The Mischievous Three

They say, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” Well, I don’t think you always have to make yourself needed. Sometimes, just a smile is enough!

I finished eating the pav bhaji and gulped down the masala chaas in the college canteen. An effortless smile escaped my lips when my eyes met Naaz’s, and she smiled back. That was our moment, bunking the Saturday morning Chemistry class for the best menu of the week. We had just passed school and in the first year of college we could truly feel that India was a free nation. For me the college building was no less than the Statue of Liberty.

“So, are we up for tonight?” I asked Naaz.

“Yes, Ammi finally agreed after your phone call. She is convinced that it is a study night. Thanks Anu!” Naaz said.

“Cool.” I chuckled.

Naaz, Rosalin, and I had been friends since fifth grade. However, Rosalin had got admission into a different college. Her parents were away for two days, and we had planned for a house party. The idea was to eat junk, gossip, and watch Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai on a rented DVD. The nation had gone crazy for Hrithik Roshan in those days. So, the three of us decided to find out why.

Visiting the movie theatre was strictly forbidden for us, our parents thought it was unsafe for a group of teenage girls. Occasionally, we’d sneak in to catch a matinee show after college, but ever since the incident from the previous month when we unexpectedly stumbled upon Rosalin’s elder brother in the same theatre, somehow managing to escape before he noticed us, we had decided against it.

Bollywood cinemas were highly popular; Hollywood movies hadn’t yet penetrated the Bhubaneswar market to the same extent. However, Spider-Man and Bend It Like Beckham had made a significant impact on the crowd, leaving them eager for more.

“You sure about the scooty thing?” Naaz asked on our way to class.

“Oh yes, the traffic police at the Acharya Vihar Square are very slow, believe me.”

I always had to cross that square while pedalling my bicycle to the Physics tuition. I felt excited on those mornings not because of Physics or its mind-boggling equations, but because I got to check out the ongoing movie at the Maharaja Theatre. That’s how I got the latest movie updates.

One such morning, out of excitement, I missed the red signal in the traffic and went ahead. A traffic police officer immediately chased me and called out, “Hey, you specs, stop right there.” He started hitting the carrier of my bicycle with his thick cane.

People always described me as a lean and thin girl with huge spectacles. I have always refused to wear those contact lenses. Partly because I don’t want anything inside my eyes and partly because my spectacles have become kind of my trademark. I have worn them proudly since I was ten. Someone had told me it gives me a geeky look.

I turned back quite nonchalantly and noticed the man chasing me. He was middle-aged, perhaps in his fifties. I gave him a frosty nose stare and left by speeding up, much to his disappointment. Boy, I had guts even as a teenager and was the mastermind for all the pranks since school. I knew we could manage with one scooty without getting caught. Rosalin was the only one among us who possessed one.

The last bell rang. “Are you excited?” I asked Naaz

“Totally!” Naaz responded with a grin.

We waited for Rosalin outside the college gate, our duffle bags filled with utmost care for a happening night. Rosalin arrived on her red scooty. She was wearing a matching red top and blue jeans. It was completely contrasting Naaz’s modest black salwar suit with white prints. I had decided to wear my favourite dark pink long skirt and white tee.

“Hello my darlings!” Rosalin said and we gave her a big hug.

Naaz and I huddled up on the scooty along with our bags, being the thinnest I was seated sandwiched between them. We must have looked like the craziest three monkeys.

“Ready?” Rosalin asked.

Naaz and I roared, “Yup!” in unison.

We successfully reached Acharya Vihar Square from my college. I had prepped Rosalin very well about what she should do if she sees a traffic police officer; but reality bites, it always does. An officer came shouting at us and Rosalin almost froze; she stopped the scooty. Much to my astonishment he was the same man who had tried to stop me the other day. Upon noticing me he yelled, “You! Finally caught you! Three of you get down right here, surrender the scooty to us.” He had another traffic police officer and a lady constable with him this time. There was no escape.

He demanded a fine of five hundred rupees and wanted to check the scooty papers. We had none of that with us, neither the money nor the papers.

“It would take me an hour to go and get the scooty papers via bus.” Rosalin said.

“We will wait and keep your scooty in our custody till then.” The officer answered with a frown.

Naaz said that she had some money saved and could get it. “Ammi and Abbu would still be busy teaching in the school. They won’t know.”

“That would be a great help, Naaz, we can pay you back later.” Rosalin said convincingly and I acceded to that.

So, Naaz went to arrange for the money and Rosalin went to get the papers. I had to stay back with the scooty at the square. The lady constable was supposed to keep an eye on me. She was plum, dark and had the look of Hela, “Two-Faced-Terror”, the Asgardian Goddess of Death. Not sure why I read so many comics. I embraced my fate and sat on the pavement waiting for both of them to arrive.

After a few minutes I started complaining about the heat, but no one took any notice of me. Several more minutes passed, and I told them that I was hungry. This time the traffic police officer looked a bit annoyed. As though to get rid of my perturbations, he handed me a packet of Tiger Biscuits and a pouch of water.

“There you go. Now please keep calm!” He said, wiping the sweat from his brows.

That was quite unexpected, but also kind of him. I relaxed a bit and munched on the biscuits. The daylight was gradually dying, I drank all the water from the pouch and wondered how much longer I would have to wait.

Just then I spotted Naaz getting down from an autorickshaw. She went straight to the officer and handed over four hundred-rupee notes, a fifty-rupee note, and five ten-rupee notes, making it an exact sum of five hundred rupees, and said with a heavy heart, “This is all I have!” Before he could speak, Rosalin came in and showed him the scooty papers.

By then perhaps the hearts of the police officers had melted because they just took a look at the papers and left us with a warning. They only kept a hundred-rupee note for the royal treatment they had provided me with the biscuits and water. We showered them with thanks and told them how grateful we were.

“Okay, now just leave before we change our minds!” The middle-aged man said whom I had encountered twice at the traffic signal.

We hurried away. Just before leaving I turned back, my eyes met with his and I saw a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. I am pretty sure I hadn’t imagined it.

Rosalin drove her scooty; Naaz and I took an auto to her house. We did have a house party with packets of chips, bottles of coke and the samosas we had bought from the roadside stall. The movie was good timepass too, though it was hard to believe that the protagonist had an exact replica of himself waiting somewhere else to be discovered by the female lead. We were students of science but couldn’t apply any logic to explain these phenomena of lookalikes in our Hindi film industry. Still, we found such movies entertaining those days. No wonder it was a super hit.

“Ah, what a day it was!” Rosalin sighed around midnight.

“We will laugh at it someday.” I mumbled before falling asleep. We still do, we laugh every time we think of this day.