Sample chapters from ‘Multi-threaded Love’

Nikita was a fair and slim girl. She had just completed her engineering recently from the same college and joined Kartik's department as an associate staff member. She looked marvellous in a sari. Her parents were searching for a suitable groom for her, while she was not in any hurry and was enjoying her job. Inside the college, Nikita was always accompanied by another staff member, who had a similar background, except that she was from the same department and was Kartik's batch mate. Nikita, once, while going back home, was driving along the highway with her colleague sitting behind her. Nikita was talking with her when she noticed a young and handsome boy overtaking her vehicle. When she noticed that he was a student, she tried to ignore him. But seeing his dashing looks, she could not resist herself. He was wearing blue sunglasses and was looking more dashing than any Bollywood actor. Nikita experienced a great crush inside her heart. This guy was none other than Kartik.

Kartik was driving in his normal racy manner. Nikita kept driving along his side for sometime, till her colleague asked her why she was driving so fast. Now she became self-conscious. She released her grip over the accelerator and continued talking with her colleague in a normal manner.

That night she kept thinking about this prince as if he was going to spend his whole life with her. But after some time she realized that she knew nothing about him. What was his name? Which department did he belong to? Then she convinced herself to stop thinking about him for now and went to sleep. Next day, while recess was on, Nikita was wandering near her own department, of which she had once been a student. Here, she once again noticed Kartik. He was walking towards her from the opposite direction. She started looking at him with total concentration. Watching his eyes, hair, complexion and looks, she realized that he was the man of her dreams. She assumed that he was a student of this department, which he was walking past. Kartik smiled at her. When she became aware of Kartik's attention, she pretended that she was not aware of him passing by. She left for her lecture, determined that she would gather more information regarding this man of her dreams.

Kartik had a habit of checking the availability of the staff member before the start of the lecture, especially after recess. He used to peep into the staff members' cabin. Many times it happened that while Nikita was sitting inside, Kartik would peep into the staff room to check for another staff member. This habit of Kartik's was normal for him but was creating a misunderstanding for Nikita. Whenever this happened, she asked herself,

"This boy is a student of another department and just to catch a view of me, he travels from that department to this one, almost daily. Why doesn't he break his silence? Why doesn't he approach me? How long will he keep peeping? If this continues, one day I will get married and he will keep peeping forever. Stupid!"

Soon Kartik came to know about her interest in him and her restlessness. A couple of times, while Nikita was busy delivering her practical lecture, he peeped inside that practical lab. Surprisingly, she used to forget about her lecture and respond by paying full attention to him. It was as if the tune of famous Bollywood song 'Tujhe dekha to yeh jana, sanam' song was being played in the background. It was a scene where all the students were listening to her lecture; while she delivered the lecture with her full attention centered on Kartik. With Kartik's entry, she would become speechless and concentrate her gaze on him. The students would get confused about what suddenly went wrong with her.

One day, during recess, Kartik entered the staff cabin to enquire about the availability of some staff member. This time Nikita was the only member present inside and taking full advantage of this golden opportunity, she decided to approach him. In reply to Kartik's question, regarding the availability of that staff member, she answered in a proper manner but suddenly turned aggressive and asked,

"By the way, you are not the student of this department, then why you are interested in meeting with the staff of this department?"

Kartik was surprised to see her turn aggressive but he was aware as to why she had asked this question. It was just for getting more information about him. He paused for a moment and replied,

"No, I am from this department and a student of final year."

Nikita was pleased to hear that he was a student of final year and she started thinking,

"Oh God, why was I not offered any practical-class for final year students?"

Kartik understood the expressions flitting over Nikita's face. Soon, she smiled, with a thought in her mind, "Final year, just a few months to go and then he will grab a job and soon I can marry him. Hurrah "

Nikita was coming out of her dream to find out more about him, when she found that Kartik had already left the cabin.

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It was a Monday, the start of a fresh new week. Today, while going to college, Kartik decided to wear a new outfit, which was a dark coloured shirt in contrast with white jeans. This combination matched his fair complexion perfectly. After having a look in the mirror, he was sure that at the college, it was going to be his day.

That day, during recess, Kartik stood near the library, so as to get maximum attention. He was successful in getting the attention of many girls, which included not only the girls from his class but also his junior girls, girls from other departments and even some of the married ladies among the staff members.

Out of all, the ones who were affected the most were Dipti, Geeta and Nikita. Geeta tried to go near Kartik twice, while he was standing in the library's queue. Out of these two attempts, in one she was able to touch him. Kartik was aware of her flirting nature. He also knew that she showed this attribute only when Neeta was absent from the scene.

Dipti's case was worse than this. She too was standing in the queue at the library, parallel to the boy's queue, in which Kartik was standing. Knowing that Kartik was just two places behind her, she offered to two of the girls who were behind her, a chance to move ahead. She did this so as to occupy a parallel position with Kartik. When they both reached the borrower's window, this parallel position helped her to experience five minutes of intimacy with him. She even forgot that other people from her class were watching her. One of her friends requested her to inquire about a book. She called Dipti's name out thrice, but due to Kartik's presence, Dipti was lost in a dream.

Nikita's case was the worst. After getting the book from the library, Kartik moved on to his favorite position, the staircase railing. He stood exactly in the middle of the staircase along with two other guys from his class. Soon Nikita came out of the staff cabin, which was near this staircase. She was discussing something with her colleague, when she noticed Kartik in his new clothes. She was amazed to see his brand new look. The moment she noticed him, she became speechless and her eyes focused on him. The other staff member with whom she was having a discussion waved her hand in front of Nikita's face, but Nikita was totally gone. That staff member now applied a jerk to Nikita's shoulder, which broke her concentration and this made her come back to reality. The staff member asked her to come along to sit inside the practical lab so that they could continue their discussion. Nikita asked her to move ahead and told her that she was feeling thirsty. She would drink some water and then join her.

As soon as that lady left, Nikita changed her path and started climbing the staircase on which Kartik was standing. While walking up to him, she was capturing every look of Kartik, frame by frame. She kept climbing while keeping one eye on Kartik and didn't realize that she had reached the third floor. She could not resist herself and again decided to go down from another part of the staircase. From here she was able to get another view of him. Kartik noticed her going up and coming down. He glanced at her for a moment. There was shyness in her eyes. For one moment she was looking at him and at the very next moment she was turning her eyes away, repeating this action alternately.

One day, co-incidentally, Nikita and her staff colleague arranged their practical-class in the same practical lab. As both of them were over with the total number of practicals in their respective year's syllabus, this was going to be just a formal practical lecture in which students could finish their record completion activity. The lab was large enough to accomodate students from two classes, the third year and final year batch students. Priya was present in the practical lab as she belonged to the same batch of third year students. After many days, she got a chance to watch Kartik so closely. Being possessive, during those two hours she kept a watch on Kartik. She wanted to check whether he was engaged somewhere in his batch.

Nikita had a lot of work as she was dealing with quite immature students, who made many mistakes as compared to the final year students. Her colleague was set free soon from her work as she was dealing with the mature students of final year who had mastered the art of Copy+Paste.

Though most of the third year was immature, some boys were an exception. Taking advantage of Nikita's simple nature, some of these grown up guys used to get closer to her. Those who could not, used to fantasize about her during her lectures. Whenever the results of any internal assessments were declared, these mature boys used to discuss their whole answer sheet with her for hours. Talking with Nikita for hours was the same for them as talking with any beautiful girl in a garden. Watching a seamless beauty was their only purpose.

Nikita was thinking about how much time it would take her to finish her work, when she noticed Kartik inside the lab. She knew that Kartik was a final year student, so her colleague might know something about him. She looked at her colleague and asked her to come to her as soon as possible. Her colleague got curious over the reason why Nikita was asking her to do this. She moved towards her and stood behind her.

"What happened?" she asked Nikita, smiling as she did so.

Pointing towards Kartik, Nikita whispered in her ear,

"This is the guy I had told you about. He is your student. Do you know more about him?"

Her colleague was well aware about Kartik and also knew about Nikita's madness for him. She decided to make it clear to Nikita what importance Kartik should have with reference to her future related dreams,

"See, his name is Kartik. He belongs to my batch but failed in the exam and lost one whole year. Frankly speaking, he is average at studies and will not be able to secure a good job soon. It is better for you to forget him," she replied.

This honest comment helped Nikita to come down to earth. She discontinued her interest in Kartik.

A thread was being aborted. (3)

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Chapter # 17 : The diamond princess

Asmina was a beauty queen from the other engineering college of the city. Making her a beauty queen was not enough from destiny's side; she was the only daughter of the biggest diamond merchant in the city. Boys from her college knew much about her. As per these 'official sources ', her father had migrated to the African countries in search of a job and joined a diamond business there. After earning much wealth in a short duration of time, he returned to India, with a bag full of diamonds, and married a beauty queen within their community, on a 'full moon' night. This 'full moon' night marriage resulted in their giving birth to a 'moon full of beauty'. They named their princess 'Asmina'; the name too was an 'imported' one.
She joined the LINUX class in the morning batch. The first day when she arrived in the class, every girl wanted to introduce herself to Asmina. She deserved this respect because of the financial status of her family. She even discovered some of her schoolmates during this introduction.
The sun was trying its best to warm the chilled atmosphere of the winter season, when Kartik arrived. Blue coloured sunglasses, a UK made jacket, and white sports shoes plus a roaring bike pushing the crowd on the road aside, made every girl present there now focus on Kartik. A buzz soon started amongst the girls. Naturally, Asmina was not an exception. She asked one of her schoolmates who this guy was.
That girl briefed her about Kartik as one of the most talented boy within their class. What else was needed? Good looks, a dashing personality along with name and fame, this is all that was needed for a girl to start thinking about a guy. Naturally, Asmina suffered a great crush on him. She now took off her goggles and held one end of it between her teeth. She was lightly biting it, indicating that some thought processes were going on in her mind.
The next morning it happened that Asmina was able to sit close to Kartik in the LINUX class. He was sitting at the extreme left end of boy's row while she was sitting on the extreme right of the girl's row, one lane ahead of Kartik. This provided an opportunity for Kartik to observe Asmina closely. She was round faced with twinkling eyes, had nice teeth and a fair complexion. In short, she was a goddess of beauty. Because of her, Kartik was unable to concentrate on what was being taught on that day. No sooner had he finish scanning Asmina's beauty that she turned her face in his direction. She gazed deeply into his eyes and flashed a gentle smile. In reply, Kartik welcomed her with a smile.
For a moment Kartik felt as if she knew he was watching her beauty and she was eagerly waiting for the moment to arrive when his activity would be over. There was question in her eyes, "So what is your opinion about me?"
"Mind blowing!" These were the words in Kartik's mind.
The next day Kartik was just five minutes late for his LINUX class. Co-incidentally, Asmina too was late. She reached just a minute before him. She parked her vehicle and was walking towards the classroom, when she heard the roaring sound of a bike. Without even looking towards it, she understood that it was Kartik's bike. She stopped for a while so as to have a look at him. A smile of familiarity spread over her face. Kartik noticed it while parking his bike. He was not able to believe that the 'most desirable girl of their city' was impressed by him in just three days.
The following day, the LINUX class itself started fifteen minutes late. Hence, all the girls enjoyed a quarter-hour full of gossip. Kartik came to know that Asmina was a good friend of Neeta and Geeta as she was enjoying their company. Soon, the person who used to conduct the LINUX class arrived. He handed over the keys of the room's lock to Kartik and got busy in parking his vehicle. Kartik moved ahead to open the lock. Asmina, Geeta and Neeta were standing close to the classroom's door. Pointing towards Kartik, Asmina whispered something into Geeta's ears. After hearing her sentence, Geeta's face suddenly turned pale.
Actually, Asmina expressed her crush for Kartik and Geeta was shocked to hear it? for two reasons. First, she showed her interest in a person with whom her cousin Neeta was deeply in love. Second, her engagement ceremony had been held just a month ago. The second point was more interesting as Asmina was ready to break her engagement for someone like Kartik.
Geeta was totally confused about what had to be done now. Asmina confessed to Geeta considering her a good friend. But she was not aware of the fact that the person to whom she was confessing, Geeta, knew that Kartik was the dream man in her cousin's life. Geeta decided to remain her best friend and warn Asmina without actually hurting her. That day, after the LINUX class was over, Geeta made everything clear to Asmina. She even warned her that from now on she should not to think of any other man except her husband-to-be. Asmina found it hard to agree. But considering that at least one of her friends would live a happy life with Kartik, she stopped thinking of him.