In which they are mere friends :



" Snigdha!! When will you come down??!! Are you ready? You'll be late for college!! " called Reshmi Roychowdhury, Snigdha's mom.

Coming ma! replied Snigdha.

As it is I'm already late for college...I don't even know if I'll catch the train.....Why do all problems stick with me? Me and my dead fate.

I run downstairs and see mom with a bowl of curd and rice. "Eat quickly dear, if you reach the station by 7:30 you will be able to catch the metro."she said with a smile. It surprises me how calm and organiesd my mom can be even amidst the rush of everything... Perhaps she has grown accustomed to this. After we shifted to my paternals ancestral house, well things have changed.

My father was Animesh Roychowdhury, a very well known writer in Bengal. Everything was going well until he was murdered. My mom was affected the most as I was in class 7 and my brother in college. Most shocking was that he died before publishing his most famous piece yet to be. My brother disappeared not long after. My mom was completely broken.

We shifted to my paternals ancestral home where my uncle's family lived, they helped us all through after my dad's death. I teach tuitions to school students to handle the income though my aunt told me that it was completely unnecessary to do so.

My paternals have a huge business of gold, so there was no financial issues but, my mom had always taught me to be self-dependent, so I did not want us to be a burden.

Anyways as you may know me I am Snigdha Roychowdhury, a 22 year old, medical student studying in R.G.Kar Medical College.



Lucky, I caught the metro at the last moment. While I was in the train I was texting my best friend Abhik.

Abhik: Did you get the train idiot?

Snigdha: Yeah, bet you are running around in your hostel room with your specs on your head while looking for them all around

Abhik: It takes caliber to get ready in 10mins. Girls can never relate.

Snigdha: And boys can never understand the amount of work we have to do in the morning.

Abhik: Guess what you were right, I was looking for my specs and found them on my head

Snigdha:The things that led me to you and is binding me with you.

Abhik: lol 😂 like a contract with no expiry date.

Snigdha: Anyways my station came, will meet you at college.



As I departed the metro, the first thought that came to me is that I needed an auto rickshaw to get to college, though that wasn't the only hard part, the other hard part was bargaining the right price, they will always try to cheat people shamelessly as in Kolkata, there are less amount of auto rickshaws.

Right then a auto driver approached me and said,

"Didi, where should I take you today??"

"R.G.Kar Medical College, how much will you take?"

"Just 100 Rs! You see that's the price these days"

"A hundred! I've been traveling here sice the last four years! I will give you only 40Rs!"

After some time of bargaining, he finally gave in.

"Ok didi, I will take you for 50 Rs."



After fifteen minutes, I reached college. After going in, I headed to the corridor. There I met Abhik, the idiot did not wear his specs and must have kept them in a place where he will forget.

I went to him from behind and clapped his shoulder. He quickly turned to face me and said,

"Who does that??"

"Just admit that you are a coward."

"Anyone is bound to be scared while sticking to you."

"I never asked you to stick with me."

"You won't understand why I do so."

"I do, you stick with me cause you get scared so easily."

" Whatever."



We headed to class together. First up was community medicine, then obstetrics, then we had a break of twenty mins and finished our anatomy and physiology classes.

We went to the canteen amd had lunch, me and Abhik talked non-stop about random things, sometimes bickering in the middle. Honestly we don't need a group if we have each other's company.

The day went normally and by evening, I returned home with piles of work. I know metros are really fast.

When I don't have my own tutions, I have batches to teach.

I had three batches in the evening, two batches I had to teach and one batch had their exam, so today I was free early around 10:15 at night.

I freshened up and was organising the clutter in my room, when I saw a message pop up on my phone.

Intrigued I picked it up and clicked on the msg. It said, "I know you, I can see you, You know what to give and you know what to do."

I taken aback and stared at the text for a few moments, then with my phone in hand I went and looked out of the windows and balcony, checked under the bed and inside the wardrobe but nothing.

Me being a little too brave since childhood, went for dinner.

At the dinner table I decided not to tell anyone about the incident before and brushed it off as a lame joke.

In my room, however, the thought still lingered, but I tried to supress it by scrolling through Instagram. After a while I went to sleep.










© Aishi Dey Talukdar