Friends Short Story – Me and Pranay
Photo credit: slowfoot from morguefile.com
I was on my skates when suddenly pranay shouted hey arent we getting late. Common we have to board the train for lucknow in just an hour. I was still on my skates trying out new stylish moves in a bid to take my definition of coolness to an all new high level. I said yes, just 1 more shot and its done. He said u keep on improvising your jerk capabilities and reach mumbai central on time and he started walking towards the main door of our room by stamping his feet as hard as possible in order to acknowledge me the need of the hour.
After that he turned and bent down to pick up his heavy luggage bag, well this was the perfect stage that could ever have been created for me for trying out my new stunt. I ran and jumped above his head with my skates and went directly down the staircase. Yipee my stunt was done and i shouted yes in excitement which probably echoed through the whole apartment. I said pranay see i came out before you hahaha, he said when will u become mature, its high time now. Then he shouted from our 3rd floor room to call an autorickshaw for us both. I shouted in return “ok bro”.
I called an autorickshaw till then pranay came down and instead of offering me a thanks for calling an auto he said will you please take out your skates, we are getting late only 50 mins are left to board the train. I remained cool and kept my new set of roller skates inside my backpack and sat down inside the auto in utter despair. Along the way pranay asked me so nishant what are you taking for your family from mumbai to lucknow. Well i had a lot of interest in taking pictures of whatever amazing i saw so i showed him some of my best pics that i had shot out in mumbai. “TAJ HOTEL” , “MARINE DRIVE” , “GATEWAY OF INDIA” , “BOMBAY STOCK EXCHANGE”, my pics withsome of the superstars that i got to meet with when they came to malls for the promotions of the films and how could i ever forget that one thing which is my all time favourite and which gives me motivation that there is no limit of success in this world.
The most expensive house in the world that is MUKESH AMBANI’S “ANTILA”. After seeing this pranay said so this is all you will be giving to your family. Dont u have anything to give them like sweets,clothes or anything special from mumbai. See like i am carrying a ganesh idol as ganesh chaturthi is coming near. U should grow up nishant. When will u become mature.
Well i got angry at that point of time but what else could i have done to a karate champion. We reached mumbai central in about 40 mins and were left with just 10 mins in hand. Pranay gave me his luggage and said me to stand nearby a tea vendor till that time he would go and check out the tickets and some more information regarding the train. He said me to purchase two packets of chips and 2 bottles of coldrinks for each of us during the journey. Then he left the scene. I bought what all he said and looked at my watch. It read 5 mins to 2’o clock, precisely 6 mins. My prior experience that trains are always late motivated me too take out my skates for just some more time as i was getting bored due to the silence at the station.
I took them out and wore them, and then was just turning its wheels by rubbing on the ground. I could not tell u the level of my excitement at that point of time. I was very much eager to take a ride on my new set of skates but it was now time to take them off. Then as soon as i bent down to take my skates off suddenly a thief snatched away pranay’s bag from my hand and ran away from the spot towards the railway tracks. Probably he thought it to be the best place to run because just 10-15 seconds prior to it the announcement had been made that the train will soon be arriving at platform no 2. I became numb as i could not beleive what just happened and a cold sweat drenched down my spine.
I had just one thing in mind that i could not give pranay any other chance to call me an immature guy and if i would have lost his handbag then probably he would mock at me for the rest of his life and he would have also given me a good taste of some of his karate chops and kicks that he practiced every morning. Then all things were just flashing in my mind and i suddenly couldnt stop my self and started chasing down that thief on my skates. Probably i would have not got any better way of checking out my new roller skates and put some cool moves into real action. These all thought together made me feel like a superhero chasing down a really bad goon.
I increased my speed while the thief was far away on the track. I heard the announcement that the train was going to arrive soon at the station soon and moreover at the same platform at which we both were running. I experienced a burst of adrenaline rush inside me and was running close to the speed of light i suppose. Then when i reached a suitable diatance i made a giant leap and fell over the theif and caught his right hand in which he was holding my best friends handbag.
Well i thank god that i tried out the same thing with pranay just 50 mins ago when we were leaving our room which gave me the confidence to take that leap. Well i would have done anything to keep the tightest hold of that handbag to save myself from becoming a reason of being mocked in the future. He was trying to set the bag free from my hold , he even used his mouth to bite my fingers but at that time it was like my brain had closed down the sense of pain for me. I struggled with him till he saw the headlights of the train and the loud whistle which marks the arrival of the train. He left everything and ran for his life. I saw the railway police ran after him and caught him after running down half a kilometer.
Some people ran to the station master office to stop the train and some came to me lend a hand but no one dared to come down on the tracks to pick me up. I had badly injured my knees when i leapt over the thief so was not able to get up. Soon i saw pranay who was running towards me. Well i always thought that he thought an immature boy and never respected me but that day he jumped on tracks and saved me before the train would have cut me into two. I was lying on his lap bleeding profusely. He said why did you do this, you would have left the bag why did you put your life into danger?
I replied him by saying that I wanted to see respect for me in his eyes and therefore I did this all. His tears fell on my cheeks and said that I already respect you a lot and hugged me. After hearing what he said i whispered in his ears “wasnt that cool”, i heard a faint smile and next what i remember is that i woke up in the hospital while pranay was asleep and was holding my hand in his hand which just touched my heart. I hovered my hand over his hair and fell asleep with our hands tightly held over each other.
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