It was Wednesday and as well the day of orientation and Divya was very anxious. This was her first time organizing the whole thing and she only hoped that things went well. Though till yesterday everything was completely fine, with the fact that she and Madhav had successfully taken up the meeting instructed people all the hows and whats of the plan, had made all the last minute changes, and then when things were almost done and only the last minute things were left she had left all of it in the hands of Aman Rishi , Yuvraj and Madhav and had went back home quite late for her mother's liking.

As Divya walked up the stairs bunching up her long Anarkali kurta, hair that reached just below her shoulders open for the first time in a while, her face adored with just a bit of khol and a stroke of eyeliner, she smiled at the creatives members who worked on the touch ups. She first went off to the auditorium and was quite relieved to find all the chairs and the setup ready with Dev and Atharva working on the mic system, and Madhav nowhere to be found along with the curation team.

She walked up to Aman and patted his back, her attention on the few members of creatives who were sticking out articles on the ceiling while a few were covering the tube lights with red gelatin paper to give the room a spooky look.

"whooo, Divya you look fabulous... So what do you think, all set and done happy now?" Divya once again looked around and smiled at Aman, she knew he could look right into her and tell that she was nervous.

"Divya chill things will go completely all right." Rishi said as he walked out of nowhere scaring her bit, however She bit back the little scream that was about to come out of her mouth and said, "you guys sure nothing will happen?'

"Listen Divya we are the event admins here and you are the member, I am telling you that things will go right then they will. Now listen you go and look at the curation team they are training the hosts for today, Dev is as well there, till then I will go and get a puff once that is done I will be completely set to rock the floor."

"Aman Noo'' Divya yelled, as she took hold of his hand and hit his left shoulder. "how dare you say that you are going to smoke, we are about to start with our event dare you go and smoke... Rishi even you."

"Divya what did I said right now...we are the event admins things will happen our way not the way you say." Aman gave her a teasing smile while Divya glared at him as well as Rishi who was busy guffawing.

"Stop laughing, trust me Aman if you go and take even a single puff I won't go up there on the stage and it is you two who are going to do all the talking there...I won't even come for the event." With that said Divya walked out of the room mumbling to herself how stupid these two were and how unfair it was to her that she was landed up with 3 idiots 2 who couldn't see anything other than smoking and the other one...it would be her luck if he would show her his face.

An hour later they were surely late for the event to begin with, although things were done on their end but the volunteers for whom the whole event was organized weren't there yet, and then later on the principal was yet to arrive.

However, Madhav had very well begun the show,and which was later on taken over by Dev and one of their juniors. The moment Divya saw her speaking once again on the mic she did quick calculations and realized that it would be her who would be doing their introduction, and no matter what she couldn't have it.

She quickly took hold of Aman and Rishi and Yuvraj who stood beside her and said, "you guys are event Admins right, now do one thing, make sure that Dev does our introduction and Not that stupid Nidhi...I will not come up on the stage Aman, Rishi, if this girl introduces us."

The three of them looked at her incredulously while Aman weaved his fingers through his hair all the while muttering a few curses. "woman are you mad?" he snapped at her to which she smiled at him and went back and sat on the chair beside Atharva who was busy watching the show.

"Nice one there." He said and let out a chuckle while Aman began making calls. Soon she saw Dev walking towards them quite exasperated himself.

"the hell man what's wrong now?" Divya quickly stood up from her chair and said,

"you will have to introduce us ...I wont have Nidhi doing that." He looked at Divya as if she had grown two horns and said,

"Ohh didi, this isn't some game...over there Aunty is eating my head, he wants me to introduce him, over here you are eating my head...whom should I listen to, I can't take away both the departments."

"ohh you can, Just let her take two of yours give any two but not marketing and Events. Dev I am telling you I wont go up there if she introduces us." Divya explained smoothly ignoring the fact that he used that sarcastic didi on her once again.

"and how does it matter to me that you would go up there or not?' Dev said and was about to leave when Aman, Rishi and yuvraj stopped him and said, "dude it matters to us, if she wont come up who will give the speech we don't have anything prepared and she isn't one to prepare her speeches...she is gonna do it on the spot."

Aman then took aside cajoled him a bit and then after a few seconds the two hugged each other as Dev went back.

"Did he agree?"

"yes didi he agreed." Aman said only to receive a tight blow in his stomach which he held onto for a very long time.

*******

Three hours later the event was over and the whole team was seated in a room, Divya had somehow landed herself beside Madhav who was hungry as hell. It was later on she realized that even she was hungry and didn't have her tiffin with her nor any money to buy anything. The two of them were still fussing over the fact that they were hungry and making jokes when Jyoti came as their savior and offered her tiffin to them .

The two began eating as if there was no tomorrow. Divya herself was shocked to see the way she was hogging on the food snatching away the roti from Madhav time and again. The second roti had almost got over when Fatema called her but when she realized she was eating she let her be. When Divya looked back at the tifin the roti was finished, however she had a huge chunk of it in her hand, while Madhav had the sabzi.

"okay I will give you half of my roti piece you give me the sabzi." She bargained, as Madhav smiled and opened his mouth wide like that of a kid. Divya shook her head at his childishness and took rather good amount of sabzi and fed it to him. he smiled at her, took the piece that was in her hand, scared she had almost protested when he indicated her to stop and as well took a large chunk of the sabzi and fed it to her.

A rather surprised Divya, chewed the morsel slowly while Madhav ate the remaining of the sabzi from the tifin leaving Divya to mend her loudly beating heart. She couldn't understand why it was that she felt so shy all of a sudden, and why did her heart beated the way it did. The more she looked at Madhav she realized she liked what he did... but that as well surprised her as to why he did what he did.

The meeting continued for a good amount of time and the moment it got over she was once again busy with other things that Miss Jain had for her. By the time she was done, she was exhausted, tired and hungry.

She had simply walked out of the college gates and was on her way to the railway station when she heard her name being called. Turning around she found it was Madhav who was calling her, she walked up to him and realized he wasn't there alone rather there were Dev, Rishi, Atharva, fatema, meher and even Nandini and Aman.

The moment she reached there she narrowed her eyes at Aman and slapped his arm. "you smoked."

"areeeee Divya madam trust me I smoked only after the meeting got over...forget the event,I waited for even the meeting to get over."

"Ohh please, Fatema you know these guys are addicted to it, he couldn't start the event without a puff, Madhav was so restless right after the event and during the meeting all because he hadn't taken a single puff since morning."

"Noo Divya you are quite wrong there, I was hungry it's not like I am addicted to it."

"Whatever,why did you call me?' she asked while adjusting her bag on her shoulder.

"ohh yes I called you to ask where you were going?" madhav said casually as the whole group began laughing.

"duffer... I was going home."

"So early, you should wait with us, see we are having such good topics to discuss." Meher said as she winked at her. Taking on the bait Divya stayed back as the topics of the student of the year, the principal getting into a case and the rumors that she might get expelled began to roll in. along with that one of the most horrifying news sprouted that they had completely forgotten about.

"OHHH and BMM got a new coordinator, their earlier coordinator was expelled... Fatema, any news on that?" Aman asked. as a complete silence fell around. The coordinator of BMM was one of the best faculties. There are certain things that are known by certain people. Similarly BMM was known by this professor and to have her gone was like a rude slap on everyone's face...the reason however unknown.

"Trust me if I would have known anything more than the fact that she was removed because of those marks, things I would have really accepted that lousy reason, but everyone knows that just the marks case couldn't be the reason."

The conversation then began with Fatema explaining how someone had failed to submit their sem 5 marks of one particular subject to the university though the coordinator couldn't be blamed directly because all the tasks were done on her behalf somehow she was responsible.

"we all are now thinking of going on strike, we can't have things going on like this...BMM without her is nothing."

"I agree, other than Ms. Jain if there is anyone else who is most approachable and close to students then its her. Do let me know if I could help you with anything." Divya said, as Fatema smiled at her and thanked her. The rest of them as well give in their support when Divya was approached by Gautham who hugged her and then soon bid her a bye.

When Divya turned around to the group she was met with a surprised Aman, Dev, Atharva and Madhav and a very much confused just like her Meher, and Fatema and now even Jyoti who was standing beside Madhav. The new addition standing so close to Madhav somehow made Divya a bit uncomfortable and the fact that she was uncomfortable made her even more uncomfortable.

With a deep breath Divya adjusted her bag and was about to bid them all a bye, when Madhav beated her to it and said, "By the way Divya you looked quite pretty today."

"Huh?' Divya said quite confused as to how and from where did that came from. She looked at herself, her long Kurti and her hair that she had now tied up her clip holding them in a place, and surely her face looked all tired and exhausted. She couldn't comprehend what it was in this simple look of hers made Madhav think that she looked pretty.

"ohh yess Divya you actually looked very pretty today." Divya smiled at fatema who gave her a side hug and as if realizing she had completely ignored Madhav's complement she said. "Ohh Madhav, thanks a lot for the compliment." The latter nodded his head and looked around while the rest of the boys were still looking at him quite shocked .

And Divya...Divya was filled with all those jitters around her with a huge number of butterflies swarming in her Stomach, her breath had got uneven as her mind kept on repeating that very moment when Madhav complemented her.

******

On the following weekend Divya was at her aunt's place. Her aunt got Ganpati at their house and did a small pooja. Not many people did Ganesh poojan in the month of January but it was the month of Magh and for some unknown reason an idol of Ganpanti would be brought at home and would be worshiped by many people in and around Maharashtra.

Hence on this occasion, Divya was back at her aunt's place all her cousins were around and they were about to start with the evening pooja but they were waiting for one of their guests to come. Divya was busy teasing and bullying one of their cousins when her phone began ringing.

Out of fright and confusion she had almost dropped her phone the moment she saw the caller. The name Madhav Khandelwal flashed on the screen as she remembered the reason she had saved his number... her mind then took her to the way she had contemplated what to save his number and soon she had found herself saving it as Madhav Khandelwal his full name that had always made it sound so classy and gave it a good ring every time she spelled it.

"Divya, answer your phone, it's ringing." Her uncle snapped her out of her thoughts as she nodded her head and quickly stood up and answered the call while moving to the other room in search of silence away from all the hustle and bustle.

"Heeellloooo" a long stretched out hello was what greeted Divya the moment the call got connected. She smiled at the childish way Madhav spoke, saying a few hellos when she finally spoke

"Hello Madhav, I can hear you...what's up?"

"Ohh heey...soooo Divyaa" Madhav spoke in a sing-song way making Diya a bit confused as to what he was up to. This was the first time they were talking on the phone and though she couldn't tell him about him, she was nervous, anxious, excited and what not at the same moment. Rather it took her a few moments to believe itself that Madhva Khandelwal had called her.

Surely he wasn't any celebrity or something, but the thought of her receiving a call from him made her cheeks burn and her stomach to fall into a few delicious knots.

"Madhav what is it?' she asked. her voice sounded quite breathless to her...however that was bound to happen with the way she was walking about in the room even jumping a bit and smiling widely like an idiot...the reason quite unknown to her.

"yeahh, Actually I was going through my speech for spot light, and I wanted you to listen to it once and tell me if its good, and what all changes it would require." He waited for a few seconds for Divya to reply, hummed a bit and asked him to continue, "see the thing is I am going to talk about me loosing my weight like shedded off about 30 kgs, and then had gone over a complete makeover...so I am going to talk on how its okay to have weight, and that its upto us why do we really need to lose our weight."

"alright I am listening." The next 10 Minutes went off with Madhav talking about his topic. It astonished Divya the way he shared his experience of losing weight about how he did so because of his family's medical history in Diabetes and high blood pressure, of him getting anxious of what people might be thinking now that he had lost weight. How he changed as a person in the later time about the post Madhav and the Pre Madhava and how he made it so general and connectable all at the same time and so easily.

Once madhav was done, Divya took a deep breath and said "Madhav you require a lot of practice that's a given but along with that you will have to know that the topic has to go with the general public, you need to talk less about yourself and more that would be for the general public, work on that...rest is all good. And yes I am quite happy as well as proud as to what all you have done."

"thanks a lot. Anyways I will work on these things you tell me aren't you participating?' this question made her frown. She never thought she might as well have something to share around with people, however before she could say anything her youngest cousin walked into the room calling out to her.

She pacified him in the calmest voice she could muster and then went back to the call. "Madhav I will have to go, Mom is calling me."

"ohh yes, we will talk later on." He said.

"sure,I will call you once I get free. " with a quick bye she hung up the call and walked out of the room, a huge smile still on her face. She couldn't understand why she was behaving the way she was.

Once the offerings were done and the visarjan completed, they drove back home. As she sat by the window of the car with her brother driving, the song "Batein kuch unkahi si " from the movie ' life in a metro' started playing on the radio. With each of the lyrics she felt her lips spreading out in a huge smile as she thought of the times and the days that she had spent with Madhav.

Till now they had been in numerous meeting at Milange and each time they would somehow find themselves being seated together, starting the meeting together, convincing Ms Jain on things that would be related to the events, making fun of Fatema or even Jyoti and Meher at times, or the times when they would just yell at each other over the topic of her winning the Student organizer award.

She realized Madhav had a completely different side to him then what the world knew about. He loved attention, rather he craved for it, but at the same time he knew what he wanted the most. He was clear with things, he wasn't like that of others, what he thought was what he spoke and somewhere that would always land him in trouble.

Divya couldn't forget the number of times she had found herself between two people who would be bitching about Madhav, she had as well warned him about it to which he had laughed it out...rather he had said,

"From next time onwards just go with the flow say a few things about me and get out all that you could and then tell me..it's fun." She had gaped at him but had surely taken up on that advice and was shocked on the results that she had found. Every single person who moved around him, smiled with him, joined him in mischief would have something or the other to say about him.

But then there were Aman, Nandini, Dev and Rishi who no matter what would only stick what an asshole he was but then would sing praises of him. she realized they were the ones who knew the real Madhav.

She surely didn't know much about him,, she might not be close to him the way Fatema and Jyoti were, but she surely knew that now Madhav had become quite a friend for her. One who would give her goosebumps and butterflies in her stomach.

In that moment as the lyrics fell upon her ears she sat up straight the possibility of it made her feel restless. It had been years that she had walked on to this path...she knew that she wouldn't go there so easily at least not after what happened with Abhinav. To distract herself from her own thoughts she unlocked her phone and opened her instagram . Nandini had put up a sticker asking to share an interesting fact about themselves with her.

For a long while Divya contemplated what to write and reply with, but she soon found herself typing away.

"I guess I might have found myself a new crush." And with that she hit the sent...with her mind set to keep a reasonable amount of distance from Madhav and to not get more involved with him then she already was.

Here's a chapter. 

Tell me, How was it that you all had realized that you had a crush on someone? 

I have as well added the link to the song that was played and is mentioned in the last part, I and my friends love it a lot, do listen to and may be share something that you relate to with that song? 

if you all liked the chapter as well as the story so far do share it with your friends and don't forget to vote and comment. 

Happy reading. 

Yadni bagwe