Chapter 49: Jeevan Live at the Studio
Veena had learnt that Seher had an internal GPS for two things — booze and boys. At any given point in the day, she could find the shortest route to the boy she wanted to do or the nearest booze shop/bar. In the gang, they had dubbed her the booze GPS. You could call Seher at any hour and describe the first landmark-ish thing you spotted on the road and say ‘alcohol’, she would start giving you directions and before you knew it, you’d be outside a wine shop.
At Enky’s party, she bounced her way towards the guy but not without picking up drinks for Anand and Veena who were following her (while being lost in their own personal oblivion). The guy was standing right outside the backdoor, in a yellow checkered shirt and black jeans, with his sleeves rolled up as he smoked a cigarette. He had a couple of female fans and one male fan laughing as he blabbered but they vanished as soon as they realised they had lost his attention on Seher’s arrival. And his name was Jeevan.
— “Danan, I need a joint.”
— “Seher, do you have paper?” Anand broke a piece of hash from what Anuj had given him earlier.
— “Hand me the stuff, I’ll roll a quick one.” Seher pulled out a book of rolling paper from her bag.
— “That sounds like a handjob.” Jeevan suppressed a smirk as he waited for everyone else to laugh. “Wait, there is a handjob joke in there somewhere.”
— “Fuck, someone needs to make a roach.” Seher was the only one who giggled as Anand and her split their jointmaking duties. Veena leaned against Anand leaving Jeevan awkwardly standing there.
— “I got it.” Jeevan pulled out the underflap of the cigarette box he was carrying with him as he finally looked Anand and Veena in the eyes. “Where are you guys from? I’ve never seen you at any party before this.” Jeevan would rather have been alone with Seher and doing shots. He didn’t expect to be making polite conversation after all the tweets and DMs he had exchanged with Seher.
— “Like originally or where we are now?”
— “Whichever.” Jeevan didn’t expect small talk to be taken seriously as he handed the perfectly rolled roach to Seher. “Here’s your roach. Be careful, these bastards are known to survive nuclear holocausts.”
— “Well, originally, Anand is from Bombay itself and Veena is from Chennai.” Seher grinned and decided to do all the talking. “Currently, they are living together here in Bombay and as of tonight, they are officially engaged to be engaged!” Seher finished rolling the joint as she handed it to Veena to light.
— “So you guys are double-bagging your relationship, huh?” Jeevan felt the need to make a joke because the words ‘engaged’ and ‘living together’ made him feel a particular pressure when it came to Seher and him.
Anand just smiled politely. Veena pretended to laugh because she didn’t really hear what Jeevan said. To avoid making eye contact with him, she kissed Anand’s ear before whispering, “Rockstar.” Anand’s smile widened.
For Seher, this was particularly new as well. Back in Delhi, she had grown up in a rather aggressively macho neighbourhood and she had decided to spend her formative years trying to be a boy. Ten years ago, she would have been in that macho red car she had just helped fall into the foundation of an upcoming building. In Delhi, after having helped two friends with one abortion each, she hadn’t had a single month in Bombay where she was paranoid she might need one herself. Meeting Veena would have been the next step to her feeling sane and secure. Moving in with Niyati and out of an-old-friend-from-Delhi’s had been the step after that. The Delhi roommmate had gotten quite competitive when it came to dating. Competitive meant walking out topless in the middle of the night, when she heard Seher’s door open, which would be either a boy leaving, or Seher (or the boy) getting out to the kitchen for hydration purposes. It sometimes also meant stealing Seher’s clothes (underwear included) and accessories.
— “So Jeevan, when is your next gig?” Veena decided to make up for secretly calling Jeevan a rockstar.
— “Also, are there any youtube videos I could look up?” Anand ran his hands through the ends of Veena’s hair.
— “My next gig is in a month at this bar called Cow On Fire. And there is one video from my gig at a college fest. Search for the words Jeevan, stand-up and LPTI.”
— “He is also auditioning to be on a travel and lifestyle channel as a funny host for a food show.”
— “This butter chicken is so overcooked that I’d call it the plot of the most recent Abbas-Mastan hit!”
— “Like that guy from that meme.” Anand laughed while Veena had already rejected Jeevan. She had gotten busy whatsapping Niyati who had sent her the picture of the set she was on. Anand put an arm around Veena’s waist as he leaned back against the wall pulling her texting body closer to his.
The Veena-Niyati Whatsapp Conversation: “Are those ladyboys in the back?” — “No! They are actual girls.” — “Have you asked them?” — “You’re a racist! Btw, Anuj, Avantika and Kartik are rolling a joint upstairs on one of the balconies.” — “So what? Even we are rolling one.” — “They have a band.” — “Great, I think we should head there.”
— “Seher, Jeevan! I am glad you guys made it.” Enky spotted Seher and decided to make an entrance. He shook hands with Veena and Anand. “We haven’t met yet.”
— “Of course, you have. At some gig or the other.”
— “Enky. This is my studio.”
— “Thanks, man.”
— “Lovely place you have here. Who designed it?”
— “I designed it with a little help from my friends (in a Beatles sing-song voice). Would you like me to take you guys around?”
— “That would be lovely. You don’t mind if we carry this joint inside, right?”
— “Shall we?” Enky pulled a cigarette from behind his ear and lit it to make a point before he did a bonsai bow. (Of course, he didn’t know what ‘bonsai’ meant.)
— “Of course.” Jeevan said as he followed Seher who followed Enky in.
— “This is one of the recording studios.” He pointed at one of the locked rooms. “There are four of them, along with a full-fledged cafe in the back and a rehearsal space upstairs. All the studios have a 16mbps line for online collaborations.”
— “Do you have any investors yet?” Anand felt he needed something to make a SWOT table around.
— “No, dude. Why would I want to get headfucked by a bunch of suits?”
— “No, I mean, this space is a potential goldmine.”
— “Are all of them locked?” Veena had a brainwave she wasn’t ready to share yet. Her lips widened into a seventy mm grin before her eyes alerted her to look away from Enky, Seher, Anand as well as the studio entrance. (At least two of the four would have realised she was up to something if they had looked her in the eye.)
— “They are off-limits for the party. Lots of expensive equipment lying in there. I wanted to shift all of it to this friend’s house nearby before the party but some last minute work didn’t let that happen.” He then looked at Seher as he blew a steady stream of smoke out of a corner of his mouth. “Can you believe it? I was working till about six thirty today evening.”
— “One still has to pay for the party, right?” Jeevan piggybacked with a punchline as he stepped forward to walk in-step with Enky as they were both now exactly half a stride ahead of Seher. Both of them looked sideways at her as they continued talking. “I’ve been working on this new gag for my act. I am thinking of writing funny songs, you know, like Dimitri Martin.”
— “Remind me to introduce you to this friend of mine Feroze. He makes funny songs too.”
Veena took the joint from Anand as she slowed down her own pace, knowing Anand would fall back as well. Anand knew exactly when to step back when boys were vying for Seher’s attention. He did not expect that this fallback on Veena’s part had an ulterior motive. “I want to do things with you in one of the studios.” Her fingers locked themselves around the seam of his shirt. Anand knew his fat voice would carry, and he didn’t want to irk the host of this party so he just put an arm around her and kissed her on the top of her head.
— “Can you still smell my shampoo? Or is it all smoke and that fishy smell from Carter road?”
— “A little smokey, a little shampooey. Not fishy.”
— “Your glasses are almost empty.” Enky feigned being insulted as he dragged them all the way to the bar. He had been hoping that by the time they reached the second recording room, the tour would get boring and he’d lose the couple and (hopefully) Jeevan. That way, he’d (hopefully) get to take Seher with him for the tour of the upstairs studios (one of which he had kept unlocked for make-out purposes).
— “This is for Veena and me.” Anand poured a treble of whiskey and filled the glass up with ice.
— “There are a lot of glasses around here.”
— “We’re good.” Veena smiled as she kissed the lining of Anand’s lower jaw.
— “They just got engaged to be engaged. And this is mine.” Seher picked up a blue, half-empty bottle of Blender’s Pride to swig directly from it as she looked around for its cap.
— “All yours.” Enky fell for Seher’s (standard) sideways grin.
— “I don’t understand ‘getting engaged to be engaged’. It’s like being murdered to be dead.”
— “Haha.” Seher laughed lightly to save Anand and Veena from it and to let Jeevan know that he was still in the game. At which point, Enky got called by someone else and he had to leave.
Veena looked around to see that almost everyone at the party looked younger than she was. Maybe it was just their fashion sense that was younger. She tapped her feet to the music and scanned the party before freezing completely.
— “Danan! Anjali is here.”
— “What the fuck. You think Kartik knows?”
— “Wait, let me ask Niyati.” Veena got a response even before she hit send. “Crap, Kartik knows.”
— “Who is Kartik?”
— “Oh, this other friend of ours.”
— “And I am presuming this Anjali is an ex who stalked him?”
That made all three of the gang explode with actual, real laughter. Unlike the Seher-might-sleep-with-you light laughter. That in turn made Jeevan rethink some of the jokes he had cracked earlier.
— “Is there something I am missing here?”
— “Nothing important, just an inside joke.” Seher pressed her arms against the upper half of Jeevan’s sleeves. When that didn’t help Jeevan’s curiosity and insecurity (as a comic), Seher added, “It has been a wacky night, that’s all.”
— “Crap, I totally forgot! I’ve been wanting to pee forever. Ish, come with me.”
— “You see, this is what I don’t get about women.” Jeevan saw an opening to prove his worth (to himself, if nobody else) as he looked at Anand. “Like if a guy would’ve wanted to pee, he would have just excused himself without killing the conversation.”
— “I’ll see you in a few.” Seher smiled, kissed Jeevan on his cheek.
— “Why don’t you guys join Anuj, Avantika and Kartik on the balcony upstairs?” Veena literally dragged Seher away by her arm.
— “Which balcony?”
— “One of them.” Veena waved at them, like she was shooing them off.
⁸² According to Actorography, personal oblivion is a state in which everything else around you is blurry, except for you, yourself.
