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Click here to read Chapter 1:
Previously on The Magic:A 19-year-old girl Tanu is going for her first ever holiday in Delhi with her best friend Sonia and her family. Expectant and full of life, she enjoys every moment that comes her way. In flight two 22-year-old blokes have come all the way from Switzerland to meet their old friend and they don’t know yet where to meet her. Harsh is evidently smitten by a girl on the flight, feeling an unusually strong connection, his first time ever, but before he could catch her, she’s lost like a fairy. Will he ever get to meet her now?
Chapter 2: Chasing the dupatta
Harsh saw the glimpse of the maroon dupatta. His light eyes gleaming with joy Akash had never seen before. The two girls in salwar kameez, one of them tall with dark black hair, in maroon and the other one, with brown hair, in a pale hue of green, a tall middle-aged lady in a blue saree and a petite old lady in white were just there. They were walking out. He felt a sudden pang of fear gripping him.
As he kept running, Akash kept adding on to this frustration, ‘But, dude, will you care to even tell me, why are we running after a girl you haven’t even seen completely and even if you did, you are not obviously going to talk to her, right?’ he stopped to wipe his sweat and hurried behind him, lest he should go out of his sight ‘I mean, what's the point, Joy?’ he burst out frustrated, as he collected their luggage. He didn’t know what to say, he himself had no idea why he was doing this.
‘I—I—feel like—’
‘Like—Ruskin Bond’s ‘Eyes have it’? Like, that tantalizing, tempting thing, eh?’
‘What?’ he was a little-taken aback ’Uh, you even know that story? I thought you never cared about books!’
‘Well, yeah, but not when it’s a guy and a girl thing, and especially when it’s the underdog who never gets the girl right at the climax. So much, like you, isn’t it? I completely sympathize with such—’
‘Oh, shit! There she goes!’
The girl in maroon was the last one to enter and the door of the cab shut. Akash hurried on to call a taxi, ‘Bhaiyaji, zara un logon ko follow kareo!’
They hurriedly bumped their luggage inside. And then, it started; the move of desperately following them. Once they had grabbed some air, Harsh started this time. ’Did you notice? The — other girl with her?’
Akash had a very puzzled expression. ’You— you saw the other girl?’ he copied his style ‘Gosh! You actually saw anything other than the girl of your dreams, whom you haven’t EVEN SEEN TILL NOW!!’
‘Stop taunting, will you? I was just saying that—’
‘What? Are you trying to get me interested so that I would cooperate a little more?’
‘No, Pooh! I mean, if you noticed—she was wearing a salwar kameez. She could never have been Sonia. Something we can never possibly imagine her doing!’
‘Oh, yeah. Even in the wildest of our dreams!’ he said with a sudden realization ‘Guess, you are right, must be her sister, then.’
‘On second thought you don’t mind if I try my luck, there, do you?’
‘Pooh!!!’
‘Okhay!!! okhay!!! I know I have had many many girls and this time, it is all about you, ok!! Now, happy??’
Before Harsh could give him his angry look, they halted. ‘Shit! We lost them!’
‘Where do I take you then?’ asked the driver as the ladies cab had already gone out of sight due to the heavy traffic.
‘You mean we have to wait all this while, even though we have no idea, where they went?’
‘Well, who’s talking irresponsibly now?’ bellowed Akash ‘Of course, we are supposed to wait at a traffic signal, aren’t we? Mr. Righteous? Now don’t make me repeat the speech you gave me, the last time we didn’t!’
‘I don’t care!!’
‘What? Say that again? And all the time, when I kept running after a girl—and you never—’
‘With just the only difference that it happens with you every other minute—you fall for a girl—and I don’t!!’
‘Oh, whatever! That's actually your lack of power of appreciation of beauty, you know!!’
The signal went green and they were already moving ahead.
‘Sttttop!!’
‘What?’
Akash didn’t wait to answer. He had already got out of the cab leaving Harsh with a furious, puzzled expression staring back at him. He went to another taxi, stopped it frantically, said something in the Delhi dialect again and was back with a winning smile and with the ‘You, see. You just can’t do anything without me!’ look.
‘Okay, what?’
‘Well, Mr.new new Romeo, you are definitely new in the game, so I kind of happened to notice things when you couldn’t notice anything other than the girl and her family, and I actually noticed—’
‘Hurry up!!’
‘Yeah, ok…bhaiyaji, Kingston Palace, ap jante ho na kaha hai?’ he asked the driver and then after getting an assuring nod, turned back to the restless Harsh ‘and yeah, I happened to notice the driver of the cab in which they went when you didn’t and I even noticed him returning back and it was the only way we could know where they had got down!!’
‘Yeah, great, thanks!’
‘Whoa!! Hold it! Just a thanks is not gonna do!!You owe me one, brother!’
‘Okay…..whatever. But he just told you just like that?’
‘I’ve my ways, bro!’
As the driver indicated that they were there Harsh hurried inside but to his utter disappointment could find no one.
‘What?’ Akash looked around too, struggling with the luggage. It was beautiful and majestic. White carved pillars on a backdrop of shining black granite walls. There were mirrors all around the walls, tall slim mirrors, the flooring was of shiny brown tiles bordered with white ones, a lovely flowing texture evolving with them, polished and shining. The receptionist’s desk was to the right end, again a brown tiled oval stone frame, bordered with the matching white ones.
‘Yeah, it’s a great hotel and even looks posh—our standards’
‘But she isn’t here!!’
‘Oh—yeah. But, that’s what the driver told me and well—I think I will go talk to the receptionist—’
‘What? Will you ask her if she has a booking?’
‘Oh, yeah—just as if I know her name, right? She’s been with me since grade1, dude!!’ he snapped’ I guess, I really—really like this place and I’m gonna get ourselves a room here—and you—YOU take care of that luggage!! As he moved towards the reception, he added ‘And, I even happen to like the receptionist!! She’s smoking hot!’ and winked.
Everything had sunk deep down within him and no amount of Pooh’s flirting or stupidity could add any humor to him, right now. Why had he? Why had he even believed that he could reach her! It was insane; after all—maybe Pooh was right. Maybe he was being immature for the first time. Okay, there were other times too, but this was just not the right time to be silly and so hopeful. He had always been the reality guy and Pooh had been silly, and it had to be the same this time too. He decided not to be anymore heartbroken lest Pooh gets the chance to make fun of him as Devdas, just as he had each time when Pooh had lost a crush. He looked around. The place was actually beautiful. There was a spacious and airy effect all around the place. The green plants next to the shiny lift added to the natural effect of it. At the corners of antique mirrors framed by carved wood, there were beautiful green creepers. He took out his camera and saw Pooh darting towards him with a broad smile.
‘Sweeshhhh’ he gestured with his card. ‘There you go bro, fifth floor, Room no.292 and—guess what?’ he was grateful that Joy had finally smiled and looked yielding ‘It’s got a pool view too!!!’ he nearly jumped saying this.
‘Yeah, great! So very great for you, now you won’t complain you are getting bored, will you?’
‘Course, not!’
Harsh moved with his camera capturing the serene hall, which had no one but them at the moment and suddenly he stopped dead. Akash was casually whistling around when he noticed that Harsh looked like a statue.
Through his camera lens, Harsh had seen what he was afraid would vanish away if he lifted his cam. So kept looking through it like a child worried his dream would end if he blinked. He even zoomed in a bit, slightly daring, wishing his dream didn’t get over too soon this time. There she was.
Akash moved Harsh’s face with his thick hands to face him, which moved back like a spring to the reception direction, along with his cam. As he turned around to see what he was again stuck at, he saw the same gang. The girl in the maroon salwar suit was blowing her nose. Her hair was messy. She was a plain ordinary girl, who looked fatigued, maybe because of the journey.
‘What's so special about her, Joy? She’s just another girl!!’
‘She’s so—charming—so beautiful—what, are you? Blind? Can’t you feel that aura?’
Akash goggled his eyes out in a deliberate attempt, but still couldn’t get it. ’We have seen so many girls who are—’
He understood that his lines were not going to yield him anything other than a powerful punch from his freshly carved muscles.
‘Room No.306, Ma’am. Here are your keys.’
‘Yeah, thanks’
‘This place is beautiful, isn’t it?’ he heard her saying. Her smile was so mesmerizing; he couldn’t see anything beyond her glowing face. Everything else seemed to fade away. He stopped short as they moved into the elevator. He couldn’t gather the courage to go up to her.
Continue reading Chapter 3 here.
Summary:The Magic is a fairytale series of a teen love story revolving around drastic cultural differences of a small-town girl and a guy raised abroad. When they meet luck by chance, they have a feeling their dream is in front of their eyes. But for how long will this dream sustain? Fairytales don't exist in real world. Do they?
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This ring has survived for years! Cabin crew literally gasped, "Where did you get it from, Ma'am!"
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