Khai 'singh' na puchaar ko 'bhayo' jastai cha lekhai. Makai bhuteko jastai lekhdai gayera yeso padeko afulai nai amilo amilo lagyo. Tyaipani, paskeko chu sajha ma. *****************8--------------------------------********************** I stayed with some students I knew over there. I knew them alright, but even then, they were not the kinds we would normally hang out with. They were nice people. Good people. No I/We was/were not bad person/s; we just did little bad stuffs. Well, who hasn't ? Their apartment was near to my ex-college, my ex-apartments & so many of my ex-memories. I knew that she visited that area frequently. She had some 'friends' in that area. It was weird. It has been a year and half since we last met. And I still felt something you know.... perhaps a 'Keema' of fear, excitement, desire, ange, and then nothing; an emptiness. It is hard to describe. Anyways, I needed to meet Vilas. I wondered if he still works there. I wanted to taste that juice; those magic potions. I bet Vilas would be glad to see me. After all we were his regulars from old times. Oh yeah, he worked @ the nearby pharmacy shop. Just I was approaching that shop, my mind started to recollect our conversation after she caught me red handed, I believe not for the first time. 15- 20 pieces of blue, white, red had fallen from my pocket. I usually don't put anything on my shirt pocket & this is exactly why I don't. She was shocked and asked what those were. I vehemently denied in fear of more questions, and insisted it was my pain killers for my legs. It just came in different colors. Thank god she did not see those small bottles or maybe she did. She then said, "You know 'indi', some people takes it to get high." I retorted, "Do you mean I do that too?" She said, "I think you don't. You are in to sports and everything. But people do. And it is bad." A sigh of relief ran across my face. With a medical background in the family, she certainly knew much about medicines. Was she really that na?ve, or there was more to it ? Anyways, I reached to the shop. I could see Vilas inside. I had a friend there. Subhas. Among all my Indian friends, perhaps he was the only one who was not 'into' some 'stuff'. He was good person, into bodybuilding. A shy guy. Often he took me to that place, a local hangout in front of a park, to see that one girl he liked. For months he used to just look at her. I urged him often to go and talk, but he never had guts to do so and therein laid the tragedy. As it turns out, he had gotten married to someone chosen by his brothers. I was surprised; even being couple of years elder to me, it was way too early. Of course it shouldn't have been a problem, since they were from a well off family into construction & such. Despise or disagree as much as one wants, but it does play a major role in the society we live in. He was also a fashion designer with his clothing line, a small one though. Even with everything taken 'care of', I was wondering how he's dealing with his every day life. To my surprise, he was doing quite well. And my 'bhabi' seemed like a very nice lady. After we came out of his fancy apartment, he asked me, " Kaisi hein ?" (How is she ?). I told him, "much better than 'that' gir.l" Well the fact is, we'd never know. But that made him happy I guess, and I sincerely felt she was the right girl for him. And the best part of meeting him was, I got his 2 stroke engine to ride, for as long as I was in the city, since he had graduated to a nice four wheeler.