Episode 8: The Chase Begins

Click here for Part 7

Vijay was surrounded by 9 Priyas each depicting 9 different emotions(rasas) from Śringāram to Kārunyam to Shāntam and Vijay was trying to convince and console each one of them as to why he had left her alone at the airport. Suddenly a big strong dude with a mase (gadha) on his shoulders entered the room driving all the Priyas away.
"Hero, stop snoring we are unable to hear the cricket commentary" Bhim Marathe knocked the door which woke Vijay up.
It was 9 am and scorching sun rays had already heated up the room, Vijay rubbed his eyes and walked towards the kitchen and drank a glass of water.
"Sale Naam Arjun Kharrate Kumbhakaran Jaisa" (u call yourself Arjuna and snore like Kumbhakaran ), Marathe yelled at him.

"Which match?", Vijay stared at the 50 inch white screen hung on the wall and a projector which had property Dept of Bio-Chemistry engraved onto it. They had surround speakers placed at all the 4 corners of the hall and the sound quality enough to pick even the faintest edge. Vijay stuck his tongue out as he saw the revolutions on the ball that left Shane Warne's hand and crashed into Andrew Strauss's leg stump. He was wondering whether to appreciate the ball or the technology that these idiots had at their apartment. It was more like a ESPN studio than a grad student apartment. "Ashes!" Vijay got goosebumps and thanked the lord for placing him in the Ayodhya of cricket, apt 309.

The glimpse of a girl raising the window blinds in the opposite apartment complex caught Vijay's attention, her face wasn't visible but his heart felt she was Priya.
"Hero, look at the replay, the ball pitched 2 and half feet outside the off-stump and crashed into the leg-stump" Marathe shouted looking at the screen.
`Replays and highlights can wait but not the lady in red`, Vijay mumbled in his mind and ran to his room, took out his pair of binoculars and focused on Priya's apartment. He could see girl with long hair but before he caught her face as she turned around the her window blinds closed. "Dam no replays", Vijay mumbled in his mind in utter disdain.

He decided to chase Priya the hard way the Engineer's way, he drew a matrix on a sheet of paper, rows representing floor level and columns representing apartment number. Most of the apartments had 3 bed rooms and a hall, all adjacent to each other. This meant every 3 sets of windows constituted one apartment; it wasn't all that easy, some apartments had two bedrooms. So he ran to the leasing office and got the floor layout. 1 2 3 4 he counted her window from the bottom. So 4th floor 'row = 4' he marked on the sheet of paper, and quickly saw the floor map. 4th floor had 2 bed room apt only in the corner and rest were 3 bed rooms. After couple of minutes of calculation he came up with col = 5. A(4,5) he wrote it on the sheet of paper,`Vijay this is it!, go for a sixer he patted his back`. 'A(4,5) is apartment 407, apt 407 baby' he shouted loudly apt 407,"Hahhahah", he laughed loudly.

"Dude this guy is from Rakshas family snores like Kumbhakarn and laughs like Ravan, hope he turns out Vibhishan in real life or else we are screwed" Dhamraj expressed his unhappiness.
"Leave him, focus on this new lad Kevin Petersen, dude I tell you he would be the next big thing in test cricket", Marathe diverted his attention.

Now Vijay had two options either directly drop into apartment 407 and face Priya or talk to her first and then take things from there. He decided to take the 2nd step, called up the leasing office and asked for the phone number of apartment 407.

"Sorry sir we are not supposed to reveal the phone numbers of our residents", the leasing office hung up the phone.
'Dam you privacy bull shit rule', Vijay thew the cordless on to the bed.

Suddenly a thought struck his mind, he ran towards her apartment complex and punched in the key associated with apt 407 at the buzzer at the main door. As soon as the buzzer began to ring Vijay's heart beat began approaching the speed of Shoab Akthar's ball 100 and when the call got connected his heart skipped for a sec.

"Hello" a sweet familiar voice that came out from the speaker reinstalled the heart beat.
"Fedex, I have a package for Miss Priya V", Vijay used his commentary skills and produced Tony Greg's voice.
"Please come in" Priya replied and pressed the # button on the phone to open the main door. Vijay entered the elevator and exited out at the 4th floor and headed towards apt 407 after taking a right.

As Vijay was approaching the apt 407 the door opened, a lady in blue jeans put her right foot out. Seeing this Vijay's entire face began red, he could feel his veins busting out and in anxiety he jumped into the elevator. Apartment 407 door was left ajar, the lady in jeans walked towards the elevator, Vijay could hear the tapping of the shoes approaching the elevator. He pressed the door close button quickly.

Before the elevator door closed the lady in jeans appeared right in front of Vijay.

to be continued ...