We all gath­ered at around 5’o’clock on the ter­race every­body was here. We all were just wait­ing for Puja to come with Ash­win. Mean­while we dis­cussed the remain­ing bits and pieces of the plan. Every­body was so tense but still every­body was so excited.

At about 6’o’clock Puja arrived with Ash­win, he looked like the typ­i­cal mar­wari guy who likes to show a lot of style. Wear­ing a gold chain, car­ry­ing a mobile.

“Hi every­body.” Puja.

“Hi” all in chorus.

“Every­body this is Ash­win.” Puja look­ing towards Ash­win.” Well they are my friends.”

“Hello.” Ash­win.

“Raj you wanted to say some­thing to Ash­win.” Puja.

“Yes. Hi Ash­win I am Raj.” I said.

“Hi boss.” Ash­win in a typ­i­cal mar­wari style.

“Ash­win well I called you up here to tell you that Puja and Aakash love each other a lot and want to marry each other. Puja’s par­ents are a lit­tle ortho­dox and don’t seem to under­stand their love. I request you to kindly help us in this. I hope you understand.”

“How can I help.” Ash­win look­ing shocked.

“We want you to ask aunty to allow you to take Puja out for lunch tomor­row.” I said.

“Okay. But what then.” Ash­win still bemused.

“So Puja will leave her place to meet you accord­ing to aunty and uncle but she would not come to you. But if they call, remem­ber she is with you. Later in the night when they call tell them that Puja has already left.” I said.

“I don’t under­stand any­thing what you are say­ing but I will do what­ever you say.”

“Good.” Rohit.

“Puja. When Ash­win asks your mom to take you out con­vince her that it is nec­es­sary for the two of you to know each other, so she will allow you to go out with him.” Rohit.

“Okay.” Puja.

“So every­body ready. Puja let us know where and when you are to meet him.” Nisha.

“Sure.” Puja. ”but my mom will not let me talk to anybody .”

“Then. Ash­win here’s my phone num­ber give me a call and let me know.” Rohit.

“Sure.” Ash­win.

“Okay. We should leave now my par­ents will be wait­ing.” Puja.

“Okay bye. Meet you tomor­row be pre­pared for the worse.” Aakash.

“Don’t worry every­thing will be alright. Bye Puja, take care” Nisha. Puja and Ash­win left.

“So the plan is set when Puja leaves her place she will go out of the main gate, Muskan and Sak­shi will be wait­ing out­side for her. “ Rohit, than look­ing towards Deepak “you have got the keys?”

“Yes.” Deepak nod­ding his head.

“Good. Aakash You will be there in time. Sahil and Manav keep an eye on the events and no one should sus­pect what is going on.” Rohit.

“So the rest of us will meet you all later.” Nisha.

“I will let you all know of the time of their meet­ing and when we have to be ready.” I said.

Then we all left. At around 10pm Ash­win rang me up. They had decided to meet at lunch at Taj’s sonar­gaon. They were to meet at 12’o’clock and Puja would leave by 11:30. So I rang up every­body and con­firmed the time. Rohit Nisha and myself decided to watch every­thing from the terrace.

The next day we all gath­ered at the ter­race before every­body got to their jobs. Final dis­cus­sions were held. Then every­body left for their jobs. While we watched from up here. Diya also joined us. We saw Puja com­ing then she got into her car.

“Oh no, What will we do now if the dri­ver would tell aunty then?” Diya.

“Don’t worry I already had a talk with him. He is going to help us. He will leave Puja out­side and leave the place and will come­back later. ” Nisha.

“So nice of him.” Diya.

“Yeah. He has been work­ing for them ever since she was a child.” I said.

Puja got into the car and went out thru the main gate. Muskan and Sak­shi were wait­ing for her at the end of the lane with another car. Puja would get into the car and come back into the build­ing so that the guard would not notice.

Puja got into the car. Then they entered the build­ing and moved to the flat in which Deepak and oth­ers were wait­ing. All this time there was nobody around. We also left for the flat.

Deepak’s uncle owned that flat but had gone to the U.S. so it was unoc­cu­pied. Some­times we used to stay there all night and party. We reached the flat. Every­body was there and we also joined in.

“So every­thing till now had been very smooth. What do we do next.” Khushi.

“We have to wait till Puja’s par­ents come to know that they have run away . Till then sit here and enjoy.” Rohit.

“Aakash why don’t you tell all of us how did the affair started.” Sakshi.

“Okay, well Puja and I met about six years back when she was shift­ing to our build­ing. Her dad threw a party for the build­ing folks as he wanted to meet every­body in the com­plex. I saw her there. Rohit you were at the party too.”

“Yes I was, actu­ally all of us were there.” Rohit.

“We became friends we being slightly older than all of you got along pretty well. Inci­den­tally she too joined the same school then the same col­lege as me. being in same class also meant we helped out each other.”

“Aakash was a shy down to earth guy. Like you all know he would try and help any­body who needs it.” Puja adding. “ so also when­ever I needed help he would be there. We used to go out together for movies, par­ties and con­certs. We had a nice time.”

“Then one day it so hap­pened that at a dan­dia dance show when we went with our col­lege friends. she wanted to dance with me but I refused. So another guy from our group asked her to dance she agreed. I don’t know why but I was feel­ing jeal­ous. Then the guy started mak­ing obscene ges­tures towards her and I snapped I smashed the hell out of the guy and took her and left the place.” Aakash.

“Yeah it was so embar­rass­ing to watch. He bashed him for no fault of his and caught hold of me and just ran out.. we then sat in the car. He speeded away. He was dri­ving rashly I asked him to calm down but he would not. We went far from the city lim­its and he stopped in the mid­dle of nowhere. I asked him what hap­pened. Then he told, he did not like me meet­ing other guys and going out with him. I was very angry with him for this objec­tion and I was going to shout at him that he said that he loved me. That com­pletely changed every­thing.” Puja.

“That time she did not say a word and asked me to drive her back home. She did not talk to me for 3 weeks. She kept ignor­ing my phone calls. Even at school she did not talk to me. then on 14^th of Feb. …” Aakash.

“On valentine’s day.” Manav.

“Yeah. Thru one of her friend she sent me a card and that was the begin­ning of our won­der­ful rela­tion­ship. I took her out for din­ner that day and for­mally pro­posed to her.” Aakash. the two hugged each other.

“Wow isn’t that sweet.” Muskan.

“Yeah. So nice you are a nice pair touch­wood.” Karan touch­ing the wooden frame of the win­dow next to him.

“Rohit what shall we do now.” Deepak.

“See Aakash you and Puja write a let­ter each to your par­ents say­ing that you have run away from home and are going to get mar­ried and never going to come­back.” Rohit.

“Okay.” Puja.

“Then we have to deliver the let­ters to their par­ents. How should we do it.” Rohit.

“I have an idea we would leave it in the let­ter box below, when they will open it they will find it.” Deepak.

“Oye jugs this is for the first time you have said such an intel­li­gent thing.” Karan. Deepak started chas­ing Karan and we had a nice laugh.

“Alright Aakash write the let­ter.” Nisha.

They wrote the let­ter and I posted them in the let­ter box. In the mean time Sak­shi went to Puja’s place to see what had hap­pened at her place. She came and told us that her par­ents were already wor­ried. Accord­ing to Ash­win she had left a long time back. We decided to stay there the whole night and leave in the morn­ing to put rest of the plan into action. Diya had to leave and so she left. I dropped her home.