Sid woke up to the constant buzzing of his cellphone. His cell phone was vibrating for quite a time. How long? Five minutes? Ten minutes?
He remembered shooting a sleepy glance at the wall clock when it was eight past ten in the morning.
The darkness over his eyes cracked open because his phone was still buzzing. The daylight made his vision blur-motion when he darted his eyes at the wall clock again. It was nine past twenty. This realization made his eyes pull open. One hour and ten minutes!
The memories of yesterday came haunting his mind. He laid his eyes on his cellphone; the buzzing literally made the cell phone shift to the edge of the table. His hand reached to take hold of it. When he skimmed over all the notifications, miss calls, and messages pop-ups, there were hundreds of them. A surge of thrill shot up inside his heart. What in the blue hell is this? Did they make me viral?
Sid's phone began to buzz again; the name of Ronit popped up on the screen. The boy brought his cellphone to his ears.
"Come to my office asap," these words fell on the boy's ears like ice cubes. His insides were still numbed with thrill. "Okay," was the only word he managed to get past.
Out of excitement, the boy didn't even eat his breakfast. His mind kept on churning about assumptions. Now that he is viral, what should be the next move? If spirituality is a medicine, then it's gonna make many mouths bitter. He must play his cards right or else he'll blow it.
Sid's phone rang up again. His one hand reached to take it off, while the other hand waved at the autorickshaw. Sid picked up the call when he sat in the rickshaw.
"Yeah, speak up," he said, it was Ravi on the other end.
"Where are you, man?" There was a reprimanding tone in Ravi's voice.
"Just left home."
"Hmm." Ravi heaved a deep sigh. "You better start attending lectures because exams are close. You know they really nag for low attendance."
"I know!" Sid snapped. "By the way, you know I'm stuck with this debate. I can't attend lectures—" A spontaneous thought popped up in his mind. They can use this against me. "Alright, I'm coming to college."
"Alright, listen up." Ravi's voice took a blend of hesitation and embarrassment. "My dad has grounded me. Yesterday, he checked my bank statements and found out I made a big transaction. It's the fee we paid to Ronit."
"Shit!" Sid's hand reached to his temple, wrinkles of worry spread across his forehead. "What do we do now?"
"I'll tell him I trifle it away," Ravi said.
"No, no!" Sid's eyes doubled in size. "Don't do it! I'll arrange the money."
"How?!" Ravi was quick to respond. "You've already given a good amount to Nehali."
This word, Nehali, felt like a slap on Sid's ears. A lump formed in his throat at the realization that she was trying to meet him for two days. But the boy didn't give a damn about it.
"I'll see you around." He ended the call. He thumbed through every WhatsApp message to find hers. A cough like a lump blocked his throat when he caught sight of hundreds of messages sent to him by Nehali.
Of course, messages were full of a gamut of emotions. In some, the girl was angry. In some, she was sad or ranting, and in some, she was hurling insults.
Sid felt his fingers dictated him to write back, "hey there" to her. What the heck you just did?! Where is the goddamned explanation?!
In no time, the grey tick changed in blue. The three dots of typing flashed on the top, but within the blink of an eye, Nehali's profile pic turned into the grey silhouette of a woman.
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The Krishna Love (Wattpad India Awards Winner)
Spiritual"Let's explore the world, man. First, we should go to the Himalayas," Ravi said as he was searching best spiritual places of India on his cell phone. "We're not going anywhere," Sid said sharply, his eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Isn't that what you...
