Kaisi ye yariyan ff - Smiles and fireflies

Chap 16- Practice sessions

Nandini was busy tuning the instruments when she began to feel a little feverish. Her throat was starting to feel sore and she had a mild bodyache too.

"That ice cold water that Randheer made me drink is causing all these symptoms," she thought,"I must take some medicine as soon as I get back home."

"Mukti," said Alya walking upto her, " do you think that we really need to pay too much to this performance? We just staged this act to teach Nandini a lesson and thats done now."

"I think Aliya is right," said Dhruv, " why do we need to perform at all?"

" You guys are right," said Manik tuning his guitar, " but I cant go back on my words now, else Mr. Mehra will approach Nyonika and that will only create trouble. So lets just get done with this."

Nandini was reading the lyrics of the song that Aliya had written for the performance.

"Isnt this inspired from the famous bengali song "tumake"? she asked Aliya.

"Yes," Aliya replied," its one of my favourites. But how do you know?"

"Well," said Nandini," Tapur Bhattacharya, my neighbour in mangalore would always sing bengali songs at the annual day. This was her favourite too !"

"But," said Nandini," you arent a bengali. Then how come you understand the language?"

"Mom was bengali," said Aliya," Dad wasnt. My maasi maa has brought me up. So I am well versed with the language."

"And when she is angry," said Dhruv,"she is going to swear and curse you in bengali so that you dont understand! Gosh, she sounds so cute and  funny."

Aliya smiled at his remarks. Nandini noticed that more than a smile, it was a slight blush.

"But," said Nandini, "what if Randheer
does not like the song. I mean, shall we take his approval or........ "

Nandini couldnt understand why she was dragging Randheer into this. But at the moment she was extremely scared of Randheer being angry if the performance didnt go well. She had no logical explanation why she was afraid. Randheer had been nothing but kind to her. He had rescued her from the humiliation that fab 5 had put her through. But still.............still she was scared and she couldnt figure out why.

"Approval my foot!" yelled Mukti, "Junior Mehra has no sense of music."

"Fab 5 does not seek anyone's approval," said Manik angrily," Get that straight into that tiny head of yours."

"Relax guys," said Dhruv looking at Nandini's worried expression," she is making a valid point here. Some of the lyrics in this song may not be appropriate to sing in this college. I mean our college space academy is different and the students there are quite chilled out. But here.......we might have trouble if we sing these lyrics."

"Dhruv is right," said Aliya," we might need to make some changes. We dont want that junior Mehra to be pointing fingers at us."

Nandini felt relieved. She had been sure that though the song was amazing, lyrics like," here I am waiting for you, shivering in cold, all naked and burning with desire.............." might irk Randheer and that was the last thing she wanted.

"So you think you are pretty smart!"

Nandini heard Manik's voice from behind her. She turned around to face him.

"First you abuse my friend on social media, next you have junior Mehra backing you up and now......Now you pretend as if you are so concerned about this performance!"

"Well," she said tuning the guitar," with this temper and attitude of yours, I am a lot more than just concerned."

"How dare you speak to Manik like that!" Aliya yelled at her.

"Relax guys," said Cabir," lets just practice and get done with this damn thing!"

"This isnt over yet," Manik warned her before leaving.