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CHAPTER 7

"You are the same girl from yesterday! Oh my god!"

Sohail's joyous exclamation sounded from a distance and cut through their silence. Abhimanyu heaved a sigh of relief, stealing a quick glance at the angry girl who was glaring at him, her mouth full with a large gulab jamun.

Sohail had skidded across the road averting the traffic as fast as he could upon having spotted his friend. Now watching him and the girl standing amidst the scattered marigolds, the latter glaring daggers at him, he thanked the gods for sending him here fast.

"Well, well, well... Look what we got here" he said taking a long, deep breathe, looking meaningfully at Abhimanyu, "Bro what what happened? Hello Ma'am"

"Im...mhhm......mmm.I .he...bmb"

"Easy..easy Mritsa easy...finish your food first" Sohail had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing out; the sight of the glaring, pissed off girl trying to chew as fast as she could was indeed comical. Sohail was having a difficult time controlling his twitching lips that longed to burst out in laughter and was contemplating retiring from the scene for a minute but the next moment when Mritsa pointed a finger at his friend, he nearly choked.

Mritsa glared at Abhimanyu, pointing an index finger at him and then poked his arm with in, scowling all the while. Sohail was more stunned, not at Mritsa, but at his friend who kept standing mute wearing a rather sheepish expression. Sohail raised an eyebrow at him before turning to Mritsa.

"Let me guess, this clumsy guy somehow caused your things to drop?" Sohail asked, smirking at his friend, Abhimanyu rolled his eyes; clumsy he definitely was not.

"Hmmm" Mritsa nodded vigorously and then much to Sohail's surprise pointed to her mouth and then to Abhimanyu.

"..Er ... What ?"

Sohail's eyebrow rose high as Mrit's finger unwaveringly continued to point at Abhimanyu.

"...You are saying...let me guess..Abhi, he forced you to eat?"

Sohail heaved a dramatic sigh as he braced himself to assume the role of a peacemaker, standing in the space between Abhimanyu and Mritsa, his hands extending theatrically in a gesture of tranquility, "Let us, my dear friends, take a moment to recollect ourselves. Abhi, would you be so kind as to illuminate us on the series of events that unfolded here?"

"I was just walking Sohail and she came from the other way, not looking and we happened to collide against each other and her package got strewn all over."

"Excuse me" Mritsa interjected, glaring at him.

"Alright. Easy, easy" Sohail interrupted, waving a hand between the two, "Remember Mahatma Gandhi? Non- violence?"

A bubble of laughter erupted and the trio's eyes landed near Mritsa. Tanshia had just caught up with Mritsa and heard Sohail's last statement.

"Non- violence and you?" she said with mirthful eyes, still laughing, drawing all attention to herself.

"What do you mean Ma'am?" Sohail asked, raising a pointed eyebrow at her.

"I saw you getting down from the army jeep and the soldier salute you two at the end of the market. So definitely you you are not ahimsawadi" Tanshia answered with a giggle.

"Hey our profession doesn't make us violence. Weexercise force in a controlled, need based manner"

"Still you are not 'non- violent'."

"Ma'am that is—"

"Sohail...."

Abhimanyu's awkward intervention instantly brought back Sohail to the situation at hand. Tanshia too now at last noticed the mess of flowers around them and shot Mritsa a quizzical look who shrugged with a slight grimace. Sohail took a deep breathe, about to play referee again and get his friend out of a mess again.

He turned to Abhimanyu and Mritsa and just then the identical petulant, sulking faces of both standing side by side struck something and just for a tiny moment he couldn't stop himself from smiling for some unexplained reason.