is only been a week and it feels like they are my good friends. Every afternoon we gather together and hang around till late evening. We talk, we laugh and we smoke. Yes, finally I have found myself two new smoking partners.

This afternoon, like every other day I went to our rendezvous where we meet every day. Everything was going on as usual. Then suddenly Swaresh pulled out a new topic for our gossip. Well, the topic was "Girls", it is probably the most popular topic to chat with friends, especially for the boys of our age and since we were all singles then. Now I wonder, why did we take that much time to bring out that topic? 7 days is a long time. May be we all were shy too much or trying our best to show our gentle side only.

Before we started our conversation on that, Swaresh started to tell me one by one all the rules of this kind of conversation. I really did not know that people actually have some kind of rules for this. So, I interrupted him saying, "Are there really any actual rules for this?" And he replied, "Of course, according to the ICGB." "ICGB?" I interrupted him again, "What is ICGB?" Swaresh pumped up his chest in pride and with a proud attitude answered, "ICGB stands for, International Codes for having Gossips about Girls between Boys. Well, technically it should be ICGGB, but ICGB sounds more melodious and interesting, doesn't it?" Hearing this I just smiled.

According to the rules or codes that Swaresh explained earlier, our talks must began with the past of our life. At first, we were supposed to bring out our past, share the stories of our past affairs or love if we had any. If not, at least we have to say something about the girls that we liked or admired. Swaresh said that he is not sure about love or affair but every man or even every boy must had or have a woman or girl that they admire or used to admire. And Girish thinks that it is foolish to hide or run from one's past and the more smoothly one can embrace it, the smoother his or her life will be.

First Girish, and then Swaresh, They let me tell my stories at the end as I was the newest member of the Group Trio. It actually helped me to understand, how I should say my stories and what things were appropriate to say and what things should be skipped. At the end of all of our stories, I only understand one thing, and that is none of our past in this matter saw any happy endings and that is the reason we were having this conversation.

After that according to the rules of ICGB we had some more odd and strange conversation. And finally when I thought it was going to be over, they brought up a new phase to this. In this part we were supposed to share all the information we have about the girls of our surroundings. Fortunately I was spared again as I was the newest person around and hardly knew anything or anyone. As I mentioned earlier it is a very small locality so I learned from them that we three are the only boys of our age and the girl from that white house is the only girl of our age around. They started through one by one all the information about her. It is like they made a profile of her. They knew all sorts of things about her. For instance, Favourite colour : Indigo, favourite flower: Tuberose, favourite fruit: Lichi, Favourite things to do: cooking, etc, etc. They made a long list of those things and told me one by one. Sad thing is, I forgot most of them just after hearing. Then they started to tell little incidents involving her and the person who was saying. For example, Girish said that once he overheard her talking to friend on mobile phone that she likes tough man like Girish. On the other hand Swaresh said that she likes funny person like Swaresh and laughs at every joke he cracks. She even smiled to Swaresh once or twice. Suddenly they got involved in a small quarrel with each other while saying those, each claiming his stories are more valid than the others'.

Just then I realized, everyone is a hero in one's story when one dreams about it. But still, I wonder if The One dreams or not.

I tried to calm them down and said, "Alright friends, you have given me some exquisite information but I didn't learn her name yet." They both stopped and laughed seeing each other's face and at the same time both said, "How foolish of us! Her name is Barsha Rahman. " Then I said to them that it was getting late and we should probably be going to our houses. Girsh agreed but before we left, Swaresh offered me her number. I was surprised, "You have her number!" Swaresh said, "Of course we have." Girish proudly added, "We have connections, you know." I did not know what to say. Suddenly Swaresh smiled strangely and said, "We paid off the grocery shop keeper for her number. She recharges her phone credits from there." Girish shouted at him, "You needed not to tell him that. I already said we have connections." Swaresh felt a little down and said to Girish that he was sorry and would not do anything stupid like this again. Girish said it was alright.

I just smiled and then I said, "Sorry friends . I don't like to call others without their proper permission." Swaresh, first tried to convince me saying that it would be fun to make some prank calls to her, then seeing my lack of interest started teasing me saying I am afraid to talk to girl even on the phone. I just smiled and said, "Actually I am. Friends, it is getting really late. See you tomorrow." Then we all left for our homes.

It is over midnight, I have been lying on my bed for almost one and a half hour. Sleep seems to have gone to a vacation. And I cannot think of anything except the conversations we had earlier. The whole thing is coming to me over and over again. It is like someone playing a track with repeat on. I am trying to judge my action regarding the offer of her number from Swaresh. They seemed to be very much interested about that girl and I am confused whether these kinds of things are contagious or not. Because seeing their interest on her I was too getting interested about her.