So by now everyone in the community knew about our love stories and that is why they say that word of mouth is the best way of marketing. But you should not believe all that you hear. All of us, i.e all three couples would look for an opportunity to meet each other and because everyone was talking about us we wanted to keep it really discreet and the more we tired to do that the more it looked like we were doing something wrong and the more people followed us and kept and eye on our movements. There was a parking lot in the back of an apartments in the colony where we used to meet and one day someone spotted a couple kissing there and there was speculation that it was Preeti and me but the fact of the matter is that we were the only couple among the three who hadn’t even thought about kissing yet. My friends used to ask me and I would get really irritated about what base I had reached yet and how was I to tell them getting to any base was the last thing on my mind and that I loved her with all my heart.
Navratri was here and like every year all of us were planning to go to the celebrations organized by a neighboring colony. Preeti and her gang would be there too and we had planned that whatever opportunity we get we were going to play garba together. Five nights went by; everything was going smoothly and according to plan. We were dancing all through the night and sleeping and day dreaming all through the day. My parents weren’t happy and Preeti’s family especially her elder sister who too came there every night was giving her a hard time. On the sixth night, the gang and I were near the food stalls munching on some delicious chat and mithaai while the girls were playing garba. A couple of romeos from the locality approached them and started acting fresh. Billu was the first one to notice it and alerted the rest of us. I rushed towards them and confronted the goons and one of them pushed me away. All this was getting a lot of eyeballs and undue attention towards us. I tried not to fight even though I felt like beating the hell out of them but once the bloke started verbally abusing me I gave him a low blow and he started shrieking in agony and withering in pain. In the mean time the other bloke had run away to call on the rest of his goondas and I knew this was going to be a big bad fight. Sallu suggested that we send the girls’ home before it starts getting ugly and Billu said we too should leave immediately. But Rajesh and Ameet were not leaving until they dealt with the goons who had the balls to tease their girls and make sure that no one else ever tried doing it. I was scared and apprehensive but did not want to the others to think I was being a coward so I unwillingly said that we should stay. So we sent the girls home and waited for the consequences of our actions. I felt sorry for Shehbaaz kalu,Motu,Billu,Sallu and Timmy, they had nothing to do with the fight except for the fact that I was involved and now they would have to get beaten and bruised because of me. I also felt proud to have such good friends who did not question me whether I was right or wrong and stood by me. But all this was like the last thing on our minds. All we could think about was how we were going to deal with the situation and what were we going to do if the guys were really strong and powerful. I wished Hardik would somehow magically appear there with his gunmen and scare the hell out of the romeos. I thought of calling Tarun who was always ready for a fight for a solution but it was already way past midnight and he would have been fast asleep. In the mean time Timmy was creating a bigger gang for our fight. He had a few friends who were his age, Altaaz, shoheb, firaaz and Mubeen who came forward to help us but looking at them and their skinny figures I knew it was only going to add to the numbers and not our strength. Now a few more people would be getting a sound beating because of me. All of us were really tense and sat there with glum faces and hardly anyone spoke to each other. Billu tried breaking the tension by saying that if Timmy called a few more of these skinny malnourished looking friends of his then maybe they goons would pity us and let us go and all of us could just manage a nervous smile. This was the first time Billu’s joke hadn’t cheered me up. We waited for 10 minutes before the enemy arrived but it seemed like an eternity.
Fifteen angry looking men were standing in front of us. At the helm of the group was a bald looking neta type uncle in white kurta pyjama and he straight away grabbed Ameet, who was closest to him by the collar and pulled him up from his chair. We all yelled at him asking him to let him go and told him to listen to our side of the story before he did anything. He gave Ameet a mighty jerk before letting go of him and he fell among the chairs. Motu acted as out mediator and told netaji what had happened and it looked like he understood what had happened but suddenly one the blokes from the back slapped Motu and asked him to keep his tone lower. The velocity of the slap shook Motu up and we too felt the shivers and all I wanted to do then was yell bhaago and get out of there as quickly as we could. But Motu lowered his voice and continued with our story, with his right hand firmly placed against his bruised cheek. Turns out netaji was the father of the bloke who I had punched in the sack and wanted to know who did it and if we told him who it was he would let the rest of the group go. All eyes wandered towards me and I said I had done it and he called me forward and asked his son to slap me. The eve teaser swung his hand with all his might and whacked me across my face and got me in the eye too. My eyes were moist and watery and everyone thought I was crying. Netaji felt that he had humiliated us enough and his job here was done but before he left he called the organizers of the event, pointed towards us and asked them not to let anyone of us inside ever again. It was a premature end to the navratri festivities for all of us but I was thankful no bones were broken. I learnt a lot of things that night; in India only the powerful and the unruly have a say, never start a fight no matter what, my friends were the best things that happened to me, Timmy’s friends were my friends too, by being slapped and standing up for the girls I had become a hero in their eyes and no matter how hard to try to hide your wounds, mom will eventually find out about them.
