3. Dhruv's Birthday

Alia with Sneha & Ashish went to Punjagutta market in Hyderabad to shop for Dhruv's Birthday. She wanted to plan surprise for him. It was sale season, hence Central Mall was crowded with teens bursting with energy, trying to hunt branded products with discounts. She dismissed the sales assistant haggling over her for special deals.While shopping, she preferred to explore various shelves & racks with her undivided concentration.She rummaged over various shops for 3 hours & yet was not able to find anything noteworthy. Finally in Nike stores, she found a little pricey T-shrit with Manchester United design. By that time, she had dragged her friends to almost every shop in that area & felt exhausted. She had faint idea that Dhruv is ardent soccer fan. She asked Ashish to try on that T-shirt hoping it would fit Dhruv perfectly.

Sneha chirped " I wish, after being tired, my boyfriend would buy remarkable stuff overlooking their price. Lastly she settled on black & red Flip-flop, belt, Nike t-shirt & a card with beautiful message.

On that day, Alia got tingly feeling of excitement & can't wait for evening. Dhruv came very late to pick her up after doing his office work.She wore white & black off shoulder summer dress & wrapped scarf around her neck with a tiny butterfly fluttering in her stomach.They went to small but exquisitely donned candle-lit restaurant situated on roof top of warm neighborhood, where delectable aroma of spices was wafting through air & pleasant staffs were politely attending guests .An old guy was singing romantic song on guitar.They had beautiful meal of juicy roasted chicken & garlic naan with smoothies over fascinating conversation and then she gave him her meticulously planned gift one by one. He was awestruck & it brought almost tear in his eyes.

Alia's hostel was 40 km away from city & it takes almost an hour or so to commute from city. The connecting highway goes through dense woods where after dusk hardly 2-3 trucks pass by with threatening speed steered by drunk drivers. While coming back, Alia can literally hear insect's humming & roaches crooning echoing amid dense gigantic trees. The massive sprawling branches knotted together made canopy over road & sides were dotted with unwanted weeds. Once she saw Punjabi Dhaba & carefree students walking alongside, she almost felt relieved. Dhruv dropped her at hostel gate & almost fled away desperate to reach back city safely.

2.When we met !!

It was breezy morning & air was carrying the hint of last night rain. The mighty Sun was rising slowly against rosy clouds casting its glow over dew-laden leaves & grasses. The alarm shrieked 5:30 a.m & Alia jumped from her bed. She bathed & dressed up looking all shiny & hopeful. She came out of her hostel & heard menacing howling behind her. All she saw was three-four dogs threatening her as if she was small stray cat landed in their territory. Somehow she managed to run away, withdrew money from ATM & there she saw him standing near College entrance gate, waiting for her.

He was very fair-looking, well-built with contagious smile spread over his face. She felt a bit drawn to him & a sense of euphoria enveloped her. He was wearing a white T-shirt but then she noticed, hundreds of tiny brown bugs glued on it.

 Oh Dear!! you are not able to pull-off your first impression & Alia started laughing.

They went to near-by garden of Taramati fortress. There was wide array of flowers & buds blooming ,unfolding it's petals to welcome the sunlight & air was thick with pleasant fragrance. The entwined twigs were whispering as they walked towards sitting area high on rocks.

They started chatting on various random topics. Dhruv told her that he gave one thousand to help some poor man, he met while traveling back to home & not sure whether he was fooled by that person or not. He came across very ambitious yet kind heart-ed & genuine person. His fair skin glowing that sometimes, Alia felt a bit complex about her skin color.She could not stop laughing that entire morning. Later she came to know that he wanted her to laugh & enjoy, so he deliberately acted funny. Seriously, as per Alia, Dhruv was best in terms of sense of humor.

While returning on bike, when Alia sat behind him, she thought that he felt very comfortable & warm being with her. So he held her hand & wrapped around his waist. She cried silently with emotions heavy in her chest that for her it is too early to be this close. He dropped her back to her hostel & rode away for his office. She joined her classmates for breakfast in hostel mess with mischievous thought of next date playing in her mind.

1. Lost

In the mid northern part of India, we have an under developed state, which due to poor administration & governance regressed & slumped into poverty & ignorance. There were no schools around to get education & no jobs around to be employed. Poverty was rampant & only health department thrived on expense of expanding grief stricken poor population.

In this scenario, one girl was born in Brahmin affluent family. Her family wanted her to complete the education & hence she has been sent to boarding school at very tender age. The hostel was very far away & she visited her family twice in year. She was never attached to her family & somehow felt that she was never given her share of care & love.

She spent her life in girl-centric Hindi medium hostel, where wearing traditional clothes were compulsory. No mobile phones were allowed which further limited her communication with her family. Girls were expelled from college for having boyfriends. They had access of one movie in a month at common place & limited internet connectivity which was mostly used to befriend with random guys.

Alia was good in her studies & since she paid huge price for her education, she wanted to achieve something in her life. She got admission in Institute of management & she wanted to make the most out of it. But joining new college was huge cultural shock. All of sudden her life has changed as if she was thrown from sunny dessert to very cold mountains & brittle harsh winds are blowing on her face freezing her spine. She was not able to be friendly with any guys. She was hardly fluent in English speaking. So far, she always shared her room with 5-6 girls, now she was allotted her own room. Of all the challenges, living in single seated room was biggest challenge for her. She felt uprooted, scared & very lonely. To make the matter worse, she scored average grades. She felt humiliated & cocooned herself in a shell & tried to save little bit self-esteem she had. she ostracized herself from the few friends she had.

In summer 2009, when a guy named Atul asked her out during her internship, she was so desperate to be attached with someone, she did not think twice. This affair went on for 4-5 month & left her very bitter at the end. Atul was very self-obsessed, unhygienic, tightfisted person & always looked down at her. It was she who spent money on him, traveled on local buses to be with him, but he never gave a damn about her.

Atul-“I come to girl’s hostel not to meet you only but to gaze upon other girls”

In January 2010, when most of her college mate got placed & left college, she was struggling for placements & trying to recover from her breakup, she saw Dhruv, walking in campus, smiling to her. He always smiled at her & she thought, let’s speaks to this guy & sent him friend request on Orkut, then a popular social networking site.

Few days later, a reply came-“I have no interest in being your friend.”  Alia thought, who knows, whether he will like me or my nature. She accepted his proposal only to distract herself from the reality & to bring back fun quotient in her life.