Chapter 1

It was raining outside. They were alone in the house.

They had decided to stay in the deserted house for the night. The storm was raging. So were their desires.

She was shivering. He inched closer to provide comfort. She looked at him. And knew that at that instant, they were thinking the same thing. She loved him, she wanted him. She didn’t want to wait for a second. She hoped it would happen. She prayed it would happen.

And then it happened.

Without saying a word, he came closer. Closer enough for her to feel his breath on her face. Their lips met.

Esha !

She held him closer. She felt complete.

ESHA !

Esha opened her eyes. It was 9:30 AM. She hated it when her mother brought her dreams to an abrupt end. They never ended the way she wanted them to. She sighed.

“Esha you know I have to leave for work everyday at this time. Can’t you just get up a a little early ?” Her mother said.

“Okay I am up now.” Esha was still yawning.

“The food is all ready. Heat it before eating. Make sure Saumya has eaten it too.” Saumya was Esha’s four years younger sister. “And for god’s sake, keep the house clean. You have no idea how much shame it causes me when I bring guests home and the it is in a mess. You are turning 17. WHEN will you start learning all this ?”

“Ok mum you are getting late. Why don’t you leave ?”

“That’s what you do everytime I try to drill some sense into your head. I just don’t understa..”. Her mum had not finished when Esha tried to push her out of the door.

“Mum, BYE !”

Esha closed the door on her mother.

This was a daily ordeal that Esha had to go through. Every morning she woke upto her mother cribbing about something or the other. Generally it had something to do with Esha. “Esha can you EVER wake up early ?” or “Esha your books are strewn all over the place”. (And Esha had not studied a word from them. But she liked to have her books handy. Who knows when she might just make up her mind to study. Might just.). Or “Esha why did you forget the doors of the balcony last night ?”. And if nothing else, it would be the weather. “Esha its so hot outside…. Wake up !”. As if it would bring the temperature down. Yet Esha had ceased to argue with her mother. Because mothers were the only people who could be unreasonable and get away with it.

Esha watched her mother leave. And she smiled. She loved her. She truly did.

Esha picked up the newspaper and headed for the loo. This was one habit of Esha that pissed everybody off. Taking the newspaper to the loo is so YUK !, her friends said. Yet Esha thought there was something liberating about doing it. It made her feel like she was bold. And fearless. She loved that feeling. Also, she could be at peace in the loo. Reading the newspaper was, by far, the most exciting event of the day for Esha. It brought her closer to her dream of being a journalist.

Esha sat in the loo with the newspaper in her hand. As she started to get engrossed in this article which talked of Naxalism, she heard the bell rang. And she knew who it was. And she wanted to hit her. Esha opened the door.

“Esha, Esha the newspapers say the results will be out tomorrow ! I am shit scared.. I hope I do well. Esha you won’t stop talking to me if I flunk, will you ?

It was Monika, Esha’s best friend. She was out of breath.

“Mona. CHILL. And come inside before the neighbors see me hitting you. Won’t look nice, will it ?”

Monika was 18, a year older to Esha. But Esha felt she had the brains of an 8 year old. Esha felt ages older to her. Monika had asked Esha n times in the past 3 days if she would stop talking in case Monika failed failed. And it bugged Esha. Ending friendship just because someone failed was so 4th grade-ish.

“ Now listen. 1. I know you aren’t gonna flunk. 2. Even if you do, I am never going to cease talking to you. I have lost count of the number of times I have said this to you. You are such a bugger !” Esha said, half amused at her ability to parrot the same line for the n+1th time.

“Esha, I can’t help it ! My 12th Board Result ! Big deal !!!” One pitch higher and Esha knew Monika would be squealing. “I am so scared I could die any moment. By the way, did you just happen to read DT ? Rannvijay’s apparently dumped Anusha. Isn’t it brilliant ? You know how much I just LOVE Rannvijay…………” And she went on.

That was Monika. And her fake tension bouts. She could switch from her Board result to Rannvijay effortlessly.

“And listen, tomorrow we have to go to the café to check my IP exam dates. Prepare yourself darling. I am going to keep you occupied for the next one month. Mission Admission !”

Esha sighed. It was going to be a long June.






































Chapter 2

"I just had Bread and Butter, you?" Yash said.

"I managed to eat Cutlets too!" Vidit answered..

“You actually had the time ?” “Seems like you had a long sleep last night." Yash replied to Vidit.

"No dude .You missed the breakfast because you had that one hour sleep. I had a night out so I could manage."

"Cool! What did you do after Counter Strike.? It finished at 3, isn’t it ? " Yash said, a little jealous. Yash had slept at 3.

Yash was a little disappointed. His friends hardly went out without him. But then, he was the one who had slept off. Yash was the college stud. He was what the girls called- tall,dark and handsome. He scored well, was active in debating and sports and had the wittiest bunch of one liners on the whole campus. His Diesels made him further voguish. Basically, intimidating.

"I completed the second season of Prison Break till 6. Then I went to Jia Sarai with Yadav for sandwiches. I gobbled eight of those. Man, what would I do without them ?" Vidit was a dynamic guy with the diet of an elephant when out of campus and that of a mouse when in the hostel mess.

"Alright.Hey, had fun in Counter Strike? We got you throughout the night!" Yash wasn’t going to be modest about his team’s victory last night in Counter Strike, a computer game which could be played amongst the various hostelites sitting in their respective rooms via Lan connectivity.

"Yadav screwed it all, my mouse wasn't working well either." Said Vidit, visibly disgusted.

"Come on, admit it that we played like.. mind blowing last night. Didn't even give you a chance to get over us." They went on and on like mad discussing about the game. There never went a day when they slept before 3 or 4 in the morning. Counter Strike

"Yeah ok.. Tonight I wil...." Vidit stopped suddenly. What did stop him?

"Yash Sahay and Vidit Jain. Seems like all this is too easy for you ? Right ? Then why don't you tell me what figure of speech in the aforementioned sentence is rose ? Yash, you tell me please." the Humanities Professor barfed.

Humanities, as a subject, was meant to teach something apart from technical stuff. That something was totally useless, that is why the course was called Hukka at IIT as it blows out leaving no useful solid matter .Hardly anyone was interested in what the prof had to say as all one had to do to pass was cram at the last moment.

Coming back to the trouble these two people landed themselves in, Yash tried to extend his ears as if only to catch a word from one of his classmates who might whisper the answer to him. But there was no answer. He thought he would give it a try himself, after all you couldn’t get the better of Yash. The stud spoke, "A Noun." Yash radiated confidence.

"Vidit ? What do you say ?" Professor wanted to take on both of them together. But she wouldn’t do much harm, the guys knew it. She would give a morale lecture on how they should behave appropriately and then let go.

"He's right. A Noun of course" Vidit thought it was the safest thing to say. Next to the answer of course.

"Great. So you both are wrong." Not that Yash and Vidit were surprised. The two had figured that out long back. "Very important talks, I assume ?" They would have given their life to say Yes. .She didn't stop. They hadn’t expected her to, either. " Enlighten us, Yash. If it is that important, then may be ought to know about it too, don’t you think ?. Share with us."

"Umm.." Yash didn't know what to say. He wasn't scared because Humanities Professors are known to keep away from regular IIT works. So he did not have to care about his impression.

"Come on! I wish to know." Professor insisted.

"Ma'am, I am not sure if it is something you will like." Yash did not want her to know.

"No, come on. I’d definitely like to know what is more important than linguistics?" Professor was definitely calling for trouble.

"Ma'am I seriously feel you shouldn't be asking us." Yash was warning her yet challenging her so that she could not back off. Yash liked to play around with his professors.

"No either you tell me or I will see what is the worst I can think for you.” With a menacing smile, she said.

"Ma'am Vidit said that.." Yash wanted to be polite.

"What the hell did I say?" Vidit panicked



"Mam, he said you err...you look beautiful today." Yash said the whole thing without a pause.

Within a minute, Yash knew he had just created a memorable day for everyone in the class ! The class heaved out a loud hiss and started thumping on the tables. IIT-Delhi was clearly a sucker for scandals ! The professor turned red.Redder than her lipstick. She could not believe that a student had the balls to actually say that to her ! She was blushing so hard that she could feel it. This was the first time that she had been embarrassed in a classroom.

She finally found her composure and decided to take it in her stride. She would pretend as if SHE had given him the liberty to joke . She giggled and said," Ahaan, what else did your dear friend say?" She was getting unpredictable, Yash thought. Did she want to hear more or was that her sarcasm ? In case she wanted to hear more why didn't she ask Vidit to meet her after the class? Vidit would certainly be interested. Rather eager. Which self respecting balls-carrying guy did not want to be in the good books of the prettiest teacher on campus ?