My family and I - Chapter 6

I bumped into my sister on my way back to class but looked straight past her! She however, glared at me as I walked by. Clearly, she hadn’t forgotten the morning incident. If she had gotten mad about that, imagine what she would do to me if she found out what I had just done?

Neeta and I stuck close to each other for the rest of the day, keeping an eye on any senior activity. In fact our vigilance ensured that we gathered a couple of fans and soon we were walking around in a herd looking extremely stupid, but hey! At least we were safe.

 Like fools, we let down our guard once we stepped out of college. One by one they left, congratulating each other on having survived the first day of college.  Eventually, only Neeta and I were left.

“Now which way do we go?” I asked, looking left and then right. I had a general idea which way we should be heading but I wasn’t sure about the buses.

“Let’s just take an auto!” Neeta said, flapping her arms trying to flag down an auto. Unfortunately, all she managed to flag down, were a bunch of horrid looking seniors who looked positively filthy, like they hadn’t bathed in ages!

“What luck!” one of them said, jumping out of the jeep. Neeta clutched my hand tightly. Something about these people was just plain off, I could just feel it in my bones.

“I’ll report you to the Principal!” I threatened them as they took a step closer. To my horror, this only seemed to tickle them and they stepped in a little closer.

“Oi!” A loud authoritive voice reached our ears and all of us turned around to see who it was.

Samrat, with a bunch of his friends and the cigarette. “All okay there Sup?” he shouted from a distance.

For a moment, I didn’t react. Then it struck me, he was addressing me! Sup?? Short for Supriya?

“You know him?” One of the dirty gang member, asked, looking a little flustered.

“Yes!!” I replied grabbing Neeta’s hand and running towards Samrat. I turned around as I was running. The horrid gang had all but disappeared.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Neeta and I thanked him once we reached up to him.

He laughed a little, “What were you doing, mixing with their kind anyway?”

“Oh no no! They cornered us!” Neeta said defensively.

He shook his head, “Run along now.” He said as he started to move the cigarette to his mouth. He caught me staring and stopped abruptly. “What?” he asked.

“Pinku!”

I shut my eyes and groaned inwardly. I had hoped Pinku would remain a secret, at least in college. I guess not. I turned around slowly. Sona was standing across the road, malevolence in her eyes, her arms crossed.

“Do you want me to come there and drag you away??” She asked me, positively frothing at the mouth.

 “I’m coming! I’m coming!” I made an apologetic face at Samrat and ran towards Sona who muttered under her breath, “Fraternizing with the enemy? Really Pinku! Lets go. Neeta? Are you coming or what?”

Samrat who had been watching the scene with great interest suddenly called out to my sister.

“Hey Sonam!” He said.

She glanced at him with a mildly annoyed look.

He held up the cigarette and then let it fall dramatically on the ground. “Turns out,” he said, “It doesn’t suit me.”

My jaw literally, was all over the floor! I looked at my sister, hoping she wouldn’t ask him what he was talking about.

“What a loon!” She exclaimed as she walked off leaving poor Samrat wondering what he had done wrong.

My family and I - Chapter 5

Neeta refused to step out of the class during lunch. I guess she was scared of bumping into Sona. Trust me, so was I. I had no intentions of giving Sona more reasons for killing me, but I had survived in the same house with her for 17 years and it was time to put my training in use.

I knew Sona hated the Sun, books, smelly places. Which implied the safe places for me to hang out would be either a) on the ground, b) in the library, c) around the loo. Since options b & c weren’t particularly attractive, I suggested to Neeta that we go around the campus ensuring we stayed in sunny areas.

“Are you kidding me?” She said, mortified that I could suggest such a suicidal plan. Walk around a campus full of seniors just looking for kids like us to torture.

“What? Don’t worry about Sona.” I said confidentally. “I’ll handle her. As for the others, they won't come near us because of Sona.”

“Really? Are you sure?” Neeta hesitated. I could tell she wanted to, but she wasn’t convinced with my assurances. I smiled to myself, she was no challenge for my smooth talking skills. Within a couple of minutes, Neeta and I were on the ground, under the blazing sun.

A couple of minutes passed and nobody approached us. My words turned out to be prophetic.. Maybe Sona’s reign of terror extended to her college as well?

Neeta was relieved but I was feeling oddly left out. I saw a group of seniors sitting at a distance.  I couldn’t believe I was actually trying to volunteer for getting ragged. I took two steps towards them when they suddenly became aware of my unfamiliar presence.

All my bravado disappeared and I started walking back rapidly.

“Hey! Stop!” A voice commanded.

I froze in my place, cursing myself for my stupidity.

“About turn..” the voice suggested. I turned around slowly, keeping my head down.

“I can’t believe it!” The voice said and burst out laughing.

I looked up, it was the same guy who had mocked my sister.

“So what do you want? How come Sonam let you out of her sight?” He asked, the question laced with sarcasm.

I had to do some quick thinking, I said the first thing that came to my mind. “I have a message from Sona!” I blurted out.

He stopped laughing abruptly and peered at me, “What?” he cleared his throat and asked again, “What message?”

“Uhhh…” I struggled to think of any plausible thing Sona would like to say to this guy, that too through me. “Its private.” I said, buying myself more time.

He looked at me suspiciously and then after a moment, put an arm around my shoulder and took me aside.

“So what is it?” he asked, opening a pack of cigarettes and lighting one.

If I had known then what a chain of events my next sentence would set off, I would probably have never said it or maybe I would have.

I looked at the cigarette in his mouth as he took a long slow drag and blew out the smoke? Was it called smoke? Anyway, he looked like an infinitely cool movie star right then and I knew what Sona would have told him if she was in my place at that moment.

“She thinks the cigarette doesn’t suit you.” I said.

“Sorry?” he asked pulling out the cigarette and staring at it and then looking at me with confusion. “What does that mean?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m just the lowly messenger.” I looked at him carefully. I just wanted to get him all flustered so that he would forget about me and it looked like my plan worked.

I tried not to laugh at his confusion but a snicker escaped me.

He looked at me, “Right, well.. Tell her I don’t care.. now get out of here!”

I nodded and started making my escape.

“Hey, what’s your name?” He asked from a distance

“Supriya!” I screamed as I ran away from him.

My family and I - Chapter 4

I tried to avoid her group by going around them, but one of them caught us.

“Look at these ones, trying to hide!” he said grabbing Neeta’s bag and pulling her into the circle.

For a moment, Neeta looked petrified, then her eyes met mine and I nodded towards my sister. She turned towards Sonam who hadn’t quite noticed who it was.

“Sona didi!” Neeta called out desperately.

I could see my sister freeze as she heard her name. She turned around swiftly and glared at Neeta and then started scanning the crowds. I realized she was looking for me, she knew Neeta and I came together. I bent a little and tried to make my escape.

“Gotcha!” One of the seniors exclaimed as she caught hold of my wrist. “Gosh!” she said, “You look a lot like Sona.. You’re her sister?” She asked.

I gulped furiously looking around for my sister. Her friend raised her hand and called out to my sister, “Here Sona! Your sister is here!”

That’s it! I was dead. Despite my sister’s warning, within five minutes of my arrival I had made it known to at least 30 people that we were related. Sona came over reluctantly.

“I told you to stay away from me!” She whispered as she tried to push me out of the group nonchalantly.

“What’s the hurry Sonam, we would love to meet your sister.” A tall, lanky guy came towards us. He didn’t look like one of my sister’s friends. For one thing, he wasn’t wearing black which was something like a uniform for most of Sona’s guy friends. Secondly, he actually looked quite nice and respectable. Thirdly, well.. he called her Sonam, none of her friends called her that. Nope! Most definitely not a friend.

“So is this what you look like without all that goop on your face?” He told my sister as he looked at my face intently.

Sona just donned an indifferent expression on her face and put a hand on my shoulder. I almost collapsed, was Sona showing some signs of protectiveness towards me??

“Take a hike Samrat.” Sona told him coolly and turned around dragging me and Neeta in tow.

“Both of you, out of my sight!  Now!” She ordered once she had deposited us safely in class.

I was feeling oddly nice. Despite the fact that Sona couldn’t stand me, she had decided to forgo her coolness (momentarily) to defend me. I don’t know from what, but still.. It meant something right? If this didn’t count as a measure of shishterly loue, I didn’t know what would.

“What a start huh?” Neeta muttered into my ear as she sat down.

For once I had to agree with her!

My family and I - Chapter 3

My dad and Mr. Bartakke were best of friends, which meant that they expected their kids to get along as a house on fire. Unfortunately for me Neeta was my age and an absolute pain. She was tall, skinny, with rosy cheeks and beautiful long hair. In short, she was horribly attractive and she knew it.

She was the apple of her parents’ eyes and sometimes, I wondered whether she was my parents’ favorite too! Both Sona and I had heard long lectures on Neeta’s perfection which was one other reason why we didn’t like her.

My lips drooped southwards as I saw Neeta come towards the car. My dad’s face followed suit when he saw Neeta’s mum behind her.

“Is it okay if I tagged along?” She asked my dad. Before my dad could reply, she got in with her daughter.

“Oh Supriya! What a lovely kurta!” Neeta exclaimed. I scowled at her, I knew she wasn’t being genuine.

So I played along, “Thanks Neeta, your kurta looks great on you.” The problem was, despite the fact that I wanted it to be sarcastic, my comment came as something genuine, because she did look great. That girl could carry off anything!

My dad dropped us off at the main gate and sat through another painful mother-daughter goodbye. This time, I was happy to be there. I sat there with an expression of glee as Neeta’s mum provided her with last minute pearls of wisdom. In my happiness, I didn’t see where I was getting off and I stepped straight into slush. I cursed under my breath, almost forgetting two grown ups who were very much in the mood of giving lectures were watching me intently.

“Pinkoo!” my dad admonished. I saw a look of approval on Mrs. Bartakke’s face. “Don’t you dare,” My dad continued, “Get that slush into my car!”

I snickered a little as Mrs. Bartakke realized why my father was chiding me but my joy was short lived. I put up my feet near the dashboard and wriggled my toes trying to shake the mud off.

“Don’t worry beta” Mrs. Bartakke reassured me. “It’s supposed to bring good luck!”  

“Maybe I should offer some to Neeta then.” I smiled politely and pretended to toss my slippers at Neeta.

“Eeeck! Ma!” Neeta jumped out of the car, shrieking.

“Both of you! Get out!” My dad half threw my stuff out of the car and drove away quickly.

First day of college and there we were, dressed like goody two shoes! And frankly speaking, my mum’s theory of wearing salwaar kameez didn’t really seem to be working. As I looked around, the only people I could see walking around in salwaar kameez were timid people, all freshers like me from the looks of it.

I could see a bunch of freshers standing in the middle of the ground, surrounded by a bunch of seniors. They looked like a bunch of gazelles waiting to be devoured.


And standing in front of them tapping her foot impatiently was my sister!