Once Upon a University Campus

A little More of the Love Story

"I cannot believe Rudy hoodwinked me into revealing everything. I should cut his allowance for a couple of months.." Shivaay had finished his drink and put away his glass. "Dinner anyone?" He asked before the chatter at the door distracted all of them.

Annika rushed to receive Sumo, Shivaay and Om followed her.

Sumo was introducing Rudy to Anand, who turned out to be a bespectacled, lanky young man with a lost kid expression. Annika found him way thinner in person, definitely not as chubby as he had come across in the photo Sumo had shown her.

"This is my beloved Akka." Sumo hugged Annika as she introduced her to Anand "Akka ,this is Anand"

"Finally! I am delighted to meet you Anand." Annika greeted Anand enthusiastically "I would not have recognized you from your photo Sumo had shown me earlier." Annika confessed.

"Akka , Anand has been running marathons these past few months. No wonder he has lost so much weight. Let alone you, I could not recognize him."

Anand squirmed uncomfortably where he stood.

"Hello Anand, I am Sumo's Om Bhaiyya" Om introduced himself

"Glad to meet you sir." Anand respectfully shook hands with Om.

"And I am Shivaay." Shivaay walked in. Annika noticed that he was slightly unsteady and moved close to him lest he finds it hard to support himself. Obviously her fears were unfounded.

"Hello Sir." Anand acknowledged Shivaay hesitantly.

"Akka's fiancé, my future Bhaava." Sumo whispered.

"What is Bhaava now?" An unsettled Rudy interjected.

"Bhaava in Kannada means brother-in-law ... like Jiju." Sumo replies nonchalantly.

Ananda hesitantly wished Shivaay and Annika a happy married life.

"You should join us for dinner." Shivaay suggested

"Absolutely not" Rudy declared loudly catching everyone by surprise. When he found everyone staring at him, Rudy went into damage control mode."I mean Anand has a flight to catch. We don't want to hold him up. "

Anand awkwardly smile. "Right Sir, we had our dinner earlier this evening and I am training for a cross country race. I am not supposed to eat anything this late."

"Then, come have a drink." Shivaay tried to be nice to Anand.

"Bhaiyya, He is a teetotaler." Sumo spoke for Anand. She was proud of him.

"Ah! Well then, come in and sit with us for some time." Shivaay appeared relentless. Annika had only the alcohol to blame or was he trying to get off the hook and stop narrating his story ?

"What about your flight" Rudy tried to distract Anand.

"It's on time." Anand replied as a matter of fact.

Without waiting for anything Shivaay ushered Anand in and to Rudy's discomfort, sat him down for a conversation.

"I hear you are going to Stanford?"

"Yes Sir."

"That is a good school. MS right ?"

"Yes sir, computer science." Anand answered as if it were a job interview

"So what plans after MS?" Shivaay had slipped into his businessman mode.

"May be PhD. Not sure at this point. May be a start up. All I know is I want to specialize in AI ML sir." Anand replied respectfully.