The classes ran until 1pm.
"Sunil is the most handsome and clever boy of the class right?", said Varshini, the girl who sat beside her, as she pushed her bag. She was tall, fair and was chubby, she had long black hairs which were tied in braid and blue eyes.
"You are second highest lowest rank in the class next to him"
She said so slowly such that only Kruthika could hear what she said. Kruthika nodded her head in response. Even she had developed a slight crush on him.
"So are you gonna catch the bus to your home or go through metro?", asked Kruthika.
"Bus may be!", answered Varshini.
They both were last to go out of class.
"So, you have any friends from your college here?", asked Kruthika as she stepped down.
"Yeah. Five to ten in number, if you feel lonely I can introduce you to them", said Varshini.
"Okay", said Kruthika.
They both came down and waited near the cafeteria as Varshini called her friends to meet there.
"Kruthika, I might know around ten members from my class twelve but I am close only to four of them", said Varshini, "Here they come"
"Hi Varshini, how was your class?", asked a boy who was tall, thin and had bushy eyebrows, he was wearing brown t-shirt with blue jeans.
"Hi. It was average. By the way meet my friend Kruthika. Kruthika this is Vinod, Suma, Navneet and Bhumi", introduced Varshini Kruthika to her friends.
"Hi nice to meet you guys", said Kruthika as she shook her hand with them.
"Nice to meet you too Kruthika", said Bhumi, she was shortest girl with brown hairs, golden brown eyes having dusky complexion.
"Can I have your phone number?", asked Navneet as he starred at her. He was a tall and handsome guy in the college with blue eyes, black hair with fair complexion. He was always over proud of his beauty.
"My what?!", asked Kruthika being bit shocked by his question.
"Oh. Just ignore him. He just tries to flirt with every girl who wants to be friend with him", said Suma as she clapped the head of Navneet.
"No I was serious. Can I have your number?", asked Navneet again his voice now was mischievous.
"Yeah. Sure only if you solve my riddle. If you answer it correctly you can have my number. If not then no", said Kruthika who was now sounded mischievous as Navneet.
"I think I'm clever enough to answer your riddle Miss Kruthika", said Navneet.
"Oh okay. The question is that 'there are three temples in middle of the lake at three different directions. One has to reach there only by swimming. The priest has to take flowers for God, everytime he swims the flowers get doubled. So the priest takes few flowers and decorates God in those three temples. He gives each temple equal number of flowers and he returns with empty handed in essence there will be no flowers left with him when he returns'", Kruthika explained about the riddle.
Everyone where thinking about the solution for the question.
"I'm not getting the question", said Suma looking puzzled.
"Look of the priest takes one flower and he swims to the temple, the flower gets doubled that is two. And if he dedicates one flower to God in first temple, he is now left with one. He swims to second temple, one becomes two, again according to the condition he dedicates only one flower to God. He is left with one, he swims to third temple, one becomes two, he dedicates one flower to God", explained Kruthika.
"And is left with one flower, but he shouldn't", continued Varshini.
"Exactly. So how many flowers did the priest take initially and how many did he dedicate to God, provided it should be equal to all and he should be empty handed after dedicating flowers at the last temple?", Kruthika questioned them.
"It's tough will you give me some time to think about it?", asked Navneet.
"Sure. You decide it", said Kruthika.
"Hmm... one week is sufficient", said Navneet.
"Okay. It was nice to meet you all. I'm starving I should go to mess to have my lunch. Bye. Catch you all tomorrow", said Kruthika and headed towards mess.
Everyone went thinking about the solution for the riddle. They asked their parents, siblings, roommates, friends and even co-passengers about the solution. But all effort in vain.
Varshini poked Kruthika as 'What's the answer?', Kruthika just agreed then to think about it.
Navneet was completely silent and didn't flirt with any girl in this complete week, because everytime he did so he was reminded of the riddle and started to find a solution for the question.
Suma, Vinod and Bhumi were no different they didn't even meet Kruthika in this week. Kruthika thought that she might have upseted them asking about the riddle, but infact they were finding a solution for it.
Meanwhile every evening Kruthika engaged herself in the call with parents saying them about her day at college and every single detail. She couldn't reach Karthik, but Karthik was still in touch with their parents.He didn't talk to her from the day she moved to Bangalore or from the day he moved to Manipal.
He didn't even reply to her messages and calls, this made her angry. She wanted to know the reason for this, she wrote a letter to him asking about his behaviour with her and thought of posting it today as it was Saturday she would have only two classes.
Even after Madhavi and Madhusudan asked him to contact Kruthika he didn't call her nor messaged her. Kruthika was really upset with it and at the same time angry.
Days passed and it was time to find a solution for riddle. Once they were done with classes, everyone gathered near the football ground stands and were waiting to hear the answer from Kruthika when they had failed in finding one.
"So Navneet do you still feel that you'll have my number? You know the condition right, you have to answer the riddle", said Kruthika.
"Well I tried hard but couldn't find one", replied Navneet in low voice.
"Okay so you will never flirt with me again. Promise me", said Kruthika.
"Okay. I promise tha..", Navneet was still continuing but Bhumi interrupted him.
"Kruthika, he had nearly broken thousand promise till now. Don't belive him", said Bhumi.