Chapter 19: Two Brief Histories featuring Seher
A Brief History of Seher and Anand
Anand and Seher didn’t start off as friends. For a long time after their introduction, Seher had thought that Anand was one of the few cute and corporate boys Veena would date before finding a real man.
“Veena and you would date for a while.” Seher had said to Anand over beers. “Then at some point, she’d dump you and I’d wingman her into the next beige guy we would find.”
This conversation had happened at a nightclub on Link Road in Andheri, in one of the huge office buildings that had cropped up to nestle a couple of malls and multiplexes between them. The nightclub hosted call centre employees till four in the morning. Before that day, Anand had been a pronoun or ‘your/her boyfriend’ to Seher. “But after today, I think I like you.”
Veena was in Chennai, Niyati was on a shoot, Kartik had to attend a wedding in the family and Anuj was still a stranger who Seher hadn’t run into yet. That week Seher was missing Delhi testosterone. To top that, it was time for the cricket world up. She needed to watch a match with a bunch of drunk and loud guys to feel like herself again. That’s when Anand dragged her to this particular club to watch the match. His findings: “The last time I saw anyone this excited was when in the sixth standard, my school took us to Essel World.”
Seher was thrilled to bits. She got her rocks off just by glancing at the place filled with men in tight t-shirts, who were dying to play staring contest-staring contest with a girl, even if she wasn’t staring back. The club had exactly three girls sitting in three different booths, each with a group of guys.
Anand swore that on entering the club, Seher’s posture and gait changed completely. “Her elbows came out and her hips swayed more than usual when she walked.” After getting her fill of drunk shouting at the projector screen and getting drunk on all the stares, Seher felt sated. She put her arm through Anand’s elbow and the two of them walked out. Before he dropped her home, she said, “Andaman, we should hang out more often.”
A Brief History of Seher and Kartik
The only place Seher and Kartik did anything together, by themselves, was on a pool table. She had spent hours playing pool with her dad on their family vacation weekends. While Anand was good at every outdoor sport, indoor games were not really his thing.
Once when the gang was out drinking in the basement of a pub, Kartik really wanted to play pool. He found respite in cussing at the balls as he knocked them loudly into pockets across the green baize. (He had had a fuckall week at work and there had been no updates on Anjali’s Facebook for him to obsess over as well.) The club’s resident champion hogged the table in a ‘winners stay’ scenario.
While Anuj was an average pool player, Anand was a bad one and Veena and Niyati only played for kicks and giggles. So when Kartik asked for a partner to help him get the table, the only person who sighed and grabbed a cue stick was Seher.
Kartik’s eyebrows had found an iceberg. He had never watched “a chick” play pool. Ever. He insisted on the break, which Seher let him. He potted two balls before missing one. The resident champ potted four in a row, making Kartik crossbreed cuss words. But Seher finished the game with a poker face.
While that made his jaw drop, the jaw actually hit the floor in the third game when they were at the 8-ball and missing it could have cost them the game. It was Seher’s turn and she couldn’t reach the cue ball. She lifted a leg up, planted her crotch onto the frame around the corner pocket and potted the 8-ball. With that victory started Kartik and Seher’s reign over the pool table, which lasted till it was time for last call.
