When At The Dinner

The group was crazily arguing over the places they lived. Everyone argued about how the place where they lived was better than where the other person lived. It was hilarious. Blatantly people were mocking each other with their jokes about the central, western and harbor lines of Mumbai.

The two of them never wanted to get into that and so they were quiet. Shiva and Kamya. They were like, “Aree yeh kya chal raha hai” How does it matter hum kahan rehte hain?

Shiva and Kamya had their preferences but did not want to argue about it. Especially Kamya did not want to because she was too private in sharing her preferences and knew that Shiva would mock at her if she ever said something about where he lived although it was her general opinion and nothing targeted personally towards him. He had this dominating and judgemental air about himself which Kamya never liked. On any other day Kamya would be irritated with him in her mind, but not today.

Kamya was in a total jovial mood and said to Shiva, “I don’t mind living on mercury. (laughed with her hair rolling down and banging the table of the diner where they all had met). Bas problem yeh hai ki udhar garmi bohot hogi (laughed crazily yet again)."

Shiva looked at her, took a pause, and said, “Dude, Hum wahan nahi ja sakte. Tu science student hoke bhi pagal jaise baatein karti hain!” Kamya looked at him popping her eyes out and said, “Science student hun isiliye …. I am trying to maintain my sanity these days!”, and laughed crazily yet again.

Just then Kamya took a sip of her cold coffee which was absolutely delicious. She closed her eyes for what seemed like a fraction of second in appreciation of the taste. After all, the solar system was such a vast place with so much empty space between the planets and there were a

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steroids at certain places. Kamya was riding her lady love, her Miss India gold bicycle, totally happy, dodging the asteroids, feeling the heat of the sun increasing as she drifted from the Earth onto Venus, contemplating if she really wanted to go near mercury.

“Chal yaar, try karne mein kya jaata hai”, she thought to herself. “At least Shiva ko bol sakungi… main jaake aayi mercury pe!”

As she was finalizing her decision, a huge asteroid came in front of her, very close to her, so close that she had to take a steep turn in the nick of time to save herself.

Kamya turned her bicycle, and …. Phewww …. spilled a huge glass of lime water on Shiva sitting next to her! Shiva was now facing the consequences of Kamya’s steep turn from her travel into space and was utterly irritated.

"Dude, kya karti hai …. Pagal hai tu …! Mujhe completely gila kar diya tune. You dumbo!” Kamya looked at Shiva and felt, he looks so much like that asteroid which she just skipped!

Shiva waved his hand in front of Kamya's eyes to bring her back to reality. And she said, “Kya yaar Shiva, I was going to mercury, aur, tujhe apne kapdon ki padi hai!”

The entire group of friends, Seeta, Prashant, Sameer, Nitin, Kushal, Sagar and Dinesh laughed their hearts at the fiasco. Shiva and Kamya did not know how to react as their friends laughed. They both just cooled down without arguing any further and the evening went ahead joyously in sweet anticipation of the next meeting.

After some time, they all settled their food expenses and headed right back to their respective destinations, some central, some harbor and some towards the western suburbs of Mumbai, now, without arguing with each other.