Takkunu oru Tale - 2

Anand and Arvind were looking like a pair of man-eating tigers who had been ordered to go on a strict vegetarian diet by their doctor. Their team, Rockets were staring at a mammoth target of 221 in 20 overs against arch-rivals Thunderbolts in the Tennis Ball series final at the IIT Chemplast grounds. More importantly, Kavya was there amongst the spectators - a friend of both Anand and Arvind, Kavya was the girl both of them really wanted to be in love with. She was beautiful, tall, intelligent and was an engaging conversationalist. Their class-mate till high school, Kavya was now a student in the National Institute for Law and had the makings of a successful lawyer already. Arvind and Anand were no losers either - they were mechanical engineering students in IIT-Madras and were accomplished extempore speakers. They were favorites to make it to the IIM - A/B amongst their CAT class students. And not to forget, Anand had received an acting offer from Mani Ratnam's assistant for a Mani production while Arvind regularly did photo shoots for those glossy fashion mags.. Anand and Arvind, adjacent roomies, used to regularly call Kavya to their hangout on-campus and had had many 'gyaan' sessions, almost always ending the sessions with an ice-cream and a movie at the nearby theater. Six months into their course at IIT, Kavya's father was transferred to Pune and when she moved in to an apartment just on the edge of the IIT campus, both of them were convinced that she was in love with one of them and there started a game of one-upmanship. Whatever Anand did well, Arvind sought to do better. Whenever Arvind came up with a witty remark, Anand stunned his twosome audience with stunning repartees. Amongst the local populace, it more or less became a matter of debate as to who would be the guy to walk the aisle with Kavya. The odds were more or less even and it was more or less agreed that it was going to be a tight thing between A & A. It was in this situation that the tennis ball competition came up - Anand and Arvind, the twin souls they were, decided that this was the moment - they were pretty decent blokes when it came to cricket - win the tournament and propose - that was their plan.

The chase began well - Rockets openers flashed and flashed hard and soon they had 35 runs on board in 3 overs. The fielding team made a bowling change. They brought Samanth, who was more a fruit than an actual fruit itself. Generally recognized as a dork, Samanth, though a topper in Ocean Engineering, kept to his books, labs and laptop. But here he was an instant success. He had the openers and the captain coming in one drop - all dismissed at the wicket in a space of balls, after which he was mysteriously taken off the attack. The next wicket, fell on the face of pressure, being run-out and that brought Arvind and Anand to the middle. Each knew the other was trying to use this an opportunity to gain leverage with Kavya. Arvind tried to play to his strengths - play with a straight bat and avoid the cut shot which was his bane while Anand used all his improvisation skills to pierce the tight field set with unfailing regularity. From a position of rebuilding, Arvind and Anand went in to the attacking mode and with 5 overs left, they had 41 runs to corner glory. And this is when, Samanth was brough back and he was again bang on target. Giving no room to play their shots, Samanth intelligently cramped them for room and it was only by hitting off the bowler at the other end, Anand and Arvind brought down the equation to 10 of the final over, to be bowled by Samanth. The first three balls were scored off and finally it was 4 off 3 balls with Anand on strike. He tried to force one over the infield only to pick the man at long on. He knew he had failed the crucial aspect - he had failed to complete the kill. The batsman had crossed over and Arvind was facing. Anand was praying that somehow Arvind should be unable to score off the next two deliveries - after all, all was fair in love and war. And Samanth bowled a peach of a delivery which left Arvind flummoxed. So it was down to a boundary off the last ball. Samanth bowled a yorker and Arvind blocked it and scampered for a single, but Samanth fielding well off his own bowling took a shy at the stumps and the ball went for four overthrows! The Rockets had won and Arvind was the man who'd made it happen. Samanth sunk to the pitch and Arvind couldn't help taking a peek at Kavya and Anand. Anand was downcast and didn't hide his frustration when he shook hands with Arvind. "So you have the advantage, eh?" quipped Anand and as they turned around, they saw Samanth coming in with Kavya! "Guys, meet Samanth - my boyfriend - wanted to tell this to you guys a long time back, but wanted to keep it as a surprise - We have been seeing each other since last year and my decision to rent an apartment here was basically because Samanth can't afford to get a bike to visit me during weekends. As you may have known, he is studying on a scholarship for economically backward students - Samanth - meet Arvind and Anand - they are my buddies since preschool days..............."