5 rupees due… Chapter:2

“5 rupees less? Blue beetle gang? What are you saying?” a surprised Ananya said. The man kept gazing at her and said with a big smile, “Yes, indeed, Ananya. I am the co- leader, as you yourself called me, of the blue beetle gang.” Ananya’s anger slowly started to sink into the sea of the boy’s words, and she herself started to recall something. “Oh! Oh! Oh! So you are Ishant, whom I called the cockroach of our blue beetle gang?” she exclaimed. The boy said, “Why do you only remember such weird things? You remember only one thing about me being the cockroach?” She looked at him with shy smile. They went together and sat on two seats around a round table in a nearby café.

 She said, “But you are whom I am thinking, you are Ishant!” The boy replied, “Yes indeed, the most intelligent boy in school. But you haven’t changed at all, huh, still the same, old angry and irritated girl? Though I find no logic behind you naming our group so though we did nothing.” She replied “Yes, our gang did do nothing. But it was all for fun. And see, you still show off like you used to. What was the need to say that you were the most intelligent boy? And yes, I used to be angry at school time. But I am a changed person now. I was just a little frustrated as I was getting late for a meeting. Oh, no! Meeting! My meeting! I forgot it completely due to you! I am late!” He replied “Alright, alright, calm down, now.” She said, “Alright, we’d be meeting tomorrow then, when I’ve not got much work. Ok?” He replied “Umm… if you can try somehow to cancel that meeting, please do as I have to leave for U.S. today evening. I have been here for many days. I’ve to get back to my job.” She said, “But how can I leave this meeting? I’ll have to leave the job alongside too.” He said, “You remember, at school, when sometimes I did not wish to go to school on any day, I’d write a letter to the principal stating I’m ill. The same can work for you too, if you want” She replied, “Oh, yes, that’s a pretty good idea. Why didn’t it strike my mind when I had to leave poha, I mean, house?” He said, “Probably because God wanted us to meet too.” She replied to him with a smile; and called one of her friends at work, for she usually felt a fear while she talked to her boss.

“Hello” said Ananya, followed by a couple of coughs, “Ruchi, I had to tell something” Ruchi said, “What happened, are you ill?” Ananya coughed again, and said, “Yes, I’m ill. Fever never takes time coming.” Ruchi said, “Alright, then you better take rest. I’ll manage things here.” Ananya replied, “Yes, thanks, and one more thing…” she was going to say when she was interrupted by the waiter, saying, “Here’s your Honey Chilly Potato” Ruchi could hear that over the phone. “What?” she said, “You are ill and eating honey chilly potato?” Ananya shivered, hesitated a bit and said, “Oh, that… that was a T.V. program, ‘cooking fever’, you know.” Ruchi replied, “Oh really, not very convincing, is it? Change the program to ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’, then” Ananya wondered what to do then, and finally put the phone to speaker mode and said, “What? What did you say? Could you repeat that, please?” Ruchi said the same again. Ishant heard it too this time and quickly played one of the show’s videos on his mobile phone. Ananya said, “Satisfied now?”Ruchi replied, “Not quite. This show never comes on T.V. at this time, never.” Ananya quickly replied, “I played it on you tube, you know, smart T.V.s?” She coughed again. Ruchi said, “Alright, alright. Take care, bye”. Ananya replied, “Ok, ok” and cut the phone. She coughed a bit again. Ishant said, “Why to cough now?” She said, “Oh, sorry, I went a little too deep into my acting.” They had a laugh.

They continued their talk. She said “You remember, one day at school, when you were to speak on the stage for the first time, you were so nervous. But then you suddenly saw me standing in the line, and making funny expressions, and you laughed in between your speech.” He said, “Yes, you spoiled my speech, really.” She replied, “Spoiled your speech? Oh, I am sure you’d have hesitated a hundred times if I would not have calmed you down with a laugh. The laugh made you stop just once, and that was my help.” He said, “No, never, I was confident.” She quickly said, “See, I told you do show off.” He giggled. Then he said, “And you, you remember that day when you stole my five rupees to buy a chocolate and you have not returned them yet.” She said, “Why be so greedy? Let it go, now.” He said, “I won’t, not at all. You’ll pay the entire bill today.” She said, “Oh, leave it. By the way, you remember Siddharth, the ant of our gang?” He replied, “Yes, I do. But he left school suddenly and we never met thereafter. And you please don’t call him an ‘ant’; he was such a good person.” She said, “But he was funny, too. Remember that day at school, when we were upstairs at the dance class, while we were putting back our shoes on after the dance period was over, and you were taking a little too long to put on your shoes, he pretended that he was also taking time to tie his laces. But the funniest part was when the teacher came near him and asked Arjun why it was taking too long, he replied that he was tying his laces. But then the teacher reminded him that he was wearing floaters that day. Oh, I saw his expression at that time; it was too funny. Hope you’d see it too, but you were busy with your laces.”

He replied, “But he was a great friend, after all. Hope we can get to meet him too like we both did.” Just as he said that, his eyes caught the sight of a man standing inside the café, whose face bore total resemblance to Siddharth’s. He quickly rushed to him with Ananya and said, “Hey, you are Siddharth, no? The ‘ant’ of our blue beetle gang. I am Ishant, the one who broke the model of your ‘red fort’ one day. Remember me? Remember Ishant?” The man replied, “Sorry sir, my name is Siddharth but I do not know any such gang or you. I guess you are mistaken. I am the manager of this café.” Ishant tried hard to remind him of his childhood, but the man bluntly refused. “Probably I was mistaken”, he said as he walked back to sit with Ananya.

They enjoyed the food and had a great deal of chatting about their childhood memories. Just then, they saw a couple of men, actually many of them, in black clothes and hidden faces walking inside the café with guns in their hands. The people were all scared, and so were Ananya and Ishant. There was a complete chaos in the café. 

 To know what happens further in the story and more about these men who just entered the café, do read the next, i.e. the last and probably the funniest chapter of the story “5 rupees due!” To read the final chapter, click here!