Entry ID 1110: Aliya by Aasif Shah
Next day, he saw her crossing the gully that was in front of his friend’s house. He went up to her. ‘‘How is the pigeon?”
‘‘What are you doing? People are watching, please go away,” she said. He was taken aback. ‘‘Wait for me at the road,” she whispered. He walked ahead.
—
”She’s fine now, thank you. You are Ajmal’s friend, right?” They’re walking on the road.
”I’m Suhail. We’re roommates in Mumbai. We came down here yesterday. I’ve a project on oranges as my project for third year. I’m majoring in Botany. What’s that in your hand?”
“A Tale of Two Cities. Our classic. BA first year. Have you read this book?”
‘‘Yes. I found it interesting,” he lied lest she should stop talking to him.
‘‘This is my precious book.” It was a hard cover book. They had reached her college. He noticed how different she looked. She was in a yellow floral printed kurti and blue jeans.
‘‘Can we meet again?” he asked.
‘‘Why?”
”I’ll be at the farm in the evening.” She strolled inside without answering.
Entry ID 1111: Love Knows No Bounds by Ankita Ghosh
“Victor Banerjee acted in A Discovery of India.”
“What?”
“You don’t know A Discovery of India is a movie?” asked a pair of bewildered eyes.
“You are talking about A Passage to India. The other is a book by Nehru.”
The same pair of disbelieving eyes looked at Rakshit, “I thought, after adaptation, they can change the name.”
“A Passage to India is by E. M. Forster,” Rakshit explained calmly “while A Discovery of India is Nehru’s.” Almost in the same breath, he continued, “There you are!” as a bespectacled girl carrying heavy notebooks walked in.
The girl with the disbelieving pair of eyes examined the simple dress, the library glasses, and those anorexic hands and protruding collar bones for the umpteenth time. Mrinalini and Mehek were in the same year at Nagpur Law College. Mehek was mostly unwell, dressed plain and hardly had any friends. Rakshit seemed to be completely mesmerized by her presence. In no time, Rakshit got busy telling Mehek about the debate he was having with Mrinalini about the two books and their respective authors. He even took the liberty to jibe at Mrinalini, “You never know, tomorrow she will say that Nehru was the first President of India!” Both, Mehek and Rakshit found this to be hilarious and had a hearty laugh. Mrinalini could only sit in muted agony.