CHAPTER-19
ROMANTIC SIMILARITY
Dhilip’s POV
“Naanu CM aagthini. Naan yaake haagbaardhu? (I too will become the Chief Minister and rule the state. Why shouldn’t I?)”, spoke our Economics lecturer, as he pushed in a mouth of masala dosa, dining at an inn.
Oooo! Look at his guts! I chuckled, playing the reel version of the video shared on our unofficial WhatsApp group. Many other students including Rohini replied to the video with a series of laughter emojis while some others shared funny cartoon gifs.
“How can he be so confident, bruh?”, I texted Sameer.
“I know right? Swag, Machan! Miss him this semester!”, replied Sameer.
“Sexy! No need da, please, I wanted to somehow get rid of his subject. My grade came down due to the same.”
“Machan! Shut up, da! I don’t understand toppers like you who call 8.7 less. Seriously? Then what about my 7.6? Failure?”
“Aye, I didn’t mean that bro”, texted I, accompanying my message with the funny giggling emoji. As he continued trolling me with stickers, I was interrupted by Rohini’s message, once again, to the group.
“It’s said that love is in the air but nowadays illness is in the air.” I read her text in the group. I scrolled a little above to catch a forwarded message of cholera and jaundice cases spreading across some areas within the city. Oooo, hardly did we know back then, that it was just a trailer to the global pandemic of 2020.
“Sexy! How did I fail to observe her romantic side?”, exclaimed I, chuckling alone, as I grabbed the towel and rushed to the loo. I looked up, closed my eyes, and exposed my face to the heavy downpour of cold water emerging from the shower. I blushed, opening my eyes and mouth, in sync, to let the stream of water flow down through my face.
Rohini is romantic. Little did I realize another similarity between us, back then, for, I too am romantic. Isn’t it, guys? I sighed, washing my face, at the miserable fact that I was highly romantic, but with the wrong love. Sexy! Another coincidence again! Currently, Rohini too is madly in love, but with the wrong person-Dheeraj Singh.
Perhaps both of us were supposed to experience the wrong love before feeling each other’s right love. I grabbed the soap and washed my hands once again. Aye, what am I doing? I blushed and chuckled at the fun facts of my love story…I mean, story, with Rohini.
Pity my fate! Destiny left numerous clues behind, for me, to observe Rohini. However, my fate took me astray. At last, the battle between destiny and fate christened the hospital as my second home. I blushed, lifting my hand up and massaging the shower tap.
“You will fix everything, Dhilip! Yes yes, you can fix your life. Destiny has already returned to favor you through the reliving journey. Moreover, angels are with you. Focus and analyze this time. That's all!”
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“Isn’t it already overtime?”, asked Jacob. We, the CT batch, stood outside our own classroom! The CS batch had their Automata class still going on. I witnessed guys either busy on their mobiles or moving their lips and chuckling at, perhaps, a silly matter.
The glass window won my heart as my eyes went over Rohini gossiping with her girls' gang, occupying a few benches in her vicinity. Hmm…gossip ladies! Above all, the clearest point was that none listened to the lecturer with tiny and pale eyes making the audience sleepy. I yawned and filled my eyes with tears, on just seeing him once.
Fuck! How do they bear this class? I chuckled at him talking to the whiteboard and writing with a blue marker. Dheeraj again shouted out a handful of times from the last bench. I sighed at Rohini adoring him to her friends.
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery
until we feel the love!
Following the same lines, one thus ends up falling for a bad partner-the wrong love. It's fine!
Making a wrong decision is common among ordinary homosapiens like you and me.
However, correcting our blunder and returning to our right love is a worthy question whose
answer may either be a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ or sometimes a combination of both! There is only one
superpower that can answer this query: ‘TIME’
Ooo, what just happened? I chuckled at Vaishnavi slapping Rohini at which the latter pretended to cry while the former joined her hands together and apparently claimed to have taken the action, by mistake. Aye! This Rohini is indeed a child who confuses attitude for style.
Then, what are you, Dhilip? You too confused Priya’s fake love for true love. I swallowed my tears at the sudden point striking my heart like a thunderbolt. She was extra-sweet while I mistook her to be the sweetest soul on Earth. She turned out to be a plate of intoxicated carrot halwa which one won’t realize unless one tastes the dish.
That's why I’m in a coma today, hearing my mom massage my head and cry every day. I closed my eyes and breathed hard, as I felt my mom shake my hands restlessly and bhaabhi consoled her, leaving me alone in the ward. Sameer patted my shoulder. I nodded as we walked inside our classroom.
A couple of minutes later, no sooner did we settle on our seats that a gang of guys including Dheeraj, laughed among themselves.
“Arey mujhe kya pata! (What do I know?)Haha!”, said Dheeraj, chewing his bubblegum and checking out Rohini busy opening her notes for the next class. Ooo, has she already become the talk of the town?
“I can’t believe that the nerd asked you out for a bike ride. Hahaha!”
“Perhaps, she went mad studying, studying and studying…Hahaha!”
Wait, what? What have you done, Rohini? Listen, people like Dheeraj won’t be good partner to people like us. Did you indeed feel you both could be compatible? You study well while he hates academics. Same story as Priya and mine. Priya was a year-back senior classmate of ours while I rocked like you, in studies and career. People like Dheeraj and Priya can only feel jealous of us and use us for timepass; true love can be the least expectation from such souls full of attitude.
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“Machan, look at my new bike! How is it? Wohoooo!”, cheered Sameer, at which Jacob and I bulged our eyes and gestured with a thumbs-up. He had purchased a sports bike with a raised back seat.
“Wear sunglasses and drive, bro. You will get a girlfriend soon!”, I commented.
“Hey, no way! Kiara will kill me”, said he, displaying his phone’s wallpaper having Bollywood actress Kiara Advani’s photo. Sexy! Now that it's May 2023 and Kiara is married…Oooo, wait, I must meet Sameer after I return to my real life. Poor champ! He must have been heartbroken:):(
“Bro, Dhilip, why don’t you ride his bike the way you said? You too are single”, suggested Jacob.
Wow! Will Dhilip impress Rohini?!
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