"Even just a mere thing about her,
Puts my senses and emotions on a
gear."

" Just bark already." I whispered calmly, that clearly stated that I wasn't interested in anymore effing drama.

" What ?" Rohit asked, still smirking.

" What do you know about the girl in this picture ?" I inquired him, rather impatiently.

"Why do you want to know about her with such eagerness, huh ?" He asked. He didn't even had an idea that he was playing with my already dwindling patience , which was on the edge.

"Say" I shouted at Rohit, to which he just shrugged with a big smile.

" She is your mother's student, idiot." I heard him and stared at him to continue.

| Flashback 1 years ago |

    It was 12th of december. Urmilla, Ishaan's mother's birthday. Rohit was driving towards the Mallik Mansion with a glee laden smile. Though Urmilla wasn't his own mother, she was no less than a mother in his life. His favourite person to cry with, confide in and ramble aimlessly.

She was the person, who changed his ugly perspective on mothers.

His heart fluttered as he saw jer radiating smile from the gap of the door. Hugging her tight, and playing with her cheeks, Rohit placed a small kiss on her both cheeks.

" Happy Birthday, mumma." He sweetly spoke, holding onto her like a small child.

" Okay, okay. My dramaqueen. Thank you so much. Go and sit, I have prepared Gulaab Jamuns for you." That was all it took for him to run towards the kitchen, already drooling over the sight of those tongue- soothing sweets.

We were interrupted by the soft knock on the door. I unlatched the door to see two beautiful girls standing with flower bouquets and chocolates. One of them, dressed in a silver long skirt and navy blue shirt came forward.

" Good morning Sir, Is ma'am at home?" She asked softly. She looked so lovely with her eyes, brimming with liveliness and innocence. Her smile so tender, that could render anyone smitten.

Her black highlighted hairs were braided on a side neatly as she kept glancing at Rohit, looking at her in silence. Clearing my throat, I nodded and opened the door ajar to allow them enter inside. She ran towards Urmilla, keeping those stuffs on the tea table. She hugged her and wished her a " Happy birthday".

Soon the other girl entered with a cake in her hand.

They made her cut the cake along with Rohit. Urmilla fed her a small bite of the cake but she took it and fed it to her. Then urmilla also fed a piece of cake to Rohit, which he ate happily and gave her a slice of cake to eat too.

" So, how are your studies going on?" Urmilla asked her. She nodded, and meekly whispering a 'good'.

Then, turning towards Rohit, Urmilla introduced her to Rohit.

" Rohit Beta, both of them are my student. Jia and Mishka." Rohit smiled at them, that was returned by them.

" And, he is Rohit, my son's best friend. More like my young boy." Urmilla gingerly ran her fingers in Rohit's hair, leading them to laugh at his annoyed face. Their laughter paused with the constant ringing of someone's phone.

" Ma'am, we need to go. There's a family function today so, my maa is calling." The girl in blue shirt spoke and both of them left hurriedly.

-----

I got to know what Rohit knew about my Ms. Monsoon. So, my mother already knows her. Thank god, perhaps it would be a little easy to find her out now. But, that doesn't mean I don't know how much of teasings are on my way to know about her from my dearest mom.

" But, what's her name? " I asked him.

" I don't know exactly. Maybe Jia or else, Mishka." Rohit whispered.

" Okay, I will try to extract something from Mom. But, you are something else, even after meeting her you don't know her name." I shook my head while, he shrugged.

I was so tired. I reached my room after bidding everyone a good bye. I fell on the bed thinking about my girl, who has occupied my brain and heart from the last couple of hours. Soon sleep engulfed me.

I woke up next morning groggily even after a six hours sleep. Taking a leisurely bath, I got myself freed from the clutches of drowsiness. I went downstairs and heard a knock at the door. I quickly opened the door and purely surprised to see the one, standing infront of me.

How was it possible ?

" Who are you ?" I asked when I saw a man wrapped with a orange coloured dhoti standing near the door, with a huge mound cloth hanging from his shoulder. He was having a forest like moustache.

" Dear son, Please call your mom. She needs to meet me. I am Sidhacharya Baba from the foothills of himalayas . Call her son." He said in a hoarse voice, that felt quite familiar. My mom came rushing down, maybe due to our voice of our conversations. She gaped at the bizzaire man infront of me for whole minute and started laughing like a lunatic. I was unable to comprehend what was going on.

" Ishaan, can't you even recognise your idiot friend in this disguise. Oh my, he is looking like a bloated monkey, instead of a saint." My mom told while laughing . I too joined her. It was so much fun to tease Rohit in this disastrous outfit.

I ate my breakfast and went back to my room to check my social media accounts as it was saturday, my one and only holiday from the concerts, meetings and visits. Bored of checking them out,I decided to paint something. Painting has been my passion since my childhood, only after  Music. Maybe, it's the reason why Rohit is my best buddy. We both share an emotional bond over music and colours being artists by profession . In the meanwhile, Rohit left to bring down groceries and dry fruits that Mom told him to purchase. Mom was getting dressed to leave for the university.

I removed my T-shirt, and placed it beside me. I placed the board stand and rolled down a sheet of thick cardboard on the board with a white chartpaper atop it. I chose all the colours as per my imagination and started intermixing the acrylic colours. I threw the grey hue to the board, and the colour sprawled all over the board, with my finger tips and few thick brushes I started to add my magics to the colours adding on colours upon colours. The blend seemed perfect. I let it dry a little and then applied a thuck coat of liquid white to give it a oily furnish. I washed the brushes in a pot and held my permanent marker. To fill the space in between, I wrote something for my Mi amor, my Ms. Monsoon.

I moved back to take a look at the picture from a distance, when I collided with someone. At the same time, the lights turned on. I saw her standing infront of me. I was puzzled and lost. I saw at the painting then at my ladylove, who was standing there with a bouquet of pink and yellow roses.

Maybe its not our first meet,
But I am enough fortunate to
Meet you again out of all people.

I loved to see the redness creeping up her cheeks. I wondered if I was imagining things. She looked at me with shock on her face. Why was she so shocked to see me at my house?

I could see her eyes gawking at me. As I followed her line of vision, my face heated up. Her lips were parted as her eyes continued to feast on my bare front. Faking a cough, I wore my t-shirt quickly, she was still staring at me with an aghast expression. She must have perceived that, so she just looked down and moved out of the room. By this time, Rohit was back and was smiling at me mischievously. Knowing well, he was the reason behind what happened a moment ago, I shook my head, glaring at him.

" Beta, you are here?" Mom hugged her, stunned at her sudden presence and she gave her the bouque, she brought for her. Mom gladly accepted it and asked her about the reason of her visit.

"Ma'am, actually there was our family reunion yesterday. So, I was unable to come." She answered back sublimely, with much respect and love. I was occupied thinking how will my name sound in her sweet voice, rolling out from her tongue.

"Okay beta. Eat something, then we will leave for college." Mom said and she sat beside her. Mom chatted with her, and I kept listening carefully.

Never once she uttered her name. I wanted to know her name, but mom kept calling her beta.

Will a cyclone approach if she calls her by her name once ?

Mom didn't even introduce her to me. My mom suddenly stood up and came towards me. I was so excited, she was probably going to introduce her to me. She came with her and told me to stay at home and take care of dad. I never ever this humiliated in my whole life.

" Beta, he is my son Ishaan." She told her. I could sense her smile diffusing. She still plastered a fake smile on her face and greeted me.

Thousands of girls all over the world would die for me, but here I was trying to see her smile at me, a real one. She smiled, though anyone could sense her discomfort. Before leaving,Mom called me towards her.

" Yes, I wanted to tell you about her only. She is interested in joining your music studio." As soon as those words left her lips, I hugged her, out of the thrills of the moment. Rohit burst out laughing like a horse.

" That was a good bye." I whispered seeing both looking at me with pure bewilderment. Listening that, Rohit laughed loudly again, followed by Mom and my Ms. Monsoon. She looked indeed beautiful with that million dollar smile on her pretty visage. Her smile made my day but stole my heart. I just hope my heart stays safe with her.

I offered to drop them to the college . I went with them and Rohit left for his house. She sat on the passenger seat and Mom sat in the back seat. After lots of jokes and talks, she seemed to be somewhat open with me. She was talking with me freely, not in her previous closed off way.

The buzzing of her phone disturbed the calmness of the car, I glanced at name of the caller to be Ronnie with a picture displayed on the screen where, she was standing with a man with her arm in the circle of his arm.

For a split second, the time seemed to have frozen as I registered who the person was. 

Ronnie Roy !

The same person who used to be my bestfriend.

Thinking about him again after years, blinded my brain with a passionate fire of fury and an impassive grief. His thoughts always disheartened me, so I had chose to keep him and his memories in the farthest corner of my heart. He took a place in my life that was unattainable and unfathomable.

I saw Jia picking up the call and talking with Ronnie, blushing really hard. All my happiness and excitements were thrown out of the window, as my mind wondered over the fact - Are they both in love?

Though I saw her only yesterday, I felt as if robbed off breath with this abrupt surefacing of the reality. She soon ended the call and started talking again.

I was not in a proper state to talk, so to refrain her from having a conversation with me I switched on the music system.

I sighed in relief seeing the school a little ahead the way. As they hopped out of the car, I waved them a good bye with a micro-smile.

I accelerated the car, pondering about my one-day long one-sided love story.

Jia's POV

The day was quite hectic. Being a medical student, its quite a tough life to manage with the irregular timings of work. While returning from my bestfriend, Mishka's house I could see a person driving car a bit waywardly. He clearly looked drunk. But soon he stopped the car and I sighed. I slowed down my car as I saw the check gate near the square junction. I was waiting for the signals to turn green, so that I could go home and sleep.

Listening to some of my favourite indie pops, I was humming to the tune when I saw two children clutching each other's hand and walking across the road.

They reminded so much of my childhood days. My and mishka's bond was the exact replica of what I was witnessing between these two kids. At that point, I saw the same drunk man driving his car towards them. Is he mad?

I hopped out of the car and launched towards those children and saved them. My heart was thudding so bad. Seeing them curled up in the ground under me, I felt relieved. They hugged me hard and kissed my cheek. A chortle released on its own as the small girl's hand wounded around my waist tickled me. Soon, I waved them a bye.

The sky seemed cloudy but, as it started drizzling. I was ecstatic. I have always loved rain from my childhood. The feel of rain on my skin, the smeel of the earth after the showers and the slithering sensations its breezes send, just enchants me. It just gladdens your heart, condensing away the griefs latent underneath.

Suddenly my phone buzzed. So, I got into the car after removing my muddy jacket and drove back home. I knew Maa would be so angry to see me in those clothes dripping water. I couldn't reach Urmilla mam's house for the her son's birthday party due to our family gathering. I texted her a short and sweet sorry note, but I guess she was too angry to not even see my message at all. Hence, I thought to visit her house the next morning to apologise and drop her for the college. My plan was all set . Mishka and I chatted for a long time, before drifting into a deep slumber under my cosy duvet.

Uff, how much I missed sleeping on my bed !

_________

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Love,
Biswa ❤️