Football

Chapter 1: 'Mars, Venus and Jupiter?'
Chapter 2: 'A Date?'

Chapter 3: 'Football'

4th May 2009, 5:11 PM
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"Sports is like a war, without the killing." -- Ted Turner

Rahul is the captain of the football team of which he has been part of ever since he arrived here. Today, however, he arrived 10 minutes late for the match, but the match didn't start meanwhile. "Home Team advantage" he thought, though he was feeling ashamed. He apologized to his team and coach. They could sense his feelings and could easily identify that he was sleeping till now, or may be even now, some of them thought.

Suddenly he waved towards the small crowd that had gathered there and smiled. A hand rose from the center of the crowd and a guy of an average height -- a well built man, yet looking shabby with a shaved head and an unshaved face -- was clearly visible. Vinayak was Rahul's friend who is also very interested in football. Once vinayak himself was part of the football team before he choose to call it quits for the sake of "research" as he puts it.


With the flip of coin in favor of the home team, the game begun. Team was in good shape today, except Rahul who was yet to wake up.
...
...
Game over.

All shake hands and a few hugs among team members. It was an easy victory. A few hand waves go along as well.

Rahul rushed over to Vinayak and said "Easy it was."
Vinayak : "You guys made it look so. Congratulations." They hugged.
Rahul: "Oh! thanks." He looked around towards his teammates and said "Shall we go get some coffee?"
Vinayak: "Oh sure, lets go!"

At Coffee Corner
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Rahul: "You don't look too good. When was the last time you slept?"
Vinayak laughs "All the time!" he says and replies back "You were sleeping well today during the first half of the match." he winks.
Rahul grinned knowing that most people would have noticed.

Rahul: "So how is work coming along, any signs of closure anytime soon?"
Vinayak: "Not within this semester. It will take more time than that, sure. And yours."
Rahul: "Wrapping up, really. And may be not. I am fighting with someone inside me. I hope to submit by the end of the semester. "
Vinayak laughs out loud and then returns to his smiling face.
Rahul finished his coffee and said "Okay, I'm done."
Vinayak looked puzzled.
Rahul completed "huh..I'm done with my coffee." and both burst into laughter, they both knew they are not going to graduate soon.

Vinayak: "Lets go. And by the way, lets go out for dinner tonight. We'l have some nice paratha's at Paratha Point."
Rahul "Are they good? I never ate there!"
Vinayak: "Of course they are good. Some of the best paratha's available in the vicinity. See you at 8 PM. Bye."
Rahul "Bye" and he left to his hostel.

On way towards hostel Rahul was wondering how he and vinayak didn't run into an argument today. Every meeting of theirs ended in a meaningless debate on matters of interest to none. And it would only end when one of them withdraws from the argument citing weird reasons, just to avoid conflict. They childishly fight for 5-10 mins and suddenly go silent. Not today. Today they didn't have any argument at all.

"Oh!" He realized. He had setup a dinner-date with Madhu for tonight, he now changed his plans towards paratha's with Vinayak. He was worried now, to disappoint her for the second time this evening. She would be very angry he thought as he dialed her number.

Rahul: "Hello"
Madhu: "Congratulations!"
Rahul: "Thank you so much."
Madhu: "You guys played well. What happened to you during the first half, were you still thinking about the dream girl ?" she played agian.
Rahul: "hmm.... I didn't wake up by then... may be. Oh, wait. You saw our game today. Thanks."
Madhu: "Of course I was there. I am there for every match."
Rahul instantaneously understood she had been attending the matches only to support him, she had no interest in the game. He was more worried now to explain the situation. He raised his voice suddenly and said "Madhu, I want us to replace our dinner meeting tonight with tomorrow at ABC Restaurant. To tell you the truth Vinayak suddenly planned something for tonight and I shamelessly forgot about this. Okay?"
Madhu: "hmm... But, ... Its okay. But tomorrow don't make excuses."
Rahul: "Thank you so much. You are such a darling. See you after dinner, Bye." and he snapped before Madhu could say "bye!".

Little did he know that this could be the last time he heard her voice, or the last time, it might be, that he was talking to her. Nobody knew what was in store for him.

Chapter 4 here...