Early days in Mumbai

Savita sat lazing around in her new home. Her dad had rented it out for her. It was a very comfortable 1BHK in Sion. Mumbai definitely was a great place. She had loved the buzz the moment she set foot on Mumbai Central Station at 8:40am that day.

Her dad’s friend Mrs Laxmi Narain had received her at the station with a warm embrace and brought her to her new flat. Anand Malhotra had made arrangements well in advance so that his daughter was comfortable and well looked after even far away from home.

Anand Malhotra had also made arrangements for her getting enrolled in Sophia’s a college for women in Mumbai. The forms had been filled and sent, and Anand Malhotra through a friend of his had made sure that Savita got an admission there.

As Savita sat lazing around, she remembered her brother Ashwin a lot. He missed her fooling around with her all day. Hiding her stuff, teasing her when she was studying, taking her calls and not passing messages onto her. He was so cute she felt. She really missed him a lot today. She felt like calling home.

An hour later, Ashwin was crying into the phone “Didi, wapas aao please. I miss you a lot.” Unable to control her own emotions, she kept the phone back into its cradle. For the first time in her life, she was alone, but she steeled herself, after all this was her decision to stay alone.

A week pass and Savita was readying herself for her first day in her college. She was all excited. She had spent the week, going out with her aunt to shop for clothes, and books. For the first time in her life, she set foot on that heaven of all college goer’s in Mumbai – Fashion Street. And for the first time she realised that unbranded clothes can also be cool. Being used to the branded classy label conscious way of buying clothes, Fashion Street was a new and unexplored door for her. She enjoyed shopping there.

She liked the jeans which came at Rs. 100 – 300, what a bargain they were, and that too pre-faded stuff, and then those with all those weird works on them threads dangling out of self-made holes, and the works. For the first time in her life, she realised the presence of a new genre of jewelry, imitation jewelry. The copper plated ancient looking earrings, the cheap blue colored bead necklace – the so called junkie jewelry genre – also came into the sphere of her conscious knowledge.

Books, were best at Fountain, at Rs. 30 a book they were the cheapest anywhere she had gone book shopping. So where she bought a book for Rs. 300 or more she now bought 10 or more for the same cost. The quality was not all that bad either; you just had to careful in getting a good print.

Finally a week later she set foot in her new college, which was to be her abode for 2 years. Sophia’s had a great atmosphere. Noisy corridors, filled with gossiping girls everywhere. The grand structure, which gave a simple yet serious look to the institute, was a great camouflage for all the fun the students used to have.

The lecturers were good, and taught with sincerity. There was a sense of commitment in the air, from everyone around. Though the odd casual students existed, overall the atmosphere was conducive for studies.

She liked the fast food in Mumbai; the Gol-Gappa (Pani Puri in Mumbai), Pav Bhaji, Kala Khatta Gola, et all.. She didn’t have all this in Delhi, not much of it atleast. Also, being used to dining more in classy restaurants, she had never had roadside food, until she set foot in Mumbai.

It was a hot summer day in May when she went to Akhil’s house to ask for some help. Her aunt had introduced her to Akhil who lived in the building diagonally opposite her own. She was in touch with him regularly to take his help in adjusting to the HSC board system. Akhil was a merit lister in science stream and had just got admission in Michigan state university for a BS in Electronics.

She went to his house to collect some notes in Bio from him. As she sat there, the door bell rang and a boy walked in. He looked to be in the mid-teens. He spoke to Akhil briefly and then walked into the room. He never as much as threw a glance at her. Akhil walked into his study to get something. The boy waited there in the middle of the living room his gaze fixed steadily at the entrance to the study.

Savita could sense that this boy understood the presence of a third person in the house and sitting a meter away from him. How could he have missed her after all, she was sitting facing the entrance to the living room. But, it was this irreverence or maybe shyness that Savita couldn’t quiet understand.

He stood there with the most patient and somber look, giving away nothing about what he thought in his head. His face was a picture of cold calm. He would definitely put fear in the heart of people and at the same time elicit a pure love from them. Such was the aura he had around him that Savita without realizing was staring at him. More in bewilderment than, with interest. He had no drop-dead looks to faint at, just average, in fact a bit overweight. But he had the trappings of nobility around him. Nay, his attire did not reek of affluence, nor was he wearing anything expensive. But, just his mannerism, his gait, his cold calm look, gave him a royal look.

He maintained his steady stare at the study room door as Savita kept looking at him. This was another factor which perplexed Savita. She was definitely good looking and not at all worth just a passing glance. But here was a boy, probably in his impressionable teens, who would not as much as give her a passing glance.

His wait finally ended, as Akhil emerged smiling from the study with two big plastic bags. Savita surmised that it was filled with books and study material. She wondered who this guy was, to whom Akhil was gifting so many books or maybe lending. Akhil finally placed the bags near the boy and turned to face Savita.

“Hey, looks like you guys haven’t had an introduction yet” he said with a big grin. “Savita this is Sanjeev, Sanjeev …. Savita”. What a fast paced introduction Savita thought as Akhil turned to speak to Sanjeev again.

“Yaar, I was wondering if you could help out Savita a bit. Tu toh jaanta hai mai US jaa raha hoon. Savita ko merey aunty ney mujhsey milaaya. She needs some help moving around in Mumbai and knowing about the city as well as in studies.” While Akhil continued, Sanjeev let out a faint hint of a smile from the corner of his lips at Savita. For the first time, in the last 15 minutes or so, she felt she had eked out a hint of a feeling from this contemporary Caesar. Akhil continued with his monologue, unaware of the faint threads of telepathic communiqué being exchanged between his two guests. He was as good as a stranger now, as the two exchanged many a quick look at each other. Each could feel the others thoughts. There was this bind of the electrical impulse coursing through the two juvenile minds, and when Akhil suddenly and unintentionally raised his voice ever so slightly, they both suddenly detached and immediately became aware of the presence of a third entity. They heard him now again, “Main kya bol raha hoon, tum dono ek hi class key ho. You both can help each other a lot I guess. Sanjeev, you are good at science, and English and Savita you are very good at Maths. I think the two of you can help each other a lot in your respective favourite subjects. I suggest you exchange numbers and be in touch with each other. Main toh ja raha hoon, toh behtar hai ki tum dono ek dusrey ki maddad karo.”

Savita, couldn’t understand why Akhil would want to suddenly impose a stranger on her. Who was he after all to tell her what to do. She had asked him for help. So, fine if he couldn’t, he could just have said no, instead he passed the buck to someone else. But, still another side of her felt elated at having got this opportunity. She wanted to dissect the mind of this aristocratic yet gracious upstart. She just smiled, and politely exchanged numbers & email ids with Sanjeev. She waited for Sanjeev to leave before speaking to Akhil.

“Akhil, yeh kaun hai banda, aur kahaan padta hai.” Demanded Savita, the moment Akhil closed the door behind Sanjeev. Akhil attempted to satiate her inquisitive mind, “Arey, Sanjeev stays in the next building. He considers me a scholar of sorts. He comes to me for any kind of help he wants in studying. He is one of the most intriguing guys I have come across really. I have never really been able to understand him completely. He is amazing in science, and yet wants to become a journalist. He will make a great engineer, cause he has got an analytical mind, and yet he wishes to live by the pen. He is a person, I haven’t been able to figure out much about in the last 3 years that I have known him. Sometimes I feel he is almost reclusive. But I have seen him with this girl also from his building. They are mostly together. He also occasionally comes down here to speak to me, and take my opinion on academic subjects.”

“Wow, sounds intriguing indeed”, added Savita, “making a mental note in her mind to initiate contact with Sanjeev”. There was that something about him, that she couldn’t put her finger on that really attracted her towards him. That night, as she stood gazing out her window and saw his window on the other side of the road, she remembered Kishore’s very popular song and started humming it.