Two days later, the residents of the college who'd stayed back, geared up for Holi celebrations since early in the morning. While the gang of boys had mighty big plans- starting from playing with colours, mud, eggs, tomatoes, and what not, and of course a day with chilled bhang being made secretly inside the hostel rooms; the girls were still content with only colours- wet and dry. Even their warden ma'am had joined them for the colourful celebrations.

"Naina!" Kritika yelled as she threw gulaal onto her. Naina tried to cover herself though thoroughly enjoying it. Holi was her favourite festival. How she wished every day of their lives could start with a bustle of colours like this!

Foes had become friends by now. Naina now knew that Kritika had been the one who'd stolen the project that she and Sameer had prepared. Now that Tibrewal had broken up with her, she'd come to Naina one day and spilled the beans about his act. "That guy was one lecher", Naina thought, relieved that she was saved in the nick of time before getting involved with him. She'd informed Sameer of the same too that day. Poor Tibrewal had no clue why Sameer had walked in a rage inside the mess at dinner, and had been about to punch his face again. Tibrewal was cowering under his gaze, expecting a painful smack any instant, when he saw Sameer suddenly contemplating something and then start grinning. Sameer had then looked at Tibrewal and given him a small, light slap on his cheeks, and again retreated back to his room, still giggling mysteriously. Come to think of it, he was thankful that Tibrewal had been a jerk all along. It was because of him everytime, that he and Naina had come closer- first the kiss with Meghnaa, then him punching him in the canteen, then the project pilfering staged by him. He owed this much to the chewing gum at least. It was only because of his stupidity that he had a true friend like Naina by his side.

***

"Sameer! Abey kahan chupke baitha hai be! Tera sooraj aaj jaldi uga le bhai...uth jaa!" Sameer heard a series of knocks on his door, plus the loud chatter of the boys outside. "Abey yaar! Sone de!" he yelled as he curled to the other side to sleep, a pillow pressed against his ear to muffle the shouts. He'd been out with Naina last night. What had started as a small walk post dinner had taken four long hours to wrap up. They hadn't realized when time passed and the night deepened, as they continued to talk. Then they'd settled themselves on a bench in the park, basking in the moonlight glow. It was the same bench that Sameer had made Naina lie down on, the night she'd fainted as she learnt of Tibrewal and Meghnaa's affair. They had chatted for hours, as they held hands and kissed in between. It was only around 2 am that Sameer had dropped Naina back to her hostel and returned to his room, after another prolonged "good bye...good night!" to each other.

"Abey Holi hai saale! Nikal na!" the gang shouted. Sameer finally gave up trying to sleep, and rubbing his eyelids, went to open the door. What happened next, sucked sleep completely away from his eyes. "Splash!" A huge bucket full of red coloured water, interspersed with golden-silver sparkles was emptied on his head, as the gang of boys shouted happily, "bura na maano...Holi hai!" The group of young men, with their faces, hair and much of their body painted in hues of red, blue, green, pink and yellow, now overpowered Sameer and rubbed colours onto his face and neck. "Kya kar raha hai Vinod! Saans to lene de bhai!" Sameer started, sniggering. And then he too took hold of some colour, and started painting the faces of Vinod and the others.

"Chal chal...Sudhir ke room mein!" Sanjay whispered. "Tadakti bhadakti cheez bana ke rakhi hai humne...warden bhi ghar gaya hai chutti pe!" he added with a gleam in his eyes. The boys all rushed over to Sudhir's room, where they gulped down several glasses of the favourite drink of Lord Shiva. Rahul crept to the window of the room and glanced down, "abey ladkiyaan Holi khel rahi hain...chalo chalte hain!" he exclaimed rubbing his hands, excitedly. "Abey thodi der ruk to jaa! Saala tharki!" Vinod laughed. "Abey yahan bhang peete reh jayenge to ladkiyon ke saath Holi kab khelenge...wo dekh...wo dekh...unki warden bhi gayi!" he peered out of the window again. The boys finally decide to resume the Holi celebrations out in the ground, along with the girls of the college.

As soon as Sameer reached the ground, his eyes fell upon one particular girl. Draped in a slightly wet and tight-fitting, white embroidered churidaar, her duppatta hanging loosely at her shoulder, her hair tied up in a long ponytail, Naina looked around to see Sameer checking her out. She laughed out loud seeing the Mr. Handsome of their college, looking comical in his multi-coloured attire. "Has kyun rahi ho?" Sameer ran towards her. He didn't even notice the other girls around, not even Meghnaa, who'd waved a big Hi to him. "Apni shakal to dekho!" Naina chuckled. "Tum badi hoor ki pari lag rahi ho jaise!" he reminded her that she too was coloured from head to toe. "Happy Holi buddhu!" Naina laughed and smeared a handful of gulaal onto his cheeks. Sameer closed his eyes in surprise, but the next instant, he'd grabbed the yellow and red colours lying nearby, and was applying it all over her face and hair, "Happy Holi to you too Topper!" The other students were busy enjoying themselves in the distance. Hardly anyone noticed the couple engrossed in each other. That is hardly anyone but Meghnaa. "Ye Sameer is chipkili ke peeche kyun pada rehta hai!" she pondered, when Ayesha came and emptied a bucket of water onto her. Distracted, Meghnaa turned around giggling at Ayesha, determined to take revenge with her pichkari.

Sameer had taken Naina away from the crowd, and they were now standing behind a tree, smearing colour onto whatever exposed body part they could see of each other. Sameer's hands traced the gulaal around her neck and naughtily crept deeper into her kurta on the front, as he grinned. Naina too sniggered as she arrested his advances and instead coloured his face, hair and then chest with red, her hand creeping inside his shirt through in between the buttons. The physical proximity was again turning them on. Perhaps a sexual encounter after Holi was on the cards, she thought as Sameer bent down to kiss her voraciously. Sameer did not know if the Bhang was starting to show its effect or if it was Naina's proximity, for he felt his mind go numb and fuzzy.

"Sameer!" he suddenly heard Rahul calling him, searching for him. He looked at Naina who muttered her "tut...tut!" and escaped from his hold, chuckling, and mingled back with the girl gang. Sameer flipped his hair to back of his head, a little dejectedly as he saw her move away and then ran back towards Rahul. "Kahan gaya tha tu?" Rahul asked a little suscpiciously. "Wo...wo...," Sameer raised his little finger in explanation. "Abey tu bhi na...hostel me jaake aana tha na!" Rahul seemed convinced. Some boys in the hostel were blessed with brains the size of a pea, Sameer had found out by now. And that kind of helped- especially in situations like these.

"Tujhe pata hai...wo Meghnaa ne mujhe rang lagaya!" Rahul muttered, hardly able to control his excitement. "Toh jaa na bey...tu bhi laga de use!" Sameer gave him a pat on his back as he pushed him towards Meghnaa. At that moment, Meghnaa's gaze fell upon Sameer standing at a distance, but he wasn't looking at her. Meghnaa followed his eyes to see them fixated where Naina was playing Holi with Kritika and Neha in the other corner of the ground. As Rahul approached her, she generously dabbed colour onto his cheeks and allowed him to reciprocate, though her eyes were still on Sameer. As Sameer's eyes turned back to Rahul, he saw Meghnaa eyeing him intently. He felt a little uncomfortable and tried to look away.

Before Sameer could move over to the group of his friends, Meghnaa had grabbed his arm. "Hi Sameer! Happy Holi!" she raised her palm to apply colour onto his cheeks, but Sameer pulled away on impulse. "Uhh...," he couldn't think of what to say. He then realized Meghnaa might find his actions too rude and today being a happy occasion of a festival, he reluctantly moved his cheeks closer to her. She smeared his face with a shade of green, right over where Naina had coloured him with red. "Ohh...lagta hai kisi ne laal rang chadha diya hai tum par...laal to ishq ka rang hota hai...kyun?" Meghnaa uttered slyly, as her eyes drifted back to Naina. "Aisa kuch nahi hai...uhh...Thank you Meghnaa!" Sameer mumbled awkwardly.

"Come on Sameer! Tum Happy Holi nahi bologe?" she started. Sameer was beginning to get irked now. "Happy Holi Meghnaa!" he responded, hoping she would get the cue that he wasn't interested. "Ye lo...laal rang...mujhe bhi laga hi do!" she winked. Sameer waited, unsure of whether to comply to her request or not, when she spoke again, "Yaar tum to aise sharma rahe ho, jaise kabhi mujhe choote bhi nahi the! Bhul gaye wo Nainital ki shaamein? Wo hostel ke piche ke kisses? "Uhh...Meghnaa...dekho tab hum bacche the...! Okay!" he snapped exasperatedly. "Exactly Sameer...tab hum bacche the...lekin ab to adults hain right?" she smiled suggestively at him. Sameer was a little taken aback by her open offer. Had it been a few months back, he might have even accepted it. But now even with the bhang clouding his judgement, he smiled politely at her, as he applied a pinch of colour onto her cheeks, "Meghnaa...ab hum adults bhi hain...aur samajhdaar bhi...to isliye nadaan mat bano...!" Meghnaa looked at him in shock and indignation. Never before had a guy snubbed her like this! What does he think of himself? "Lagta hai us behenji pe lattu ho gaya hai!" Meghnaa thought hotly, as she observed him move away to his group of friends.

Despite Naina being one of the most attractive girls in college, Meghnaa could never see her as a competitor to her. She still wasn't at par with Meghnaa's fashion sense and her choice of clothing. It was another thing that Naina looked pretty in whatever she wore, and always chose decent getups for college and parties. Although only Sameer knew that she was looked her best when she did away with clothing altogether in his presence. Sameer had barely looked away from a sulking Meghnaa, when he was greeted with another pair of glaring eyes. Sameer looked up at the sky pleadingly, "yaar kya kar rahe ho bhagwaan...ab ise kaise samjhaun!"

Naina moved towards him, still playing with her gang, her eyes apparently back onto her friends. Sameer too crept nearer to her, on the pretext of enjoying with Vinod and Sudhir. He had his back to her, but his attention was fully upon her, as he heard her mutter, "kya kar rahe the uske saath?" "Kiss kar raha tha!" he exclaimed naughtily. Naina couldn't help but turn and roll her eyes at him. He chuckled, "abey wo peeche padti rehti hai...chep type ki hai...bataya tha na!" "Acha...aur tum kyun itna muskura rahe the...jabse aayi hai...tabse tum bhi usse chipakte rehte ho!" she snapped irritatedly, as she yelled, "abey Neha bas kar!" "Rehta tha... tumhe badi jalan hoti thi na isliye!" he teased, as he pointed his pichkari at Sudhir. "Kuch bhi!" Naina tried to wave it off. "Nahi hoti thi?" he asked again, looking at her blush through the corner of his eye. She clucked her tongue in negation. "Ohh...to maine bekar hi use mana kar diya...wo to offer de rahi thi...apne room pe bula rahi thi mujhe aaj raat ko!" Sameer goaded her, trying to prevent himself from chortling as he saw Naina turn to face him again, this time in horror. She took a handful of colour and plunged it straight onto his head, while Sameer started laughing and pointed his pichkari at her instead. Before she could run away, he'd drenched her in his colour again.

They continued to play Holi till late in the afternoon. Rahul had brought out his tape recorder and his cassette collection of Holi songs from his room. "O rang barse...bheege chunarwa li rang barse...," the loudspeaker blared. Rahul seemed to be quite intoxicated by now. So was Sameer and the rest of the boys gang. All through the dancing, Sameer noticed Rahul trying to edge closer to Meghnaa. Initially, Meghnaa didn't mind as Rahul was quite cute. She danced to her heart's content with him, but when she got bored, she moved over to Sudhir. Rahul then desperately began searching for another girl to occupy his time. It was then that Sameer felt a surge of anger rise inside him, for he saw Rahul's eyes hover over Naina. Sameer stopped dancing immediately. Despite the effect of bhang, Sameer did not mistake Rahul's gaze. It was of pure lust- the way his eyes were moving up and down Naina's body, lingering over her curves, to the neckline of her kurta.

This was one thing about Sameer. He never sharedhis things with anyone- never! He tried to swallow his anger as he staggered overto where Naina was standing, and blocked her completely from Rahul's view.Rahul looked up at Sameer's rage filled eyes, and grinned sheepishly, realizingsomewhere that he'd been treading into territory which did not belong to him. Heraised his hands in defence, admitting to his folly. Sameer's punches werealready famous in the hostel- especially after he'd smacked Tibrewal in thecanteen when he'd tried to insult Naina. Years of boxing had helped build quitesome strength into his arms and fists. As a result, Sameer didn't realize howhis lightest punch could invite days of pain for the recipient. Hence, everyonewas careful not to invoke Sameer's anger anytime. Rahul soon turned away andjoined the crowd at the other end, but Sameer's anger did not die down. Afterthat day, he never spoke to Rahul again.