MaNan: It all started with a lie

The Flour War

Manik

We all were sitting in that canteen and that madhubala....ohh what's her name???....ya that annoying drama queen navya just kept on blabbering some nonsensical shit throughout and that cabir was so interested in listening to her that I was surprised. His behaviour in front of navya was totally different. That douchebag who always keeps on pulling legs and leaves no chance to tease people was all sweet and innocent in front of navya. Woah! Its an achievement. Whatever! It was right then that my phone buzzed to life and there was our cue to leave. We had signed this contract with Mr. Khurana aka that Soha's father for our next album which gave soha even more better access to stick around me. Gawd! Don't even get me started about it. And thus to save myself from her filthy thoughts and to bring her back from her dreamworld, I had to literally plead nandu to become my girlfriend. Fake girlfriend! My mind retorted. Ya ya whatever but girlfriend is a girlfriend right. Whether fake or real....I don't care. Me and the remaining fab 4 bid bye to nandu, Abhi and that madhubala and left. We reached there maybe within an hour or so and started with the recording. We finally finished it after long two hours when I realised that I had promised nandini to meet after this recording and right now I was not at all in a state to even move. I was dead tired so I unwantedly had to text her that I will not be able to make it up because I was really tired and she being the sweetest soul as ever texted back an 'its OK' making me feel relieved. At least she wasn't mad at me. I soon reached home which looked no less than a dumping ground. Everything was scattered here and there. Not even a single thing kept at its proper place. I really have to clean this mess up but not now. I made a mental note to do this job as soon as possible and crashed on my bed. I was deep asleep when the most irritating sound of my doorbell started attacking my poor ears and I had to drag myself out of my comfy bed. I had ignored the bell many times but maybe the person outside was really interested in messing up with me. I opened the door to find nandu standing outside in all her glory and all my anger and stress just vanished in thin air.

"Hii!" Nandini greeted cheerfully letting me recover from my shock. Nandini at my place that to this late? Is everything alright?? Is nandu alright? Is something or someone bothering her? All these questions started revolving in my mind. "Nandu tum yaha? Is everything alright?" I instantly voiced my concern for her and she just smiled and told me that she wanted to gift me something. I was confused. I dragged her inside quickly by her wrist not wanting her to stand outside anymore while she was busy fidgeting with her bag. As soon as she got in, she was shocked at first but later her eyes popped out of her sockets and her jaw dropped to the floor seeing the not so nice condition of my home sweet home. She might surely be thinking that some earthquake had occurred here resulting in such a huge mess where I was living right now. Curiosity took over me and I asked her yet confused "what gift?" "Wait" is all that she replied still fidgeting.
After two minutes more she finally got out a big box wrapped beautifully from her bag and I like an excited child opened the gift to see what was treasured in it. It was a....lamp? "Lamp?" Why did she give me a f***in lamp?? I frowned in confusion. " its not just a lamp manik....press that button at the bottom of it" " yeh?" "Ha" she exclaimed cheerfully and I did as told. As soon as I did... My eyes bulged out of my sockets and I just couldn't stop smiling. Oh god! It was like a projector, as soon as I pressed the button ,my entire room was filled with stars. I was so happy that in excitement I twirled nandini around lifting her feet from the ground and then thanking her endless times. She cared too much about me. Knowing that I love stars and have an obsession about them she gifted me such a lovely thing. I was truly overwhelmed with happiness, that stupid grin never leaving my face.

Soon after the thanking session nandini was back to her 'mom' mode and hence following her instructions we both started cleaning my place. Phew! Its done....finally!! I sighed after one more long hour of work but was happy at the same time as now my house was clean and at least one thing was subtracted from my 'to-do' list. We settled on the couch when our stomachs growled with hunger. Nandini offered me to make dinner and I happily took the offer as she said that she wasn't that tired. After some five minutes I could hear weird noises coming from the kitchen. I headed to the kitchen to check if everything was fine but what I saw was enough to boil my blood. The great nandini murthy was there standing on the table that too on her toes trying to get that flour container down and was just about to slip when I held her protectively in my arms not letting her fragile frame touch the hard ground. We shared a very short eye lock as it broke due to a shower of white powder. Yup! You got that right it was flour. In the process of saving nandini, the flour container fell from her small hands and now it was all poured upon us due to which we both hit hard onto the marble floor.

I got up and burst like a volcano scolding nandini for her carelessness but she burst out into fits of laughter looking at my condition. I quickly took a glance of myself from my phone's camera. I was shocked...shocked was an understatement seeing how I was completely drenched in flour from top to bottom making it hard to even recognise my ownself.

I glared at nandu and she stopped laughing instantly seeing my monstrous stares but soon we both were laughing hard, holding our tummies, rolling on the hard marble floor. I was busy laughing when nandu started aiming handfuls of flour at me and smirked. "Nandini murthy you are so dead!" I muttered glaring at her. " oh really Mr. Malhotra? But I'm not scared of you. Catch me if you can" she said and started running in the entire house followed by me with another handful of flour and no sooner did our flour war began. We were fighting like tom and jerry, after each other's life, laughing like maniacs. My house was converted into a complete mess by now.