Hii guys I’m back and sorry for being soo late. Actually I was not able to write the FF for some reason. So here we go.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
When ur whole world gets upside down, it doesn’t always happen in an instant. Sometimes it’s just a little thing – an innocent moment that marks the beginning of an earthquake, a tsunami , a volcanic eruption.
This particular kind of moment happened to me, Ragini Vyas, several months ago , but I’ll always remember it like it was yesterday.
It was a quiet summer evening and I was sitting in Trisha’s Ice Cream Parlor, with my two best friends Swara and Nisha. Just three girls having fun, ordering huge ice cream concoctions and not thinking about the consequences. Swara had her newspaper spread out on the table and we were all sitting to one side reading it with her. Not just any newspaper, the one and only Bollywood Gazette.
“ Honestly, I don’t know what Ayaan sees in Rishika” Swara said, meaning of course Ayaan Kapoor and Rishika Mehotra, two of the three hottest movie stars in India (third being Ayaan’s ex Shruti Rawal) . “Maybe it’s her hazel brown eyes or her lips or her” I was about say her burgundy hair but realized I was describing Swara to a tee.
“Her what?” She asked
“Never mind” said I
“You know,” Nisha piped up “ if Ayaan’s movies weren’t so trashy we might care about which star he was dating”
“What? Trashy?” Swara was outraged. I could see her rosy cheeks turn even rosier. “You call his movies trash? Have u even watched them?”
“I saw the trailers and that was enough” Nisha said looking to see if the waiter was coming with our desserts.
Swara and Nisha are first cousins as well as best friends but they couldn’t be less alike if they were total strangers with no shared DNA. Swara was curvy, with burgundy hair and, well, kind of short. At least when she is compared to me and Nisha. She’s good with a hammer and nails, can fix anything and can find her way anywhere- otherwise she is a total girlie girl. Nisha is taller than me. She has black hair, a talent for sports and computer and a really high brow when movies are concerned.
It was the beginning of summer, day was fine, life was good and we all were in way too good a mood to let it be spoiled by something as trivial as an argument on Bollywood stars. The wonderful feeling was about to change, really fast, but we didn’t knew it then. Ah.. innocence.
The door of the ice cream parlor opened and who should walk in, Nikita Verma, our worst nightmare at St. Xavier’s School. Each of us has more reasons to dislike Nikita than we have fingers on our two hands.
“Why does she has to show up when we were having a good time” said Nisha.
“Maybe she won’t see us” said Swara “then we don’t have to say a hello”.
Yoo-hoo!” Too late. Nikita was waving and weaving her way among the tables to where we were sitting. She had a copy of the Lucknow Times in one hand. “Hi Nikki” I said, using the nickname I know she hates.
“How’s it going?” My little dig seemed to go right over her oblivious head. “I am so psyched!” she squealed, jumping up and down in front of us.
Nisha, Swara and I gave one another sideways glances. Had Nikita really lost it completely or what?
“You do look . . . overheated,” Swara commented. “What happened? Did Daddy buy you another new car?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know!” Nikita said. “I just assumed, when I saw you reading the Bollywood Gazette. . . . Oh. I see it’s last week’s. You really ought to spend the money on the new issue.” Swara’s hands balled into fists. Nikita is always telling people how cheap Swara is.
“Assumed what?” I asked.
“Well, it’s even in the Lucknow Times—Laksh’s paper. Surely you ought to read it every day, just out of loyalty, Ragini—especially considering he’s your boyfriend.
You see how obnoxious she is? I could have kicked her.
Nikita has had a crush on Laksh Maheshwari forever, and has always resented me for being his girlfriend. “It’s his father who’s the publisher, so it’s Mr. Maheshwari’s paper,” I corrected her.
“Laksh just works there part-time” “I know that,” said Nikita.
“I buy the Times every day.” She clucked her tongue, brushed her curly black hair back, and flashed her black eyes at us.
“Well? Aren’t you going to worm it out of me?” “Worm what out of you?” Swara said. Nikita smiled. “Well—since you asked . . .
Take a look at this!” She spread the Times out on top of Swara’s Gazette. Swara read the headline aloud, her eyes growing wide. “‘Blockbuster movie to shoot scenes in Lucknow. The new action/romance flick, Tum Mere Ho, marks Arjun Mehra Asia’s youngest director’s third movie and stars Again Kapoor and Rishika Mehrotra. . . .’” Swara looked up from the paper and whispered, “Omigosh—they’re coming here! To Lucknow!”
I honestly thought she was going to faint. It’s a good thing she was sitting down. “Read the next paragraph,” Nikita said. “It gets even better.” Swara was too excited to read, so I continued for her. “‘Mehra has put out a casting call for Lucknow residents to audition for extras at a special casting session on July 9. The cast and crew of the movie arrives in town that night, and will be staying at the Hotel Metropole. . . .’” “Omigosh—I’ve got to be in it!” Swara cried out, so loud that half of Trisha’s turned around to look.
“Fat chance,” Nikita said, looking Swara up and down and emphasizing the word fat. Now, Swara is far from fat—she’s curvy, and not a bit overweight. Well, no more than five pounds, anyway. But by this time, Nikita had her totally psyched out. “What, you think I’m fat?” Swara challenged her.
Nikita let out a laugh and scooped up her copy of the Times. “Did I say that? Now you’re putting words in my mouth.” She folded the paper, tucked it back under her arm, and turned to go. The waiter arrived at that exact moment with our gigantic ice-cream concoctions. “Enjoy your dessert!” Nikita chirped, watching as Trisha’s famous Chocolate Death Sundae was placed in front of Swara
So here is the first part of the first chapter ??. Next coming up soon.
Tejasswi Prakash – Ragini Vyas
Helly Shah – Swara Bose
Surbhi Jyoti – Nisha Roy
Hiba Nawab – Nikita Verma
Namish Taneja – Laksh Maheshwari
Paras Kalnawat – Ayaan Kapoor
Shivani Tomar – Rishika Mehrotra
Kanchi Singh – Shruti Rawal
Rohan Mehra – Arjun Mehra