The curious case of John titor - Episode 1

Day 1 : The sun was soaking at its highest during the month of April. Dehra had never seen such a summer in its past 53 years. It was a Sunday and most people of Dehra preferred to stay at home and watch their weekly dose of Ramayana, Mahabharata and The Jungle book. The streets of Dehra were almost deserted as the schools also were closed for summer break and most kids had returned home or were at home trying to cool themselves.

While most the kids were at their home enjoying their summer break by watch The jungle book or Shaktiman, there were 3 little brats Ankur, Jia and Madhav who were as usual at their favorite hangout Utopia cyber cafe.

Ankur's dad was a high profile businessman of Dehra. Who apparently also was the president of the Paltan bazaar shopkeeper committee . His name and fame were wide spread, not only due to his business deals but mainly "his offers made were never refused". Ankur was in his eleventh grade, but the cops of Dehra always feared charging him of anything. So you see, Ankur was a big shot in himself.

Jia belonged to a very subtle middle class family, which was more like a lower income group family. Jia's house was on a long term loan from the bank and Ankur's dad had promised to help Jia's family repay the debts over the years for their service which he would ask for when required. Jia was a very attractive girl. She belonged to a middle class family, but she had boys always around her. And one of the boy was Ankur. This made Ankur and Jia very good and close friends.

Madhav's father owned a dairy shop and the shop was now run for generations. Madhav was to join his father at the dairy as a family ritual but Madhav was a stubborn kid so insisted that he could run a cyber cafe. So his father made him the owner of a cyber cafe which they named as Utopia.

Utopia became a immediate success as this cyber cafe was the only cyber cafe in the locality. This cyber cafe was always flocked by many. Few came to the cafe to take print outs of study material, some came to the cafe to access their Orkut account or Facebook account, but mostly people came to the cafe to hangout. Utopia cyber cafe over the years became a youth hangout. Madhav was always a wonderful host. He always welcomed people to the cafe, as his business instinct always said that more the people, more the sale.

It was just another day when Ankur and Jia were at Utopia to meet Madhav.

Ankur : Hey Madhav! How are you? All good with the oldie dairy owner? (Jia punches Ankur's stomach with her elbow for being so rude)

Madhav : Yes all fine. And hey Jia, you're looking so gorgeous today.

Jia: Thanks Madhav, hope Ankur can also see this and compliment me each time he see's me.

**all laugh**

Madhav - You both can occupy the last cabin of the cafe, that's free for you and no disturbance too. (Madhav giggles).
Jia : Thanks Madhav, you're the best for always keeping out our favorite system and place.

Ankur and Jia were at their system and the only work they did was to hold hands and write testimonials for each other on Orkut or change their profile picture. Jia was the one who wrote good testimonials which were poetic and also made sense. Where as Ankur was always writing stupid testimonial and scraps for Jia. His all time favorite testimonial would have been " Roses are red, lets get to bed, else I'll be dead and you'll be my favorite bud" They were always laughing and giving puppy kisses to each other at the cafe and Madhav silently always watched and envied them. Cyber cafe for Ankur and Jia was only for social networking between themselves or maybe for Jia to prove to Ankur that she's the better one here.

Outside the air conditioned cyber cafe the sun was soaking up everything. Fumes of heat were rising from the ground.

And suddenly the phone inside the cyber cafe rings and Madhav knew it was from one of his customer Mr Verma ji who had recently taken the internet connection from him. Madhav answers the phone and before he could say a word, a voice from the other side says "Check you mail" and the phone disconnects.

Madhav was wonder-struck for a minute and as he sees outside the window, the climate starts to change. There are black rain clouds which are slowly covering the sky. In a fraction of minute there was a thunderstorm with lightening.

Ankur and Jia stand up from their cabin to discover what was happening. They see the black clouds outside the window and are simply confused. They are even more confused because their friend Madhav was just lost in his own world.

Jia shouts out to Madhav and asks where's he lost and the confused boy Madhav just has his mouth open.

Jia walks up to Madhav to see what he has been up to. Madhav's e-mail is displayed on the screen. The subject of the mail says " I am John titor from the year 2036"

********************************Episode 1 ends*************************************

Friendship

Living in a city you barely know, or one where barely anyone knows you - can give you a sense of freedom - where you can do a thing as simple as walking with a girl at half past eleven in the night. Its not like you are doing something totally insane, neither is it that you are acting careless or being impulsive. Its just that you wouldn't do that in your hometown. And I thanked god each day for putting me up in Wellington.

It was one of those starry night when I was walking down an almost deserted road with my best buddy I had managed to make in the past 2 months of my stay. I was frankly just beginning to learn and like this new city.

I kept asking her, where are we going, but she kept on talking and walking.

"You think so much Aakash!" she exclaimed and I turned back to look at her and kept looking back and walking.

"You'll fall" she said.

No I won't, and almost the next minute I landed square on my butt.

Jess burst out laughing and gave me a hand to get up.

"Oouww", I moaned and slowly got up. I looked at Jess and immediately added - "I know you told me, don't go and say it again."

"Don't wanna walk?" Jess asked.

"Nah" I replied.

"Where are we going anyways?" I asked.

“Well, there is this kind of a playground close-by that kids in the neighborhood use as a soccer-field. It’s just an open area actually, nothing great. But there are not too many trees and all, so the sky really looks beautiful from there. We could have gone and just sat for a while and…”

"And what?" I asked.

Jess reached inside her bag and pulled out a bottle of wine.

"Oh come on! I can't be sitting here after what you have just showed me. And moreover the playground should not be so far now, can it? We've been walking almost twenty minutes now". I exclaimed.

"Okay okay! We're almost there. And did anyone ever tell you - you are such a big CRACKPOT?" Jess said.

"I finally figured out why you call me that" I said.

"Pray! Do enlighten me," Jess teased.

I stepped closer. She leaned in till my mouth was right next to her ears and then I answered - "It's because I intoxicate you as much as one."

Jess kept looking at me. And suddenly  burst out laughing.

"But you are not far from the truth,” Jess said.

I walked up to her and took her hand in mine.  And we had now reached the gates of the playground. The ground was usually left unguarded at night, because the people of Wellington have better work to do than be at the soccer ground.

"Look at use! We are crazy!" I said.

“No, I am totally sane – but yes; if not you, your madness sure is intoxicating!” Jess replied.

"Now what?" I asked.

“What, did you think there was gonna be champagne and red carpet to welcome you?”Jess said. We walked in and I by then was already tired.

"I cannot walk further! Can't we just sit here" I asked.

No ! Let’s go to the center of the playground! Trust me, you will love it,” Jess said.

I turned to look at the vast ground and heaved a sigh. "I am so tired ya.... please!"

"Fat ass you have become. What tired?" Jess teased. "Come on!" and before I could say another word in protest, Jess had already started walking towards the center.

You girl! You're calling me fat, you freako! Wait now I'll show you who's fat. I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist and started running towards Jess.

Here I come! as I approached Jess.

And the next moment I was racing towards Jess. Jess saw me coming and started running herself. She huffed and puffed as she saw me come from behind , and before we knew it, we had reached the center of the ground!

“So who’s the fatso, eh?” I asked.

“Anyhow,come on now. You shouldn't keep a guy waiting for so long for a drink! All that walking and running’s made me thirsty!”

Jess laughed as she let me pull her bag off her back. A couple of big gulps later I realized the oddness of the whole thing. “Why do you have a wine bottle on you anyway?”

“Because we were going to meet at your place initially? And because it is good manners to take a bottle of wine when someone calls you over for dinner.”

“Since when did ‘manners’ become so important to you?”

“Since now,” she said and pulled her bag out of my hand. She pulled out a small gift neatly wrapped in plain blue paper with an ink blue colored ribbon on it. She held the gift out to me and said “Happy birthday sweetheart.”

I looked at my watch. It was mid-night. I kept staring at my watch. "How did you know?" I asked without looking up.

"I had asked you, you had told me a long time back!" Jess exclaimed.

“No I meant – how did you think of doing all this? Mid-night, wine, new-moon, blue wrapping…”

“Well, that’s what friends are for, isn't it?”

I just kept staring at the watch and refused to look up. Jess moved closer to me and held up my face. She saw a tear trickle down my cheek.

"Aakash"

"No! Its OK. I'm alright" I said, readily rubbing my cheeks clean. Jess handed me the gift and untied the ink blue ribbon and the paper unfolded. She took out a silver chain off it.

I loved it.

This is just so perfect Jess, I said.

Are you kidding me? The bottle is not even half empty. Lets get a bit more drunk, said Jess.

I looked at Jess for a moment, and then lay down on my back. "Lie down" I urged. "You've got to check out this view".

“This is lunatically beautiful!” Jess laughed.

We both laid there for a while, not saying a word. The summer air was not cold, but was far from hot too. We laid there for a while and were talking about myriad things – our first birthdays, our latest crushes, the last movie we had seen together, the worst New Year’s Eve we had had, the one time in their lives when they felt nothing was impossible… after a while they were just staring at the sky… the clear, moonless, starry sky.

“That,” Jess said, pointing out to a star, “is the Orion.”

“Hmmm.”

“I've always loved that name, ‘Orion’. If I have a daughter someday, I’m gonna name her Orion.”

“Orion. But you know Orion is ‘The Hunter’, right?”

“Is it?” Jess asked, quite surprised. “I didn't know that!”

I laughed. “Funny you want to christen your girl with a name you do not even know the meaning of!” I remarked.

“Aye! It’s still a beautiful name! And I will name my daughter that someday…”

“I hope you do also know that to have a daughter you need to be married; to a man no less…” I remarked again. Jess gave me a strong punch on me stomach. “Ooouww!” I exclaimed.

“Come on! It’s not like I am never going to get married!”

“I know babe, I am only teasing…”

Jess suddenly put her arm around me and hugged me.

“Ha! You cry and I want to hug you, and you verbally push me away. And now you hug me. Why can’t I push you away?”

“Who said no? Of course you can. But do you really want to?” Jess challenged, and I only put an arm around Jess in response. We stayed like that for a moment, and then Jess got up and sat, leaning against my legs.

“You know Aakash, I was really grateful when we became friends. There’s a certain age that we all cross in life, after which there’s hardly ever a guy who approaches you because he wants to be nothing more than just a friend. They all are always attracted to you, and so want to become your friend in the hope of becoming a lover sometime down the line. What makes it ugly is when they realize it’s not gonna work out. Then they cut you off like you never existed. Whatever happened to friendship? Sometimes I hate this whole ‘love’ funda. It’s like, there’s a guy and a girl, they are best friends, till they become teenagers, and then they get attracted to each other. In the beginning its all weird cos, they are like best buddies till then. And then they get all infatuated, and start to think it’s ‘love’, and then they start dating, going out, till one of them finally grows up or – luckily – both of them do. But then it’s even weirder, cos now every time they meet each other as friends, they think about the times when they were sweethearts… and then they just, kind of, let it die.”

Jess paused. I waited for her to continue, but she didn't. Finally I prompted her –

“What was his name?”

“Chris.”

“Hmmm.”

There was another long pause.

“I am just so glad that’s never gonna happen between us,” Jess said finally. “Sometimes that’s all that you want – a best friend.”

“Correction,” I interrupted. “You may get tired of a brother, an aunt, your mother, even love for that matter – or love even more so. But no matter what, that’s something you will always want – a best friend.” Pause. “That was a good line!”

Jess applauded and held up the bottle.

“It was a mighty good one!” she exclaimed.

We mingled for a little longer and talked about some more random stuff after that. We then walked back to the restaurant, in front of which we had parked their bike. We held hands while walking, on their way back, and it wasn't weird at all. It was the most comfortable feeling in the whole world…




*Author’s Note: A lot of people wonder quite often how girls sometimes find it easier to talk to boys than other girls. A lot of people ridicule and even deny accepting friendship between a guy and a girl as just friendship and nothing else.

This piece is to celebrate exactly that – friendship. It is to celebrate the kind of comfort you have with your best friend that you don’t with any other person in the world. This piece is for all those who have – at least at some point of time, even as briefly as for a moment – valued friendship. This piece is for those unselfish people in your life who like you for what you are, not what you can be; for those people who you can call even only once in a year and still share the same warmth and connect as you used to in your hey-days… this one’s for you, my Friend. Even as cliché as it sounds, life’s truly is beautiful cos you’re a part of it.