It was  a sunny November morning when Divya was speeding downstairs, her hands filled with a diary and the other one adjusting the strap on her bag when she heard her name being called by someone. When she turned around, it was quite a shock to find Madhav dressed in a half buttoned up maroon colored kurta and jeans walking up to her. His hair was perfectly jelled and set up to give a complementing look for his outfit.

This wasn't the first time that she was seeing him in a kurta, but it was surely surprising to see him on one of the normal weekdays. Something was happening she thought and smiled at him.

"Hey sup!"

"Hii, Is it your birthday today?" Madhav asked, yet again making Divya quite confused and then she saw him eyeing her outfit.

Ohh yes the outfit she thought as she then looked down at herself. The black colored palazzo and a bright yellow colored blouse that had little flowers on it which was tied up in a knot which secured it at her waist. The huge black sunflower oxidized jhumka surely gave it a funky yet a classy look.

"Ohh no, It was months back in August." she said, though she wanted to add up 'remember you had come up to me just like this and had wished me and then I had made you wait right here in the corridor for your piece of cake only to realize that you were on diet'.

She couldn't help but blush at the memory. How embarrassed she had been at that moment and somehow Madhav had been a darling and had wished her back and left from there. Quite an encounter these two always had.

"Ohh, I thought it was your birthday, I mean the way you are dressed... you look quite nice though, you should wear this more often." Madhav complimented as Divya then noticed his hands going at the back of his head and adjusting his already adjusted hair. He was nervous she could quite tell it, and though she wasn't really good with compliments she decided it was better to act normal and take what was given on her plate at the moment.

"Thanks a lot,  you don't look half bad yourself...any occasion?'

"Ohh no, all my clothes have gone for laundry." Divya tried her best not to laugh at it but she did and so did he and things were all right and it was better that way. Small talks, compliments and then trying to get things  back to normal Divya had long back realized weren't their thing. It was in fact a shocker that they even conversed for this long.

But it was great with the fact that now Divya had somehow found herself hanging out with the group, in fact their small group of girls were getting mindless with the boys group all thanks to Nandini.

"Alright then see you around?" the two nodded their heads, bid a chuckling bye and went off to their own work...Divya surely clueless what she was upto.

However, a week later while she walked up the stairs towards her class, Divya again felt her name being called...rather this time the person came and stood right in front of her.

"Divya you have got such bad handwriting, how do you even manage to understand and please improve your grammar." Madhav said right into her face and was gone. She looked around for him in the sea of people but at the speed at which he had come downstairs, stood right in front of her and said it, at the same speed he had walked off leaving her quite baffled.

"What the hell was that?' Natasha asked, as Divya came back to her senses and began walking up the stairs.

"You know what, the moment I would understand that I would surely tell you. Right now let's go."

As the two reached their classroom the scene however was different. Rather than being filled with their classmates there were their Juniors, she could recognize a few, there was James, the curly haired boy who had been always been around and  who would time and again forget that they are of same age, then there was Kabeer, with the dark beard and a fair face, who was lean and would always have a shirt over his tshirt. The others she didn't know much. She had known James and Kabeer due to their Course's event, as Kabeer was  the security HOD and she had to know the team.

Divya walked up to them as she saw Simran seated with yet another guy and then there was Rohan, the only Guy in their group, and there was even Nandini.

"Hey Sup guys."

Nandini waved her hands at her and pulled her immediately towards her and asked, "You tell me Borivali and Vasai are in Mumbai only right?"

Divya looked questioningly at the rest, as Simran gave her a smile, she saw the way Kabeer still sat there looking bored, interested, amused one could never tell from the expression that he held.

"They both come under Suburban Mumbai, they are not really Mumbai, Mumbai gets over at Bandra ahead of what is called Northern Mumbai...some even do not consider it as Mumbai. Especially Vasai, it comes under a completely different district."

"See I told you, yet you had to argue with me." Kabeer snapped at Nandini in his own sarcastic voice, something that wasn't really loud nor chilled. Divya then observed the way the two kept on bantering, the rest of them completely sidetracked, as the short heighted Nandini would time and again Jab Kabeer in his stomach, whereas Kabeer would keep on irritating her with his lame jokes.

Though Divya had to give it to him, some of them really made sense, but then again, when he and Rohan were to make up a team, she would surely lose her brain cells. She couldn't understand how all of a sudden these all began hanging out together. All she remembered was them having video calls and Nandini getting all shy to go and speak with them in their class.

And now here they were seated in the same classroom, discussing Mumbai, its stations, the districts and then all of a sudden getting side tracked and talking about series and movies and ohh even how stupidly and idiotically double minded they all were.

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With the exams round the corner Divya had surely forgotten about the happenings of the corridor, of Madhav coming all of a sudden and suggesting her to improve her handwriting. She had been so busy with it that it never occurred to her how he got hold of her notes or her handwriting or whatever that it was.

But it was on the day of their last paper as she sat with Nandini, Simran, Aman, Rishi, Atharva and Manav right outside their college in a small garden which they had very fondly called BTM garden. The name coming from their courses name Bachelors of Transport Management, and somehow throughout the day it was the students of their course who would be found sitting there. The garden wasn't like any other garden, rather a small area with grass and a tree that provided it a shade and too much of bad luck was the counter for the Xerox shop that was situated in their college building.

The boys had got a few deals done with the owner, only the students of BTM would be allowed to sit there however with certain rules which they all followed.

As the group sat in a circle with three notes being circulated around and one in Nadini and Divya's hand, the rest of the three were shared in pairs amongst the boys and Simran.

Divya once again looked at the next question and asked them to open the page of her notes where the answer was. She was about to explain what it was all about to help them learn in that 1 hour that was left for their exam to begin when Manav raised his hand and asked,

"Divya, you use such difficult words in your answers, do you even know what they mean?"

"I know them very well Manav, and I am even prepared for the exam, you tell me do you want to fail? If not then let's start with this answer we still have 4 more answers to go." The rest of the boys yet again began abusing Manav, chiding him to be quiet all the while making yet another ruckus. Finally after a long wait, they were done fighting and Divya once again said the first point when she heard a loud voice.

"Hiii Guyyyssss"

"Ooh hoo Bachkani" Aman yelled out as they shook hands with Madhav who stood there all prepared for his exam with his one hand as usual adjusting his bag.

"Ohh nooo, you guys are still studying from Divya's notes?" he then looked at his side and finally saw Divya and gave her a bright smile and said, "Ohh Hii Divya,  sorry but seriously they need a lot of correction and who uses such hi fi language?'

As soon as he was done speaking, the boys began laughing. Divya was still glaring at Madhav as she closed her notes, snatched her book from Manav and began packing away. "Guys rest of the most important questions will be explained by Madhav, I am leaving."

She then turned to simran and Nandini and asked, "Are you guys coming or do you want to help him?' the girls shook their heads in negative and began packing away, when Aman and the boys held onto their hands as Atharva said,

"Oii Aunty go man, let us study, else we are going to fail..." when Madhav still didn't move an inch rather decided to make yet another comment, Dev stopped him and said, "Go else you know what will actually happen with you."

Madhav purposely pointed towards Divya's notes and made a face as she threw a pen at him which hit him right on his forehead before he began running away in that funny manner that he always did.

Once settled and done they were making their way towards their classroom when Nandini asked,

"How come you and Madhav became this close?"

"I am still wondering that, one day he comes all of a sudden and compliments me on my clothes, the next he comes and tells me to improve my English and my handwriting, and then now...isn't  he an ass? How come you are friends with him?"

The whole corridor was crowded with students, some tense, some relaxed, some hyperventilating and then there was Divya, still busy in her own thoughts wondering what it was that had all of a sudden made him so free and comfortable with her to joke around. How they had all of a sudden scaled up from their normal formal smiles to jokes on hand writing and giving compliments. The more she thought about it, she realized it was a waste of time to even do so. She fastened her steps and went and took her place.

Three hours later, as the sun began to set, Divya finally bid bye to her friends and left for her home. She lived in Borivali, the suburban area of Mumbai, a place that was filled with Gujaratis, Mahrashtrians, Marwaris. Her building that was situated on the new linking road, gave the best of two sides. The two bed room was perfect for their family of six. Her mom had been a homemaker for as long as she could remember. Though she was told  when she was still little and hadn't even begun walking she used to work as a teacher at kindergarten in Malad two stations down from Boriwali. Her dad was a businessman, a government contractor to be exact with his business and contacts spread across all the government departments from Police to Railways to BEST and even Army and navy.

As she entered the house she was met with an eerie silence. Throughout the day it would just be her Mom and grandmother who would be at home. The house was well decorated, though she loved colors, her dad was quite a fan of white color and hence the walls were painted in a shade of white and grey, the fall ceiling had a bright yellow color with a beautiful glass jhoomar that hung right in the middle. The building being in a long rectangular form gave their living room windows in both the west and the east. The east side of the living room had a Tv set on one corner while the other had a bamboo swing beside which rested a bookcase that held all the books that Her grandfather had once collected when he was still healthy and very much alive.

Divya remembered how later on in the years many things in the house changed but not the book shelf, it was still the same and very much complimented their interior than any of those fancy that they had later on bought. Though the books had been few, when Divya and her brother began reading they began adding to it. The book shelf now had been paired with yet another dark brown colored bookshelf that held other books. Not all in their family were huge fans of reading, but where Divya was a huge fan of reading her brother was more of a poetic person. She had seen him many times reading into the various collections of Ramdhari Singh Bharti, Ghalib, Meera, Sylvia plath, Shakespeare and many more. There were many books that were shelved in these books to whom he would go back to, and at times even Divya had found herself going back to them.

Some poems were difficult to understand, but then she did what her brother had always advised her as he would sit with those hard covered books in his lap on the swing set, a cup of coffee rested on the small teapoy set as a silent companion.

"You read the words again and again, the first time you will read the words, the second time you read it, you read what those words mean, the third time that you read you might find yourself understanding and reading what two words mean together and then as many time as you read you would then understand the sentences and then finally what the poet has to say." He would then dramatically sip his coffee and continue,

'And by the time you finally understand the meaning, you would realize understanding what you were disturbed about isn't that difficult."

Divya kept her bag on the sofa that covered the majority of the west side of the room in a U shape and walked inside towards the washroom.

"Where are the rest? And Mom?"  Divya asked her Dadi who had opened the door. The old lady born in the 1940s the exact date lost in those times itself with the huge number of children that were there in the family. 'She had always said that it was a luxury to remember the birthdays in our time... after all we used to be the size of a cricket team or even a dozen to a couple itself."

The old lady looked at her from her frame and said, "She has gone to the market, didn't she call you?"

"Nah I haven't checked my phone since I got off the train, dadi is there something to eat...I am hungry." Wiping her hands at the towel and her feet at the door mats Divya walked out from the washroom towards her room.

"There isn't anything as such, we have dry snacks. Do you want that or coffee?'

"Love you dadi, make some coffee and do we have khari?" the way her dadi shook her head and moved towards the kitchen made Divya smile in a delightful manner. She had always been her dadi's daughter. More than her brother and her little sister she had always favored her, supported her, handled her tantrums from not wanting to eat anything to just wanting to eat some rice salt and ghee, her dadi has supported her in everything.

As Divya entered her room the one that she shared with her dadi and sister, she let out a huge sigh. The house was eerily silent and it disturbed her. She had been used to seeing her mom at home whenever she returned home and to not find her was as if something was missing from that perfect completed puzzle.

Getting changed into her pajamas she quickly got out of her room, and got her bag and kept it back in its right place on her study table that faced the window. It did not havw many things, a few books that she used on a regular basis, her diary, a pen stand that was filled with a number of pens and a laptop. The bag was kept under the table as if hidden from the world. But then again she won't need it anytime soon. The vacations had begun and she was not going to go back to her college. She had much better things to plan now, like the diwali party that her Mama was going to organize, the Bhai Dooj which was now going to be celebrated at their place.

"Divya, your coffee is ready. I have kept it on the tea poy." Her dadi called her out. With a huge deep breath she walked out and took the coffee and the khari that were kept on the table. Resting her tired bum on the swing she let it move a bit in whatever way that it wished to, taking a sip and letting the coffee to move down her throat towards the stomach and as it did, her eyes went out the window as it began raining. The droplets were just a drizzle at the beginning, then turning into a fully fledged burst of water, the smell of the wet mud began to engulf the air, and the moment it did Divya found herself smiling. She quickly stood up and walked towards the small radio that was kept on the other side of the tv stand, tuning into the perfect station, the RJ as well began praising the unexpected rains.

"And since the rains had once again decided to bless us with its presence here is a sweet song to go with the rains... and while all of you who are stuck in the traffic at the link roads or the ones cramped up in the train wondering how will you go back with this huge downpour, try and loosen up a bit, soak in the lyrics of this song, listen to the beats that engulf your being and try and remember that someone who had been the surprise that your life gifted you, the one who was unexpected, the one who you know is perfect for you, the one who is just right there everywhere yet you wonder where would he or she be now...now when the weather is just at its best."

As the voice of the RJ face away the tune of the song 'piyu bole' began to seep in; Divya made her way back to the swing, and sat down, this time her leg pushed back at the wall avoiding the swing set to move at its will, she wanted to stop, she wanted to look out the window admire the beautiful unexpected scene and as the first lyrics began to fall onto her ears, she couldn't help but let out a smile. This was beautiful.

Her thoughts began to wander around, a sweet and hurting pain engulfed her heart as the song continued, each of the words were as if hitting her home. It reminded her of the days that were long forgotten. She had almost forgotten now with time that there was a time as well when she hurt this way as well. That there was a time when she had a stupid love story as well...someone whose face she could see instantly the moment songs like these would be played and she would close her eyes  or the times when there had to be things that were so relatable. Times when someone talked about getting butterflies in her stomach, times when people talked about being stupid, and being embarrassed in the cutest manner.

Times when people talked about first love... she knew what it was like how it felt ...and taking a breath yet again, she closed her eyes as the song began to end, and found the familiar face making its way back right in front of her eyes...however this time it was way faint then earlier, and it scared and confused her...it made her wonder if she was finally getting over him. 

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A/N
Sneak Peek

she walked up to the window that overlooked the street of their college and then attended her phone. 

"Hello." She whispered, as her heart thumped loudly. 

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Yadni Bagwe