Lina and Jay were sitting on the bed in Jay’s bedroom when Jay jumped off the bed and smiled his mischievous smile and confronted Lina with a question.

“You know what your problem is? You need a boyfriend. Why don’t you get a real boyfriend? You are beautiful bordering on being sexy; especially when you wear your low-cut blouse and short skirt. If you ask me, the whole reason behind your depression is your inability to accept men,” smilingly said Jay.

The room in which they were sitting had a colorful spirit to it. The three walls were painted sharp white, while the fourth one stood out with its lavender blueness. Right in the center of the blue wall hung a circular mirror with plenty of metallic spikes jutting out just like sun-rays. The bed, on which they were sitting, huddled with feathery upholstery, looked like an Olympic-sized swimming pool; Lina and Jay disturbing the surrounding air with their animated talking, just like swimmers ruffle the water. Accentuating the mood of the room which was upbeat just like Jay’s character, was a couch the color of a Dove; spotless and unblemished. There was more furniture, which just evidenced the need of variety in Jay’s life— Jay liked to change things around.


Lina and Jay were school friends. They were together for almost eighteen years before deciding to undertake different careers, and so different roads. They were opposites in many aspects, but they knew each other so well that the differences melted into a kind of thread that held them together. It appeared like their belonging to a secret fraternity where they knew so much about each other that if God had problems deciding their fate in their afterlife, he could gleefully consult them

“Why don’t you let me take you out, tonight? We can eat out and have fun,” said Jay.

“Why? Where are your bimbos, today? I didn’t expect this from you—to ask me to fill in for your girlfriends,” replied Lina.

“Well, I asked them not to disturb me tonight. I am with you today, so that you can take advantage of me. You can do whatever you wish,” jokingly said Jay.

“Why don’t you help me take off my clothes. I need Mr. Sex Therapist to help me realize that I am wasting my life thinking about the past. I need to forget everything and enjoy an intimate moment with you,” reciprocated Lina with a playful look.

“Yeah, let me help you.”

As soon as Jay approached Lina with calculated steps, as if he were setting foot on the moon, Lina grabbed hold of a pillow and started hitting him. Jay, anticipating her moves, had already set his eyes on the remaining three pillows on the bed, so he jumped for them and started a pillow-fight.

“I didn’t want that guy to interfere. Anyway, I got her number,” said Jay on their way back home from a restaurant.

“It was hilarious. That guy could have killed you. You must develop an eye for single girls. I cannot see you being beaten up by some random guy; I need my friend to get away from a dinner unscathed. But what did you say to make her give you her number despite her having a boyfriend?” asked Lina, laughing.

“I just asked her to visit my modeling studio. I told her about her bright future in modeling. Did you see her? She had such a juicy ass. I stared at her, pretending to size her up for a modeling project, and she was happy to let me ogle at her. Her name is Shivani. I’d bet you anything that she’ll be there tomorrow, first thing in the morning. And by the afternoon, she’ll be rolling in my bed. You missed the opportunity, Miss Lina,” replied Jay with confidence bubbling out of his lungs.

“Yeah, I am going to repent the opportunity for all my life. Wasn’t it the one-hundredth opportunity to hump you that I missed today?” quizzically spoke Lina.

“Why are you being grumpy?” asked Jay.

“I am not grumpy. I am just happy to see you happy. I sometimes envy your life. You have such a happy life,” said Lina.

“You know why you’re so depressed. Because you let the past ruin your life. Look at me- I don’t care a hoot for what has happened today and what is going to happen tomorrow. I am right here, with you, living my life, and being happy about it. Who knows if Shivani will come to my studio tomorrow or not. If not Shivani, then someone else; this world is full of chicks. You just have to reach out for as many as you can. I want you to stop thinking about Mohan, once and for all” said Jay.

Mohan was another student from Jay and Lina’s class. He was the only person Lina ever loved. From the first day in school, when he arrived from Mumbai in the sixth standard, to the time he saved her from drowning at the senior farewell party—Mohan had done what nobody had ever done for Lina. She still vividly remembered the day four years back when she arrived at the farewell party. She was known as the prude of the class, as she refused to sleep around, and everybody, especially the girls, started to talk down to her. She saw Mohan standing at a distance in his black, pin-striped pants and white shirt. He was a tall, handsome young man with a beautifully chiseled face. His jaw was low, wide, and drooping, which gave him the look of a Greek warrior. His hair was always cut short. He didn’t seem to smile often, but when he smiled it looked as if the sky were gyrating with teeth representing the stars, and his beautiful mouth the whole universe. His somber manners weighed heavenly on one’s heart; the way he walked, with his steps breaking the shackles of time, descending upon earth with a momentous verve. His face had that grim silence, which one relates only with the matters of extreme seriousness. There was a personality that had enslaved many a heart, without even knowing the dire repercussions it brought about to its victims

She had a very good friend- Priya, who worked as a flight-attendant now; Mohan was Priya’s cousin. No one knew that Lina liked Mohan; not even Priya. Priya was another character in the class, one with ungainly ways and a very poor sense of dressing. Lina helped Priya to get along in the class, but she could only help her so much. Close to the end of the party, a group of bullies were trying to throw Priya into the swimming pool, when Lina bumped into them and started shouting for help. Leaving Priya, the group got hold of Lina, instead, and threw her into the swimming pool, knowing very well that she didn’t know how to swim.

When you’re drowning it feels as if you have been snatched from life. You are doomed to breathe in nothingness. It’s like running a hundred-meter dash in the Olympics, but the air is replaced by a vacuum; you’re supposed to run one-hundred-meters without a single ounce of oxygen—drowning is so relentless. Water fills up everything around you, leaving you helpless and belittled. You smell water as it makes its way up your nostrils and down your windpipe. Water, which is the essence of living on earth, morphs itself to become a deadly force, which sees you as a petty insect, writhing for pity. You appear cheated out of life; the life which once promised you great things, now struggles to provide you with enough to live on. It’s a moment of great solemnity where you see life slowly drifting out of your heart, first, then out of your lungs, and finally out of your head. Everything slowly approaches a standstill, except for your body, which makes every effort to overcome the weight of imminent death, a death that starts dawning on you with every second. The hands move erratically in hope of something to cling onto, the feet paddle the water in hope of generating enough thrust to take you to the shore of life, and the body, shuddering with every passing second, twitches to free itself of the burden of pain that has overcome it. You collect the remaining life and make the last effort to hold onto the fiery hand that appears godly, as the messenger of death brings it upon you.

“You remember about the reunion on Sunday?” asked Jay.

“Yeah. I don’t think I am going to be there. Mohan might show up, so I don’t want to put myself in front of him. You know I lose control over myself when I see him. But I don’t want to ruin your reunion. You should go,” answered Lina.

When Sunday came, Jay went over to Lina’s in the morning and pestered her so much that she finally agreed to go with him.

“Today, I am going to introduce you to every guy in our class. I know that you know them, but, today, I am going to present them as potential boyfriends. You can choose whoever you want and take him home,” said Jay.

“No thank you,” replied Lina.

Mohan had not arrived yet. Despite her earlier indisposition to attend the reunion, now when she was there, the only person her eyes were savagely searching for was Mohan. She went around hearing people crowing about their successful sleep-arounds, especially girls. She even got to talk to some guys, who teased her and asked her about Mohan. Finally, Mohan arrived. He looked lost; he had a look of distrust on his face. Tiredly, he walked around meeting people and saving Priya from any embarrassment. He was wearing a dapper black suit and a maroon tie, which made him look like an emperor walking about his royal abode. The disinterested smile, which momentarily etched his face, showed more than what he was trying to hide behind it. His face bore no resemblance to the earlier Mohan. He looked in need of someone; someone to hold him and help him fight off the venom, he was carrying within himself.

“How are you, Mohan?” asked Lina.

Mohan turned around, hearing an unknown voice, and said, “I am fine, Lina. How are you?”

“How have you been? It has been more than four years that we last met,” said Lina.

“Yeah, it has been a long time. These four years have been like a century for me. Every second has weighed so much on me. Anyway, what do you do, now? Are you still the goofy Lina I always knew?” asked Mohan.

“I thought you didn’t know me,” answered Lina with a jittery voice.

Mohan looked at her for a moment, and the moment seemed to stretch to infinity. They kept on looking at each other, and then a tear trickled down Lina’s face. Right at that moment, Jay, busy with all of his girls, turned around to see Lina crying. He scampered though the crowd and stood in front of Mohan.

“I’ll kill you if you ever come close to Lina,” thundered Jay.

Hearing this, Mohan looked deep into Jay’s eyes. He didn’t say a word. He started to walk away, but Jay got hold of his arm and shook him as if he were interrogating a murderer. Mohan gravely disentangled himself out of Jay’s tight grip, and started to move away. The emotional deluge had just overflowed the depths_of sanity for Lina. She wrested herself free of social norms and started running blindly toward the road where her car was parked. As she reached the road, a car winding its way through the darkness of midtown Delhi struck her.