On the 7th of May, Shubman happened to realize it had been exactly one month since he had met Driksha. 

It didn't feel like one month. 

It felt at least six months, or a year, or a lifetime.

KKR had lost to MI in Mumbai last evening and had another MI fixture in two days, the Kolkata leg. The old Knights in the camp had impressed one fact upon them:

"Nothing can be worse than two back-to-back fixtures with MI," Robbie had said.

"Not even if we win them both?" asked Nitish.

"Dunno." Robbie shrugged. "That has never happened, and never will. You had something to do with it last year, if I remember correctly."

"You do remember correctly," said Nitish.

"There you go. Everyone who has played for MI or KKR know the bare fact. Two matches with MI each year is bad enough. I don't know what we did to deserve them back-to-back this year," said Kuldeep.

"Probably killed an innocent insect or something," speculated DK, grinning. "Stop this negativity, all of you. We may lose, of course, but don't go into the match thinking we'll lose."

"Can't help it," said Narine.

"Bet you three thousand pounds we lose," said Russel.

"YOU stop the useless positivity, captain," said Robbie.

"You'll realize it in a few years, too, DK bhai," said Kuldeep.

"In fact," said Lynn. "In fact, we lost the last match by a very SMALL margin. Bet you we are steamrolled in the next one. I'd bet on a 70+ run loss, wouldn't you?" He turned to the old Knights.

All of them nodded.

DK got up with an air of giving up. "Believe what you want to. Just don't stuff the kids' heads with nonsense." He indicated at Rinku, Shubman and Mavi.

It was a bit too late. The "kids" were already shaken.

At the moment, Shubman was sipping a too-sweet, too-cold cup of coffee, playing the conversation in his mind. It was beginning to scare him.

What would happen in the next match? They were in a decent position to qualify for the playoffs, but with SRH, RR and MI breathing down their necks, they'd soon be shattered if they lost the next match as badly as Robbie bhai and the others guaranteed.

He tried to think of something else and his mind came to rest on Driksha, and the fact that they'd apparently met only a month ago. He already knew so much about her. All of them good, too. He didn't think he had found anything about her he didn't like.

Shubman put away the coffee and lay down on his back, his mind suddenly barraged with the most appropriate adjectives about his newest and probably closest female friend. 

............................

Resourceful...

Driksha had quickly realized that her mother would not let her travel from city to city for a month and a half, even if DK was accompanying her. 

"The team I've supported for 8 years," she told Shubman after their second match. "I can't let the chance of maximizing the number of their matches I watch in the stadium go, can I?"

"It would be most stupid," agreed Shubman.

If she had to stay in one city, the most beneficial one was obviously...

KOLKATA.

By the next morning she had produced a relative-a cousin of of an aunt-of whom she was suddenly feeling very fond and whose family was posted in Kolkata. 

"But aren't they a very distant relative?" asked Shubman.

"No problem," she assured.

By that afternoon she had talked her parents into letting her stay over at their place for a few weeks.

"What logic did you give your mom?" demanded Shubman, torn between disbelief and admiration when she told her she was travelling to Kolkata with them.

"I shortlisted thirteen colleges in Kolkata whose admission test I'll sit for," said Driksha, grinning. "Apparently Bengalis are known for being mathematical..."

"How can a person be mathematical?"

"By living, eating and breathing maths. Freaks, basically. My mother allowed at once, she thinks maths is the world's best thing."

"And you plan to take up a maths honours?" Shubman said in horror. "And be one of the freaks, as you so rightly called? Just for a month in Kolkata?"

"Goodness, Shubman," sighed Driksha. "I am not going to clear any of the exams. I am just going to give them."

Shubman shook his head.

Then they were both laughing.

***

Interesting...

She had conceded that she didn't just want to be known as "KKR's captain's sister." She wanted an identity of her own, too, and she already had it decided.

"I want to be a writer," she told him one day in a hotel in Kolkata, as they with their legs dipped in the water during a KKR pool session.

The cacophony created by the team, and especially Nitish and Rinku as they played some very noisy game in the pool made Shubman think he'd misheard at first. 

"Writer?" he repeated.

Driksha nodded.

He didn't think he'd ever met someone who wanted to be a writer.

"What do you want to write about?" he asked curiously.

"Anything that tells a story," she said. "Writing is not storytelling. Writing is telling a story in the right words."

That was the first time she told him a story. Fiction, yes, over-the-top, yes, but it was said in the right words, and it captured him.

Since then he requested a deal: every Monday, she had to tell him a story.

Driksha, her face flushed and eyes shining, said, "I'd love to."

***

Caring...

Normally when the KKR team trooped back after a victory, Driskha would be present to welcome them with a grin this big, thanking the ones who'd played well in the match, and hugging everyone. 

One day last week, she met them with a most horrifically grave expression. It struck to everyone as odd.

"Bhaiya, does your hand hurt? I've got a volini..."

"My hand?" asked DK, amazed.

It turned out that DK had got a minor bruise on his wrist during keeping that day. He'd not noticed it himself, and neither had any of the others, but Driksha insisted she knew the very ball when he'd hurt himself, and how could he himself not know?

She fussed over DK the whole evening and kept checking on his wrist all of next morning, too.

***

He was soon to add a fresh adjective to the list, and probably the best of the lot: she was altruistic.

It started with Shubman, Washi and Driksha spotting a woman walking on the opposite footpath in Chennai one day that led to the craziest thing he'd ever thought of doing in his life.