Bunty Aur Babli (the book)

Bunty Aur Bubli













Any similarity to any event, name, character etc. mentioned in this rubbish work is purely non-coincidental. All sequences having puffs of cigarette have been edited in accordance with the recent government’s mindless decision.




















PROLOGUE





Bunty: A self confessed egoist, rudeness comes naturally to him, a sports freak, hates movies.

Bubbly: The name says it all, probably is even better, modest, a jack-of-all-trades, loves making friends.

































The Making Of Bunty:

Born on a moonless night is the middle of the Sahara desert, his innocence killed everyone. He was the first in the family and all the love and affection that is normally attached to the first, was automatically showered upon him, only that he did not like being pampered. Understandably though, he did most of the things by himself, and the rest he never tried doing. Well, not surprisingly, ‘the rest’ included studying, taking responsibility, getting up early and blah blah blah.

He grew up a normal child. Studied in the reputed convent school of the city, but alas, to no avail. Imagine a person studying in a convent school for over 10 yrs and when asked, “So Mr. Bunty, where do you study?”
“Oh Sas ri akaal Uncle ji, I study in the Canvent school. Mr. St. Theresa’s Canvent.”
“Right. Good.”
Not until the 8th standard did he come to know about this mistake of his and that too incidentally. Just when he was cheating a letter (he did the question to write a letter to the headmistress of the school to give scholarship) from his close friend Abhishek (who opted for the other question, to write a letter to the headmistress informing her bout the marriage of his sister), Bunty realized that his school name had no Mr. in it!! And it was Convent and not Canvent. Problem stuck there itself though, as, in the happiness of knowing his school name correctly, he actually cheated more than he should have.
(For the convenience of the fellow readers, the author has tried to recreate the letter. Here it is)

To
The Principal
Mr. St. Theresa’s Canvent Convent School
Karnal

Sub: Give me scholarship.
Respected madam,
I, Bunty, am a student of the respected Canvent Convent school. Well because I am an intelligent student (that is proved my recent result, my marks jumped from 58% to 83%, a jump of over 43%), I request you to please give me a scholarship (please, please, please).
In view of the above I would like you to grant me a 5-day leave to attend my sister’s marriage.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Abhishek Bunty

And obviously he was caught. He was given a week in detention. But by that time, he was used to it. Was he sad? Hell, NO. He had discovered something big that day, something that would help him all his life, the name of his school. Spelt correctly.

Days went by. Bunty became more sober and more introvert. He did not have the biggest gang in the school, just few exclusive friends, none of them females. But suddenly, something new happened. A new bug had bit him. LOVE (v1.1).
It lasted no more time than Ganguly spends at the crease.
It struck when he was in 10th. She was in 8th. Kiddoes, both of them. Puppy love as they say. A very boring conventional love story except that the female proposed this time. And then a very boring conventional end except that both of them were still very much in love with each other. Till date!!

And so came the time when everyone was supposed to study, for a better future ahead. But our king Bunty was, well, the king, nothing more, nothing less. When everyone studied, Mr. B was there trying to think out of the box. Oh, his passion grew. So much so that sometimes, he would take a big box, sit in it in front of the mirror, and come out of it to see how it feels to think out of the box!!

He grew. But time left him way behind. Where everyone was taking about nano technology, human genome project, disarmament, blue disk and www, one Mr. Bunty lived a life of his own, way ahead of others (if only it was the 18th century). He took pride in beating himself in chess (he used to play both the sides, took both the turns one by one, and act as if two independent people were playing chess. He used to give himself two names as players of two sides, one good and one evil. Needless to say, he felt satisfied in making the evil win over the good, contrary to what happened in the movies. ‘It was their chance to get even with them’, he used to think).

His dog always fascinated him. He tried to teach him stuff. When, according to his parents he was supposedly studying in his room, he actually used to be talking to his dog, telling him various reactions in organic chemistry, optics, and his favorite, calculus!!
Here the readers would be surprised to know that it was the dog, which lead to his downfall more than anything or anybody else. How? Read on.
While solving the multiple-choice questions, Mr. Bunty took the help of his dear dog. Since he thought he had taught him a few things, he used to put the questions directly to him and give him options. Next he used to count how many times the poor dog flickered his eyes in 2 seconds. And there it was, the answers, straight from the peanut sized brain of the dog. Oh, just forgot. What if the dog flickered more than 4 times? Easy. The good dog does not know the answer!!
And no marks for guessing the name of the dog, ‘Eureka’!!

But then he (Bunty and not the dog) was not that dumb. He showed flickers of brilliant stuff sometimes.
In an interview for a school in Delhi when asked,
“So Mr. Bunty, what is that that surprises you?”
“What surprises me? Hmm… Well, the fact that 9 out of ten people in this world think that 1 out of 10 person in this world does not think like they do!”
“WHAT? What does it mean?”
“Oh. Nothing. I know that you know that I know that you don’t know what it meant!”
For a few subsequent questions that were fired at him, he said next and then finally it was their turn to say the same, next.
He was not selected.

He went to a professional college and did the same there, not study. It gave him pleasure to see everyone study while he indulged in his thinking out of the box things. He made it a habit not to pass in all but the most difficult subject, in which he obviously topped.

It took him a while to complete his degree, 5 years and 178 days to be precise. ‘If Bill Gates could be a failed college dropout and own a big company, well, I am at least a graduate.” Optimism, you see, it’s optimism that kills us Indians. With 2 wickets to go, facing the deadly Aussie bowling attack, and over 150 runs to make, we still feel we can do it!!

Anyways life went on. And Mr. Graduate tried to find something to sustain his life. But it was never going to be easy, definitely not for someone like Bunty.

His evenings were a bit easy though, walking all alone in the park, and for fun kicking the most feeble dog that he saw on the way. He did it everyday. For once even that dog got so used to the kick on its ass that at the particular time when Bunty used to pass from there he sat there keeping its ass in position.
The world loved Bunty, they surely did.
And then during one of these walks something happened that changed his life forever.
“Excuse me”…

The making of bubbly:


Born on the day when the rest of the world was watching Ms. Universe pageant, she was also the first child of her parents. And unlike a few rude, egoist people, she graciously accepted the love and warmth normally associated with the first child. She was mum’s darling and papa’s eye candy. She was sweet, the smile was eternal.
She grew up to be an even more beautiful child.

Art was her favourite. Right from the beginning. She drew abstract, much beyond what her mum and pa could understand.
Once she made a painting in which she depicted a family having their dinner and a dog also eating along with the family on the dining table. The parents were overjoyed to see the painting, never believing that their 13-year daughter could have done the whole thing herself. They obviously thought that their daughter demanded a cute puppy and so got her a poodle. But what they never saw was that in the table nowhere to be seen was Bubbly’s younger brother, Neil (that obviously was his nickname. Why? The story that is doing rounds is that once in a quiz he was asked, ‘What is moonwalk?’ ‘Moonwalk, I can show you that.’ And he stood up. Whereas everyone expected a Michael Jackson type thing all they saw him doing was a straight walking and a few slow-mo jumps. ‘What the hell was that?’ ‘Oh that was Neil Armstrong on the moon’ he said proudly doing a stunt as if he had hoisted the American national flag in the moon soil. Hence the name.) And obviously in the picture Bubbly had made comparison of his brother’s eating habits with the dog. But she never said anything about it to anybody. She loved her family; she would never like to say anything that would upset anybody, specially her brother.

She loved all her paintings. She always made them for herself, never wanting to show it to anybody. She used to get irritated if her parents showed her gallery to some guest or if they decided to put up one in the drawing room. But again she never said anything, kept her agony to herself, always.

One more time she painted one with a lot of colours. What everyone saw and appreciated was the wonderful colour coordination and the mosaic. Everyone seemed to like the painting for its patterns. What everyone failed to see was a smiling face that was made by the colours in the middle. Everyone appreciated the painting as the best she had ever made, the masterpiece. But no one till now had seen the face. And she never told anybody about it.
Once the astronaut, his brother Neil Armstrong came and said,
“Oh the face seems to be happy”
“Which face?” Bubbly said, not interested.
“The one in the painting in the hall.”
“YOU SAW THE FACE!!”
“Yeah I did. Now I know why you always look at it and smile. Didi you are great!” and they hugged each other. She was the world’s best sister, and he was the world’s greatest brother.
And then they used to sit hours together, look at all the paintings (most of which no one else knew even existed!) and talk about it. There was a lot of use of the colour green, stunning green as she used to call it. There were ones in which she had chained a girl (she wondered if the girl was she herself), in another she had depicted an aeroplane up in the gallows for execution (she was maybe inspired by the 9/11 attacks). An interesting one was in which she painted a bright colourful globe in a big bouquet of all black flowers (she obviously wasn’t happy about the Iraq bombings and thought this was the end of the world).

Her passion in art grew. And that changed her as a person. From a very exclusive, introvert she now made a lot of friends. That became her hobby. She loved the company of females. So much so that now most of her artwork was women inspired. She repainted one of her paintings (the girl in the chains one). Now it showed a girl with the face of a globe in chains!

She decided to join an art school, the best in the world, in Venice, Italy. Initially the parents were against, but at last they had to give in when they saw a new painting in their bedroom depicting just a rope wound like in the gallows, waiting for the worst!! They never opposed her ever again.

She went to Italy. There she learnt the best of the arts- renaissance, contemporary, catholic, modern; all of them. She gained a lot of acclaim amongst the teachers there. Her name and fame grew. And all this in the first year itself. She did not even turn up home for Diwali. She took a leave and went to Paris and saw the Louvre, the famous art museum of Paris, housing the famous Mona Lisa. She was a Da Vinci fan now.

Bubbly visited her parents in the winter break. They were still the best people she knew. How much she loved them, she only knew. And so was his brother, the astronaut. For the whole holidays she never put a feet out of home and decided not to paint any, while she was there. All she wanted to do was enjoy with her parents and brother. She even invited the kids of her aunt, all of whom had collectively not crossed her age! She enjoyed every bit of the time with the kiddoes. That was a holiday to remember.

The time had come again when Bubbly had to leave for the art capital of the world. She left for Venice. Once there, she worked and she worked hard. She became a workaholic. She loved painting on any kind of female subject. She got criticized for that a lot number of times. But she knew the ways to control criticism – power, ignorance or laughter. She used ignorance. She carried on painting many more like those and was started to be known in the big art critics’ circle.

Bubbly spent most of the free time in public places, watching people, objects and moments. She had a great observing power. Once she was in the famous central park in the US (she had gone to US as part of her assignment), where a street magician was performing his tricks.
“See the coins gone, it’s not in my hand. You can check,” He continued,
“Where do you think it is?”
Everyone seemed to be amazed looking at each other in excitement. Suddenly from those hushed voices of amazement a clear sound came forward.
“It’s in your back pocket.” Bubbly was pointing at his back pocket.
Everyone turned.
“Aah… hmm. Well… okk… Yeah it is. Well yes, there you can see it’s in my back pocket.” He put his hand in his back pocket to find it. He checked it everywhere, but to no avail; his trick had failed for the first time in a few hundred performances.
“Is this the coin?” Bubbly was standing there with the coin. Everyone was amazed. She tossed the coin towards the performer and moved on.

The semester ended and again the time to get joyful had come when she would be going back home.

How sad she was not to see anyone come to receive her at the airport. She checked all around but to no avail. Tried calling them,
‘The number you are trying to call is either out of range or switched off. Please try after some time.’
‘But they can’t do this to me,’ she thought. ‘They have to come.’ She again checked all around, got even an announcement made (and when the announcer expected a tip, she actually rebuked him, and told her how it happened in Italy). Finally convinced they were not there, started walking out.

“Trying to find me?” A hand came from behind.
“PA. How are you? And where were you all this while?’ She continued in the same breath, “and where is ma and my hero?” Anyone could see her eyes lit now.
“Oh they couldn’t come. Come we’ll go. They are waiting home.”

As they reached the car she knew her dad was lying. Everyone was there including her aunt’s kids. ‘This is life.’ She thought.

She devoted all the time to everyone home. Just took a short time during the evening when she used to go out all alone on a long drive and then a short run in the park. The rest of the time she was there, home, learning new recipes, showing her brother the paintings she’d made and playing with the kiddoes of her aunt, the eldest of which was a 6 yr old boy!!

This was the ‘very exciting’ routing of hers and she enjoyed every bit of it.

“Didi, today even we’ll go with you to the park.”
“No dear, Didi likes to go alone there,” she said in the sweetest of her tones.
“Please didi, we want to go with you.”
There was a 5 second silence. And then,
“Ok. Done. Get ready.”

And they were off; first the long drive, then a quick round of ice cream at McDonalds, and finally to the park.
“Ok. Didi has to go for a run. You all play here. Neil you take care.”
“Done”

And she ran the whole park twice. After every quarter she checked if all of ‘em were there playing. She was all soaked in sweat when she returned. But what she saw took her by storm.
‘Where the hell are they all?’
She had a quick glance everywhere.
Nowhere.
‘Come on. Where are they.’ She was shit scared. She thought of asking people. She approached the first person she could see,
“Excuse me”
….

































When Bubbly met Bunty:

“Yeah, what?”
“Well I am looking for four kids, 2 guys, 2 girls. They were playing just here,” pointing to the exact location where she’d left them.
“Sorry mam, I haven’t. Hope you find them.” And he moved on.
Strange man, she thought. But she had more important things in mind. KIDS. Where are they?
She started running looking in every possible direction.
‘The astronaut is too young for a prank like this.’ She thought. For once she actually prayed for all this to be a prank.
She could recall all that her parents had told her all the time to take care of herself - never talk to strangers, take care of strange people, children lifters and pickpockets.
And then came the image of rag pickers and beggars on the railway station.
NO. What am I thinking?
She ran even faster.

Bunty had completely forgotten about the girl who approached her. He was again alone thinking something as he did everyday.
But no, there was something missing today.
What?
The dog, yes, the dog, where is the dog?
It was supposed to be here, waiting for my kick.
And he saw it; it was just a cricketing crease away.
But wait. It is with a few kids, in fact exactly four, and in fact a pair each of the opposite sex. And he was reminded of the girl.
Now she was missing from the scene.

He walked over to the kids. The dog saw him and started wagging its tail as if the master had come.
“Hey kids. Aren’t you supposed to be with your Didi? I think she is finding all of you.”
“Who are you?”
“No one. But she is finding you, so wait here till I send her here. Ok. Don’t move. Mind it. DON’T MOVE.”
The way he said the latter part of the sentence was enough to pacify a tiger, here he had encountered just mere kids of which one suddenly started crying.
“And please just shut her up. Let her not cry please. I’ll send your sister as soon as I find her.”
He had not finished his sentence yet when another burst into tears. He thought of leaving soon. Maybe the kids did not like his face!! He wasn’t that bad looking, he thought.

Now he ran, and he ran as fast as he could. He started thinking when last he had made a sprint, but then probably the blood supply to the brain was lowered and he thought of using the available oxygen just to locate that female.
He ran, and he saw someone else do the same.

“Ma hm, you ids. There. Foun hm. The ha ere.”
“WHAT?”
“Wait”He took a deep breath.
“Mam, the kids. I think they are all there.” He pointed to a vacant place. “Oh sorry, there.”
“Oh yes. There they are.” She started running in that direction.
She’d barely run 10 steps that she stopped, looked back and shouted, ‘Come along.’
But Bunty had already started walking in the opposite direction, the same innocence on his face as if nothing had happened.
“Hey Mr. you” she said again.
A few heads did turn, all expecting the call for them. A few started staring at her in anticipation.
And then he turned, Bunty.
“Come along”
“No, the kids hate me. They’ll cry if they see me again”
“No they won’t, come along, it’s ok”

“So what do you do?”
“I study in Italy”
“Pipli?”
“No. Italy, Venice”
“Oh, what?”
“Art”
“Art as in drawing? Architecture?”
“Nope art as in art, what Da Vinci did”
“Oh. That’s different. Oh by the way am Bunty. And you are?”
“Am… Am Megha”
She did not look at him when she’d said that. A few seconds of silence, and then Bunty smiled as if he’d just completed a Su Doku and said,
“Right Ms. Liar. Next time think of a better name than a florist’s”
There was a florist sitting right there and her signboard clearly said, M/S Megha Flower Centre.
Bubbly laughed.

“Neil, I told you to remain there. I mean grow up yaar, do you know how scared I got”, she continued, now talking to the kids,
“Shtop Clying baba, now I am here. It’s ok now”

When he felt everything got settled, he said,
“So you come here everyday?”
“Yeah”, said Bubbly, now least interested, at least after he caught her telling a lie. She was a bit embarrassed too.
Bunty sensed it, and not trying to force himself, thought it better to take leave.
“Right Ms. Anonymous, take care”
And he left, not even caring to listen to what she responded with.
She had just started saying bye, but before she could end with the ‘b’ she found him walking away.

She reached home, but still thinking about the strange person she’d met today.
‘What was his name?’ ‘Bunty… yeah.’ And then she mimicked him, ‘Am Bunty, and you are?’ But then she got embarrassed again at being caught telling a lie. ‘Amazing that he caught me’
“Bubbly beta, dinner is ready”
“Coming Ma”

She woke up fresh as ever, nothing whatsoever of the day before.
He woke up fresh as ever, nothing whatsoever of the day before.

But then they both came to a common place in the evenings, the park.

She noticed him first, head down thinking something. She changed her course of running, moving away from the direction he was in.
‘Why did I do it? Am I scared of him? Or embarrassed? Why should I be embarrassed?’ Convincing herself not to do it again and not caring about him altogether, she did her running as usual.

He did not notice her that day.

The next day the same happened, she came, she saw and she ignored.
He never saw her.

“Oh. Hi. Bubbly that’s you right.”
“Yeah. You’re… Monika right.”
“Yeah. Oh my God, long time no see!!”
“True. What and where are you?”
“Am studying MBBS, where are you, heard you’ve flown somewhere to the Middle-East?”
“Oh no. Am in Venice, doing Arts major.”
“Right, yes, in fact someone told me that,” she continued,
“Hey Bubbly, listen, I have to take leave now, why don’t you give me your number, we’ll be in touch.””Sure. Note it down”
And then the two old friends parted. Bubbly thought of completing her run but gave up the idea pretty soon as she saw the ‘strange’ stranger coming from the other side.
She started to walk slowly out of the park, never trying to look in his direction. But something came to her mind, which just made her believe that he is staring at her, and in a jiffy she turned her head to his side.
They looked into each other’s eyes for a few slow seconds. Then it was the guy who blushed first.
She hated him. She hated him for everything, for his ignorant walk, for the way he caught her lying, for the way he looked at her, everything.

“Hi Monika, am so glad you called. So what’s up all the while?””By the way you just vanished after your 12th yaar. I mean remember how much together we used to be, the female gang of the school, and then suddenly all we know is that you are not here.”
“Forget it yaar, tell where is everybody else?”
And then they went on and on, all girlish talks, about everyone, and finally ending on their favourite subject, Shah Rukh Khan.
They had not said goodbye to each other when Bubbly’s cell rang. She picked up to see an sms, ‘Hello Bubbly is dat you?’
An unknown number!
“Hey Monika, listen, you passed on my cell number to anyone?”
“Nope, I’ve yet to. You don’t want me to or what?”
“No nothing like that. Chal bye for the time being.”
“See ya and take care.”

She hung up the phone but her mind was still on the sms, she thought of not replying but decided against, She wrote, ‘Yeah that’s me, who r u?’
The Nokia tone rang again
‘Wel, I saw you somewhere nd am moved by ur beauty. Plz don’t misundrstnd me.’
And then the next,
‘First am sorry 4 doing it all lke dis, dere was no other option.’
And then the next,
‘I dnt xpect nething frm u, nt even a reply, plz don’t be angry’

She obviously did not reply. She was sure it was Monika.
‘This Monika has not got any better, same kiddish pranks, God only knows why she does it. I’ll kill Monika for the prank.’

It was early evening, the phone rang this time, not an sms, and it was the downloaded Kaanta Laga tone that signified a call. It was the same unknown sms number. Expecting to find Monika online, she picked up
“Hello.”
“Hi, is that Bubbly.”
She was surprised to find a male voice over the phone, a dignified masculine voice.
“Y…ea…h. Who’s that?”
“I sent you the sms, just felt like talking to you. But I am really sorry for the sms. Please understand.”
“Right, but who are you?”
Bubbly was thinking as hard as she could, trying to remember any of her classmate who had a voice like that. But couldn’t.
“That’s immaterial, all I called is to say sorry. I mean probably not for the sms but the way it was done. I don’t intend to upset you. I just want to know an amazing person, I’ve seen a few times.”
“But how could you arrange this number, it’s a new SIM and not more than ten people know about it.”
“All that things later, I promise I’ll do it. You don’t know how much courage I had to gather just for this phone call. I’ll do it when I have gathered enough molecules of grit!!”
She laughed and replied,
“So Mr. Stranger, collect those molecules and we’ll talk then”
“My pleasure,” and he kept down the phone.

She was the first to sms this time, ‘Tell me who is playing a prank?’
The reply was almost instantaneous, ‘I hv nthng to prove its nt a prank. Believe me, its not. Am a stranger, a real one.’

Something in the sms made her believe the writer was not lying. But then who could it be? She doesn’t go anywhere and on top, the cell number, it’s almost impossible.
(At that very moment, she missed the advertisement on the TV; an Adidas commercial- Impossible is Nothing.)

‘Right, it has to be a prank then, there is nobody else,’ she convinced herself.
She was now getting ready for the evening jog of hers. She made sure the kids did not see her escaping home; she did not take them along.

It was late in the night when the stranger smsed again, ‘Hie hows life, hpe u r nt irritated by wht evr is gng on, please bear with me!’
‘I dnt think dere is ny scope for that. Till u r decent, am d same,’ she replied.
‘I dnt knw what u make of all this. But I am sorry.’
‘No nd 2 b sorry.’
‘Bt I am.’

They kept on exchanging messages till late in the night, when finally they realized that none of their respective dad was in Airtel!!
At the end of it, Bubbly had revealed most of herself to the still stranger. Something there was about the stranger that made her confident, ‘And anyways, what maximum can go wrong, nothing,’ she convinced herself.

The sms continued day in and day out and so did her daily routine. She felt happier though; the sms were out of her routine. And she used to think about them quite a while specially when she was alone in the park.

Once when she was running, did the cell ring. She knew it was an sms. It must be him. She was in a dilemma to stop or not, but she was a bit excited what new he had written, after all he had not smsed since late last night.

INBOX….
‘Bulla Ki jaana, Anjaane, Bombay Rockers jaise gaano ko apney doston ko sunaiye. Get Hello Tunes, call 621 Rs 10/min.’

She smiled, how many times does this happen, how eagerly you wait for something and it turns up what you never want. She smiled looking at the setting sun. Time to run again.

She stopped suddenly, after running just 5 steps.
‘Another message.’ She knew this time it was him. She knew it, she was confident about it.
And she was right.

‘Hows U? So Ms. Nancy Drew, found who dis irritatng prsn is?’
‘I’ll kill him whenever I meet him’ she literally shouted.
“You’ll poison me, strangle me or shoot me?”

This was a voice from behind. Before she turned, she repeated every word she had heard, yes that was indeed response to her cry.
She did that slowly. She did not expect anything. In fact he was scared.

“I said you’d poison me, strangle me or shoot me? Or do you want to sue me?”
And there he stood, the same innocence on his face, posing as if actually submitting his mortal body to her.

“Bunty, that’s what your name is. Right, so, was that you all the while.”
“True. And well… bye. I know you need time to digest everything.”
“Wait.”
But for the third time this happened. Before she could have said anything, he had started to move. And she knew there was no point calling him again.

‘Yeah it ws me. I know u d b surprizd. Am sorry I did it lke dis. I know u hate me. Sorry’ She read the message again and again. She did not know what to reply or to reply or not. She decided against.
He did not message her again that day.

Next morning Bubbly woke up with a bad mood. She knew it was for all that happened the day before. The first thing she did was to check her cell. There was no sms, no missed call. That irritated her more.
And then it rang, an sms. ‘Another Airtel one,’ she thought.
It was him.
‘Don’t be upset over what happnd yesterday, you ll be alrite soon.’
She replied,
‘Thanx. But d lst prson I xpect to console me is you, Mr. no more stranger!!’

Late in the afternoon, he smsed again,
‘So hw is mis beautiful? Can I hv the pleasure of hearing her voice?’
As soon as she had started replying, and a yes was all she wanted to write, the cell rang.

“Hie”, she greeted in the most gracious voice he had ever heard.
“Why to waste money of yours on a yes when I knew you had to write that.”
For the first time in the day she felt nice. Nice at the thing that she had till now always hated about Bunty, his ability to mind read her!
“Hmm… so how are you, Mr. no more stranger?”
“The name’s Bunty!”
“Yeah whatever!!”
“THE NAME’S BUNTY,” he said in an accent, which was forceful as well as cheerful.
“Ok ok. It’s Bunty only, its not Bill Gates,” She matched him word to word.

They talked for over an hour, about what? Well, about who is better, guys or girls. And at the end of it they both decided that since no one is going to win this debate, they would never take up this again.
“C ya”
“Bye Bubbly. Take care.”
“You Too.”

For the first time in the day she felt nice. She wanted to have good food now, so she took her dear mum to Dominos and ordered her favourite, Country pizza with extra cheese.

“Can I ask you, why is my lovely daughter so happy today?”
“Am I?”
“We are no fools beta, tell me, tell your dear mama.”
“Noting mum, please. Am same as ever.”
“I know why you are happy.”
Did she know it? But she couldn’t. A wave of fear kissed her heartbeat.
“Time to go back to the angrezi country, that’s why, right?”

She heard it and her face was down, same like in the morning. She had completely forgotten about the fact that her days in the country were numbered, at least for these vacations. And something there was that made her uneasy. She knew it was about Bunty, but she tried to convince herself that it had nothing to do with that strange chap.

They left more than half the pizza unattended. Her mum drove while returning.
“Mum I don’t feel like going back,” she said so softly that even she barely could hear that herself.
“What?”
“Nothing Ma,” and she deliberately stretched her lips to signify she was smiling.

His cell phone rang, an sms again. A quick prayer in the mind, ‘Please God, no Airtel.’
INBOX… Bunty… OPENING.
‘Bubbly, every word here is true, frenz I can mke but want sm1 as sweet as u. When I make a frend, I try 2 be fair, but if I gt u, well, I’ll gt more than my share!’

She read it and re read it, and then saw the mirage on the road. She read it again. She liked it. She replied,
‘So Mr. Poet huh. Nice one I should say. I’ll call you as soon as I reach hme. TC.’

That was afternoon. Then the evening, then the night. Bunty’s cell never rang. Early next morning, his patience was over. He wrote,
‘Promises r brokn, d phone calz late, condition’s worsend, nw even d WAIT has to wait. Tho ur attitudz apretiated for being gr8, I wndr on ur part if this is love or hate!’

And the next,
‘But then promises r made 2 b broken, nd friendshp is bound 2 b shaken. Baby, time 4 u 2 decide, either cme wth me 4 a ride, or run away and find a hide.’

She never replied to any. She called instead,
“You write well, the 4 liners were awesome.”
“They are ok. My poetry is bad, otherwise I think I could write well.”
“By the way, we’ve been talking for so many days Bunty, but there was one thing that amazes me.” She paused, then, “Where did you get my number from?”
“Hmm… next time you give your number to a friend in a public place, keep you voice down.”
She remembered the day she had met her friend in the park and gave her the number and could relate everything. She was happy that for once she did that mistake.
“Ok, hmm, that was bad, overhearing people.”
“Stop talking to me now then,” He said in a very authoritarian way, “Go on, do it.”
And there was a pause from both sides. The next line she spoke, all her enthusiasm was gone, and her voice had faded,
“I will, soon. Am leaving in 6 days.”

He hung up the phone.

Her mood was bad that day. She felt like skipping the jog, but the thought of meeting him there made her change her mind.
She ran the whole park, but could not see him anywhere. She stopped on a small hill to look around but to no avail. Suddenly, she found something was missing, ‘Where are the car keys? My God.’ She checked all her pockets. She remembered they were there when she last checked them while running. ‘Must have slipped out on the way somewhere.’ She started running backward, looking carefully everywhere. ‘Dad will kill me for this.’

And suddenly she saw it. She felt the sigh of relief. It seemed as if she had just won an Olympic Gold medal. There it was, the shining key with the golden key ring. Hah. The feeling was eternal. She had forgotten altogether about Bunty.

She started to move back towards her place.
The cell vibrated, another sms.
The red light was near, and she wanted it to be red when she reached there. It was.

She took out her cell and read the message,
‘The sunz bout to set, ur moodz synonymous 2 ur name, I bet. D misng key mst hve skipped ur heart beat, be happy, just look undr the drivers seat.’
She literally dropped her cell and checked for under the seat.
The cars behind started honking. She had forgot she was on the red light, which has changed its colour now. She stalled in a hurry. She turned the keys again, and moved forward, just a few meters ahead and parked the car.

It was a small wrapped gift.
‘A book?’ she was perplexed.
There was no note, nothing. She had never heard about the book or the author. The cell vibrated again. It was him again.
‘My fav car by far is a maruti Swift, bt that wud hv bn a useless gift. So accept dis book frm sm1 whoz gona die, its none other than Catcher in the Rye’

She replied there itself, the car still parked on the roadside.
‘Thanx a million. But why DIE. Please don’t say dat again.’
She knew the reply would be even faster, she was right,
‘U leave in a few days, am dead after that!’

Bubbly did not have the guts to reply to that message. What the hell was going on, she didn’t know. She also didn’t know if it was happening for good. She had to leave and that too soon. The very thought of leaving was eating her. The last few days of her life were nothing like she’d ever had. There was a person whom she had started liking, but it was so early for anything. She obviously did not love him, and did not expect him to do the same. But she liked him. He was not like anyone she’d ever met in her life. His physical presence could be felt, his innocence was killing, and so were his wits. She was now falling for all those things that she hated in him once.
But then she loved her work, she loved her studies and she loved that place.
‘Once I reach back there I would forget everything.’ ‘But why should I forget everything? I like him and I would like to continue my friendship.’

She went home and reached for the phone. She had to call him urgently,
“Hello, Bubbly, How are you?”
“Are you a friend for life?”
“What?” he was surprised at the sudden firing of the question, it came again,
“Bunty, are you a friend for life? Think about it and tell me. Bye.”
It was a kind of tit for tat. Before he could say bye, the phone had hung up.

He did not call back, he smsed. She received it, the hands were shaking to open and see it.
‘I am. But I know you are not.’
‘How can he say that? What does he mean? I know he trusts me, he does.’ She replied,
‘What do you mean?’
She was anxiously waiting for the message. She could feel every heart beat of hers. Every second that passed was taking a toll on her. She felt bad, really awful. For once she felt nothing of this should have happened in the first place. She felt a burning sensation inside her. She wanted to cry or to shout, she just wanted to burst out.
The cell phone rang,
‘Bubbly, I might be a friend for life. But you are life for a friend!!’
She expected no better answer. She lay on the bed, flat, looking at the ceiling, the cell phone still in her hands. It rang again. She picked it up very slowly, and read through,
‘The dayz not far when u ll go away, all I can do then is to pray. For u 2 keep liking me as u always did, or show me the love which u always hid!’

Every word here was essentially true. She could not stop herself from crying. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Suddenly the cell vibrated again, she desperately wanted it to be a call, but it was not.
Message.
‘The tears must be out by now, to stop them I don’t know how. So stop crying & pack ur bag, nd be true to ur Bubbly tag!’

For the second time in the day, she needed to call him, urgently.
She dialed the number,
‘Please check the number you have dialed. Thank you.’
She’d dialed the number wrong; she did it slowly the second time.

“I knew you would call, where?”
“McDonalds, 15 minutes. Fast”
She hung up. It was going to be the first planned meeting of theirs, a date.

Bunty was on the other side of the road when he first spotted her. She waved at him and then shouted from there itself,
“You are late.”
“I’ll be late forever once you leave.” And he laughed and started to cross the road.
“Bunty, take care, see the bus.”
He saw it and tried to run and finally jump on the other side. But he was late. The bus driver tried hard and applied the brakes, but still Bunty was hit from one of the corners. He lay flat on the road. There was blood around, real red blood.

Bunty was rushed to the hospital. Bubbly went for her home.
She knew all was not well. She called up his cell,
“Hi I am Bubbly, How is Bunty?”
“He is in the operation theater. We all are waiting.”
“Who are you?”
“I am Abhi, his friend, who are you?”
“I am his friend, he had come there to meet me.”
Just as he listened her say that, he hung up.

Bubbly had had nothing that evening. She lay alone on her bed thinking,
‘It was all my fault. I was the one who called him there. It was me who wanted to meet him. I was the one who wanted to propose him and fell free all my life. I wanted to commit myself to the most wonderful person there is. I am selfish. I’ll be responsible if anything happens to him. No, he will get fine. He will. I love him. Yes, I love him, my love will heal him. He will be as fit and fine as ever and we’ll be together for life.’

Tears kept on rolling her cheeks, until the whole was red. She herself did not know when she fell asleep.
It was a bright sunny day. She was all ready. Her hair was wet; she smelled the freshest thing there is. She took a bunch of flowers and went into the hospital. She entered into the coma ward. She was visiting him for the first time since the accident. There she saw on the bedside, his parents, Abhi and few other people she didn’t know. She went near his still body and changed the flowers in the vase. Everyone watched. She took Bunty’s hand in hers and knelt on the floor.
“Bunty, wake up, it’s me, Bubbly. Wake up.”
“Open your eyes Bunty, it’s me your friend.”
“Remember you said I was not just a friend for life, I was your life! Don’t you remember that? Open your eyes. Please”

It just seemed he heard everything, and was trying to do as asked. The next thing shocked everyone.
He opened his eyes.

Bubbly woke up suddenly. She checked out the time. It was 3:45 in the morning. She was till now dreaming.
‘Early morning dreams come true. He will live. He will for me. He has to.’

She literally jumped on the phone and dialed the number.
“Abhi, how’s Bunty?”
There was a few second of silence.
“Abhi, HOW IS BUNTY? Tell me. Tell me he is fine.”

“Am sorry, Bubbly, he is no more.”

EPILOGUE
20 years later.

Bubbly is well settled in Bangalore, married to an industrialist. She has a business of her own too, owning a few small art galleries in the city. She has two kids, a 19-year-old daughter Sanaa, and a 14-year-old boy, Karan.
“Mummy you had a love marriage with papa?” the boy enquired.
“No Beta, our parents got it arranged.”
Sanaa, waiting for her mummy’s answer now jumped into the conversation,
“So you must have loved someone before you met papa.”
“Hush, are you mad. No. Never”
“Humm… mummy, lying. Tell me, I won’t tell papa, promise.”
“Keep quite Sanaa beta and keep your interest in your work, and let me do mine.”
“My work’s done. Am going out. Have you seen my cell phone?”
“Yeah, I just kept it in your drawer.”
“Thanks ma, Bye”

She went to her room to pick up her cell. She found it exactly where her mum had told it to be.
‘Huh one message. Unknown number…’
OPENING
‘Hi Sanaa, is that you? Can we be friends? Please.’
…















THE END