"Oasis" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

The day after the long walk, I got out of my bed with great difficulty and somehow managed to go to class. 

Myra had asked me on the way to class, “What? How come you were out until 3:30 AM? Are you mad?”

It still did not make sense that I spent so much time with Anusha and Rishi but when it gave me happiness, why question? 

I sat in my place when Rishi came running into the class. He did not look sleep-deprived like me. I looked at Anusha, she did not look sleepy at all. How come I was the only one who looked as if I hadn’t slept for a thousand years! 

Also, I’d expected awkwardness between us three after last night’s long walk but I did not even feel an ounce of it anymore. Maybe that’s how friendships are born, unexpected and deep.

Gaurav, our instructor took attendance and started the session. I once again got “Good luck” emails from Myra and Arjun. Somehow, I was not interested in Gaurav like before, I think my fondness for him lasted for about a week. Guess that’s why they call these short-lived feelings “crush” and nothing serious. On the other hand, the word “Love” sounds so serious, it has a different feel to it too. I was thinking along the same lines when Anusha nudged me. Gaurav had stopped the class was looking at me gravely. I panicked and looked around. The whole class was silent. 

“Yes, ma'am. Does my class sound like a lullaby to you?”, he said.

I was shocked at his rudeness. I couldn’t believe Gaurav could be so stern!

“No sir”, I stumbled. 

“I expect my students to be attentive in class. Can you please go out, have some tea and come back when you’re ready?”, he said.

“Sorry Sir, I am always attentive in classes. I am not feeling well today.”, I said. I felt quite indignant, this happened for the first time. What’s the big deal?

“Which is why am suggesting you to come back when you’re ready.”, he insisted. At this point, I felt insulted and left the classroom without speaking another word. I was able to feel all eyes in the classroom following me. 

So much for having a crush on him all these days! I was angry, humiliated, and sleepy. Instead of waiting there for 10 minutes and go back to the class, I started walking very fast and did not stop. I'd decided to skip the class and go straight to my room. I knew this was reckless but I did not care. I was getting messages to my phone but I did not check them. After walking for 15 minutes or so, I reached my hostel. I was surprised to reach it so quickly, it usually took 20-25 minutes. 

However, on reaching the hostel, I did not feel like going to the room and walked towards the Oasis food court. I wanted to gather my thoughts, have some tea or coffee, and then go back to the hostel room. 

The Oasis food court was a 5-10-minute walk from our hostel. On seeing the umbrella-shaped familiar food court, I felt better. The food court was large and spacious and had a lot of ventilation due to the umbrella-like canopy. 

 Also, this was home – we came to this food court at least once a day either for lunch or dinner! I stepped inside it and choose a table. I looked around, the food court which was always buzzing with trainees had almost nobody around.

I checked if Café Coffee Day was open and walked towards it, ordered a Cappuccino, and went back to my table. I checked my phone – there were messages from Myra and Arjun, they were worried about me. 

In about 5 minutes, I picked up my order and had a sip of the coffee. I felt alive. With each sip, I felt much better, and by the time I finished the whole cup, I had a slightly positive outlook on what happened. This is what coffee does to me.  

I started sending a text to Myra and Arjun when I suddenly got Anusha’s call. It must be break time.

“Where are you?”, she asked.

“Oasis”, I said. 

“She’s at Oasis”, she said to someone and hung up the call. I was puzzled. In about 5 minutes, I was just about to leave the food court when I saw Myra, Arjun, Anusha, and Rishi walking towards me! I was shell-shocked. They had bunked the class for me and I was touched by their gesture. Tears began welling up in my eyes. One look at me and they seemed to understand. 

 “I’ll get some coffee, am sleepy”, Arjun said in a pretentiously normal tone and walked towards Coffee Day.

“I’ll help him with the order”, Myra said and followed Arjun. 

“I am very sleepy, so I’ll help them”, Anusha said, feeling stupid of her lame excuse. 

I laughed. Soon, Rishi also left on the pretext of helping them.

I wiped my tears and gave a happy sigh. 

When they came back with coffees, everything was back to normal and we all spoke as if nothing has happened. Since that day, the Oasis food court grew closer to my heart.

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Night strolls & New friends" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After our tip-off on “Enthiran” movie tickets, we became quite popular amongst our college friends. They thanked us profusely and invited us to dinner the following day, which was Sunday. 

“The Golden Grass restaurant is located right outside the campus. Let’s be there by 7PM”, Manish said. He was the leader of the boys and usually planned everything.

Myra, Arjun, and I had plans of going to the Golden Grass the following week but we were happy to go with a larger group and agreed to the plan.

The next day at about 6:20 PM, around 15 of us gathered in front of our hostel to go to the restaurant. We walked to the main gate and reached the restaurant by 7PM. 

The restaurant had a beautiful entrance and on entering it, it had large open grounds like a resort and had small huts, one each for a dinner party.

Looking at the long queue, we were glad to have a reservation and were shown to our hut very soon. It was beautiful inside. About 2-3 tables were joined and we all took our seats. We ordered almost every appetizer that was on the menu and ordered biryani for the main course. It felt nice to spend time with our college friends. Soon, the appetizers came by and they were delicious. The food had a very dhaba-like flavor to it just like the hotel. The main course was very good and so were the deserts. After a scrumptious meal, we paid the bill and started to the hotel.

We were all walking towards our hostel and almost reached it when Anusha said, “Does anyone want to come for a night stroll?”

It was around 10PM and sounded like a bad idea, the next day being Monday. However, I could not say “no” the idea of going for a night stroll in such a beautiful campus. 

“I’ll join you, but let’s come back soon”, I said.

Nobody else wanted to join us and they all went back to the hostel. We were just about to start when Rishi, who sat beside Anusha joined us. 

Anusha and I looked in surprise to see who joined us. We were both a little wary of him because he was quite observant and teased us quite often.

“Can I join you?”, Rishi said in apprehension.

“Of course”, I said.

 “Which path shall we take?”, he added.

“Let’s just explore”, Anusha said.

The three of us started walking and initially spoke about the classes and lectures. 

Rishi then said to us, “How come we never met in college?”. This led to a discussion on our college days.  We spoke about our classmates, seniors, all the ragging, friends, crushes, love stories, and so on. We just went on and on and on. We did not care how far we were going because we knew that we were safe on this well-lit campus. I kept checking my watch from time to time at first. After a point when it crossed midnight, I stopped checking time. I just wanted our conversation to go on and only stop when we’d finally shared everything that we wanted to. 

After a while, my eyes felt heavy and right on cue, Anusha said, “Let’s go back?”. I checked the time, it was 3:30 AM. Luckily, we were not very far from the hostel and within 10 minutes, we reached it. 

There was an awkward silence before we left. I looked at Anusha and Rishi: never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I’d do this with them. Within a few hours, we bonded so much that the three of us knew one another like old friends. I knew they were thinking the same. We finally said “bye” and left. On reaching my room, I closed the door and thought, “How come I never met them in college ?”….

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Multiplex"- Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 On Saturday, I was still fast asleep when Arjun called me.

“Hey Priya, wake up and get ready immediately. Enthiran is playing in the Multiplex theater today, let’s watch it”, he said in an urgent tone. 

“Enthiran? What movie is it?”, I asked him.

“Really!! You don’t know about Enthiran - The Robot! It’s Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai’s much-awaited movie, directed by the legendary Shankar. The music is by A.R. Rahman.”, he said.

“Oh! Are you talking about Robot!! When’s the show?”, I asked, suddenly excited.

“The afternoon show is at 2 PM, let’s try for the tickets. There’s going to be a very long queue. If we don’t get tickets, let’s try the evening show. “, he said.

“It’s only 10 AM. “, I said.

“It’s Rajnikanth movie”, he said in a slightly annoyed tone, “People are already leaving for the tickets. And as you already know, each person will only get 1 ticket. “

“Are we watching the Tamil version? But how can we understand?”, I asked. Arjun did not reply, I knew he was irritated by my questions.

“I’ll meet you in 30 minutes. Call Myra, I’ll call Anusha”, I said and hung up.

I called up Anusha, informed her the same, and asked her to inform Swati and any of her other friends. 

I turned the kettle on to heat water and got ready at jet speed. I then added milk powder to the hot water in a bowl and loaded it with chocos.  I took the bowl with me and knocked on Myra’s door to check what she was doing. She was having corn flakes and had a comb in her hand. She gave a thumbs up and went back to my room to finish my breakfast. Myra and I had very similar habits and usually took the same time to get ready. Having this coordination with someone was a boon. 

After my hurried breakfast, I knocked on Anusha’s door. I knew she would be ready and as I’d expected, she came out of her room with a wallet in her hands. Swati was also ready. We locked our rooms and hurried downstairs. 

Arjun, Chetan, and Suraj were waiting for us. We said a quick “hi” and started jogging.  Many people were doing the same and we knew where they were all headed. 

                                                                                    *

We finally reached the dome-shaped large theater, which was also called Multiplex. The theater was located in the heart of the campus and was one of the most popular places on campus. The glass dome had ridges on it and the building was surrounded by a clear path full of greenery. It also had a small fountain flowing down the steps. It was an architectural wonder and my favorite place on the campus. 

There was a long queue of about 100 trainees. We looked at the queue in disbelief, it was only 10:40 AM and the movie was in Tamil. I was sure that not everybody understood Tamil in the campus. But the craze for Rajnikanth’s movies had no language barrier. 

“No chance of getting tickets”, Chetan said. 

We ignored him and started walking towards the end of the queue and joined it. The queue was moving very slowly. In about 15 minutes, the queue turned into a circular shape, surrounding the Multiplex building. 

We sat on the clean grounds with our backs against the building. 

A month ago, we were stunned to see the prominent dome-shaped building and stand in its vicinity. Today, we were leaning against it and it felt extremely special.

At about 11:30 AM, we were about 6 feet away from the ticket counter when someone shouted “House Full”. 

All people in the queue started shouting. Management personnel came out of the ticket office and shouted, “Go back”. We were highly disappointed and started complaining. 

One by one, people started going back when I got an idea. I went to the officer and said, “Sir, it’s my friend’s birthday today. He wants to watch the movie today. “

“You came late”, he said in a disinterested voice.

“Sir please let me know when the ticket counter would open for the evening show. Please give us an estimate. We did not have breakfast yet.”, I said pointing to my friends. They all looked at me in suspicion but that look helped. They looked disappointed, hungry, and lost.

The officer said grudgingly, “Come at 1:30”, 

Looking at me, many others started approaching the officer and he waved them off and left. 

“The counter for 6 PM’s show opens at 1:30 PM. Don’t tell anyone.”, I said in an excited tone. The others were elated.

“Maybe he’s lying”, Chetan said. I ignored him.

“We still have 1.5 hours. Let’s have lunch and come back soon”, Myra said. 

“1.5 hour is a long time”, Chetan drawled. 

“Why don’t you go to Loyal World? You can easily pass the 1.5 hours there”, I said to which Myra laughed. 

Arjun, Anusha, and Swati looked at us questioningly but we refused to tell them. I did not feel like sharing our little joke.

 We had a quick lunch at the Magna food court in GEC2. During lunch, we decided to inform our college friends about the ticket counter. We sent an email to our college group.

At about 1:20 PM, we reached the Multiplex. I was tensed about the ticket counter, what if the officer does not open it? In about 5 minutes, 10 of our college mates joined us. Only our group was at the Multiplex. I reached the counter tentatively and knocked on it.

“5 minutes”, the officer replied. I sighed with relief. 

In about 5 minutes, the officer opened the counter and we got the best seats and an entire row for ourselves. 

Elated with our tickets in hand, we all regrouped again at 5:30 in the evening. There was a queue to get into the theater and everyone was talking excitedly. 

“The movie is a hit”, someone said.

At last, it was our turn to enter the theater. The inside of the theater was very noisy and it seemed very crowded, despite the huge hall, high ceiling, and about 300-400 seats. We reached our seats after a very long time and sat in our row. 

The movie started with huge applause and when Rajnikanth came on screen, people went mad and screamed until their voices went sore. The movie was in Tamil, which I did not understand. There were no subtitles either, but we understood the context and did not mind the language barrier. We were enjoying the festive atmosphere which was very infectious. When the Robot-Rajnikanth danced to the “Arima Arima” song (title song), the crowd roared, whistled, and clapped so hard that I couldn’t hear anything for the next 2 minutes. 

The multiplex management expected decorum from the trainees but there no laws where Rajnikanth was involved.

2.5 hours later, we all walked out of the theater feeling jubilant. 

Watching such a highly engaging, super-hit movie in one of the country’s best theaters is indeed one of our best experiences to date…

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Loyal World" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 The next day, I reached class and took my seat. 

"Who do you think is going to take today’s session?”, I asked Anusha.

“Should be Gaurav”, Anusha said. We’d decided not to address him as “Sir” because he was a temporary instructor.

Right on cue, Gaurav entered the classroom. 

An email popped up – it was from Myra, with Arjun in cc.

“Enjoy the class”, it said. 

I smiled and showed Anusha the email. She gave a big smile.

Gaurav suddenly looked at the two of us, we must’ve looked very silly. 

“Good morning”, Anusha said and smiled.

He gave us a dubious smile, but nevertheless, he smiled at us. That was enough for the day :D

“Congrats”, said another email. It was from Arjun. He must have seen our entire exchange, he sat in the first row too. 

“Silence”, Gaurav said. The class started settling in. He then took attendance and switched to the session.

Gaurav covered some important concepts and the session went well. He was a good teacher. 

After the session, we had a long break and decided to go to Gazebo to have bun samosa. Myra and I had run out of groceries in our hostel room and did not have breakfast that morning. Chetan, Suraj, Arjun, Anusha and Swati joined us too. Seeing us all go, another college friend of ours, Rishi also joined us. Rishi sat between Anusha and Swati, we spoke occasionally during practice sessions. 

“Is something going on with the instructor?”, he asked Anusha and me.

I was shell-shocked. I did not expect this to be so obvious. I instinctively looked at Anusha which he did not miss.

“Then, something’s definitely going on”, he said and started laughing.

“No, what do you think is going on?”, Anusha shouted at him.

“Raising your voice doesn’t prove your point right. If you’re getting defensive, then am sure something is going on”, he said. 

“No, there’s nothing of that sort”, I resorted to a very calm voice and gave him a serene smile. 

“Your pretentious calmness further proves my point.”, Rishi said and started laughing. The others joined him and of all, Chetan’s laugh was the loudest. 

“So stupid”, he said. I turned around and glared at him. He was walking with Myra, Arjun, and Suraj. There’s definitely some rivalry going on between him and me, I was sure of that.

I sent a text to Anusha which said, “We need to be careful, Rishi seems to be very observant”. She checked her text and nodded to me. 

We reached Gazebo and ordered bun samosas. 

“Hey Myra, let’s go to Loyal World today. We need to buy groceries”, I said and regretted it instantly.

Chetan said that he’d join us. The whole while, he’s been smirking at Anusha and me and was not letting the Gaurav thing go. This was all okay, but going to the “Loyal World” supermarket was like “me” time and I did not want him there as well. 

The "Loyal World" supermarket was located in the ECC building beside Multiplex and was always busy. However, we’d discovered some timings when it had less traffic and often spent a long time there -choosing, checking, and buying our favorite ready-to-eat items. 

At around 5PM, we started to Loyal World. “We” in the sense: Myra, Arjun, Chetan, Suraj, and I (Chetan was always followed by Suraj). The class usually did not disperse until 6 PM and people usually finished all the problems and then left for the day. We, however, did not finish our assignments for the day yet but the instructor hardly checked our work. 

5 – 6 PM was usually the best time to go to Loyal World. We reached the store and headed off in different directions. I went straight to the ready-to-eat section and picked up Kellogg’s Chocos. I then started browsing the store. There were rows full of groceries. You could find everything and anything in this store. As the campus had about 10,000 people, one can estimate the product range and quantity. The store itself was not very huge but it had everything available.

I picked up some ready-to-eat noodles, chips, biscuits, and fruits. 

I was just heading to the toiletries section when I saw something unusual. Chetan and Suraj were reading the instructions written on a sanitary napkin packet. Suraj was holding it in a secretive manner. I was startled, I did not know how to respond. I immediately went to Myra, signaled her to be quiet, and led her to that section. To my luck, they were still reading. Myra looked stunned, she looked at me silently and then laughed at them loudly. They both jumped and threw the packet.

“Is there so much to read on that packet?”, she said and left the section. 

I stayed back and laughed for an extra minute. I’d taken my revenge on Chetan for laughing at me that afternoon. He seemed to have understood it and looked angry.

We soon went to the billing section, paid for our groceries, and started to the hostel. 

On reaching the hostel, we bid bye to the boys and just before they started leaving, I said to Chetan “Want to visit the Loyal world any time soon? “. Myra and I laughed while Chetan and Suraj looked sheepish. Arjun looked confused.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow, Arjun”, I said and left the place, feeling satisfied…

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Killer Smile" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After the weekend in Bangalore, we were too tired to go to the office on Monday. However, we did not have the liberty of skipping classes and dragged ourselves to the class, right on time at 8:59 AM.

There was a new instructor and he looked very young, hardly 5-6 years older than us. 

“He’s a temporary replacement for the Professor, his name is Gaurav”, Anusha told me.

The temp instructor recorded attendance and then displayed the session’s slides. He looked very scholarly and had a serious temperament. After a few slides, there was a code snippet on the slide which we had to fix. He asked us all to open a particular software and came to our row to check if the app was working on our machines. It was working as expected on my machine and while leaving, he smiled at me. I was suddenly thrown off by his smile, he looked contrastingly handsome. It was as if his whole face lightened up with his smile. That was killer!! I suddenly became conscious of my disheveled hair; we had jogged all the way to the class.  I could do nothing then to straighten it up. 

Gaurav then went to check Anusha’s screen. He looked extremely serious with no trace of a smile. I started wondering if he really had that smile or if I’d imagined it. He then gave a thumbs up to Anusha and gave that smile again! I looked at Anusha and laughed at her expression– unlike me, she couldn’t conceal her feelings. She looked at me thunderstruck and we soon started giggling. I don’t think I’d giggled since a very long time. 

Gaurav resumed the class again and we both started looking at him in a different light. And we had a valid reason to listen to his class, so why not? We were waiting for him to smile again. At a particular moment, when he turned sideways, he looked like the actor Hrithik Roshan from the movie, Guzarish because of his beard (not features-wise). 

“Guzarish”, I said to Anusha.

She immediately understood and stifled a laugh. 

The bell rang soon and we groaned.

When he was leaving the class, Anusha started singing: “Tu meri adhuri.. “ from the movie “Ghajini” and I joined her. We loudly said the word “hey Guzaarish” in the song and laughed out loud. 

It was a Iot of fun doing it with a friend. 

I said to Anusha, “Finally, we got the perks of sitting in the first row”…

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Jailed in Jaya Nagar" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 “What plans this weekend?”, Myra had sent us an email. We were in the classroom and a Database practice session was going on. Usually, the practice sessions did not require our full attention, we just had to finish the assigned tasks during the session.  

“Nothing specific, why?”, I replied. 

“I might have to go to Bangalore to visit my aunt this weekend. Do you guys want to join? We can start to Bangalore on Saturday early morning, stay at her place on Saturday and start back to the campus on Sunday morning”, Myra’s email said.

“Sure, why not?”, Arjun replied.

“Is it okay if we visit your aunt’s place? Can we go to any places nearby?”, I asked.

“Yes, it’s absolutely fine if you accompany me. Regarding places to visit, I cannot promise that.”, came her reply.

I was excited about this trip, I had visited Bangalore when I was little but never later. Also, the training was getting tougher and it was time to cool off some steam.

*

On Saturday at 6AM, we boarded a bus to Bangalore from the CBS (Central Bus Station) in Mysore. The bus journey felt very quick and we reached the Majestic Bus Station of Bangalore in about 3 hours. 

The bus station was extremely busy and Arjun guided us to a different part of the station. He had done some research on local transportation for this trip.

“Let’s take a bus, we are new here and don’t want to trust the autos or taxis”, he said to us. We nodded.

A local BMTC bus came by and Arjun pointed towards it. We followed him. He then asked the conductor, “Jaya Nagar, 5^th block?”, 

“Houdu” (yes), the conductor replied in Kannada.

We took three tickets and since we were the first ones to get into it, we got nice seats. The bus got full in the next few minutes and we were glad to have hurried up. The bus started and took us through the roads of Bangalore. The first impression that I got about Bangalore was – it had wide roads and it’s a busy place. 

About 35 minutes later, the conductor shouted, “5^th block”, and we got down.

“Your aunt’s place is just 5-minute walk from here”, Arjun said.

We started walking and were admiring the serenity of that area. It had the city vibe, yet it was so peaceful. It was a residential area.

We reached her aunt’s place in no time. She stayed in apartments and it was a very large area and had lots of greenery. 

Her aunt received us and was very happy to see Myra. She then greeted us, asked us to get refreshed and have breakfast. We joined her in the dining room in about 15 minutes, she’s made dosas for breakfast. 

“So aunty, how long have you been staying here”, I asked her.

“I moved into this apartment 5 years ago. But I’ve stayed in Jaya Nagar all my life. It’s a wonderful area and has seen so much growth in the last 10 years”, she said.

“This does seem like a very large place”, Myra replied.

“Does this area indeed have 10 blocks, aunty?”, Arjun asked. Whenever Arjun does research, he likes to show off.

“Yes, it does. Jaya Nagar is one of the first planned neighborhoods of Bangalore. All the blocks except the 3^rd and 4^th blocks are residential blocks. The third and fourth blocks are commercial blocks. Earlier I used to stay in the 6^th block. It’s a nice residential area too.”, she said.

“Sounds interesting. Is it, in general, a rich neighborhood?”, Myra asked.

“Yes and no, I would say it’s a mix. But this area does have lavish homes of celebrities. For example, your Infosys Chairman, Narayana Murthy also has a place here. “, she said. We felt excited, Mr.Murthy could be here nearby !!

“And many more cricketers, actors, and celebrities”, she added, laughing at our excitement and handing us filter coffee.

“Why don’t you guys go to dinner today, 3th and 4^th block have nice restaurants”, she said.

“Nice idea, aunty”, Myra replied. 

I took a sip of the filter coffee, it was heaven.

“Thanks for the coffee aunty, it’s quite refreshing”, I replied.

Myra and aunty slowly started getting into their family issues; Arjun and I excused ourselves on the pretext of searching restaurants for dinner and took our coffees to the living room. 

“I don’t think we have time to explore Bangalore this time, let’s explore Jayanagar and leave early for dinner”, Arjun suggested.

I agreed and we started looking for restaurants. A place called “Central Jail”, caught my eye. It’s a prison-themed restaurant where we can pretend to eat like inmates for fun. We decided to go to this place for dinner.

We had a simple home-cooked lunch in the afternoon and went for a walk in the neighborhood. It was a lovely place and was very peaceful. By 7 in the evening, we started to the restaurant and reached in about 30 minutes. 

The place was hilarious. A prison-uniform-clad mannequin was at the entrance of the restaurant. Inside the place, the walls were plastered with posters which said “Most Wanted”.

We entered inside, there were booths in chained-up jail cells, guns hanging from the ceiling, etc., and many more creative props. 

We chose a cell and ordered food from it. The whole thing felt very unique and we had a splendid time that evening……

The next day on our trip back to Mysore, we were discussing our trip when an idea struck me. I decided to implement it on Anusha, who was very naïve sometimes.

“We were jailed yesterday”, I told an astounded Anusha and cooked up a serious story. I then showed her some pictures – the three of us had long and sad faces and we were beyond jail gates.

She was very sympathetic but within a few seconds, she said,

“But wait a minute! How did the jailer agree to take so many pictures of you three?”, she said, scowling.

I did not stop laughing for the next 5 minutes...

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

“I Too Had a Love Story” - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 Prelude: This chapter is dedicated to the novel “I too had a love story” by Ravinder Singh

                                    *

Tired after our trip to Chamundi Hills, Arjun and I were glad that we did not have any other plans for the day. Myra, on the other hand, had dinner plans with Chetan. We reached the hostel by 5 PM and went back to our respective rooms. 

After 2 hours or so, someone knocked on my door. It was Myra. She had a Fastrack watch in her hand, it was one of the gifts that Arjun and I got for her. I had totally forgotten about the gifts.

“This is so good”, she said. Before I could say something, she grabbed my hand and took me to her room. The closet that she never used was open. In it, there were a couple of hangers with some clothes hanged; the whole arrangement looked like a mannequin. The hanger mannequin had a lovely top and a pair of jeans on. There were sneakers at the mannequin’s supposed feet. As our hanger mannequin lacked hands, there were a few accessories such as a bracelet, clutch, etc. placed in the closet. 

“This feels so special”, she said. 

“Glad you liked it”, I smiled. 

“I’ll wear the top and jeans that you guys gifted for today’s dinner”, she said.

I looked at her bed, a lovely dress was on it.

“No, save it for another day. For today’s dinner, that dress would be lovely. Now, get ready, have a good time, and let’s meet tomorrow”, I said. 

                                     *

The next morning, we three met for breakfast. Myra had a book in her hand. The title of the book was “I too had a love story”. 

“Let me guess, Chetan gave you that book for your birthday?”, I said.

“Yes, he did. I think I exaggerated my reading habits. Why don’t you guys read this book and let me know? If it’s good, I’ll read it. “, she said. Arjun and I were the readers of the group. Arjun took the book and started flipping pages of the book.

“It looks like a cheesy love story, which is not my favorite genre. Priya will read it”, Arjun said.

“I would love to read it. In fact, I’ll read it today”, I said.

It was Sunday and I did have time to read it. 

We planned to meet for lunch and dispersed.

                                    *

I sat down with the book and flipped the pages. It was a small read, it was about 200 pages. I read about the author and acknowledgments.  I was thrilled to find out that he was a fellow Infoscion. He started his career in Infosys and later started writing books. 

I started reading the book, which was an absolute page-turner. It was a love story, had interesting characters and extremely interesting dialogues. I just couldn’t put it down. 

Suddenly the phone rang and it annoyed me. Arjun had called me, it was lunchtime. I said impatiently that I was not hungry and would skip lunch.  

“You’re reading the book, aren’t you?”, Arjun said.

“Yes, I am in the middle of it. It’s very interesting. I will call you guys after finishing it”, I said quickly. 

“Just come for 15 mins and have a quick lunch”, he insisted.

“You don’t get it, do you?”, I said and hung up the call.

I had already lost a few minutes. 

I started reading the book and in about 30 minutes or so, Myra knocked on my door. She simply handed me a sandwich, juice and left. Our understanding was beyond words.

I put down the food on the table and resumed reading the book. I read on and on and on. After an hour or so, I put down the book and hid my face in my hands. After a minute, I started bawling loudly. The book had moved me so much that I just couldn’t stop weeping. The story was quite emotional. I wept for about 20 minutes. I then went straight to Myra’s room and knocked on her door. I thrust the book in her hand. 

“Read it… NOW”, I ordered, weeping all the while. She looked stunned for a second and then looked at the book.

“I’ll start immediately”, she said. 

After 3 hours, she knocked on my door with tears in her eyes. We wept together. 

We then headed to dinner with our tear-laden faces. Arjun was surprised to see us like that. Myra gave him the book, “Read it NOW”, she ordered him. We had a quick dinner and dispersed.

After 3 hours or so, nearly at midnight when I was half asleep, I got a call from Arjun. He was crying. 

“I know, it’s okay”, I said. 

The next week, the book was passed onto Anusha, Swati, Sravya, Sirisha, and almost every other person we knew. Some of them hardly ever read books but they all read this one.

They all had a similar reaction. We were all extremely proud because the author was a fellow Infoscion.

I grudgingly thanked Chetan for introducing us all to such a lovely book. He looked extremely pleased with himself.

Note: Don’t you want to know why we’d all wept after reading the book? Then, please read “I too had a love story”, by Ravinder Singh, an Infoscion. (I say the last part with a lot of pride) 

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.