I acted as if it was one of my college friends and, talking to this college friend of mine, I went out into the veranda, and from its furthest corner asked her, *Where are you calling from?'

*Bathroom,' she replied.

*Wow! What are you doing there ...?' I asked mischievously.

*Shut up! Now listen to me,' she said, trying to explain something to me.

And, for the next minute, this is what I said: *What!?'

*Are you crazy?'

*Wow!'

*But are you sure you will be able to do this?'

*Yes! Yes! I mean will WE be able to ...?'

*Oh Boy! I can't believe this. You have such guts. I would love to do this ...'

*Thrilling! But what if we get caught?'

*Neeru? She will help us? Great! Your little sister rocks yaar.'

*All right, done. Let's do this in half an hour. You can call my cab right now.'

Thrilled and anxious because of her (I mean my college friend's) call, I returned to the drawing room. Everything was the same there-the environment, the talk and the people-but all of a sudden I wanted the time to pa.s.s quickly. I was excited about the plan (which also involved Neeru) that Khushi and I had just discussed. I kept wondering if we could really do it.

4.10 p.m.

To put our plan into action, we were waiting for Pushkar and Ami di's departure.

Every now and then, one of us would look at the wall clock or a wrist.w.a.tch. That and a few quiet moments made them realize they were getting late. And ...

Bingo!

Pushkar got up and said, looking at Ami di, *I think we are getting late.'

Hearing that, Neeru looked at me with her twinkling eyes and I looked at Khushi. The three of us were ready for action.

4.12 p.m.

*Mumma! I have to leave for IMS,' Neeru said, like a kid who doesn't really want to do something.

*IMS?? Now? But you don't have cla.s.ses in the evening na?' her mother asked.

*There is a doubt-clarification session today. Khushi also has a cla.s.s. Ask her ...'

*You also have to go?' Mumma asked Khushi.

*Cla.s.s to hai, but I won't go if you don't want me to,' Khushi replied.

Meanwhile, I rushed in with my lines, *No, no, I think you should go ahead with your cla.s.s. Even I have to leave soon. A few minutes back, one of my college friends from Delhi called up and he wants to see me. I can't ignore him.'

Pushkar asked, *How will you girls go then? Do you want me to drop you?'

Khushi replied immediately, *No, Pushkar. You guys go ahead. IMS is in a totally opposite direction from where you are going. We will manage.'

4.15 p.m.

Things were going as per plan when Pushkar asked me, *Ravin, how will you go back to Delhi?'

*Oh, I had called up a cab. I think it's there, outside,' I answered him, walking towards the door and looking out to confirm.

Looking at her sisters, Ami di said, *Well, in that case, Ravin can drop you at IMS. It's on his way.'

And this was what we wanted to hear.

Ami di looked at me and I pretended that I didn't know. *Oh! IMS will be falling on my way? In that case I can drop you,' I turned towards her sisters. It was getting hard to control our smiles, especially when everything was going as planned.

*You won't have any problem na?' Neeru asked.

And in my heart, I said, *Come on! Don't overdo it, dumbo.' Aloud, I said, *Oh come on! What problem can I have, in giving a lift to two gorgeous ladies? The pleasure will be mine.' I looked at everybody and smiled.

Khushi rushed to her room and came back in ten minutes, having changed. She looked stunning in her black top and white denim. She started moving from one room to another in search of her sandals. Still busy with her dressing up, she didn't notice me.

*Chalo, let me show you our room,' Neeru said and led me to her room, which she shared with Khushi. At the door, she gestured with her arm, *This is our room,' making my eyes go from right to left.

While she talked about the different things present in her room, I was busy seeing something else. My eyes fell on the bed where there lay something so attention-grabbing, so fascinating. The pink and sky-blue suit, that my lady had taken off herself a few minutes back, was lying on her bed, inside out. It was spread upon the surface of the bed, covering half of it. I don't know why it was so exciting for me to gaze at the clothes which she had been wearing the entire day in front of me. Especially, turned inside turned out. Oh boy! The fact that, minutes before, she was in them and they were adhering to her body was sending waves of fantasy through me. A crazy, chilled and warm feeling, that they still were carrying her fragrance in them, in those wrinkles, in the threads of the st.i.tches that were now visible, in that sweet wetness on the underarms. I wished I could touch them, feel them, breathe them. Had Neeru not been there, I would definitely not have been able to stop myself.

But I had to end my fantasy and look at what Neeru was showing me on her different shelves, her books, her computer and the rest of the room. I was still listening to Neeru when Khushi came in, looking for us. She was now ready, with her sandals on.

The moment her eyes fell on the bed, she quickly rushed to grab her clothes.

*s.h.i.t!' she softly muttered, revealing her shyness at the favor she had unconsciously done for me. She then took them to the bathroom where she probably hung them behind the door. She thought I was busy talking to Neeru but, from the corner of my eyes, I noticed what she thought I didn't notice.

4.20 p.m.

By now we were at the door, almost done with our final goodbyes to everybody. Pushkar and Ami di got in their car. I touched Mumma's feet and she put her hands on my head. I said that I would see her after I came back from the US. She wished me a happy journey.

Khushi, Neeru and I then made a move towards my cab. The feeling of victory within us was at its peak then, when we found ourselves at the last step of our mission. Our immediate destination was the IMS center, where we would drop Neeru who would attend an unscheduled cla.s.s in an unknown batch. And Khushi would not step out of the cab as she would be with me for the rest of the evening-without letting her family know. That was our plan.

But then, something happened the very moment we got into our cab and locked the doors-a contingency we hadn't even thought about, let alone planned for.

All of a sudden Khushi's mother remembered that she had to go to the dairy, from where she used to get milk, every evening, for their home. It would soon close down and, with no one left in the house, it would be a problem for her. And, unfortunately, I found out that, besides IMS, the dairy also fell on my route.

*Uh ... ah ... y ... yes ... we ... We will drop her na,' Khushi stammered, looking at Neeru and me, her eyes full of questions to which neither of us had an answer.

The plan for her escape with me was now dangling on a broken bridge, and we didn't have any idea what was going to happen next. All we were wondering was: Could we get away with it? How long would it take for the truth to come out? Would we have to pile on more lies to conceal the first lie? Then, Khushi whispered in my ear, making sure her mother didn't notice, *The dairy will come before IMS. Don't worry.' We would be back on track after the dairy. Or so it seemed.

Khushi started explaining the route to the driver. At times, I felt she was explaining more than necessary, talking too much. I was not sure if it was her nervousness (her mother was with us!) or her excitement (the plan could still work out!). Whatever it was, it was making me a little conscious and I wished that moment would soon pa.s.s. No sensible guy would want his future mother-in-law to see him as a person who deceived her and ran off with her daughter on the very first day.

But Khushi ... I don't know what was wrong with her. She was talking a lot. Talking to the driver, talking to Mumma, talking to everyone. Talking, explaining. Explaining, talking.

And with so much explanation, the driver got little confused and he ended up asking Neeru, who was sitting on the front seat, *Mataji to dairy tak jaayengi. Aur aap kahan tak jaaoge? Delhi tak?'

And then the blunder happened.

My excited, talkative, nervous Khushi forgot, for a second, the alibi we'd been building up for the last hour and said, before Neeru had a chance to answer, *Nahin bhaiyya, yeh to IMS pe hi utar jaayegi.'

Before she could understand what she had done, her mother tapped her shoulder and asked, *Ye to IMS pe hi utar jayegi matlab? Tuney kahaan utarna hai fir?' Of course her mother's radar had become very active, trying to understand what was happening.

*Gayi bhains paani mein,' I heard Neeru say to herself without looking back. My expression said, *Holy s.h.i.t!'

And Khushi.

Khushi bit her tongue, realizing the mess she had created. She took another name-a friend she was going to meet first, so that she could take her notes. But her mother had already smelled something fishy and she looked at Neeru and asked, *Neeru. What's happening?'

And Neeru, helping her elder sister out of the mess, replied, *Mumma, she has to get her maths notes from a friend, first.'

At that moment, the cab arrived at the dairy where their mother was to halt. I'm sure she wanted to say a lot of things to her daughters, especially the elder one but, because of my presence, she only said, *Come back home on time. Theek hai?'

*Haanji. Yes, Mumma,' the females in the cab replied. And I bid goodbye to their mother for the last time.

A soon as she left and the cab moved on, Neeru and I both yelled, *What the h.e.l.l did you do!?'

Khushi looked down and said, *Sorry,' like a kid whose parents have caught him breaking a window with his cricket ball.

*Marte marte bache hain ... Ye bhi naa,' Neeru said.

Still, all of us were relieved by the narrow escape. But it was not an escape. Parents know their children so well. They have spent much more time than us in this world and, of course, if at our age we think we are smart, then at their age they are smarter. Her mother had understood very well that her elder daughter was definitely not heading towards IMS but someplace else. But that's the beauty of a mother's heart. She allowed her to go, without letting her know that she knew where her daughter was going.

Back in the cab, Neeru and I were laughing at Khushi's great work. I noticed the driver's smiling face in the rearview mirror. He had also figured out what we were up to. In another five minutes, we reached IMS, where Neeru got down.

*Bye-bye beautiful,' I waved my hand.

*Byeeee,' she sang in her sweetest voice and reminded me, *Bring me a ton of chocolates from the US.'

*I will, for sure,' I replied.

She then walked towards her destination and we moved towards ours-the hotel I was staying in, in Delhi. This part of the plan even Neeru didn't know about. All she was told by her sister was that we were going to watch a movie. A double-cross!

Khushi, again, touched my heart with this. I was happy seeing her excitement and satisfaction matching mine. My love had cooked up a story to spend time with her prince charming. (Oh, yes! I was given that t.i.tle by my princess, that evening.) I appreciated her guts and her willingness to be with me. After all, she was the one who lied and planned things. The eagerness in her, to spend a few more moments with me, an evening ... The trust she showed in me that day created an intangible bond between our hearts.

I turned towards her and saw that beautiful innocent face glowing with happiness. I was sitting by her side and it was like being in a beautiful dream. Yes, I know what was happening was all real. Yet, it was so magical. Even the air that surrounded us in the cab was different. I felt great and was glad that she was mine and I was with her. And, at that point of time, I never knew she was going to give me the best hour of my life.

At about 6 p.m. that evening, we reached my hotel. Before we got down, I asked the cabdriver to be back by 7.30 so that I could drop her home by 8.45 or so. According to the plan, her cla.s.s at IMS was to last till 8.30 that evening.

Walking up the staircase of the hotel I felt a different feeling. I found myself among a different section of my friends. Friends who possessed a girlfriend, with whom they hung out in their cars, took them out to dinner, or maybe to a disco or a movie. Maybe their girlfriends had to lie to their families too, just like mine. I don't know why I never felt that way earlier. Khushi had been in my life for a couple of months by then. But I guess her presence in front of me was making me see myself in that cla.s.s of my friends. And, to be honest, seeing myself in that category was exciting. With her in my life, the world appeared so good to me.

Walking together, we reached room 301 once again. I handed over the keys of the room to her-I wanted her to open my room.

We entered and I switched on the light. My room was a little messy, with many things dumped on the bed-the empty water bottle, a T-shirt, my cellphone's charger and hands-free set all tangled up with each other, the bed sheet half on the bed and half on the floor and some of my official, but not-so-important doc.u.ments underneath my pillow.

*Sorry for this mess. I thought the hotel people would do this,' I said, rubbing my hand behind my neck.

She smiled, probably recalling how I used to boast that I was a neat and tidy guy. She could now see that with her own eyes.

*I'll be back in a minute,' I said and went to the washroom to wash my tired and oily face.

When I came out, two or three minutes later, I saw something which pleased me immensely. My room had been tidied up in those few minutes. From my bed, the things had returned to their proper places. The T-shirt in the closet, the charger wrapped and placed beside the TV on the TV set, the empty water-bottle in the dustbin, the official papers all piled up on the table beside the bed.

And who did that? Of course, it was the real neat and tidy person in that room.

Wow! Now that's what being with a girl is. I felt this for the very first time. This is what is called a woman's touch. This is why we keep hearing, *Men build houses, but women make homes.' And now I had found one such woman.

A little later, we were sitting on the bed, with our feet in the channel between the two beds. On my laptop we were watching a dance video in which I had performed some time ago. It was a cultural festival back at Infosys. She was so excited to see me dancing and kept saying that if she happened to get on board at Infy, we will perform together at the next cultural meet. With those glittering eyes, she kept looking at the laptop's screen. And I kept looking at her ...

I am still not sure what was so beautiful about the side of her neck, underneath her ear, to which her long earring was drawing my attention. I stared at her neck and I stared at it some more. Her beauty was trapping my senses. And my senses were freezing every second. She was still watching that video when I came very close to her neck and, without uttering a single thing, I kissed her there.

I did not see her expression then, as I was still feeling her neck and the sweet smell of her body. This happened in no time and she was not in a condition to react either. When she gained her senses in a while, she responded by raising her face, letting me get to her neck, beneath her chin, and I went ahead, kissing each and every cell of hers. Our eyes were closed. I grabbed her in my arms, felt her arms stiffening and gripping tightly the corner of my shirt, her voice expressing what she felt.

The video on my laptop was still running, but it failed to interrupt us.

She almost left herself in my hands. I leaned on her a bit and she leaned on the bed, our feet still touching the ground. She crossed her hands around my neck and my hands were supporting her body. Together we were sliding down, every single second. The kisses and pa.s.sionate hugs continued till we fell on the bed.

Suddenly, I remembered something. *I'll come in a second, just a single second,' I whispered in her ear. Her eyes were still closed. And I went and checked and double-locked the room. I switched off our room's bright light and switched on the washroom's light allowing it to illuminate our room softly. I did that for a reason which I did not tell her-memories from a movie were bothering me, in which a hidden camera in a hotel room captured a couple.

Then I came back to her. But her eyes were not closed any more. She was staring at me as I walked towards her. Holding her hands in mine I stood by her and looked into the depth of her eyes. And, for the first time, I noticed something different in them. I saw a girl in whose heart fear had entered. Then I realized what caused it. The innocent girl, whom I saw in those eyes, was afraid of being with a guy, especially on his bed, in a closed room, double-locked, which was not even lit properly, but illuminated by a dim light seeping in from the washroom's open door. She did not say anything, but I saw everything that was going through her mind at that instant.

*Shona ...' she said, and I gently whispered *Ssshhh!' and placed my hand upon her lips, not allowing her to speak. I ran my palm across her forehead and very gently closed her eyes once more, my fingers flowing on her eyelashes. Then I said to her, very softly, *You know what? I won't do anything which our conscience and values don't allow. I just can't. For the simple reason that I love you. I know my limits and I promise nothing will happen to make you feel uncomfortable, nothing that you will regret later. I promise ... Just be with me in this moment.' And my angel wrapped me in her arms, pulling me closer to her.

*Shona!' she called my name with such affection. *I love you so very much, for everything you do for me.' I felt her hands crawling on my back. Her fear had disappeared and she was celebrating having me in her arms.

I was lying partly on the bed and partly on her. She was becoming mischievous and I was no different. Neither of us knew when the video in my laptop stopped. But the moment I realized this, without her noticing, I ran my favorite soundtrack's playlist on my laptop at a low volume, adding to the romantic ambience of the room.

Everything was just perfect-a dimly lit room, light music running in the background, nice bed sheets, and she and I.

I blew upon her eyes, which made her lashes go down further, gently closing her eyes. That wisp of air moved on her forehead from left to right, back to her eyes, then her cute nose, making an irregular figure on her cheeks, scrolling between her lips and riding her chin from where it slid down to her neck and was lost in the air between us. She opened her eyes again. I touched her nose with mine after which I rubbed it against hers, just like mothers do to their beautiful babies to express their love. She, too, was a beautiful baby. My baby. She smiled with that mischievous shyness.

What a beautiful moment that was! And, of course, I had to make it a memorable one, and how could that be without a kiss? And that's why, in no time, I thought of so many things to make it a perfect kiss ... I'll do this ... I'll do that ... I will embrace her this way, hold her face that way ... and then ... So much planning for a kiss. And, then, I went for it.

Soon, our faces were close to each other, slightly tilted at opposite angles, our warm breaths falling on each other's lips. My lips touched hers. I kissed her. And I kissed her again.

I don't remember when I closed my eyes and I was lost in her. That moment was a heaven that I knew for the first time in my life. In that moment, I forgot everything, forgot everything that I had planned a few minutes back. Forgot even the fact that I had planned something. Forgot that the next day I was to leave this country. Forgot my job, the CAT exam, forgot my friends and my family. Forgetting everything, I lived that one moment ... The best hour of my life.

I don't remember whether I opened my eyes first, or she did. But we were looking into each other's eyes.

I was still lying on her.