Day 3

Chapter 2

Amir woke up when the sunlight streamed into his room through the windows. He got up, grumbling all the time, dragged the curtains over the window and went right back to sleep. He got up two hours later and realised today was the first day he was going to have all to himself. His parents had left for a wedding and he had the house to himself for a whole week. “A whole week! Wow! One week of bliss and freedom! No mom, and no dad!”, said Amir to himself. It was the weekend and he had invited Rohan over for the night. His mom had prepared dozens of food items and stored them in the refrigerator. He could heat whatever he needed whenever he wanted. He got up slowly from bed, relishing every moment of his parent-free period. He made himself some tea and switched on the tv. As usual the news channels were full of depressing news- yet another bomb blast in a big city, so many people dead, the government’s futile declaration of compensation and its inability to deal with the terrorists. He switched off the idiot box and made himself some sandwiches. He went to sleep right on the sofa.

The bell rang. Amir was fantasizing about his dream heroine and was in no mood to get up. The bell rang again and this time it seemed louder. Amir got up with a start and realised he was supposed to open the door. He opened the door and saw a woman standing in front of his door.

“What do you want?”

“Is this Sharma’s house?”

“No, that is the one next door”

“Oh! I am really sorry!”, said the woman and promptly began knocking on his neighbour’s door.

Amir muttered under his breath and tried to go back to sleep. He couln’t so he flicked on the tv and saw the show “Mind your language” for a while. He got bugged of that too and was feeling really bugged of life. He was thinking about what Rohan had been telling him the day before. Rohan’s words seemed to have some substance in them. They were wasting their lives away! Anyway, he decided to liven up the atmosphere with some music. Suddenly he heard a loud thump! Someone was banging on his door.

He opened the door and saw a middle-aged aunty looking furiously at him.

“Why the hell are you playing so loud music?”

“But…..I just started playing some songs…..its not even loud!”

“Its so loud my head started aching. Don’t you dare mess with me”, said the miserable old wreck and clampered off.

Amir shuddered and closed the door with as less noise as possible. He went inside and played some real soft music(like you know, Backstreet Boys(yuck))

This time the door came right off its hinges when the woman banged the second time. She looked like she was gonna eat him up or something. Amir was bloody scared and he armed himself with a cricket bat.

“Can’t you young idiots ever understand?”, boomed the lady.

“Understand what? I was playing ‘Quit playing games with my heart’ dammit!”, shouted back Amir.

“Bloody numbskull! I shall report you to the authorities! Do you know who my son is? He is the vice president of some multinational company….better watch out. One more time you mess with me and you’re a goner”, and she left with the same speed with which she arrived.

Amir was swaying like a solitary pole in a hurricane. He had no idea what to do what with his parents not being in town and all. Just then the doorbell rang loudly. He jumped up so high he almost hit the ceiling fan. Trembling, with his teeth chattering, and with his trustworthy bat, he opened the door. His relief on finding the building watchman was enormous. The watchman spoke.

“I heard the dracula is been messing with you!”

“Ya….di-did she complain about me or something?”

“Oh what the hell! She complains every bloody day! She is lost it you see. Apparently her son died in the Kargil war and ever since she is taken to shouting at neighbours in the flat.”

“Oh………..”, said Amir, understanding the nature of the dracula now. He felt a bit sorry for her though. He seemed to understand her somewhat. But the incident had still jarred his insides to a certain extent. The moment seemed appropriate for a cup of tea.

“How about some chai, Bhaiya?”, he asked the watchman.

“Sure thing!”, the watchman replied, cheerily.

As Amir started tinkering with the vessels and started making some tea the watchman was keen to share his experiences which involved the old lady.

“Last week she blasted little Sanjay for shouting in the reception area.” Sanjay was the smallest boy who lived in the building and was loved by all who met him. There were exceptions, though.

“She threatened to beat him up when his mom came and shouted at her. It was a free for all after that.”

The watchman seemed to enjoy this story-telling period of his day. Coupled with a free chai, it livened up his boring existence on this planet.

“I never knew about her bhaiya. I was playing really soft music and she started shouting at the top of her voice”

“What were you playing?”, he asked.

“Backstreet Boys”

“Shit. Even my daughter stopped listening to that!”

Amir thought nowadays even watchmen knew about english music. “That is Bombay, I guess”, said he, to himself.

The watchmen drank his chai and left. Amir called up Rohan and narrated the entire story to him. Rohan first laughed out loud at Amir’s predicament but then due to Amir’s sombre mood he sympathised with him, just a little bit.

It had been a long day and Amir started preparing for the night. Rohan was coming home with some new movie, and they were planning on having a good time. He started heating the dishes one by one which they would require. He dropped a plate and the sound scared him so much he shouted aloud,”Damn that bloody aunty”

Day1

Day 1

Chapter 1

Rohan was trying to be very nice to the old gentleman in the shop so that he could get a part time job. He really wanted to save some money to buy that audio cd he had been laying his eyes on for the past two months. He received a minor pittance of Rs 10 a day as pocket money- one can’t save much with most of the ten bucks going away on vada pav and nimbu paani. The old man had hinted that a position might come up in the shop pretty near in the future. And so Rohan was trying to suck up to the man.

The old man was tired after a long day’s work at the shop. He really needed an assistant but as he was running tight he could not make a decision soon. Rohan seemed like a nice boy to offer the job to but he wanted to be cautious. He had seen a million boys like Rohan come and go and he wanted to be sure of this ultra-enthusiastic kid. He didn’t know that the kid was pretty rich compared to his standards but hey who gives a damn in Bombay.

Rohan’s phone vibrated and rang loudly, playing the song “Don’t be shy” out loud to nearby stand byers. He picked up the phone and Amir’s voice rang in his ears- “Dude, you wanna come for this new flick? Its called “Bored of the Rings”, a parody of “Lord of the rings”. Jack Black is there in the movie!” . “So they made it into a movie eh? What time is the show?” “6pm….catch you in Inorbit then?” “Sure thing!” said Rohan and hung up the phone. He still had to finish some assignments and school work before he could leave for the movie.

Rohan was an average school boy living in Bombay whose aim in life was to live life as it came. No holds barred, no grand ambitions and the usual crap. Rohan walked the short distance home from the shop. His mom greeted him with a cold, questioning stare-“Where on earth have you been? I’ve been looking for you forever…..go buy some vegetables- 1 kg of tomatoes and 2kgs of alu”. “Damn!”, muttered Rohan under his breath as he went out again to carry out the stupid errand. At least he could have a quick smoke while he was supposed to be getting the vegetables. Rohan had been introduced to the beautiful art of smoking by his friend Amir a year ago when they had got really high after having a drink or two. Since then he was unable to resist the temptation of smoking at least twice a day. He had a quickie, bought the vegetables from the vendor, and returned home quickly so that he could get his work done and leave for the movie. His mom would be preparing his favourite sabji today- he knew that and happily finished his work in a jiffy.

He went to his balcony to take in the surroundings. It was a pretty pleasant day- it was the middle of June and it had been raining for the past 2 days and stopped only this morning. This balcony of his was one of his favourite haunts- he sometimes felt he could sit here for ages, without care for time,food and other needless responsibilities. He had just entered the eleventh standard- sorry, junior college, and was experiencing major transformations in his life. He could contemplate on all that he wanted to, with leisure, holding his favourite book in hand or listening to his latest rock favourite on his ipod, sitting on the folding chair in the balcony. But right now, he wanted to see this movie, and so, off he went.

The movie was a terrible bore, not unlike some stupid american slapstick comedy. Rohan and Amir hurled abuses at Jack Black as they left the hall. However they had a good time gawking at the girls in the mall and eating some snacks. “Dude, we gotta get a life. What do we do apart from seeing movies and pottering around in malls?”,said Rohan. Amir: “HUH?”. Amir was busy licking the remains of the bhel puri from his plate and paying no attention to Rohan’s murmurings. Rohan gave him a look of disgust and opened the book he had just bought from Crossword- “Simoqin Prophecies”. It was an Indian fantasy book written by a young 23 year old man and Rohan was hooked even on reading the blurb. As they were sitting in a corner in the food court, a girl approached them and asked Rohan, “Is this seat taken?” “No….”, said Rohan. The girl said down with a plate of junk food in one hand and a book in the other hand. Rohan tried not to be too curious but the book she had was the same one he had just bought! “How did you hear about this book?” asked Rohan. He had to repeat the question as the girl was immersed deep in the book.

“Oh…..from a friend of mine…”

“I got the same book five minutes back!”

“Ya? Thats great….you like fantasy too?”

“Yeah! I loved Lotr and Harry Potter……so I thought I’ll give Indian fantasy a try…In fact we just saw Bored of the Rings……real boring though.”

“Hmmm”, said the girl and turned her attention back to the book.

All through the conversation Amir had been licking his plate clean of bhel puri and casting furtive glances at the girl. He caught Rohan’s eye between chomping his way through the chaat and winked at him. Rohan blinked. Rohan checked out the girl thoroughly now. She was as short as Amir, clad in tshirt and jeans and wearing contacts. He had probably seen someone like her everyday on the way to college. He dismissed her and continued staring into vacant space- its not very easy to do that in a crowded mall in Bombay. The girl got up, gave a tiny smile, and left.

“Have you finished eating yet?” asked Rohan.

“Ya…..dude that chick was hot! She was totally taken with you!”

“Huh? Yeah right! Lets get the fuck out of here. Need some home food…am sick of malls”

“Chutiya saala…..when’ll you ever learn……lets go”

Rohan and Amir took the train home. Both lived in the same street.

“Goodnight”, said Rohan.

“Sweet dreams”, said Amir with a giggle.

Rohan glared at him and ran up the stairs to his flat. He had a sumptuous dinner prepared by his mom and started reading the book that he had bought. He flicked on his pc to have some music while he was reading. And then it happened. The same thing that had been happening for the past two weeks. His computer had been hit by a virus! Whenever he played a song on Winamp the virus would open a porn site. Not that Rohan didn’t watch porn but he couldn’t risk it when his folks were at home. He tried earnestly to clean the virus from his system but he couldn’t. He would have to call on a certain friend of his who was a computer geek. Bugged of reading and tinkering with his computer Rohan went to sleep.