My family and I - Chapter 15

Sona and I were on our best behavior the next day. We got up on time, for once we did not fight over who got the bathroom first and cleared up our respective rooms before we stepped out of the house. In our heads, one night of misbehavior could be cancelled out with one morning of a good one. But I was starting to believe it wasn’t the same for mum.

Speaking of mum, she was oddly indifferent to the change in our demeanor which only helped in freaking us out more. Sona and I made an unspoken pact. Until this matter brew over, we would look out for each other. That’s what sisters did right? Save each from their mother’s wrath.

This was actually quite tricky for me this time. Because I knew Sona was mad at me. And she wasn’t above playing tricks on me, despite our desperate situation. Who knew, under the pretext of saving me, she’d make me do something stupid. The last time Sona and I made such a pact, somehow I had got conned into doing all her chores.

Needless to say, I was on my guard.

Back in college, Neeta and I were greeted by some rather good news. Apparently, some other freshers had also come up with the master plan of sneaking out of their houses without informing their parents. But unlike my folks, some parents had picked up the phone and called one of his relatives who was a big shot police officer. Within an hour, cops broke up the party and sent everybody home. All the seniors too got in a whole lot of trouble. I guess the college authority thought there was some kind of mass ragging session happening.

Anyway, I was just glad that Sona had turned up and forced us to leave.  I’m sure we missed a bucket load of trouble.

For a change the seniors vs freshers ratio on the ground was better than the usual 10:1. So, all in all, college was relatively quiet. The anticipation of what was going to happen to me once I was back home, however was just too much to bear.

I reached home before Sona. I couldn’t bear the suspense anymore. Whatever it was that mom was scheming, I’d rather get it over with.. Soon!

My mum just smiled at me as I walked inside. Maybe she had decided to forgive us? After all, we were young and stupid and obviously, obviously we were going to do silly things. She could let this one go by, right?

A little hope surfaced. My mum’s demeanor was way too calm for it to be normal, I should have picked that up. But hope is a cruel emotion, it blinds all rationality. I dropped my guard and smiled back at her.

“College was sooo uneventful today.” I commented, breaking the ice.

“Uh huh..” mum acknowledged as she continued with her chores.

“So, how was your day?” I asked, encouraged by the lack of interest my mum was showing.

“Uneventful.. ” my mum commented indifferently.

I shrugged and made my way to my room. I opened the door and instantly a scream escaped my lips.

“Maaaa! Where is my stuff!!! I’ve been robbed.” I scampered out of the room, panic striken. From another corner of my house, I heard Sona scream, “What is all this junk doing in my room!!! Get it out!!! Pinku!! Get your trash out of my room!”

Oh no! she couldn’t have! She wouldn’t have! She shouldn’t have!

I stepped out slowly and faced my mom. The smirk on my mum’s face said it all.. That was our punishment. Sharing a room.

My family and I - Chapter 14

Sona had come on her bike.

“Ummm.. Sona, there are three of us.” I pointed out intelligently.

She ignored me as she put on her helmet. Behind me, Neeta cleared her throat and voiced my concerns, “Ummm, how are we going to go back?”

Sona glared at both of us, “Sit!” She ordered.

“Both of us???” I asked incredulously.

“I don’t have time for this.” Sona started her bike and started to ride away. I didn’t react, I knew Sona wouldn’t leave me and go. Unfortunately, Neeta did not share my confidence. She ran after Sona.. “Stop! Stop! I’m coming too!”

“Neeta!” I didn’t have the guts to disobey Sona alone. After much hesitation I cried, “I’m coming too.”

I tried to make our exit as inconspicuous as possible. I hadn’t dressed up classily to travel “tripps” on a bike. Thinking quick on my feet, I decided to let Neeta sit in the middle, so that I could have some distance from Sona. Of couse, after a while I began to question the smartness of my decision.

Sona made sure that she went over every pothole and every speed breaker. I was beginning to lose sensation in most of my body parts, maybe death would be less painful.

Even after we dropped off Neeta, I preferred to sit scrunched up at the far end of the bike. All I had to do was run back upstairs when Sona stopped and lock myself in my room. I would be safe until morning. Then mom would be around to save my ass. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

I prepared myself to jump off the bike as soon as Sona reached the basement. I took a deep breath as we approached the parking area and at the most opportune moment, jumped of the bike. It sort of felt like I had twisted my ankle, but I couldn’t stop now. Sona was already hurling abuses at me. I ran, as fast as my little legs could carry me. I turned around as I reached the house door and made a victory sign with my fingers. It was all over.. At least till tomorrow.

I pushed the door open and all my bravado went down the drain. Mum and dad were waiting in the living room and mum! Boy oh boy! She looked positively livid.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Sona came in behind me, almost crashing into me.

“You!” She started to scream at me when she realized we both weren’t the only ones in the room. She turned around slowly and gasped as she saw mum and dad, “Oh boy!” she muttered.

As it turned out, Sona too had sneaked out of the house. Dad had woken up in the middle of the night and found the main door opened and both his daughters missing. Panic had followed and dad had been close to calling the cops when mum had remembered the fresher’s party.

Sona and I got a lecture spanning two hours from how we had crossed all boundaries this time to how ungrateful we were to how we both were doing miserably in our academics. One thing I had learnt in my 17 years of life was that a mother’s lecture, knew no bounds. It could span any incident, any topic at any time.

After some time Sona and I stopped listening, while my mum kept screaming. My dad, just happy to see both daughters home safely had gone back to bed.

Sona interrupted my mum’s non stop barrage, “Can I just say something? This is all her fault!” Sona pointed at me accusingly..

“Me?!” I put on my innocent face, complete with the big eyes.

“You lied! About going! About some stupid message! How dare you?!” Sona had turned towards me and was spewing anger.

“I wouldn’t have to if you were even a little bit normal!” I retorted.

“Stop it! Stop it! I’ll do the screaming around here!” my mum interjected. “What kind of sisters are you? You are supposed to lookout for each other! Shame on you both!”

I scowled and looked away. I just wanted this night to get over.

Suddenly, a little smile appeared on my mum’s room. I really didn’t like the look of it. it was sinister in a way. I think it meant that she had thought of a punishment.

“Go to your room.” She ordered calmly, still smiling to herself. “Don’t think this discussion is over. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Sona and I glanced at each other. The calm before the storm?

My family and I - Chapter 13

I knew better than to ask. I grabbed Neeta’s hand and ducked into the nearest corner. What the heck was going on? Samrat with Sona?? Who would have ever thought! Was this my doing?

Hmmm, maybe I could play cupid here?

“What is all that about?” Neeta asked, her eyes following Samrat and Sona.

“I think they are on some kind of date..” I commented in amazement.

Turns out, we weren’t the only one watching this turn of events with great anticipation. More than half the crowd had stopped talking. All eyes were silently following Samrat and Sona. I wish I could say that they were so into each other that they were unaware of this but it was just painfully obvious that they were uncomfortable with all the scrutiny.

One thing that caught my eye, but would have missed the others’ was that Sona was wearing the same pair of shoes I had told her Samrat liked. It seemed like a classic case of –I-hated-you-so-much-because-I-actually-like-you.

I think eventually Sona got weary of all the speculation. She started walking away from Samrat towards the exit. Samrat waited for a moment before he followed her.

“We’ve to go!” Neeta whispered in my ear.

“No wait, this is getting interesting!” I shushed her and turned around.

“No no! Sona will kill us!” Neeta tugged at my arm and started slinking away.

I was getting exasperated, “Fine! Go!” I said, a little too loudly in the heat of the moment.

“Pinkoo, is that you?” Sona had heard me. I came out of my hiding place acting casual as though hiding in corners was the most natural thing to do.

“Oh hey Sona, I didn’t know you were coming..” I said, acting surprised to see her.

“I’m going to kill you!!” She said glancing at the crowd, some of whom had stopped staring at her. “Come on, let’s go.” She grabbed my hand and looked around. “Where’s your side kick?” She asked, referring to Neeta, I think.

“Sonam.. Hold on!” Samrat appeared. “Look, I’m sorry.  I don’t know what I said wrong, but I’m sorry!!” He seemed oblivious to my presence.

“I’m leaving.” Sona declared quietly. “Neeta?!” She called out, “We’re leaving, come on now.”

It was then that Samrat noticed my presence, “Your sister,” he said talking to me, “is a difficult person.”

I nodded in agreement as my sister caught hold of Neeta and marched out, calling my name.

“I got to go!” I declared and started slipping away.

“One last thing. Next time, ask your sister to keep her messages to herself.” I stopped in my tracks.

“Did you talk about that?” I asked, positively petrified.

He looked mystified at my confusion, “Of course!”

That’s it, I was dead.

My family and I - Chapter 12

I faced the mirror slowly, dreading the artwork that Sona would have painted on my face. I glanced at myself. I didn’t look quite like me. And even though Sona hadn’t done anything garish, I still felt it was a little over the top.

I made a face at Sona, “Its too much!” I exclaimed.

“Oh what do you know? Trust me..” She repeated.

I kept staring at the mirror, making faces. Suddenly Sona grabbed a cotton ball and threw it towards me, “Fine! Take it all off and see if I care!”

I stared at her as she stormed out of my room to her room, slamming all the doors in her way. I wondered what I had done wrong. It wasn’t as though she would feel bad about what I said, would she?

Didn’t matter right now. I had more important things to think about.

There were a couple of people who were on chauffeuring duty today. They had offered to pick us up, something like a carpool. I sneaked out of my house and walked briskly towards the gate of the colony. It was 9 o clock and people had already stared thinning on the road.

I waited impatiently and in a couple of moments, Neeta joined me. Maybe I was a bad influence on her, the goody two shoes, but hey! At least she would have something to remember her college days by with, right?

“Oooooooo!” Neeta exclaimed, “Smoky eyes! Nice!”

“Really?” I asked, genuinely surprised.

“Oh yeah! Looks great!”She said, probably expecting me to compliment her as well.. But there was no point in complimenting someone who knew she looked incredible, was there?

For the longest time, no one came to pick us up. We were close to panic when some familiar folks in a loud car stopped next to us. The party had just begun!

I wish I could say I had a good time, but the fresher’s party turned out to be more of a seniors party. Hardly a bunch of us had shown up and all of sat cowering in the corner as loud seniors greeted each other, scarcely bothered with our presence.

“Let’s go back home?” I asked Neeta.

She nodded miserably. She had probably expected to be crowned some “Miss fresher” or something so I guess she was more disappointed than I was.  We made our way outside, wondering how we were to make our way back when Samrat appeared.

He was just making his entrance.

And surprise of surprises!

Holding on to his arm and looking very much like her non-gothic self was my sister!