How should I start over here? By telling my name? That does not look good enough to me. Still its Pranav for future reference. Most movies start by a train stopping by on a platform or a car entering a house mine starts in the middle of a conversation. It was the middle of September; you could call it 15th September for convenience. The weather was unstable and common cold was common among the people of Malgudi. It was then that Anuj, one of my friends joined the ranks of "The love of Life" a religious organisation by swami Anandanand. Its motto was simple yet appealing to the younger generation "Make love, not war." (Most of the devotees were actually interested in the first half of the motto.)
As was his habit to drag me into anything he tried(smoking included) he was those days trying to persuade me to offer myself to Swami ji. My story begins on one such day when Anuj had called me over to his place and trying to force the fact down my head that swami ji would change the world order.
"He believes that all humans are equal. We don't believe in any form of cast discrimination."
"I told you Anuj am not interested in all this stuff, I plan to give my time to such things after my retirement which can only happen if I can get a job."
"Swami ji is also good at astrology, maybe he can tell you about you and Chhavi."
There, Anuj had used his trump card a weapon that was bound to work. Chhavi, my semi-girlfriend. She was my girlfriend according to me and I was her best friend according to her. She was allergic to the words "boyfriend", love ,relation etc. And somehow for the past 3 months I had become desperate that she atleast once confessed her feelings towards me. (It might sound nonsense but it was true.) Still I had to argue that a swami can't tell me how to get a confession out of a girl.
"Actually he can get a confession out of anyone. He had told me a few days ago that he could make a truth potion for anyone after seeing his/ her kundli."
I was desperate by then so my reply instead of being " I told you I don't believe in such stuff." was "Now where can I get her kundli."
"Simple just get her place and time of birth rest we can manage from some astrologer."
"I remember it by heart 10th June 1988 12:55 PM govt hospital Malgudi"
"Good now lets go to Pt. H.Qhannaa to get a kundli."
Pandit ji was a quiet story in himself, his actual name was Rajesh Khanna ( quiet a good name according to his era of birth) but after some calculations he had modified the surname to spell like Qhannaa and prefixed a H for Hema after his mother in law's name who had inspired him for astrology. Though according to me the entire family had filmy names.
As we came out holding the kundli Anuj looked at me and asked , "So Pranav will you belive in swami ji if Chhavi confesses her love for you."
Of course I said yes.
-continued
PS : This story is completely a work of fantasy and there is no absolutely no connection of this story with any actual event. All the characters are purely fictitious and bear no relation with any real life characters (except of course swami ji and pandit ji ) whose actual names you can figure out but I can't reveal.
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