Free Part-Time Devdaas... by Rugved Mondkar Page B

through everything she said to me, reliving every moment I spent with her that evening. I finally decided to write her a letter asking her to forgive me. I rushed to my computer and typed out a letter.
    Letter of Repentance
    To,
    Miss Hrida Bapat,
    It has come to my notice that my action of using mean words and generalising you in the category of selfish snobs who have ill treated me in past could be seen as offensive and extremely hurtful, considering my claim to love you. I never intended to hurt you and I feel terrible for being so harsh. I want you to understand that I was merely heartbroken when I got to know about your boyfriend through your message. Though I can now see that it was no fault of yours and my actions were fuelled by my anger. Please accept my heartfelt apology. Moving forward, I shall attempt to curtail my erratic behaviour. That said, I would very much appreciate it if you accept my apology and forgive me.
    Sincerely, your just friend (for now),
    Arjun Kulkarni.
    I slept wishing that the clock would speed up by a few hours so that I could see her again. I woke up in the morning and rushed to the courier office and couriered the letter to Hrida’s house.

    I had been staring at her gate in the rearview mirror for twenty minutes before she emerged out of it. As she neared my bike, I turned and looked back at her. I sped off as soon as she sat on the bike. The letter that I wrote had had gargantuan effects on Hrida. The moment I hit the highway, she planted a kiss on my shoulder.
    “Apology accepted,” she said and wrapped her arms around my waist.
    “Thank goodness,” I continued smiling. “I hope it didn’t create any problems for you at home.” She began to laugh.
    “No, not at all, in fact your packaging was so flawless that my poor mom rushed to me with a worried expression.”
    “I’m sorry about that.”
    “Its okay, you don’t need to keep saying sorry,” she said leaning back. “Anyway what’s the plan?”
    “Let’s go to Raghu’s place. His house is a lodge for next two weeks.”
    “Cool...”
    Whenever Raghu’s parents were out on a vacation, his house became a bunkhouse. Large-hearted Raghu would let random people come and stay over. Once he met a cyclist at the naka. This guy had ridden all the way from Delhi to protest against fuel price hike and had no place to stay. Raghu brought him home and offered him the couch to sleep for a night.
    I was a bit skeptical when I rang the doorbell. A half-naked sweating Raghu opened the door.
    “Wrong timing, man!” he complained.
    “Why what were you up to this time?” I asked.
    “I was just about to enter...” he swallowed rest of the sentence when he saw Hrida behind me.
    “Hey! Hi!” He nervously faked excitement to cover up what he was up to. “Forgive my nakedness. Miss Bapat. Please have a seat. I’ll be back.”
    Hrida giggled looking at him.
    “And don’t you dare disturb me for an hour,” he whispered to me gritting his teeth and rushed back to his bedroom leaving Hrida and me in splits.

    “You hungry?” I asked as I sat three feet away from her on the other end of the couch.
    “Depends on what you have to eat.”
    “Nothing, was thinking of calling for a pizza.”
    “Hmm... chalega. ”
    “What will you have?” I found the menu under the table and began to read it. “There’s spicy chicken, cheese and barbecue chicken...”
    “I’m a vegetarian,” she said cutting me short.
    “Oh, okay. Sorry.”
    She’s a vegetarian! A voice screamed inside me.
    We were halfway through eating the pizza when Raghu appeared from the room with a girl behind him. Raghu’s ruffled hair and the girl’s red neck told the story of what had transpired in the room.
    “Hey, you want to have a bite?” I asked
    “Yuck… veggies! Why are you pushing veggies down your throat?”
    “Hi...” I said looking at the girl.
    “Hi...” she said coyly.
    “This is Rinkie my girlfriend. This is Arjun and that’s Hrida.”
    The