Aditya sat in a corner, feeling out
of place and bored. He and Abhi had arrived at Shyam and Vina’s
house at six and had been ushered into this room. It was a large room
which was already full of people the same age as Abhi and Aditya had
immediately felt out of place. He had found a seat in a corner and
Abhi had stayed at his side for a while before Aditya told him to go
and have fun. Abhi had resisted before gravitating towards his
friends. There were a lot of Aditya’s students among the guests,
and they came over to greet him before going back to mingle with
their friends. Abhi was dancing with a girl whom he remembered having
seen once or twice around the campus. Vina was flirting with one of
the boys from their class named Aakash and Shyam was nowhere to be
found.
He was wondering if it might be
polite to leave and was looking around to see if he can spot Shyam
anywhere when a stranger came and sat down on a chair next to him.
“Hi,” said the man. “You are
Abhi’s brother, aren’t you?”
Aditya looked at the man. He had
never seen him before. He was tall, with a pleasant open face, and
pair of very keen eyes.
“Yes,” Aditya said. “But how
did you know?”
The stranger chuckled. “Easy to
spot the resemblance. I’m Savit, by the way. I’m not from the
college, I’m a family friend of Shyam. That’s how I met Abhi.”
Aditya nodded. “Nice to meet you,”
he said, before relapsing into silence. What did one say in
situations like this? He had never had any skill in making small
talk.
“You’re a professor, aren’t
you? What do you teach?” Savit asked.
“Economics,” Aditya replied,
nearly suppressing a groan. It looked as if Savit wasn’t going to
leave soon.
“I’m a total ignoramus where
that is concerned,” Savit grinned. “Just scraped through with
pass marks in school.”
Aditya smiled faintly, not knowing
how to answer or if any answer was expected.
“You’re not drinking,” Savit
observed.
“I have to drive home,” Aditya
answered.
“Hmm… and your parents are on
holiday, I heard.”
“Not exactly. They have gone to
visit our grandparents.” Aditya wondered how Savit knew about their
parents not being home, but he did not explain that his grandmother
was ill and his parents would not be returning in the near future,
not till she improved anyway.
“I see,” Savit said, smiling.
“Well, nice talking to you, Aditya. Be seeing you around.”
Aditya heaved a sigh of relief as
Savit disappeared into the crowd of dancing youngsters. But the sigh
turned into a groan as Aakash sat down onto the vacant seat with an
ingratiating smile.
"Here you are," an unknown
girl with a bright smile grabbed hold of Aakash before he even
greeted Aditya. With a muttered apology, Aakash went with the girl.
"Enjoying yourself?" Shyam
took the seat.
"Would you feel offended if I
say no?" Aditya was tired of trying to make conversations. At
least with Shyam, he didn’t have to pretend.
Shyam shrugged. "Not really.
Abhi did warn me you were kinda anti-social."
"I'm not, but I'm not
comfortable with people I don't know." Aditya was offended. He
wasn’t anti-social. He just liked his own company or those of his
books more.
“Sounds anti-social to me,”
Shyam teased. “If you’re tired of the party, go and have dinner.
Buffet is arranged outside. You can go home afterwards."
"Abhi planning to stay here
tonight?" Aditya asked.
"I think so. We'll be glad to
have you too, you know." Shyam said.
"I think I'll go. I dread
having to make small talk to people I don't know." Aditya hadn’t
meant to have said it, but he wasn’t regretting having said it
either.
Shyam laughed. "Well, Saina
saved you from Aakash, didn't she? You didn't have to make any small
talk."
"Not with him. But there was no
one to save me from that Savit guy."
"Savit?" There was a
slight frown on Shyam’s face.
"He said he was a family
friend." Aditya said.
"Oh him! Yea. He's a bore. Come
to think of it, he wanted to stay the night too. And so did a couple
of others." Shyam frowned. "I’m beginning to see that we
don’t have enough room. Abhi will need to go home. How am I even
going to explain that?"
Aditya chuckled. "How fortunate
l did not take you up on your invitation!"
"I'm bad at organizing,"
Shyam grimaced. "I will probably need to sleep on the couch too.
Never mind. You go have your dinner. I shall bring Abhi too."
"He won't be happy,"
Aditya muttered.
"No, he won't. I'm hoping
he'll..." Shyam's brow cleared. "I got it! I'll come with
you two. I just need to throw a few things in a bag. How lucky
tomorrow is a holiday!"
"What? But it's your birthday!
You can't just leave your guests and go like that!"
"Vina will manage them. She
owes me one anyway. And mum and dad won't mind too much. You did meet
them today, didn't you?"
"Yes, when we came in. Why do
you ask as if they’re strangers to me?”
“Just ‘coz they’ll be asking
me later if you and Abhi attended. They’re not familiar with most
of this crowd, but they know and like the two of you.”
“Well, I haven't seen them since I
came in." Aditya couldn’t really make head or tail out of
Shyam’s explanation.
"Oh, they'll be around
somewhere. They don't enjoy this crowd, but they enjoy parties. I’ll
just go and tell them I’m coming with you, and we’ll all have our
dinner and we’ll go.”
"Well, if you're sure, you're
welcome to come with us." Aditya gave in.
"Thanks big bro." Shyam
flashed him a bright smile.
