Tangled in the web of love - hima (best english books to read for beginners TXT) 📗

People began to stir on the roads of Madina, as the sun rays lit up the orange sky. Morning walkers jogged along the deserted roads, lined up with rows of tall buildings where lights began to flicker on.


In the left corner of the road 5, a two floored building stood serene, void of any human activity, it seemed so still that passersby thought that residents of the house were out of town. None caught a glimpse of the girl that is looking out of her window; she is in her 18’s, hour glass body, olive complexion, light brown eyes, thin lips, long nose, she was a head turner definitely. The morning breezes played with her soft curly brown hair.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she failed to notice the shuffling feet behind her. A woman in mid 50’s stood watching Dia as she started into oblivion, poor girl! The elder woman sighed looking at the vulnerable girl.

“Dia…” She shook her shoulders with a warm smile playing on her lips.

“Um…Granny, I should probably get ready.” She said avoiding eye contact with her and blinked back the tears.

Granny was a plump woman with fair skin, long nose pinched at the edge, intelligent eyes covered behind the gold rimmed glasses, thin lips, wrinkled lines at the corner of her earth brown eyes and forehead. Granny watched Dia as she hurried into the wash room. She was a woman that could see clearly what was happening behind those tough façade. She pulled out a new pair of Punjabi suit from her wardrobe which was stocked with all colours and varieties of dresses.

Dia’s mother Anjali worked as a manager in a well renowned company though job was not a need to her; Anjali inherited most of her father’s property. Dia secretly suspected that job helps her to forget all her troubles.

Anjali travels to and fro between the city and her home every day which gave her much less time to spend with her daughter and after what happened a few months ago, she couldn’t let her daughter be alone in the big house so she practically made her mom her daughter’s babysitter.

Dia watched as the traffic was building up on the streets, she contemplated whether she made the right decision to join this college, what if someone recognized her? How would they treat me then? She pondered. Her painful past was something that she wanted to forget but people never stopped to bring it up on her face. Her long fingers traced the scar on her left chin tentatively, she scurried to the head length mirror in her room, and she pulled out the hair pins and carefully let a few strands fall loose covering up the scar. She took a breath of relief as the scar disappeared behind her soft brown curls.

Dia had struggled a lot over the past few months trying to hold her life on a tiny thread just for the sake of her mother. She spent many restless nights trying to shove her deep secrets into the corners of her mind. If it wasn’t for her mom she would certainly be long dead, she means the world to her. Life wasn’t any more simple to her, gone were those days when she was a mom’s innocent little girl

“Dia…Honey…Are you ready?” Her mother’s sweet child like voice echoed in the house.

She lightly powdered her tear stained cheeks and put up a plastic smile and sauntered downstairs. She pulled on a perfect smile as she saw her mother tapping her foot impatiently on the marble floor, glancing at her watch now and then.

“A small gift for you…” Anjali handed her a neatly wrapped box. Dia took it gingerly in her hands and tore the blue wrapping.

Dia secretly sighed as she saw a Nokiac3, silver mobile in the gift box; she sent a silent prayer to god! Anjali can go overboard sometimes and buy her lavish things which weren’t of Dia’s taste. Dia was a simple girl with simple tastes.

“Thanks, mother. It’s so beautiful.” She said hugging her.

“I’m glad you liked it.” She said pecking her cheeks.

“I can’t believe that you are going to college…”Anjali chirped.

Anjali was wearing a grey business suit, she radiated confidence and her sweet smile warmed up hearts of people. She was one of those people that everyone respect and befriend, Dia admired her mother for the way she seemed to have her life under control, she never let the emotions get the best of her, she stood strong for her and helped her pull through her tough times. Dia wished that she had more than her mom’s features in her; she can never be strong and confident like her mother. Every time she tried to lock up all those emotions, tears would just break the barricades and start to flood her cheeks.

“Aren’t you excited?” Anjali asked raising an eyebrow at her.

“I’m just nervous…” Dia lied holding her head down hoping that she wouldn’t call her bluff.

“Oh! Honey, there is nothing to worry, you’ll do great.” She said flashing that confident smile.

Their red swift skidded to a halt at the arch and carved in it are the gleaming letters “Indhira Engineering College.” Dia nervously peeked at the college grounds before she alighted the car, her eyes never left the gravel path beneath her, neatly manicure, red painted nails. She glimpsed occasionally for the directions.

She nervously played with her dupatta as she eyed people watching her; she quickened her pace hoping to get away from the staring eyes. She ran into someone as she desperately tried to avoid those stares.

“Whoa, watch out girl…” She met his deep black eyes, he was almost 6, button nose, wide set eyes, thin nose and lips and square lined jaw. She startled and jumped back at the male voice.

“I’m sorry…”she mumbled.

Aman watched at her curiously as her thin lips quivered and her voice came out shaky. He watched her walk away not sparing a glance at him. He ran after her.

“Are you a fresher?” he asked eying her hands that nervously picked at her dupatta, a slow smile spread on his lips.

She nodded vigorously; he bit back the laugh as he saw her shy mannerisms.

“What branch are you in?” she lifted her eyes to meet his scrutinizing gaze.

“I’ve seen you somewhere…” Her eyes went wide like saucers and a tremor shook through her tiny frame.

“Never mind…”he said as he got faint hint of where he had seen her.
“I should go…” she mumbled something incoherently and walked past him.

Did he figure it out? What if he says that to someone? I don’t want any more judging looks? She silently cried. Her attention was snapped at once when she saw many colourful banners hoisted from the top of each blocks, at the end of the fourth block, she saw many ecstatic faces with a slight hint of nerves in their smiles.

Dia scurried into the Seminar hall and scanned the horizon to find a corner where none would bother to notice her, when she found one, she scurried towards it and to her disappointment just as she was about to sit, a boy slumped into the seat leaving her no choice but to take the front row.

She stood rigid afraid to even twitch in front of all the dignitaries on the stage, sitting straight in front of her on a raised platform.

She couldn’t help but notice the girl who sat next to her; she sat in a relaxed position, yawning advertently. She was a lot leaner than her, wheatish complexion, brown hair in messy curls that barely reached her shoulders, skinny jeans and a plain t-shirt.

“Boring, right?” She wrung her knuckles.

“I’m Neha…”she extended her hands with a childish, sweet smile.

“I’m Dia…” She said not taking her eyes from the director who seemed to be giving a rather long speech since the last 20 minutes. His speech mainly consisted of how lucky we are to be placed in this institution and about the competitive world outside

“He is sleeping…”Neha laughed pointing to the vice chairman, who was resting his chin on his open palm. He was an old man; he woke up at regular intervals and nodded in the direction of the director.

Dia smiled at the very moment director decided to finish his long speech.

“What branch are you in?” she asked.

“Computers…”Neha tugged at her hands and steered her through the crowds to the classrooms.

Most of the day passed with introductions, Dia hesitated when she was asked to introduce herself, and she feared that someone would point out who she was but luckily none did. In fact there were many friendly smiles when she finished her intro.

Dia was happy with her hectic schedule, it took her mind of things that she wanted to forget not completely though. She still woke up screaming at nights and frantically touched her face for the signs of any gashes.

Days passed into weeks, Dia warmed up to most of the girls in the class, her classmates liked because of her shy and calm demeanour, many boys tried to get her attention but she would flinch and stutter when some of them tried to talk. Her past experiences made her wary of anything male around her. Neha didn’t fail to notice this, it always bugged her to know exactly what was going on with her but she was wise enough to keep her mouth shut.

******************
Dia peeked out of the window, watching out for Neha, it became their regular habit to eat together. Most of the girls ate in the cafeteria, only a few brought lunch boxes from home. Neha went to the cafeteria a few days and couldn’t bear to eat there one more day so a few days later she joined them.

Neha stormed into the room and slumped on the bench, her head hit the mound of books resting on the desk and her brown curls splaying everywhere. She shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh.

“What happened?” Dia’s tone filled with concern for her friend. She fished through her book bag and opened her box; Neha sat up sighing and popped my potato fries into her mouth.

“I’m sick of colleges and classes…” Neha said with an exasperated sigh, Dia smiled at her friend’s statement; it has been only few weeks since they joined the college and there are three more long years ahead.

“I’m going to kill Shekhar Kammula…”she huffed. Dia didn’t understand what S.K had to do with her frustration or college.

“Don’t you get it? After watching his movie, I thought college would be fun but here we are everyday working on our score, assignments, weekly tests, internals, labs, externals and what not?” She huffed and puffed.

“So did I…”Asha admitted after listening to Neha’s rant. Asha was a chubby little thing, chubby cheeks, pink face, little nose and cute little pink lips, She resembled the pink teddy bear that was so huggable.

Dia was trying hard not to laugh at her friends.
“You can laugh all you want but that is the fact…”Neha pouted and that did it, Dia’s musical laughter filled