Day 04 (29 September 2007)

The Missed Call

The "Truth or Dare" fiasco had happened almost two months ago. And despite my stupidity and impulsiveness, Khushi's behaviour towards me had not changed. She was still nice to me and treated me the same. I knew I was fortunate but ensured that I don't get careless again. She meant so much to me. I could not afford to harm our relationship by being so temperamental.

In the last few weeks, I had become overly cautious. I made an effort to gradually increase interactions with her without seeming suspicious. I had managed to get her number from her school diary lying around in the class (I do not ecnourage or promote stealing a girl's number without her permission or knowledge, but I was not thinking at that moment). I saved that number as "Ankur Home" in my contacts so that my mother would not get curious in case she looked.

But all this theft and stealth proved futile. I could not gather the courage to actually call her.

It was saturday evening and I had just returned from the neighbourhood park where I was playing cricket with my friends. Sitting in a comfortable chair, with a bottle of cold water, I switched on the TV and started surfing channels. My phone started ringing. It was plugged in the socket for charging. I was too tired. Did not bother answering it. My mother was right behind me, busy with some school work (just in case you did not know, she's a teacher). Seeing my ignorance, she assumed it was an unimporant call and let it ring.

A while later, when I could not find anything good to watch other than "CID" on Sony, I got up and checked my phone. I had a missed call from "Ankur Home"! My heart started racing. I was unsure whether to be elated or scared. Either way, I was raring to call back. Suddenly, a realisation hit me. With my mother in one room and my Nani in the other, my one storey house was suddenly too small for a private conversation.

I rushed out of the house. My Mama lived a few houses away in the same neighborhood. I ran to his house along the noisy street. As I entered, I saw he sad some guests for tea at his place. It could not get worse. I could not call her from my house, from the street or my Mama's house. I could not take the wait any more. I got out of the house, went around the building, climbed a ledge and pulled myself up to the roof. I sat down, resting my back against the water tank.

Before I could call back, the phone rang again. "Ankur Home calling". I picked up the phone after a couple of rings (did not want to seem desperate). Her beautiful voice was on the other end. I immediately started explaining why I had not answered her call before. She calmed me down. She had something to ask about a school assignment. She was about to hang up after the short conversation about the assignment. But, I managed to stretch the conversation for a while. I was wishing we could continue talking forever.

Unfortunatly, I ran out of topics and jokes after a while. Before hanging up, I asked if I could contact her on this number in case I needed to ask something "academic". She explained to me that it was not her personal number and I could send an sms on her mother's phone in case anything urgent came up.

My heart sank.

As I stood up and prepared to leave, I felt a searing pain in my feet and saw droplets of blood on the ground. It was then that I realised that I had been running around in the street barefeet amid all the excitement.