The exams spree was over and summer holidays had started. Shradha continued to work for Neeta in the evenings. But she still had not found the internship/ part time job which would help her save money for laptop. Meanwhile Nishant was catching up on his sleep and enjoying home cooked food. Now that they had each other's phone number, staying in touch was easy. Nishant had texted her very next day after the exam. Shradha had been little disappointed about not having a summer job.
In her next session with Neeta, Shradha spoke about her efforts and disappointments. Owning a laptop was more of a dream to Shradha as she loved gaming. It was one of those things where she felt good about herself and she badly needed that feeling. But now there was no easy way of earning enough money and she had no backup plans. Only good thing was that she now had a friend who was trying his best to get her a job. Shradha expressed her opinion about Nishant and how he showed concern and had been texting daily asking about all of this and sometimes sharing about job openings. Neeta was surprised to hear about a friend from Shradha.
"How come you have never mentioned about this new friend of yours? He is just friend or something more than that? " Neeta questioned.
" He is just a friend. We did not have good start. Do you remember the guy who had affected me on the first day of the semester, who looked like he was judging me all the time? Its him. Maybe he was judging me at that time, but he seems to have changed his opinion about me now. I was talking to him normally but he is the one who initiated the friendship. He even clarified when I was paranoid about the sudden friendship. Looks like he is not at all interested in me in any other way."
"Okey. That is good. Having a real friend is very important. I know you have virtual friends through that game, but real human interactions are also very much important. So I would suggest you to explore this opportunity to come out of your shell and build this friendship. Of course you don't have to open up completely or trust someone completely. But you can start from small things and see how it goes."
They ended the session after discussing for few more minutes.
***
Nishant had been wracking his brain about the part time job. Somehow it bothered him that Shradha had been fighting her battles all alone while he had been pampered by his family. He knew there was no real struggle involved in his own life and after seeing her, Nishant thought maybe struggle is what he needs to show in his academic profile. When he had looked at alumni of ivy league schools, most of them had experienced struggles in life and had used that as a way of adding depth to their character and he felt like that was what lacking in him. So he tried to convey the same and convinced his parents that having a part time job during the holidays would be a good idea. It took some time and lot of sugar coated words, but in the end Sheela reluctantly agreed to the idea. And once the great mother India agreed, there was no chance of refusal from father India as he supported his son unconditionally.