I'm addicted to you. Don't you know that you're toxic?

"Come home na, we'll study together! " said she.

We were both taking a test the next day and I was a bit skeptical about the study together thing, thanks to my great results the previous term. *note sarcasm* I desperately wanted a better score, and she was no good in it either, but somehow I convinced my mum to let us study together. I had already cancelled on her a couple of times in the past, but there was no getting out of it this time.

I walked to the beat of Titanium, as I made my way to her apartment. I jogged to the first floor, and knocked on the door. In about a minute she stood in front of me, flashing me her crooked smile. I smiled back, out of courtesy as she grabbed my hand and pulled me in.

I took a minute to take in my surroundings. It was a small apartment-a 1 BHK. We were the only ones in there. To say it was messy, would be an understatement. There lay books and papers on every surface. Ironed clothes in a pile, on a nearby settee. And a huge cluster of designer shoes near the door. The flat-screen TV and the iPhone on the pile of newspapers, being the only indicators of the money running through the family. I suddenly felt claustrophobic and suffocated. The apartment could seriously use some aeration.

She swiftly picked up her bag and pile of notebooks from the makeshift couch, and motioned for me to sit on it. I did the same, and pulled out my textbook. We quickly started working through our portion.

Once we were about half-way through the lesson, there was a banging on the door. I was startled. She quickly got up and opened it.
"ANNNUUU!!(name changed, duh.) You would not believe what happened!!! Oh, you have a guest." That was all I heard, before this guy just turned away and ran down the stairs.

" Arrey Aaron(name changed, again.)." She then turned to me. "You don't mind him smoking, do you?"

"No, no. No probs." I replied, still looking in my book. No matter how casually she took the test, I was serious about it and certainly wanted good grades this time.

"Aaaaron. She dosent have a problem with smokers!" She yelled at him.

I suddenly looked up to see this eighteen-ish guy in a navy-blue over-sized tee and black shorts enter the living room, with a phone held to his ear, a ciggy and a bag in his other hand. I was left gaping.
 He was gorgeous.

If you looked closely, you could see the semblance. He looked like a thinner, male version of her.

He turned to me instantly, and probably caught me oogling. "Please excuse my language for the next 180 seconds."

He turned to Anu and narrated this story, full of profanities describing the extremity of the situation. How his driver got a spasm in the middle of the road, and how he wandered to find help, and in due course met this adorable cocker spaniel, and almost stepped on a snake shedding its skin, all this while his dark- brown eyes twinkling with excitement. Anu seemed to take it all in with a matched level of curiosity.

I was just left staring at this exchange between the siblings. He started telling her every thing that happened to him, and she had equal interest in his rantings. They both had this air around them that I hardly wanted to disturb, you know. It just makes you want to look and laugh at. They were so at ease with each other. They both included me in the conversation at times, but then I was just content with sitting back and watching them!

After a while, he left the room.
"You guys are so adorable together! " I said to her.
"Oh, no. He's a prick." I laughed.

She then went on to tell me the story behind "them". About how her father left her mother, and how she went on to make a career for herself. And, how Aaron was always there for her in all aspects.
This made my respect for them grow. I mean, isn't that how a family should be?

They say, "When all else fails, there's family." This is how it is. They are each-other's family.
Circumstances bring people together, and make a better person out of them.
The camaraderie, the little sarcastic exchanges, the promises to keep secrets intact, the little surprises, that emotional blackmailing. Its all a part of the package!
Im glad I got to experience that through Aaron and Anu, and my own brother. And, would wish for everyone to experience that atleast once in their lifetime.

My brush with History.

Visits to Dadar are always special. Is it the special Parsi - Marathi feel to it? Or the fact that my parents practically grew there? Or the feel of walking through history? I will never know.
Every city has its past. Its secrets, which are now being buried deep by the layers of modernization being forced onto it.
Every heroic city has its story.
Dadar is that part of Mumbai which housed many of the city's historic events.
The hub of all activities in the Victorian Era, it still does not fail to impress outsiders with its charm. It has this inept ability to capture any passerby's attention. Every time I pass the area, I feel as if Im magically transported back to when India was under the British Raj and half expect horse-carriages with counts in their beautiful attire with that air of hostility on their way to yet another important meet.
The Parsi tea-shops are a common feature, highlighted in many of those movies. A typical old pot-bellied owner with his trademark white cap, black glasses and white khaccha getting all cranky over those good-for-nothing collegians who keep hanging out in that tiny shop of his, drinking milky-chai and eating maska pav.
The long Shivaji Park, where my grandfather used to take me for walks, long long ago. Where you are bound to find the freshest young cricket talent, and perhaps also the next Sachin Tendulkar! Well it was Sachin's homeground!
The nearby beach gives the place a whole different outlook. Cool drifts of wind kept those hot summer afternoons pleasant, kept those trees swaying back and forth.
The area being the best shopping area for festivals. Anything, like any of the rare-est item, can be found here!
And speaking of festivals, the Ganesh Chaturthi period, here being a fortnight-long celebration, second to none!  Almost every other house here, houses a Ganesh idol and worships it for a certain time. And the visarjan days are the ones when everybody is out on their verandahs looking for a glimpse of the varied sizes of idols making their way towards immersion. Huge Sarvajanik Ganpati idols and small nuclear-family idols alike. The chants of Ganpati leaving and coming back the next year ring throughout the city and mark the optimism of the city dwellers.

And just as another bull-dozer knocks off yet another worn down structure of the area, bit by bit our heritage is being wiped out, leaving behind nothing more than a few smudges on the city's skyline. I pity the generations to come.


Later.
xx