The Banished Secret: Chapter Two

"Life sucks!" Abhi declared. His older brother, Aditya lifted his eyebrows but did not answer. Abhi was normally even tempered and sunny, but he too had bad days.

Abhi was a handsome young man of around twenty. Though he was lounging on the couch, looking fairly indolent, he did have a good physique. He was tall and loose limbed. His dusky complexion only enhanced the brilliance of his eyes and smile. Aditya too looked much the same as his brother, except that he was at least ten years older and his complexion was molten gold. Apart from that, they looked exactly like the other. On his bad days, Abhi used to remark sourly that their mother loved Aditya so much, she gave birth to his xerox copy ten years later. Except that the settings were off, so the copy came out dark and not quite the same. Rochan and Achla used to laugh at Abhi's statement, but not Aditya.

Aditya wondered if it was going to be one of those days. He glanced at the newspaper, sipping his coffee, hoping against hope that Abhi would let him read in peace. Though twenty, Abhi often behaved like he was much younger.

"It really sucks!" Abhi repeated, sitting up in the couch and looking at Aditya where he was sitting next to the coffee table in an armchair.

"What happened?" Aditya asked, sighing and setting the newspaper aside.

"That old professor of yours," Abhi said moodily. "That Professor Alex. He’s never satisfied. Whatever I do is never enough. The other day he asked me if I was really your brother!"

Aditya chuckled. "He’s like that with everyone. He asked me once if I was really dad's son!" He winked at Abhi. "It's his style. Don't let it get to you."

"I don't care for his style," Abhi muttered. "Thank God he's retiring this month!"

"Who's coming to replace him, do you know?"

"No, and I don't see why you should be bothered. You are free of it!"

Aditya laughed. "Do you think only students have it tough?"

"I tend to forget you are a teacher these days," Abhi moaned. "I don't know why teachers forget all about their own student days as soon as they stand on the other side of the desk!"

"For the same reason why parents forget all about their childhood as soon as their first child is born," Aditya replied.

"That’s so true," Abhi said, grimacing. "Talking of parents, when are dad and mom returning? Do you know?"

Aditya shook his head. "No, but shouldn't you be concentrating on your assignment for Professor Alex? Granted, he's retiring at the end of the month, but he's certainly going to make your life miserable for the entire month if you don't turn it in on time."

"I know," Abhi sighed. "I've finished it. Just some fine tuning required."

"What's your plan today? It’s a holiday, isn’t it?"

"Nothing much. Shyam wants me to go to his place. He and Vina are planning to watch some stupid mytho show."

"And you don't want to?" Aditya looked amused.

Abhi grimaced. "I don't dig mythos. I don't even know why they hang out with me. We’ve absolutely nothing in common."

“A bit too late to gripe on that, don’t you think? The three of you have been inseparable since primary school.”

“Yea, but the differences were not so glaring then. Now… it’s as if we can’t agree on anything.”

"Life might be pretty boring if everyone agreed on everything," Aditya remarked.

"Please," Abhi groaned. "Spare me the platitudes till later in the day."

Aditya laughed as the doorbell rang.“Must be your friends,” Aditya smiled.

“I’ll be going then,” Abhi said, sounding thoroughly disgruntled as he went to open his door.

“Ready?” Shyam smiled brightly.

“I suppose,” Abhi said wearily.

“Come on, sleepy head!” Vina laughed as she dragged him to their car.

Abhi was feeling bored. Shyam and Vina were waxing eloquent about the actors and the costumes and stuff, but all he could see were a set of people dressed up in too bright clothes and a lot of unnecessary ornaments and too much glitter. He did not like their wigs either, and the dialogues made him yawn.

"Bored?" Shyam leaned against him.

"Oh, don't mind me," he said, yawning again. "You two carry on. You know I don't like this stuff."

Vina turned to look at them and rolled her eyes. "Perhaps we should have asked your brother to come."

"Aditya?" Abhi chuckled. "He likes this stuff even less than I do!"

"Why don't you try to know the story?" Shyam suggested, his arm snaking around Abhi’s shoulder. "You might find it interesting."

"Please," Abhi said, groaning. "I can't read anything other than thrillers. You know that."

"Imagine this is a thriller, then. It is thrilling enough." Vina smirked.

"Yea, sure!" Abhi laughed. "If that's a thriller, then I'm Ved Vyas!"

"Impressive!" Shyam laughed too. "So you know Ved Vyas' name!"

"Ha ha!" Abhi said. "It’s a side effect of hanging around with you two!"

"It's a start!" Vina said, winking. "We'll make a mytho lover of you yet!"

"Why can't you two just take me as I am?" Abhi asked plaintively, as his friends broke into laughter.