Coloured Me Grey (Book Two)

Chapter 34

I had to go back and check something in one of the earliest chapters of this book, and holy shit, in the span of all these years I've forgotten how I had described Yash first and how different is my present idea of him from back then.

Anyway, going by my current idea of his appearance at least, let me clarify that he's not small and tiny (I'll edit that part). Both of them are of average height and similar stature. I consider Tuhin and Rakesh to be the tallest ones in the group and Divya and Afzal to be among the shortest.

***

The day of the fest was a Saturday. I was excited but since I had to let Zara's mother in on the plan, I was also anxious to get this over with. She had arranged my three hours of unquestioned custody of Zara when I had asked for her permission to let my sister visit my art school.

The woman had looked at me expectantly when I said that I wanted to take Zara to see the exhibitions.

I felt guilty under her gaze. She was expecting me to invite her too. But I couldn't. I wanted to trust her but however much I tried, I couldn't.

Not yet.

It was because Divya was also going to  be there. We were supposed to meet up in front of the college gates. I knew Zara was missing her but I wasn't sure mother would let my sister meet Divya after I had accidentally outed my friend in a moment of passion.

Divya waved and grinned like an idiot the moment she saw us turning the corner.

"Divya Didiiii!" Zara squealed and ran along the sidewalk. Seeing how there was less traffic on the road at this time of the day, I let her.

"That's my friend I was telling you about. His sister is my best friend," I heard Divya say as I caught up to them.

No wonder the crackhead had already been talking to Chacha Ji about us.

Chacha Ji bent down to greet my sister, "Hello beta, what's your name?"

"Zara Gupta," she replied. "What is your name, uncle?"

The older man kept a hand on her head. "You can call me Chacha Ji. Everyone calls me Chacha Ji here. Have fun, you kids."

Once we were inside the gates, Divya gave me a side hug and picked up Zara in her arms. "God knows  how I missed you guys."

"I missed you too," my sister sniffed her neck and sighed happily.

Divya kissed the top of her head. She turned to me. "So, Riyaaz Gupta? These exhibits that we're going to see – how many of them are by you?"

"Absolutely none."

My sister and my friend looked at me with the same curious expression on their faces.

Woah, hol' up right there, why do you two look like sisters and I'm suddenly the odd one out here?

"What do you mean by absolutely none?" Divya barked. "Why are we here then?"

"Because, I'm about to take you to an extremely whitewashed colonial paradise."

I led them inside the building and the moment they saw the walls of the corridors, their jaws went slack.

A smile of wonder graced Divya's features.

"Can I touch it?"

"Go ahead. This isn't a museum. No one will mind you."