The Velvet Morning: Chapter Three - Cigarette-time Debate

Abhinav grabbed his brown bag and hustled away from the class as soon as the lecture was over. He left the class when others were just about to pack up.

“ Hey hey  Abhi !!! Wait up man . “ – Binay yelled from the back of the class as he collected his study materials from the desk. Binay horridly packed his things and ran through the crowd ambling downstairs. He saw Abhi’s bike parked right next to his. So he headed to the college canteen.

“ You cannot smoke in the college.” – Binay exclaimed when he saw Abhi take his packet of cigarette out of his bag. Abhi gave a reluctant look and put back the packet into the bag. “ Come on !! let’s go to  Karki Dai’s. “ They both set the engine to life and drove off their bikes on the busy road of Kasthamandup.

Karki Dai’s Tea Shop was the happening locale for Abhinav and Binay where they would often meet up to drink tea, smoke cigarette and have colloquies of their life and events. There was nothing exotic about the venue but people could get a number of items for snack or lunch at fair price than any other sophisticated-looking restaurant around.

Abhinav went first to take their usual sit that read “ 5” above the table. Just before sitting Binay shouted –“ Karki Dai ! 2 cups of tea!“.

Abhinav lit up the cigarette followed by Binay. Exhaling quick puffs of smoke onto the air, Binay asked- “ Today, in the ECO class, you looked like a crying baby pleading for something. You really look troubled these days.”

Abhinav totally ignored the remarks of Binay. At the meantime, Bhote , the waiter boy, brought them their tea.  “How is Shreesha? “ – Abhinav spoke looking at his cup of tea.

“ She is doing good. She is in Florida for a college project this summer.” -Binay answered flamboyantly. “ Do you have any idea about Prapti? How is she doing? ” – Binay continued.

“ I don’t need to know about her. I guess, you know better on her whereabouts than I do. Besides, she ended everything. So why should I be a nosy-parker on her affairs. “- Abhinav made a derogatory comment.

“ I think it was not Prapti who ruined the relationship, it was your super ego.  You were too judgmental about Prapti’s activities and imparted loads of possessiveness. It was obviously devastating for both of you. But I feel like you are still tangled up in your past. “- Binay responded Abhi’s comment.

“  You really don’t have any idea on this, so stop advocating for her “- Abhinav retorted back pointing his index finger towards Binay.

“Oh ! come on ! don’t be offensive.  I have been around you for last 15 years and no one knows you better than I do.  You are such a pigheaded person at times and resentful for trivial issues and … and … never ready to accept your shortcomings and….. ” – Binay pounced back in their customary ‘cigarette-time debate’.

Abhinav took few quick puffs of smoke into his lungs and replied-“ You can’t judge me for my apparent attitude. No one can delve into my thoughts excepting me. You have never walked into any path of affliction. So you seriously cannot feel this. Please stop inventing implausible assumptions about me and everything.”

Binay frowned on Abhinav’s notion and said – “Stop being such a pussy. You think I am unaware about the things that went between you and Prapti. Prapti always shared everything to Shreesha and there is nothing I am heedless on the matter that Shreesha is aware about. Evaluating the whole plot of your worthless love-story, my verdict is against you. “ Found guilty in love”- Binay laughed briskly and continued – “ You inflicted yourself. So…. Soooo…  stop consoling your heart telling that you were right.”

“ Did Shreesha ever tell you that Shrawan screwed her? Shrawan is Shreesha’s classmate and a good friend of mine. He told me about this in one of our Facebook chats. She is merry-making in your absence and here, you are boasting about Shreesha’s credibility. Now, go give her your verdict.”- Abhinav vocalized in an emphatic way and shook his head in disbelief as he finished his tea.

Binay slammed his hand on the table and shouted- “ What the fuck!!!! What are you trying to say? Don’t you dare talk like that about Shreesha?”

“ Calm down Binay.” – Abhinav laughed mockingly. “ Your face is worth watching. Now you look like a crying baby.”

Abhinav shrugged and continued-‘ Well, I faked that one just to check how offensive you could be on hearing Shreesha’s misdemeanor. Now, I believe you could sense what would be a real pain like to be cheated on. Prapti walks into a discotheque with a guy, gets high on alcohol, dances with her body tucked on that guy’s arm and kisses him and that was Rohan, the main adversary of my story. Now stop telling me that I was possessive about her. Possessiveness is a basic instinct in a relationship. If you do not have this instinct then you better do not vow to be in a relationship.  I have no regrets for disowning her. Shreesha probably told you the whole thing as a funfilled occasion but my hearsay evidence clearly regard that a crime. Now, give your verdict.”  Abhinav evidenced the end of his opinion by looking away from Binay with a gloomy face.

Binay left the debate as if he meant to surrender or he lacked on opinions. He did not speak a word and walked off in anger. He was just about to reach his bike when Abhinav yelled- “ Binay !!! Listen to me.”

 He was still standing in the middle of the road till Binay disappeared far on the bent.

×××

“ Abhinav was probably having you in his daydream when Ashok sir asked him a question.”- Urmila casually poked fun at Rashmi as she arranged her clothes brought by the hostel laundry.

Rashmi looked unstirred by Urmila’s joke on her. She was absorbed in the study, a daily part of her evening schedule. She finally removed her eyes from the pages and turned to face Urmila standing far on the corner in front of cupboard and then said – “ I think you have crush on him. That’s why you want to gossip about him and put me into this.”

Urmila, Rashmi’s classmate as well as hostel roommate, walked towards Rashmi and closed the book she was reading and then sat on the bed lying next to her study desk and held the cushion firm on her lap. “ Nope! you are wrong. I already have a boyfriend. I do not need to have a crush on every hot guy in the college. I just had this feeling that he kinda likes you. Didn’t you notice that he was looking at you as we walked past the canteen this morning? I am sure Abhinav was talking about you. I heard Binay and Abhinav talk in inconspicuous low tone as we moved away.”

Rashmi elbowed her right hand against the desk and rested her chin on the hand. “Oh dear, why do you have to worry about these worthless baubles? Let them do what they want. I am totally not interested in all these kinda sweet crush, or love or whatever. I am not an attention-seeking girl. I do not bother about others deed. I am always focused on what I should be doing. I am here to study, not to indulge myself in fruitless things. Do you understand? Now stop talking about that guy and let me finish this assignment.” – Rashmi replied in charismatic vocal.

“You are so mean. It is so worthless to tempt you by unprecedented flavors of life. Such a phlegmatic girl you are. I just meant to say that a beautiful and intelligent girl like you deserve to have someone like Abhinav on her side.”- Urmila advised Rashmi with a great radiance.

At the meantime, the dinner-time bell rang to terminate the conversation of Rashmi and Urmila.

×××

Abhinav came home drenched in sweat holding his basketball onto his waist. Just about to enter the home, his mother came outside with incense stick on her hand.

“ Why do you look so pathetic?”- Abhinav’s mother asked him.

“ Aama, we lost the match to our greatest rival, the Lakshyadeep.- Abhinav answered.

“ You should learn to work as a team. You have never done that in our family. At least try that in your game.” – his mother replied cunningly.

Abhinav slammed the door and entered the home. “ I hate everyone around me. Go to hell everyone.” He gritted his teeth in anger and headed for the bathroom.

After dinnertime, Abhinav laid on his bed with his both hand behind his head and faced against the wall that had the big posters of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James pasted to each other in a V shape and Arsenal 2010 team below them. Soon he seemed to be lost in a thought process. He then stretched to reach his laptop on his study desk that was next to his bed. He signed into Facebook as a part of his daily routine. Without giving much focus on the News Feed, he typed Prapti’s full name in the search field. As the browser displayed Prapti’s Profile, Abhinav clicked on the photos. He was utterly bewildered to see a photo album named ‘ Abhi’s B’Day Bash’. He stared at a photo in that album that had him and Prapti throwing piece of cakes on each other. “ Why does she still have this album in her profile? – Abhi went on a monologue. He closed the window at once and spent some time on sports webpages and went back to Facebook. This time he typed ‘Rashmi Sharma’ on the search field. Out of hundred feeds, he was unsuccessful in finding the Rashmi he was looking for.

He shut down is laptop and grabbed the basketball and lied on his bed on his usual position. He bounced the ball back and forth against the wall above the posters and flied high on the unforeseeable thoughts. Meanwhile a loud sound from the downstairs intervened his melancholy.

“ Abhi, would you please stop hitting that ball against the wall and let us watch TV peacefully.”- His mother shouted.

Abhinav rolled the ball on the floor, then switched off the light and came to the bed and got into an ease position for sleep. He then rotated to his side and grabbed his phone. Quickly he typed Binay’s number on the keypad, but an instant  ‘cigarette-time debate’ images, fresh in his mind, stopped him from pressing the call button. He released the phone from his hand and desperately waited for sleep.