"V, what has happened to this prat?"

The boy in question blinked his eyes. Apparently, the beauty of the sun was too much for him to bear. Glancing at his two friends who were sitting on the grass, he dropped to the ground, joining them. One who was staring at the sky, a smile adorning his features. While the other, who was glaring at the former, trying to understand which hurricane had swept past him.

Understanding how ugly the situation could end up, Veer decided to intervene at last.

"Oh, Chatterjee! Please share the secret behind your joy with us too!"

The friend, his smile intact, looked up at him. Still smiling, he mumbled softly, all his explanations zeroing out to a single word, 'she'.

And one glance at him, with a different set of eyes altogether, Veer could come to a conclusion. His friend was a gone case. Utterly, madly, truly, a gone case. Just as he was about to give him his infamous lecture on Pyaar-Vyaar, he was summoned to the front lane by a person whom he could never dare to disobey.

Muttering a quick bye, he ran across the cricket ground, leaping over the fence and almost crashing into Chandni. Jumping into the back seat, they sped away, crossing the yellow taxis and immemorial rikshaws. Hands in the air, eyes closed, he enjoyed the rush of the wind, finding his peace in the sky and with the person ahead of him.

"Open your eyes, V! The crows might get jealous and snatch them away!"

There goes the peace, he thought and opened his eyes, frantically checking if any malfunction occurred to his eyes, testing their functioning for five minutes straight. Realizing he had been tricked, he whined, his grin hidden behind. But perhaps, he forgot, the person who had practically raised him, could see right through that mask.

Chandni slowed down and he looked up. The familiar lanes and torn poster of 'Raja' on the wall, clarified the question which had formed in his head. He watched the teens near the film poster, their eyes glued to the smiling Madhuri, yet stuck to their firm resolution that the former was nowhere near their own ethereal beauty, Sushmita, who had won the Miss Universe just last year.

Smiling at their greatest dilemma, Veer patiently waited for his Neel Ba to finish his business with Chandni. Once he was done, they walked up the stairs together, their steps falling together. Feeling light-headed, Veer jumped up the stairs, skipping, still a child at heart. Till his eyes fell on the cheap rubber slippers which stood in his direct line of sight.

Eyes drifting up, he took in the clean pure white attire, his pupils fixing on the white cap. Ah, it was a Friday, after all.

For an exact time period of seven seconds, no longer than that, they stared at each other. And then, the latter's eyes fell, as he diverted his path, almost running away from confrontation. Veer shrank away, the summer heat reduced to chilling frost within those seven seconds.

Masterji watched the tall lanky fellow, dressed in white run away, disappearing into the glittering sunlight. A faint remark was heard from behind, as Veer muttered along the lines of 'sketchy business' and few other profanities. Yet, Ismail Ansari held Masterji's complete attention.

And he focused on those eyes. There was something about those eyes which never met any other's eyes. Something because of which he could drown into them, all his life. And such a pair of eyes, he had seen them only once before, just once.

Shrewdly hidden by the thick lashes were waves of magical secrets, swirling in those ordinary browns. 

And just like the whirling crowd around them, those swirling silent whispers disappeared, lost in a faraway land.