See You

 

Life is like a story book….you have to finish one chapter to go to the next one but that doesn’t mean you will forget about the previous chapter cause if you don’t remember or accept the previous one then your next chapter also becomes incomplete and meaningless….

Preface

With “Like I’m gonna lose you” beaming into Raina’s ear she picked up all the items from her shopping trolly and kept it on the counter for the cashier to bill . “ Its fifteen hundred and seventy five rupees Mam…. thank you…. please come again.” the young handsome male cashier gave a shy smile to Raina, Raina who is very much used to this unwanted male attention just said thanks with a small smile and nodded goodbye.

Getting on her scooty she went to her new apartment in south Kolkata in which she has shifted only yesterday after spending five years in Bangalore with her cousin sister as a music teacher and then got transferred to Kolkata. As her wish she had bought a flat in 15^th floor with a wide semi circle varandah with an egg shaped swing and a white painted wooden coffee table beside it, in which her half finished novel is lying.

Keeping the groceries in the fridge she began to prepare some coffee in her coffee maker and went inside to freshen up. After changing she stood in front of the mirror combing her tangled long black hair staring at the pale but pretty round face in the mirror with a small pink mouth, a sharp nose and huge dark brown beautiful but sad eyes which are looking back to her baring her empty soul. The coffee machine beeped she took her cell phone and ear phones out from her handbag, poured a cup of coffee and went to the verandah to sit in the swing and enjoy the winter sun along with the beautiful scenery of her colony and some music to accompany. Her phone rang flashing “principal sir”  on the screen. “hello sir…how are you?….ya am also doing fine just a bit tired with the shifting….don’t worry sir I will be totally fit, you will  also agree when you see me tomorrow….i don’t want to postpone my joining its quite boring here alone in this house. I eagerly want to meet my new students now….I know you always see me as your little girl but I have grown up sir now instead of being worried about my health you should take more care of your own….(laughing) no you are forever young and handsome sir….I will still fall in love if once again I see you in that black suit like James Bond you used to wear….okay see you tomorrow then….bye ”.

Raina took a sip of coffee which was by now had become cold…suddenly a very familiar song in a very familiar voice began to sing “Thinking out loud” in her ears…Raina sighed and chose the option of repeating the current track and closed her eyes a tear trickled down over her cheeks.

Chapter 1

Today I am going to Kolkata to achieve my degree from one of the most reputed and my dream university that is Calcutta  University of art and music, though I have lived my whole life till now in hostel as my parents passed away when I was five years old from then till now my aunt had looked after me, I am not Cinderella so my childhood was quite nice as my uncle, aunt or my cousin sister Mia none of them treated me as an outsider they always considered me as their family in spite of what people say on my back about my rudeness which I think is actually being straightforward, its just that am not a sweet Indian girl material but I just don’t give a damn about what people think of me so ultimately my life is perfect with a loving family, my dream and passion to study music and with my rich parents money on my name.

After getting off from the taxi I was struggling with my huge trolley as I had to climb the stairs leading to my hostel “Oh God this bag is heavy! Please send an angel to help me with this small elephant…” as soon as I finished my prayer I felt my bag had suddenly became very much lighter I opened my eyes to get a glimpse of my angel and saw a girl who was holding the other handle of my trolley. “ Hi! I am Amisa Sen…” she said.” Hi! I am Raina Ganguly” I introduced myself. ”I am staying in room no. 7… It’s nice to meet you” she smiled at me. “ Wow I am also allotted room no. 7… I guess we will be roommates then.” I smilingly replied. We walked into our room which is in the second floor it’s not so big but its okay types… it has two single beds in the north and west side of the room and beside each bed there is a study table, two wall cupboards, a bathroom and two windows one between the separation space of our consecutive beds overlooking the hostel garden, a sweet smell of belle came in with the gentle breeze through it and the other one which is above the poster of my bed is closed.

“ I have unpacked my stuffs in the right cupboard… so the left one is yours, you should also unpack your stuffs… if you need any help you can always ask me…you must be tired so take some rest first, then do work meanwhile I will go and take a quick shower it’s very humid today! I am feeling so stuffy, the heat is killing me… okay” Amisa said all animatedly while going inside the bathroom. I laid back in my bed opening by snickers “hmm not bad… thank God for giving me a good roommate… oh loads of things to do and I have no energy left in my body… Nah I have to at least report my arrival first then packing can be done later”. I got up and went to the reporting counter of hostel administration the receptionist Ms. Swati Mondol as her batch said, asked how can she help me, I answered “I am here to check in room no. 7” but oddly my words came out in unison with a male voice I looked at the reason for this unison and saw the same expression as of mine copy pasted on that boy’s face that is of SHOCK. Once again in unison both of us squeaked in horror “Avi!” “Rai!” in awkward silence we completed our formalities of checking in and returned to our rooms and collapsed in the bed as if a dead body “why God why? Why Avi only of all the people in the world!” I stuffed my pillow in my face in order to commit suicide then got choked so got up and took long breaths… the air is still not sufficient enough as I was feeling stuffy so I opened the window and instead of replenishing the oxygen, all oxygen got drawn out of my lungs… what on Earth… the view of my window was Avi’s window, with Avi gaping at me and equally astonished as myself, with a 5 feet distance between us… then both of us tried to smile but instead some awkward and more weird expression came out and we both closed the window as quickly we could. My heart is beating 120 per minute this is driving me nuts really! “God was being in the same college less unfortunate that you did this to me so that every time I open this window I will have a coronary attack? I am damned truly” I sank into my bed and muffled my curses with the pillow.

Flashback: 2007 class 10 farewell day, I have worn a red georgette sari with a thin silver border and tiny white stones all over the sari making it glimmer in lights along with jhumkas light makeup, coral red lips and some kajal, I have left my hair down… I kind of look good today I have to admit. I meet with my friends and was having a great time the music was beaming and we were all dancing. One of my friends, Mousumi requested me by shouting into my ears above the loud music to bring our Power Point Presentation that we have made as a farewell gift for everyone which was in her bag in our computer lab. I went to the lab and was searching for the bag and found out she had kept it on top of the cupboard for security purpose obviously, but she was tall enough to reach it which unfortunately I was not, so I brought a chair and got it, while I was getting off from the chair I lost my balance and was going to fall down then suddenly from nowhere Aviraj who was one of my classmate the naughtiest who always teased me as my dad’s (adopted) name was also Aviraj and called himself my daddy and treated me as a toddler always… so its obvious I don’t like him at all, caught me. “Ooooh oooooh oooooh” he also lost his balance and we both fell down, do you think this is the end of my mysteries no freaking no… cause first of all I was accidentally lying on Avi and my lips was on his lips can you freaking imagine… I had my first kiss of my life with a boy whom I hate in the entire school! I got up hurriedly all flushed and awkwardly ran out of the room leaving Avi gaping blankly at the door.

After that day we fortunately never meet face to face and were out of touch so eventually I forgot about that, but now seeing him here is like going back to that situation of my 15years old self though I am 18 now for God sake.

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Avi closed the window in lightning speed what the crap… was I not enough damned earlier to face her, that now I had to face her every day… grow up man its just that she took your first kiss but that feeling of my heart beating so fast that I was unable to breathe for five minutes, I stayed there all stunned that day and came to my senses when my bladder was about to burst, who could have thought in the way to one’s nature call such a disaster could happen. After the farewell I took extra care during the examination days not to face her always sneaking out from wherever she was present… I used to treat her as a toddler and called myself her daddy but after that incident I was the one who acted like a toddler avoiding his mother’s eyes after doing a blunder. No that can’t repeat once again, I have to man up my courage and face her coolly… it’s not that I didn’t got kissed after that but with her it was different surely, no no don’t go there Avi think straight… maybe instead of avoiding her I should face her and maybe we could go back to our old selves without any awkwardness and become friends… that kiss was nothing after all it was merely an accident that’s it… yeah… yeah… you tell yourself that boy… shut up conscience!

“ Bro at least open your shoes before lying on the bed… who knows from where-where the dirt is in it… even dog poop may be in it… gross!’ that was my roommate Karan cleanliness freak from the time I have moved in he had annoyed me to hell don’t dirty this and that always nagging, he looks like a younger version of Ramlal Kaka our steward in my house wearing boxers and t-shirt a cleaning cloth in his hand and a high power pair of glasses. I don’t think I can stay with him I will have to negotiate with the warden for changing my room… Nah Nah don’t get the wrong idea I am not running away from facing Rai everyday it’s just that I want to lead my messy comfortable boys life… I afraid of facing Rai? huh pfft… I am Aviraj Chatterjee son of chairman of “Skylark” music group of industries and co-founder of Calcutta University of art and music for god sake! Rai is just like a fly to me where I am the cow… wait! did I just called myself a cow? Oh Avi you have become mad.

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