PART 5-"Complications continued"

Rahul and Roopa were sitting near Nescafe and munching on the grilled sandwich.Renu came there with her friends and her eyes were red.Rahul saw her and immediately went to calm her down.

Rahul:I will just come Baby!!

Roopa:Even i will also come dear.She is as close to me as she is to you.

Rahul had introduced the girls to each other and they had hit it off instantly.Roopa in her mind thought Renu as a sister of Rahul.But seeing the manner(for the first time face to face) in which they spoke to each other,the manner how Rahul was calming her down,she understood the relationship between them was not what she had thought it as.

Rahul immediately went on his bike to bring Renu a Perk(her favourite chocolate)as it was not available in Nescafe shop.He was back in no time.

Seeing all this

Roopa:"I will leave you two alone for a while.I will just be looking around the campus."

Rahul sensed something wrong when Roopa looked at him differently when she was leaving the place.He went behind her.

Rahul:"Hey whats wrong?Why are you going?It looks odd ya"
he said in his girls-specific sweet voice.It was different when he spoke with his gang-he was loud and boisterous.

Roopa just made up some reason.

Roopa:"Its ok Rahul,its your last day in this college,probably the last day you will be seeing Renu,its ok,i will just be around" she said in a tone which was both assertive and requesting.

When he heard "last day you will be seeing Renu",Rahul realised the gravity of the situation.It was THE last day,probably he might never be able to see her again.All the memories of their friendship for the last three years flashed past his mind.

Three years back at the end of second semester Rahul's then girlfriend had broken up with him and it hurt his ego to see that girl going with another guy of a different branch.That was the time when there was no gang and he was alone.It was at that time when the two being in the same lab batch had become close friends what with all the notes exchanges,teaching each other the syllabi etc,listening to each other's problems etc.Infact in the later semesters when their friendship grew even closer both their respective friends used to tease the both of them that it was love and not friendship that they claimed.Inspite of all this their friendship only grew more stronger.

Now they would not be able to see each other so frequently.They would get busy in their own lives.They had become such a big part of each other's lives that it was hard for them to imagine their life without each other.

Rahul went near Renu.

Rahul:"Here have your Perk "Almunji""(the nickname Rahul had given her as she was a cry-baby).
Renu:"You still know what makes me happy,from now on who will give me these Perks,who will calm me down Rahs,i hope you dont forget me" she said,her eyes searching for something in Rahul's eyes.

Rahul:"Dont worry Almunji,i will get you the Perk whenever you feel sad(Perk was just a metaphor for the friendship they shared),its not like we are not going to see each other,just give a call and i will come" he said knowing himself that this could not be possible.
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Siddharth called up Preeti.The phone rang many rings but no one seemed to be picking up,but then suddenly as Siddharth was about to keep the phone he heard

"Hello!",the voice he was anxious to hear,finally she spoke.Her sweet voice was like fresh calm breeze in a desert.

Siddharth:"Why dint you pick up ??i was so anxious,how are you?forget i just called to say that i am coming there tomorrow morning.I am climbing today's train" he said hurriedly but there seemed to be no reaction from the other side.

Siddharth did not realise in his hurry that he was speaking to Preeti's mother.

Preeti's mom:"May i know who is this?who is this?" she asked in angry tone.
Siddharth immediately kept the phone by saying "wrong number".It helped he had not blurted out any name.Preeti's mom just tried to ignore it but as all anxious parents of a girl to be married she went to Preeti and asked her in private whether she was in love with some one else.

"If you are Putti tell me,because you may marry just to please but you will be destroying three people's lives".Preeti was aware that she had a large joint family and their reputation was to be kept in mind as in villages respect and dignity was priced more than individual choice and freedom.She smilingly said "No,if i had i would have told you na amma" she said.She could'nt muster up the courage to tell the truth,not even sure whether Siddharth would make any move forward as he was still young for a boy to get married and he still had to settle down and establish himself.

Siddharth dint call again.He decided he would go there as planned and tell the truth to her parents.
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As Guru had bought a new sim, the three of them -Sharan,Jatin and him decided to play the final trick of their engineering life-that was to send messages to their friends posing as someone anonyomous or some girl that was known to that friend.
It was in this way that Ravi and Lavanya had started to message.Lavanya had taken Ravi's number so that she could ask all the doubts during internals and exams.But apart from that there were no messages coming his way from her.

Once when in Ravi's house Guru asked Ravi whether he could message anyone from Ravi's mobile.Ravi said ok.But Guru instead sent a message to Lavanya

"Hi Babes what you doing?" and could not stop laughing after what he had done.
.A reply came soon enough

"Dint expect this from you dude" she had replied,but for once even she had understood there was more to this school-boy looking guy.Ravi was puzzled by this reply but started chatting on the mobile once in two days after that.

On another day when Jatin,Sharan and Guru were hanging out in his home,the three decided to play a mischief on Ravi.Whenever asked as to what was between Lavanya and him,Ravi used to give his usual reply
"Nothing Maga,just friends"

So they decided to find out the truth.They took Ravi's mobile under some pretext and interchanged the names of Jatin's and Lavanya's numbers.Then they started sending messages to Ravi,which now for Ravi looked as if it was from Lavanya.Their usual chatting regarding academics started.The guys decided to step it up a notch.

Ravi:"Hey how is system software,specially that compiler chapter?"
The three guys thought hard as to what to reply.They came up with

"Its long and hard dear".

Ravi on reading this was bolted out of the blue."What is she replying?.can girls also be so naughty?"
These jokes continued and after a while the number exchanges got so confusing that when Guru
sent a message "Where are you ppl?" ,it was from Lavanya for Ravi as that number was also exchanged."Why does she want to know where the gang is?" Ravi thought to himself.
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The three guys smiled to themselves remembering this.Just then Ravi arrived in the room with a rose.

"I am going to propose to her man,i am going to propose to her during the end of farewell".The three of them dint know what to say.
Just then Sharan received a call.Jatin again became nervous.After the call he asked Sharan.

"Who is it dude?Was it Shruthi?" he asked nervously.
He dint want their friendship to be broken and specially not on the last day.



To be continued..............