Cordially, Yours!

-39-

They knocked at the door and received a drained-out voice that instructed them to come in. Fab 5 opened the door to find Manik lying on a soft, plump bed. He was visually burned out and no doubt, his body-language relieved that he failed to find anything about the Murthys.

"Manik," Cabir called out and tapped his shoulder. Startled at a familiar voice and touch, Manik shifted his arm off his face and sat right up. He looked at Cabir bewildered and then looked around to find Fab 5. He wasn't hallucinating? He rubbed his sleepiness from his eyes and carefully gazed around at the five people he saw. Their heads were down and the jolliness of their faces were darkened with sadness. They all looked tired. Manik continued to register the fact that Fab 5 was here, besides him, even after the storm he left in. It was in that moment when he realized that they had come. They had come for him, just like old times; not worrying about the outcome or what their mind swayed them to do. They were here for the "all for one". He stared up at the roof and bit his lip at the reality that had dawned upon him. He closed his eyes and sighed. Though he had failed in one thing, but this time, he had gotten back something precious. Not able to contain it anymore, Mukti ran towards Manik and braced him into a tight hug.

"Sorry ", she mumbled into his ear and wet his shoulders with her tears. Manik patted her head and smiled at the apology while tears trickled down his eyes.

One piece hadn't fallen in place completely when the rest of Fab 5 followed and Manik was squished under their love. Tears wet all their faces and gardened the old rusty friendship. Fab 5 was quenched.

-Dehradun-

After dinner, Nandini went up to the balcony to spend sometime with her thoughts. It had been long she had looked up in the sky all by herself. Manik and his star gazing had rubbed off her.

"What are you finding?" A familiar voice broke her thoughts. She turned back to see Aryaman holding two cups of coffee. He offered her one and propped himself beside her. "Actually, let's be proactive- What is reality?" Nandini narrows her eyes at him and smirk-ly laughs off at his stupidity.

"No- I'm serious. It's idiosyncratic. It is what each individual person perceives. So, here's the thing- you see me walking in front of you, you see me talking to you. You're getting a sense of who I am through my motion. Do you actually see me?" he holds his statement in depth along with his breath. "The answer is no. This mountain side, this world that you navigate in is so depth, every single day of your life is a real time construct of your brain. It does not exist, at the level at which you are extracting information from the world. Everything you experience, every decision you are making is a synthetic construct of your brain. It does not exist- in any way, shape or form, we can see simply looking at the reflection of the world." His voice rang in the background as they stared up in the sky.

"Be bold, Murthy. This world out there is for your taking- conquer it. It is for you to decided how you perceive it. People matter, but who matters is what you have to matter about. Muster the courage to brave it- you are not alone until you think you are. There is always you that stands as your shade and seek out."

" I'm not telling you wear a mask and hide yourself from yourself. It's okay to be wrong. It's okay to weak. Be there. Be true. Believe that if no one but yourself would be there to catch you. I would be there. Abhi would there." Unknowingly, her questions were answered.

-Mangalore- 

After an emotional reunion of the five friends, they decided to grab dinner. They had reached a beach-side dhaba and Cabir had crumpled the waiter with a long list of dishes. In no time, a long line of over-sized conical dosas, perfectly round, steamy idlis, fragrant sambar and rice with three types of exquisite chutneys on the side lay in front of them. Looking at the fancy of the South, it didn't take long for the six of them to dive into the food and fill themselves till content. They chattered unhesitatingly and went down the street of old, sweet memories of their school trip to Athirapalli. The jokes and embarrassing moments were dug up and laughed upon amidst the flickering streetlights and cloudy sky. The sun swirled into the clouds spreading it's pink shade in the sky. The moist wind had lightened its weight and a cool breeze blessed the six friends. 

Catching up hadn't distracted them from the matters in hand. They were simply sipping on the light-mood of the reunion till it lasted. The bill was paid and they all decided to walk down the streets back to the hotel. Singing and dancing to old friendship songs, Cabir etched another memory in their book of friendship. Though they had phased-out of their fights, they hadn't bid a good-bye to their left-back vulnerabilities just like that. They had learnt and out-grown them to a certain extent for now. 

Passing a few streets down the dhaba, they reached in the 30-minute away hotel in less than what felt half-an-hour. Manik talked the receptionist into letting them shift to a suite for all of them. They climbed up the winding stairs of the hotel to reach the room and Manik opened the room with the keys when Cabir's phone rang and he excitedly picked it up answering to Mr. Malhotra. 

"Are, babu-lal! How are you?"

"Hum ne aapke bete ko dhundh liya hi, bas one more to go and then, promise we are going to be back! Zyada rona mat humare piche se, babulal!"

From the one-sided conversation Manik heard, he knew things were sorted on their side and only one and the most important piece of their life was amiss. 

"Unka call?" Manik heard Cabir's voice dampen a bit. 

"They need us tomorrow, they told us that yesterday."

"No, not yet!" Cabir exchanged good-byes with Mr. Malhotra and slipped the phone in his pocket and looked at Manik with slight seriousness. Taking the hint from his expression, Manik gestured him to sit and questioningly raised his brows at him. 

"Bol!"

"Woh, uncle called." Cabir dragged the matter. 

"I know who babulal is. Aage bol."

"It's a long, important story that you need to know."  Cabir bluntly tore the envelop of secret on him. Manik looked at him curiously as the rest of Fab 5 also sat down around him in all seriousness. 

"After you left, we were all messed up and uncle screwed some serious dialogue on us." Mukti started sharing the incidents. 

"And then, later on we recieved a letter from the authorities. It stated that the famous band, Stardust.." Aliya continued the story and Dhruv filled in the details at the end. After the letter of secrets was out and read aloud, Manik huffed at the developments behind him and the rationality they all used with such fineness. 

"I can't." he repiled. 

"But Manik.." Cabir interjected. 

"No hear me out. I can't, but you all can. I won't mind. You all go ahead, take the lead. I have to hault somewhere. I have to. I can't let things just go by and let the gone bys be gone bys. I need to catch up at least with myself that lies with her." Manik replied in all honesty. 

He resisted for the idea to take off their careers when they were in a mess. Seeing his fix, Cabir dialed up Mr. Malhotra. Expecting the call, Mr. Malhotra cut the chase through pleasantries and answered the phone with a simple but meaningful sentence- "Yeh time jo ek baar jay ga woh laut kar nahi aayega and this is now for you to decide on what to catch. Aur phirse aapni galti mat dohrao and loose on time and priorities. I can only promise to track her down, that is it. Grow up and manage, son." The call ended. Though the sentence had the word "son" attached to it, Fab 5 had taken it in as God's advice. A thoughtful silence followed when Manik sighed- 

"Nahi yaar, I can't go. I have to find Nandini. Tum log handle kar lo."

"We understand Manik. And jitna tu usse dhundhna chahta hi, utna hum bhi. Par Stardust wants the whole band to be their and you are the thread among us Manik." Dhruv confessed.

"Bro, tu har jagah dekh chuka hi. Literally, you have contacted and went to places that Nandini had ever told you of. I am not saying to give up or leave her. I am saying that seeing the situation we are in. Why don't we do this- Let's go to uncle's office and Amm's music store that you talked about when we come back. See, right now, it's too dark and unsafe outside to go looking in a different city. Tomorrow, we will leave for Dehradun, there- we will meet the crew, come back and continue our search. What say? " Cabir said a rational plan of action.

Manik thought through his words and then, gave a hesitant but small smile to Cabir.

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I think I lost the thing of convulsed writing- is this just bland? 

Happy reading! 

Love, 

HF