How many times should i be drilling this thing in his mind that I don't want to talk to him. He is not obeying my words at all. I hate him more for this. What happened years back, had happened. Now nobody can change it! But what he is doing now is really very stupid and I am completely vexed with him.

Whatever, I just want to make my mind free from all the stupid thoughts. Let me go drink some water, and . . . . .OHH. . . .WHO IS THIS??? SOMEONE IS TUGGING MY DUPPATHA. . . . Ankush..!! "What is it Ankush? What do you want??" I asked him. Few other small cousins of mine and kids from Jiju's side were also with him, standing with innocent faces.

"Akka. . .Akka. . . .we want jucch!!! Perima (Aunty in general) is not giving us juice, she is telling later. . .later. . . but not coming..!!" he said almost in a sobbing tone.

Awww. . . . . Awww. . . . . these kids sometimes go to the extreme height of madness and sometimes become so cute that we automatically forget the stupidity they did previously, and let go of our anger.

"Wait. . . . you sit here with your cousins and friends I'll bring juice for you all. Don't go anywhere, or-else, you won't get jucch!." I could not stop myself from smiling when I said that. I mean Jucch.!!

"Ok Akka." they replied in unison.

I walked to the kitchen, and found my Amma there busy making arrangements for the food for the guests.

Sipping water that I poured into a glass from the bottle I had fetched from the fridge I said, "Amma, I am taking some juice for the kids. Ok."

"Poovu, they have already drank lots, no juice here after, enough." she said.

"It's ok na Amma. They are just kids and need to enjoy." I said, and took out the juice bottle from the shelf, and poured them carefully into the glasses. I wasn't willing to give them cold juice because Amma said they had already drank lot of juice and they should not catch up with cold after drinking them.

"Ok, so here is your juice!!" I said as I displayed the tray in-front of the kids.

"Ohh thanks a lot. I needed it badly" said the ring boy. Uff. . . he comes off everywhere.

"This is not for you Gentleman..!!" I said and took the tray away from him before he could grip a glass in his hand. "These are for the kids." I added on.

"Well, I am your guest, you must serve me too..! Isn't it..?" he asked.

"Step back and stop irritating me." I said and pushed him aside. "Oii Kutties listen, when you are done with your juice carefully go place the glasses in the kitchen. Don't drop it and don't disturb the guests ok.! Sanju you take care of them!" Now Sanju was near them, so I asked her to take care of these notorious kids.

"Hear me, this is important." said the ring-boy.

"Whatever make it short and sweet."

"Fine. Tomorrow Residency Hotel, Anand's Hall @ 10 am without fail. That's it."

"Why..?"

"Party"

"What party?"

"Engagement Party."

"Couldn't you be more precise..?"

"You said Short and Sweet.. so I followed your order madam!!"

"Well done lad!! By the way why can't we have the party in the evening..? 10 am sun!!" I said making a low face.

"What sun and all..?? you girls. . .seriously..!! Uff!! It's so difficult to manage with you all..!!"

"Ohh hello, as if you don't mind getting out in the sun! You may love the Sun, but I broke up with him long back ok."

"Hey come on Poornitha, you will sit in your car from home and get down at the hotel, that's it..!! Your Mr. Sun won't even get a chance to see you!!"

"Managing you is also not an easy work..! Get off..! You and your practical talks!"

"Remember the dress code - black, white, gold, or silver." he said this and walked away.

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***Next Day Morning***

7 AM

"Poornitha remember - this is kinda family party, what we wear matters a lot, so let your dress be decent!!!"

Decent!!! Ok so I must inscribe that word in bold in my skull.

"Akka, what to wear..?? I am so confused." I asked her finally when I was completely exhausted pulling out all the dresses from my wardrobe. "Jean...? Kurti...? Shirt...? Tee...? Maxi...?Dress...? or a Chudi..?" I ended the list with a low voice.

"Don't worry Kiddo!! Decent in the sense I didn't mean Chudis ok...!!" Akka said and those words gave me a lot of relief. No actually on the serious part, how would it be if I wear a Chudi and join all my friends and cousins for a party. Ohh God! That would be the worst day I would ever live in my life.

"How about this?" I asked showing a dress to Akka.

"Aaa. . . ok but it has blue in it. No this is not ok for today's party." she ended her statement.

"Then how about this?" I pulled out another dress.

"Too simple Poovu."

"Yeah right, actually this is too simple."

"Akka take that one, on the top most shelf .. I am not able to reach it." I said.

"Shorty!"

"I'm not a shorty.. Akka please."

"Ok Ok Fine! Here I got it for you from the shelf you could not reach." she laughed as she said that. I was bit short I admit it but I don't like if someone teases me on my height issue. Short people maintain a great perspective in their lives, because we always look up.

"Thanks" I said drily.

"Hey this dress is awesome Poovu!! This is the one we shopped at Reliance Trend for your birthday last year right!? You wear this one for today's party! It exactly matches with the Dress-Code."

"Aaa . . .Yeah exactly!! My last years birthday was unforgettable isn't it? Thank-you Akka." I said kissed her, and ran out.

Now that my dress was ready, I had to work with all the other accessories - a matching clutch, earrings, what hairstyle would match? sandals and all. While I kept thinking about the outfit I could wear I forgot about all the others that I must do. I forgot to change my nail paint, it's the same red after yesterday's function. I should have at least removed the red inorder to make things easy. Anyways I hope I catch up with the lost time. I went fetched the nail paints from my messed up dressing table, I took 2 colors Black and Golden!! Soon I ran to the top terrace, there is a room adjacent to the terrace, and I can be free from all the disturbances of the kids. Ok I agree they don't disturb us always but when I am busy with my Nail Paints I hate disturbances.

I play a song on my phone, Agar Tum Sath Ho, it's from the movie TAMASHA, it casts Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, and the movie is directed by Imtiaz Ali. Well for now this is my favorite melody song, and I simply love it. My playlist gets updated with the new releases often, as everybody else's gets. Finally I am done with my Nails. I painted all my nails black except the ring finger, I painted it gold.

(Like you see in the image below)

Sitting idle till the nail paints dry is the most irritating thing. I decide to call Aakriti, she lives in the same building of our flat in Mumbai, and moreover we are besties.

We spoke for about 25 minutes, she was missing us badly. It seems to be very cold in Mumbai this December she said, and her Anaaya was there with her for the Christmas holidays. Well that's what was worth out of all that we spoke.. all the other things were about her shopping, movie with her colleagues, again shopping, dinner with her sister, and again shopping. Nothing much, so yeah, you guessed it right... Shopaholic Girls!!

9.15 AM

I came down ready all set for the party. Abhi, Sushant and Rigesh were all ready, sitting on the couch waiting for Akka and me.

"You girls take so much of time to get ready man." complained Rigesh.

"Shut up!! I am far better than your so called girl-friend ok!!" I said.

"Your dress is pretty! We got this one together right, last year!!" came up Abhi.

(The dress was almost like in the picture you see on top.)

"Thank-you Abhi. And yeah you remember that. So sweet of you!" I said.

"Ok I am ready. Shall we move??" asked Akka as she came down. She wore a gown, with a silver-grey blend, which had big flowers around her neck, glittery stones stuck below them and silver translucent material forming a tulip skirt below her hip till her ankles.

We went out waving our parents, aunties, uncles bubyeess. "Take care.. Drive slowly.. Be safe.. In case of any trouble call us." and all sorts of instructions came from them as we stepped out.

We youngsters wanted to have a private party and that's why we had this one. No kids!! No Adults!! I know this is going to be super cool. I can't wait to enjoy in the party.

"Sonu bro you drive.." said Abhi. This idiot doesn't have any other work or what?? He is seriously planning to spoil my whole day.

"Akka I am not coming if Sushant drives."

"It's ok Poovu, let him drive and moreover only he knows the way perfectly. And he drives well isn't it??"

"You are talking about good driving?! Let me have a grip!!"

"Come on Poovu."

"As if you are driving!" I said rolling my eyes."I will find my own way to The Residency." I said and walked out thinking that I would catch a cab and reach the Hotel. I had no other way because Appa had taken the other car out, and for sure I am not driving on my scooty all alone.

"Ok as you wish! I will manage with the boys."

"Byee Akka. I will see you at the Hotel!"

"Yeah Byee Take-care." she replied.

And with that I walked out of our house Compound, in search of a Cab. On the road I couldn't find any cab. I tried to stop many, but none of them stopped, they were already with passengers. Hell man!! May be I walk to the taxi stand and there I can find a Taxi.

And here comes Mr.Sun, greeting me on this blessed morning. Uff!! 'You never do what I ask of you!' I said trying to face the sky but failed, as the bright rays disturbed me. I felt like someone is following me. I just hope I don't get into any risk.

BEEP!!!! BEEP!!!

I heard the horn sound. Shit there is a follower for sure. The car came in front of me and halted blocking my way. I ignored it and kept walking, taking steps from the other side of the car.

BEEP!! BEEP!!

Once more came up the horn. Kadavule! Who could this be? The car came blocked my way again. Once again I ignored it, and walked ahead.

BEEEEEPP!!!!!!! BEEEEPPP!!!! BEEEEPPPP!! BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPP!!!!!

Holy Crap!! I can't tolerate this anymore. As the car came in-front of me blocking my way for the third time, I went close to the driver side window and knocked in. "Who the hell do you think you are man?? Get going or else I will call the Cops!"

The window did not open, I decided to move from the place, and besides that the taxi-stand was just few steps away, if I get the Cab I would get out of this shit too. As I went I heard a voice behind. . . .

"Won't you turn to look who's in Poornitha..?"

It's a masculine voice, and he knows my name. Whatever I just turned to look who it was. . . . . and OMG!!!. . . . . .

. . . . .It's the Ring-boy!!

It's he who had been following me.

"You?? What are you doing here..? Following me uhh? And what did you do just now??"

"Hey Poornitha, Chill Chill!!! Get in first, I will tell all that on the way!!"

"Answer me first"

"Poornitha.. .. Mr. Sun!! Get in soon. Or else you will lose your shade!" he said that almost with a grin.

I couldn't bear his stupid talks so decided to get in, before he starts off again. He actually had a point in what he said.

We got in, pulled our seat belts and locked ourselves with the seat.

"How did you come here..??"

"Your Akka of-course. She called me and asked me to pick you up."

"Ohh!! Akka is always like that. Well thanks."

"It's Ok!! Anyways our destination is the same."

"Yeah!"

We were quiet for some time, and then I spoke up,

"Don't you think this is strange?? I don't even know your good name and I am here sitting next to you in you car. Should I trust you??? Who knows. Well on the other hand you know lots about me!"

"Oops..!! Sorry. . . .I am Rakshan Menon!!"

"Ohh!! Nice name Rakshan!! I am Glad." I said and gave him a hand shake.

"For now I am not working but, one day you will definitely see me on the screen."

"What do you mean by that? Like on Screen??"

"Well. . . . . maybe as a Singer or a Music Director!" he said.

Wow I am sitting next to a person who is going to be a singer!! This is really unbelievable. Well people tell a lot, they think a lot about their future and sometimes they are caught up in situations from where they fail to achieve their actual goal. But in the ring-boy's case he was very sure of what he said and his eyes showed the confidence he had in each word he spoke.

"That's good to hear!! All the best Rakshan!!"

"Thanks!! You are a news reporter right?"

"Yeah."

"I've read your news articles about Child Labor, and the other one too about kids Begging in Mumbai. They were extremely wonderful."

"Ohh glad that you did. Thank you!"

"Krish had shared those news articles and mentioned your name. And also told me that you work for The Times Group!"

"Thank-you! I was... but, now I've quit that job!"

"You quit your job?? Why what happened?"

"Well that's a big story!! Issues between my boss and me!"

"Ohh ok! But you quit it forever?? What happened that you took that step?

"I was asking them for a leave from the past 2 months, they didn't let me have it and went on getting me hitched up with interviews, editing, column writing and all. I was totally annoyed. From day 1 I was dumped up with lots of work and I did them quietly. In-spite of that they didn't allow me have the leave. That's why I quiet it!"

"Ohhhhooo!!! That's really bad of your company! What did Uncle - Aunty tell about it?"

"What do you think they would have?? Amma was like you should be patient, girls must not get angry like this and all sorts! Appa supported me on the other hand!"

"Appa's girl!!"

"Yeah of-course."

"By the way how long were you with The Times...?"

"Almost 7 Months!"

"They should have let you take the leave in that case!"

"Leave it na, what has happened is happened."

"So what are you planning to do next..?"

"Nothing much. Must go find some good job in Mumbai again."

"Rakshan.... STOP!!!" I screamed on the top of my voice.

He halted the car on hearing me shout!

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