Between friends...

The were not what exactly what you could call as friends.Circumstance rather than choice had brought them together.All were in the same department.Providence had willed them to stand one after the other in the line for registering their names in the doctoral programme.Nilima was fidgetting with the strap of her bag.She was really bored and bugged.The guy in front of her looked to be equally bored but was lost in a world of his own.Nice decent guy she thought,wonder what he is here for..It was a look she would see often for the next 5 years and bring poignant memories of a misunderstood friend for the rest of her life.Aditya unaware of the female adulation being bestowed upon him was leaning unconcerned on the pillar.The cool marble was a respite from the blistering heat.He checked his inbox for the upteenth time.She still had not messaged.How could she forget?It was his birthday,and she never forgot that.He decided to put up a little show of being offended when she would call.The line was moving like treacle.He was desparate to crash in the hostel bed.It was exactly like the one in his home,if you would call it a home.A two room,four walled construction of bricks and mortar shared with two more siblings hardly qualified as a home.He was happy he had gotten out.A room to himself??!!Two months back he would have scoffed at the idea.But one year of burning the night oil had brought him into the hallowed portals of the high seat of education.And god was he determined to fight it out if it provided the ticket out into the wide world.All these thoughts trooped through his mind even as his admirer was being admired by a boy born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth.Makrand,son of a wealthy businessman and fortunately or otherwise,the only heir to the unearned and as opined by some,undeserved wealth.He had always craved for the attention from his parents but had received expensive gifts in return.Silver and expensive gizmos could hardly replace the gentle caress of a mother or the back slapping adulation of a father.He had turned for affection to his friends and had turned into something of a limelight seeker with his mannerisms.Girls flocked to him,as much for his looks as for his money.Each with a dream of sharing the spoils of a corporate war.He knew how to manipulate them like puppets on a string.Changing his interests according to the girl that had taken his fancy.He basked in the reflected glory of his wealth.Money and the shadow of a father well known in the circles where it mattered had habituated him into getting whatever he wanted.Anything.Nice girl,he thought,wonder if she is my programme.He gave a passing glance to Aditya who was leaning unconcerned on the pillar-Hope he is not there in my course if this girl is,he thought even as he assesssed a future rival.The three unanware of each other were lost in their own worlds,briefly making contact with the real worlds as the line made its labourious way on.Intellectually more disparate individuals could not have come together.Adi was a fighter-not born brilliant,but a hard worker who had sporadic bursts of enlightenment.He was persistent and would not leave a problem unsolved.He had had to fight against students from the best colleges to get to this place,and given the lackadiasical attitude of his college regarding motivating its students for higher studies,it had been a uphill climb throughout.Right from giving the exam to facing the firing squad of a panel.The panelists were impressed with his knowledge,the good opinion further compunded by the tier II college he came from.Nilima was not exactly born brilliant too,but had sharpened her intellect as she grew up in the shadow of parents in the doctoral profession.She had been selected for each and every possible exam when she was in school and had continued the winning streak in her college too.However,thanks to her commitment towards cracking every competitive exam that came her way,her college marks ahd taken a mild beating.But that was more than covered for by her thick stack of certificates she had received for excelling at the national level competetive exams.She had a razor sharp wit and was thoroughly unconcerned about studies.Her hands were itching to go at the work bench.Her conquests in academics ran parallel to her achievements in the arts.She did not have a face to launch a thousand ships but was never went unnoticed in a crowd,always winning second glances.In a nutshell-the intelligent male's quinessential dream girl.And she knew it.Some people are fighters,others hone their skills,while a privileged few are born intelligent.Makrand did not move in the rarified air of the third class.But he managed to get good marks.He had a prodigious capacity to recall.A combination of money,looks and a good academic record made him a target for the adulation of the girls and outright jealousy of the boys.Thus they stood.Each blissfully unaware of the other's thoughts.Hardly were they aware that they had embarked on the roller coaster ride of their lives.A journey that would test their integrity as humans,mould some unbreakable and false impressions and finally make one person realise that all is fair in love and war,especially when you are on the victorious side...
To be continued..