"Hmm.. let's just ignore all the people then. "
They sat there talking and teasing each other for some more time before heading to their respective homes.
ONE YEAR LATER
Shradha walked into Computer Science department. She had to meet the dean of the department regarding her project. After discussing for 45 minutes about the project, the dean wanted to speak to her regarding future plans and higher studies. He gave examples of a few seniors who were currently pursuing masters abroad and urged Shradha to think about masters. He seemed to think that with her grades, projects and coding experience all the good universities were within reach. He had said it would increase her value in the job market. Shradha had promised to research further about scholarships and other things for his sake.
"At home, dad wants to increase my value in the wedding market; here the dean wants to increase my value in the job market. Why are people behind increasing my value !?" Shradha murmured jokingly. She walked to her scooty thinking Nishant would have enjoyed that dialogue.
Within one year, a lot of things had changed, not just for Shradha and Nishant, but for others as well. Prithvi and Rohan were integral part of their life and 4 of them hung out a lot at Rohan's apartment. Technically it was a shared place between Prithvi and Rohan but Prithvi paid only a small part of the rent while all other expenses were taken care by Rohan. They knew very well how to balance each others family and financial situation. Rohan was from a wealthy family in Delhi while Prithvi was from a lower middle class family in Bengaluru. Prithvi stayed in hostel as his home was far from college and daily commute was tiresome, but he visited home regularly. Rohan accompanied him most of time as Prithvi's parents knew that he was homesick. So they showered Rohan with love and care. Rohan's family was grateful to know that someone was taking care of their precious son well. So they had never objected Rohan even when he spent a lot of money for Prithvi. Both families were happy about their friendship.
Nishant had been spending a major part of his day in their apartment. He thought that their apartment was the perfect place for him to work on his writing. He would go back home mostly for eating and speaking in the night. Sheela had been really unhappy about this development, but there was nothing she could do. Her son did not respond to her emotional blackmails like earlier. In a way he had grown immune to her words. He would just smile and get on with his work. Nishant always tried his best not to be rude to Sheela or fight with her. He would just listen to her without actually listening to her and never argued back. This was the tactic his father had taught him secretly and this trick saved Nishant from stress. Then again, he hardly spent time at home. Writing had become one of the important part of Nishant and somehow Rohan's bachelor pad was the perfect place for him to be creative and write. Nishant had also been taking more responsibilities at lit club and he had been the chief editor of the college magazine for the last few months.
***