Page 14
“Then let’s practise together,” she fisted more sev and filled half the plate with it.
Then grabbed two spoons, passed one to him, and dug in.
He dug into his side, but soon her sev began to trickle into his bites, and frankly, he didn’t even mind at this point.
Until he realised she was purposefully pushing it into his portion.
“Hey!” He shouldered her. “Stop feeding me sev on poha. Poha is supposed to be eaten as is, or with a kachumbar of tomatoes, chillies and onions!”
“You wait now I’ll covert you,” she popped a bite of sev topped with some poha into her mouth. Samarth tried to find poha without sev in his plate but she had mixed it all up. Created a mess. He had never been happier losing.
————————————————————
The weather softened, the sun hid behind the clouds, and just as they entered the route to hike up the Valley of Flowers, it started raining. With Harsh’s intense research and prep, they had all carried windcheaters and were bundled up before long, laughing, huddling together, even hooting.
“There go your photos, Kresha!” Ava shot out over the noise of the drizzle.
“I know!” She shouted back, grinning. Then she twirled, dancing close to Gopi. “Let’s do rain photos!”
Samarth looked on in awe as Harsh pulled out his phone and did the honours.
He couldn’t believe it. His Harsh, the anti-social guy, who wouldn’t look at other kids in Nawanagar, was now grunting and nodding and taking photos?
Samarth made a mental note to interrogate his sudden love for this group. Was it Kirti didi?
“Let’s go! Guys, chalo, chalo, chalo!”
Yet again, Ava skipped in front of him, leading the group. This time he caught up with her and handed her the walking stick he had grabbed. They had all acted super cool and left theirs in the car.
“I don’t need this!” She tried to push him away.
“Use it, Ava.” He commanded. She looked at him. In shock? Or in rage? Samarth gulped, opening his mouth to take his words or at least, his tone back.
“Faaaine,” she rolled her eyes. And surprisingly, her skipping mellowed.
Samarth sighed in relief. The ground had become slippery with the sudden drizzle.
But as he looked around himself, he couldn’t believe this was real — trees and grasslands and the Himalayas all around them.
And flowers bursting to life like a carpet under their feet.
The sun came out again and the drizzle slowed, leaving the most surreal combination of sunshine and mist.
What was this beauty?
“Had this place been like this before Vishnu Bhagwan did tapasya here or Laxmiji made it like this?” Ava echoed his thoughts. Samarth caught up with her — “Only a woman can work this magic.”
“Right answer!” She nudged his shoulder with hers.
Samarth stumbled, laughing, and found himself half falling over a dense outgrowth of blue flowers — beautiful light blue flowers the colour of frozen skies, now covered in fresh dew.
He reached for one lying broken atop a bed of greens and turned to Ava. She was laughing at him.
When her eyes fell on the flower in his hand, her laugh slowly drained.
What remained was an awed expression. She chuckled, swallowing, looking at anything but at him — “Trying to impress me with a flower now…” she clawed her hair back from her forehead, fluffing it, her feet moving away. Samarth glanced at their friends. They were far down on the trail.
He reached out, grabbed her hand and slowly nudged her closer.
She came. So he pulled her tighter until she was flush with him, her chin on his chest, her face tilted up to meet his eyes.
Her big brown eyes were just as dewy as the blue flower in his hand — a mix of so much.
He wasn’t a great reader of emotions. He could understand them in people, but not always name them.
With Ava, he knew it was a mix of fear and expectation.
So he took this step to see if he could tide over her fear.
“Are you ready for our long time, Ava?” He asked. “Because that’s what I have been feeling every time you come to me.”
She scratched her eyebrow, waving something off. He laughed. How was she so adorable and how had it only been two weeks since he had begun noticing it? Samarth was still fangirling over these tiny gestures of hers when she grabbed the flower from his hand. He startled.
“You are not as bright as they think you are,” she asserted and gave him the best insult of his life.
“So?” His eyes widened.
“So what?”
“Say it. Yes or no.”
“I just said, bro!”
“I’m not your bro.”
“I said it, Samarth.”
“Yes or no, Ava.”
She sputtered — “Yes. Y for Yak, E for Elephant, S for… Samarth. Yes. Fine? Still need me to write it somewhere and show y… aah!” She squealed as he grabbed her around the waist and spun her in circles.
It was like spinning a child. She hadn’t put on any new muscle mass or height since they were kids.
She had the strength to do some damage to him but here she was again, his to spin. To elicit a laugh.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you…” he whispered to her as he held her poised over himself, half-suspended in the air.
“For what?” She panted, laughing.
“For accepting so much of me.”
“Thank you back.”
“For what?”
“For converting into sev-on-poha,” she twined her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder, laughing so loud that he had no other option but to keep twirling, spreading the sounds of her joy through this valley of Badrinath’s flowers.
Table of Contents
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- Page 14 (Reading here)
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