"Ma'am please"

Sona narrowed her eyes.

Dev,Ritika,Ankita and Jatin were requesting Mrs. Shukla to please let Ritika and Ankita travel in the other bus with them.

"There is not enough room Dev. You have taken those three girls along too. Where will you make Ritika and Ankita sit? On Jatin's head?" She tried knocking sense into her students' head

"Ma'am please" Came another monotonous request and Mrs. Shukla gave in. "Fine but register their names in professor Rao's list of students"

"Thank you so much professor" They squealed and joined the rest of the gang. Sonakshi saw all this with narrow eyes. Inside, she didn't want Ritika to join them but luck never worked in her favour and here Dev's best friend (who is a girl) was joining them. Call her conservative but she didn't want her to come along.

Everyone moved to the bus leaving Sona behind lost in her thoughts.

"Chalna nahi hai Sona?" Karan tapped her shoulder.

She nodded her head and walked with him towards the bus.

"Your name suits you ... Sonakshi the one with Golden Eyes. You have pretty eyes" Karan complimented her. His eyes were flooding with fresh infatuation. His gaze met with her quizzical one.

"Thank You" Sonakshi was getting used to compliments now. Back home, she was underconfident about her looks. Thanks to her frequent pimples! This Durga Pujo she had a mountain size pimple right in the middle of her eyebrows. She had to hide it with her flicks and make up.

Dev was watching Karan come with Sonakshi. He frowned and marched angrily into the bus. Karan let Sonakshi hop on first and the driver started the bus.

"Oye! Oh bhai! Mai bhi hu" Karan screamed. Sonakshi helped him climb.

"Kya karte ho yaar" He screamed at the driver

"Bas bus hi start kari thi na Karan. He didn't move it without you." Sona told him. She firmly believed in Sirius Black's theory that you can know how a person is by observing how he behaves with his inferiors. Karan didn't have a very positive image in Sona's eyes.

"Sorry" He had sensed a certain dislike in her eyes

"Apologize to the right person" She didn't wait for a reply and moved ahead. The entire group after the ring expansion had taken seats on the last seats of the bus.

On the last long seat sat:

Elena Varun  Dev Ritika Umang.

(in the same order)

On the two seater just in front of them Jatin had settled with Ankita and on the other two seater across them Neha was sitting alone. Sona joined Neha while Dev pulled Karan between him and Varun.

Sonakshi opened her novel again with excitement,she was half way through the book. Dev observed her keen concentration. The way she stopped moving when she had absorbed herself with the flow of the story. Her faint smile at changing events of the tale. She was in her own world and looked like a pristine queen of it.

"Kuch karte hain na" Umang suggested

"Antakshri khele?" Ankita chimed

"Yes sure" Jatin answered on behalf of all of them before anyone could deny her cliché idea.

"Cut cut khele?" Sona suggested.

Everyone looked at her with a confused expression. They didn't have any clue about the game. So she began explaining "It is like Antakshri. Jispe M aayega wo M se gaana shuru karega. Then turn by turn ... Or in our case randomly anyone will shout cut and stop their song in between. The one who has shouted CUT will have to pick up a word from the previous singer's song and will have to sing a song which has that word in it. Simple"

"You made a game sound like math" Dev teased her

"Arrggh! Dekho ... Ele koi gana ga" Sona called her.

"Tera hone laga hu khone laga hu jab se mila hu" Elena had an eye on Varun all the time. He was her new catch.

"Mila hu ab jo tum se to dil ko mere kasam se sukun mila" Sonakshi cut her in between and sang. Dev was mesmerised with the raw touch in her voice.

"So let's start?" Ankita was excited for the game. Was her excitement contagious or it was Jatin's love that he became excited too?

They started the game with the classic:

Baithe baithe kya karein karna hai kuch kaam shuru karo Antakshri leke prabhu ka naam

"Ele M se" Neha literally shouted to bring Ele out of the palm tracing game she was having with Varun.

Ele: Mai agar sitaro se chura ke lau...

Karan: CUT ... Agar mai kahu mujhe tumse mohabbat hai meri bas yahi chahat hai tum kya kahogi?

He was looking at Sonakshi and Umang stopped Varun who was going to cut because he wanted to test Karan's belief on Sona's liking for him..

Tum kya kahogi

Tum kya kahogi

Karan kept repeating the last line but Sona didn't 'cut'. So Umang had to stop him

Umang: Mujhe tumse mohabbat hai deewanagi ki had tak
deewana mujhe banao na...

Jatin: Tum 'tak' chala hu tum tak
Chalunga tum tak..

Dev: CUT... Tum paas aaye ...

Dev had 'cut' him abruptly.  Jatin sulked because he wanted to show off his singing skills to Ankita. This was a definite demerit of the game

Dev: Tum paas aaye yun muskuraye tumne na jaane kya sapne dikhaye
Ab to mera dil jaage na sota hai
Kya karu haye
Kuch kuch hota hai

Elena:  I know you want it
But you're never gonna get it
Tere haath kabhi na aani
Mane na mane koi duniya ye saari
Mere ishq ki 'hai' deewani

Ankita: Nazar jo teri lagi mai deewani ho gayi

Karan: CUT!!

Ankita too got 'cut' abruptly. She curved her lips down and stared Karan with narrow eyes. Jatin laughed seeing the expression on her face. His laughter made her forget about her short lived misery.

Karan:Mujhko kya hua
Kyu mai kho gaya hu
Pagal tha 'mai' pehle ya ab ho gaya hu

Sona joined: Behki hai nigahe aur bikhre hai baal

Dev looked down. The angry feeling was overpowering him again.She noticed and looked at him and sang
"Tumne banaya hai kya apna ye haal"

Karan: Koi mil gaya mera dil gaya
Kya batau yaron mai to

A song popped in Dev's mind. Eyes fixed at Karan, he sang:

Zindagi maut na ban jaaye
Sambhalo yaaron
Kho raha chain-o-aman
Mushkilon me watan

Sona: Zindagi ki yahi reet hai
Haar ke baad hi jeet hai

Ankita: Ye jeewan hai is jeewan ka yaahi hai yahi hai yahi hai rang roop

Ankita was beautiful but her voice was a tough competition to Dhinchak Pooja. So naturally before anyone fell laughing he had to do the CUT

Jatin: Mere rang me rangne wali
Pari ho ya ho pariyon ki rani
Ya ho meri prem kahani
Mere sawalo ka jawab do
Do na

Neha: Prem ratan dhan payo
Rut milan ki layo
Prem ratan dhan payo maine prem ratan dhan payo

Everyone sat with their thinking caps on. No one was able to cut her. Neha was about to win at her first song when

Sona:  Iss 'ki' baatein ye hi jaane koi bhi to jaane na
Aisa waise kaise hai wo koi pehnchane na
Naa naa nnaah

Dev helped: Ye aisi hai fir bhi apna isko mana

Was it happening in Sonakshi's head or there was actually something deep in the way he delivered that line. Their eyes met for a brief second and dragons unleashed in her tummy. She felt a funny fluttery feeling in the mediastinal position of her chest. (Err ... In her heart but Sona is a medico and she doesn't believe in filthy dil diyan gallan stuff ... Or that is how she showed it to be)

Sona continued : Yeh ladka hai deewana hai deewana

Karan: Ahem!! CUT ...CUT ... Yeh jo halka halka suroor hai
Tune kuch kia to zaroor hai
Jis din se tu hai dikha piya
Maine saans lena bhula dia

Ritika: Saans me teri saans mili jo
Mujhe saans aayi
Mujhe saans aayi
Mujhe saans aayi
Kab tak hosh sambhale koi

Ritika was in full mood to get into the depths and details of the song but Jatin cut her in between. She pouted and Dev pulled her cheeks. This did not go unnoticed by Sonakshi. She looked away

Jatin: Tujh me rab dikhta hai yaara mai kya karu
Sajde sar jhukta hai

Dev(To Karan): CUT
.. Hum bhi 'hai' josh me baatein karein hosh me yun na aankhein dikha saila re saila ro kya bol fir re

Karan: Bol na halke halk..

Dev (again): Aa dekhe zara kisme kitna hai dam
Jamke rakhna kadam mere saathiya...

He signalled him to back off but gadhera Karan kept singing love songs one after the other. Everyone, including Sonakshi herself, had lost interest in the game but he kept singing. Sonakshi started reading her "The Boy With A Broken Heart". Dev observed change in expressions in her face. She looked tensed and had clutched her palms into a fist.

Meghnad...

He had heard her whisper angrily but he assumed it to be another character of that book and over looked her tension. Karan kept singing. Varun and Ele had confessed that they were "kind of into each other and liked each other". So, the new couple were busy with each other. Frivilous. DevAkshi thought. Dev,Umang, Ritika and Neha had started a conversation while Sonakshi kept changing expressions with the progress of the book, and she kept catching Dev's attention.

In between all the hustle and commotion the buses reached Agra. Their first stop.

Precap: "How do you know when you are in love? Like true love?" Dev asked Sonakshi and she felt a knot tighten in her stomach.

TSJ-O-PEDIA:: a new feature in the A/N where I will tell you about fun facts about the writing experience

TSJ-O-PEDIA:

1.The entire chapter was written in utmost boredom while attending a Binodini Pishi of real life :p (Not my Bua)

2. Cut-cut or cut to cut is a game officially banned at my Dida's place because everyone back home wants to get into depths and details of the song they are singing and on getting CUT abruptly we can strangle each other to death! So we play the less violent version of the game Antakshri. Hari Om