Vimana Read Free

Aaditya motioned for him to stop. 'I have a long day tomorrow, so sorry to be a spoilsport, but I need to get home early guys.'
    Supriya protested, but as much as Aaditya wanted to spend more time with her, he did not want to tell her why he could not go dancing, and he most certainly did not want the pity and platitudes that he knew would be forthcoming if he did tell her the real reason. Perhaps on any other day, he would have tagged along, but tonight he was in no mood to be reminded of his shortcomings. So he excused himself and said that he could not join them.
    When they walked out, Samrat caught up with him. 'Man, you should have come along. It's no big deal.'
    Aaditya stopped and looked at him.
    'That's easy for you to say.'
    Samrat looked at him apologetically. 'Sorry, dude, you know that's not what I meant. Look, screw them. Why don't you me and iPod meet up at my place? I've got the new Medal of Honor on my PS3, and we can go and blow up some Taliban.'
    Aaditya smiled. So far only Samrat and Deepak had learnt his full story, and he was beginning to realize that for all the things that had gone wrong over the last few months, he had at least been lucky to get a couple of really good guys as friends.
    'That sounds like a plan.'
     
    ***
     
    Aaditya returned to his apartment just after ten o clock. On balance it had been a fun evening. They had played on Sam's PS3 for a couple of hours, and then Sam's parents had joined them for dinner. His father had asked the boys what they planned to do after college. Samrat had already decided on an MBA, or rather, Aaditya thought, his father had decided that for him. And so, even though they were only in first year, Sam was going to join tutorials next year to prepare him for the MBA admission tests. Deepak was nowhere as certain of what he wanted to do, but given that every second person in their class was planning to try for an MBA, he replied with a shrug of his shoulder that he guessed he was also going to join Sam for his classes.
    Then came Aaditya's turn, and when he answered that he really did not know what he wanted to do, he almost heard an audible gasp from Sam's father. The awkwardness was defused by Sam's mother wheeling in the dessert. As Aaditya listened to Sam's father talk about how important it was to have a plan for life, he thought how different his life may have been if he had been able to follow his plan. And it wasn't just his career. He wanted to meet someone like Supriya without cringing at the pity that he knew was inevitable when she got to know him better.
    Back home he sat down on the sofa in his living room and turned on the television. He willed himself to not think too much about the things he didn't have.
    Please don't go into a self-pity trip again. We've been there before and it is not a pretty place .
    When he realized that there was little else on offer other than the usual soaps, he turned it off and got up to change. As he passed the side table outside his bedroom, he paused to look down at the photo frames on it.
    For most people, photographs are a way of preserving memories. A way of freezing in time moments that have passed. For Aaditya, they served an additional purpose- they acted as a constant reminder of the life he could have had if only a couple of things had turned out differently.
    There were a few photographs of Aaditya and his father. The elder Ghosh was as tall as Aaditya, and Aaditya remembered his earliest memories being that of looking up into his father's smiling face. There were a couple of photos of his father with his mother, but honestly Aaditya remembered nothing of her. The woman who had given birth to him was no better than a stranger, having shared less than three hours with him in this world. She had died soon after giving birth to him.
    He showered and changed, but before keeping his clothes in the washing pile, he remembered to take out his good luck charm from his pocket. He ran his hands over the raised edges