“Watch out Akshay” screamed Samreen, as akshay attempted another act of daredevilry by attempting to overtake a truck @ 140kmph narrowly avoiding an oncoming car!
“Akshay if you overtake as much of one more car now not just will I never sit in your car again I will not leave you in a condition to drive one!” bellowed an angry Sammy from above her books.
“That was a truck Sammy not a car” joked Joe.
“Careful Joe or she may fire at you too” said a harrowed Rohit.
“Nah, we all know she would never scream at Joe” said the unaffected Akshay immediately receiving a cold stare from Sammy.
Samreen was your typical neighbourhood girl, studious, frustrated and orthodox. With her well-rounded figure, and a nice set of dimples, she could easily have any guy she wanted, but instead she had set her eyes on Joe. The one person whose interest in girls was as high as an ant’s height.
Joe was known for only two things- eating and sleeping. He was the laziest bum in town but could outrun anyone if he smelled food cooking ahead. Joe’s real name was Joseph Potter. But other than his parents and his close friends, nobody even knew about the existence of this name. He was known to all simply as Joe.
Akshay brought the car to a screeching halt in front of Kanika’s Sainik Farm house narrowly missing a passing pedestrian. Calling Kanika’s abode a house would be a big understatement; it was more like a palace full of the costliest things a man could buy, she was the heiress to the city’s biggest industrialist Mr. Purshotam Rana.
Reaching her mansion, they all settled down at the breakfast table as they knew it would be a long wait before kanika decided to walk down. For one kanika liked to keep everyone waiting as she felt it was imperative that people wait for her, and secondly it naturally took that long for her to get ready; choosing the right dress from amongst her infinitely huge wardrobe, putting the correct make-up and so on. Not that she required any sort of make-up, even in her PJs she could easily make head turns. Fair skin, Long hair, a 5”7’ well-toned body ensured that she gained the attention of every passing male. So while everybody sat down to study for their exam that day, Joe as per the norm, found it more important to fill his stomach than his head.
After much waiting, some studying and a lot of eating, kanika finally decided to show up and off they went to give their first year examinations. They were all students of MITM.
After three hours of constant gruelling and mind boggling their final exams finally came to an end and Akshay came out of the examination hall, feeling less daring than usual. Rohit came out with a glee on his face, enthusiastically discussing the answers with Sammy, who too was jumping in excitement. Not surprisingly, they both had had good papers and would be scoring the top grades. Kanika on the other hand carried a gloomy expression on her face. Seeing this Akshay immediately went to her, “Don’t cry baby, its ok it doesn’t matter if the exam didn’t go well, you can always give it again” comforted Akshay. To which Kanika showed him the finger.
“I broke my fingernail you doofus! Who cares about the silly exam!” retorted Kanika.
Samreen & Rohit broke out in a frantic laugh seeing Akshay’s puzzled look.
“What’s so funny guys?” asked Joe, holding a patty in one hand and a cup of noodles in the other. Exams were a terribly testing time for Joe. Not because they were tough academically but because it warranted Joe without food for over three hours.
“What are you having?” asked Samreen moving towards him and grabbing the spoon from him despite his many protests.
“So what’s the plan guys? Where’s the post exam celebration?” asked Akshay.
“Let’s go for a movie, I hear ‘4 idiots’ is releasing today” said Sammy
“Let’s go to the mall and do some shopping I need some new clothes anyways” declared Kanika
The boys looked at each other and gagged.
“Let’s go to G.k. I hear there’s a new restaurant opening there today” muttered Joe between his bites.
“Wait hadn’t we decided last time that the next outing would be to the tomb of the great grandfather of the king of Ali Mohammed Sheikh Hasina’s homeland Tungrazajabad?” complained Rohit
“Purohit, SHUT UP!” shouted the gang in unison.
Rohit was in one word historical. He was more fond of tombs and crumbling forts than maybe even a archaeologist. His lifelong dream was to go to Egypt and explore the pyramids. However fate had other plans for him; or to be more apt, his father had. He was forced to sit for engineering exams only because the son of his father’s best friend had topped them.
“I have an idea, let’s go for an adventure” exclaimed Akshay.
“No, please no, the last time we took your idea, we got picked up by the police for suspected terrorist activities” Samreen said.
“Yes that must have been the worst day of my life” complained Kanika
“That’s because the newspapers printed her photograph all weary and tired, devoid of any makeup” whispered Rohit
“I heard that” Kanika snapped
“No listen to me guys, this one is not at all dangerous, it’s but a simple game I devised to solve our current problem” said Akshay. “Rather than planning and heading towards any one place why don’t we just hit the road and let our pen do the planning.”
“The Pen?” echoed the group together.
“Yes, the pen” explained Akshay. “What we’ll do is we shall use the pen to direct us to our destination. We will keep driving straight until we hit some crossroad, and when we do, we will rotate the pen and whatever direction the pen lands up in, we will take that road, even if it means to take a U-turn”
“So what do you say?” Akshay asked his gapping friends
“I say it's ridiculous” said Rohit
“I say you have finally lost it” Joe said to Akshay
“I say let’s do it” said Samreen
“What?” cried Kanika and Rohit in unison
“Seriously, you are agreeing to akshay’s crazy plans? What’s wrong with you.” exclaimed Kanika.
“I just feel that the past two months has been very tough for everyone and that we deserve some fresh air, plus we are in college now, if we don’t try something new today then when would we?” explained Samreen.
The gang just stared at Sammy awestruck.
“I’m in” said Rohit. “If Sammy can do it, it must be worth it!”
“So am I, as long as you promise to stop for food breaks every half hour” Joe said.
They all stared intently at Kanika. “All right all right, I’ll come, but I can’t come before 5 ‘o clock, I have my pedicure appointment at 4.00 pm which I am not going to cancel”
“Ya even I have some errands to run for my folks” said Rohit
“Yeh and I gotta go eat” said Joe with his tongue out.
“Ok then it’s agreed, we’ll meet at my place at 5pm sharp, have some random fun and then you all can sleepover at my place tonight” Akshay announced to which the gang agreed and went about their separate ways.
At about 6.35 that evening the car was fully loaded with Joe’s food supplies, Kanika’s makeup kit, Rohit’s mythological stories, Akshay’s ideas and Sammy’s new found quest for adventure. Sammy had also designed a small board where the pen could be fixed with the four directions being replaced by ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘U-turn’ and ‘Go faster’.
They decided to take turns rotating the ‘wheel of direction’. They had a nice time, and created quite a riot with making last minute decisions, and often needing to stop the car in the middle of the intersection because the pen got misplaced. Many a time they would keep going back to the road they just came from simply because the pen said to take a U-turn.
All was going well and as per the plan until they took a right turn onto a lonely patch of road, somewhere in the middle of Gurgaon. It was 10.00pm and they had not met come across any crossroads in the last half an hour, things were starting to look a little odd, and the girls were getting panicky
“Where exactly are we?” asked Kanika
“I think we are lost” stated Rohit
“I think we should turn back” suggested Samreen
“I think I am going to die” cried Joe holding his stomach in his hands
“Guys will you relax, we are not lost, we’re not turning back and we are definitely not going to die Joe” answered Akshay “In fact I am getting quite a good feeling about this, I think we are heading straight into an adventure”
“So why do I feel like we are heading straight into hell!” groaned Joe
Akshay was driving fast, and they must have drove at least 80kms on that road now, and when after another half an hour of driving they did not come across any sign of human habitation, even akshay started to get worried especially when he saw the fuel needle pointing towards empty. The trouble was that they had not passed a single petrol pump since they turned on this road, and the hope of finding one ahead was not that bright either. Therefore, until they got their car refuelled, they now could not even turn back to where they came from.
The mood in the car was changing rapidly; from lively & the peppy to tense & anxious.
Thus, the sight of the roadside dhaba was a very comforting sight and this time not just for Joe but for all.
So hungry was the gang that they forgot all about their problems and immediately ran in to soothe their growling stomachs.
Even Kanika did not complain about the sub standard quality of the food served there or the unhygienic conditions it was cooked in.
Akshay went to enquire about their whereabouts and the possibility of availability of fuel. It turned out that they had not veered so far away from the city, and had merely travelled around it.
Hearing this, the gang cheered up and soon the jokes started coming back.
They were all busy eating and discussing the night’s events.
“Hey, where’s Sammy?” asked Joe
“You actually took out the time from between eating to inquire about Sammy?” joked Rohit, “Is everything all right?”
“Ya where is Sammy anyways, didn’t she go to the loo when we came in?” queried Akshay
“I’ll go look for her” replied Kanika
“I’ll come with you” Akshay said hoping to catch a moment with her alone
But what they hadn’t expected was what they saw next.
Akshay and Kanika turned the corner towards where the arrow pointed to the loo to find, samreen khan, lying on the floor with blood oozing out of her mouth.
(find out what happens to Samreen in the next month’s issue)
