Guess who I met yesterday by the campfire?

She was looking like a heavenly beauty sitting there by the fire stoking it. Her hair fell over one shoulder and the fire light was making her face glow like that of an angel. Sameer had never seen her look so beautiful and was for once content to just sit and stare at her taking in her heavenly beauty. Was it the way the shawl was wrapped around her knees? Was it the locket that Sameer had gifted her? Or was it the combined effect of the campfire, the surroundings, the attire and she herself that made her look like what she was some damsel.

"Hi, how have you been?" asked Sameer.

No answer.

"Hullo…."

No answer.

" Are you angry with me?"

No answer.

Sameer began to feel that it was indeed a concoction of his mind that he was seeing her sitting there. Cursing the amount of beer he had drunk, he got up to go to his tent and sleep.

"Sameer you havent changed one bit. You still don’t know when some one is angry with you and you definitely don’t know how to placate them." she commented, with an angry frown on her face still looking into the fire.

"And, what, may I ask, have I done to anger you?"

"What have you done!!! What have you done!!! Are you trying to anger me more or are you just plain stupid so as not to know what you have done to anger me?"

For the first time she looked at him. Those eyes though immensely beautiful were filled with angry tears which shown in the camp fire's light like 24 carat diamonds shining in brilliant light. But those were tears none the less. And they were enough for all fight in Sameer to vanish.

"Ok! OK! I am sorry for whatever I have done. But as usual I hope that you will tell me the reason for being mad at me. Or will you continue that old habit of yours of not telling me what wrong I have done."

"When ever you are sad, I am sad Sameer. Why cant you ever seem to understand this? Why is it that every time you need me to ask you to cheer up."

"Aage aati thi haal e dil pe hasi, Ab kisi baat par nahi aati

Hai kuch aisi hi baat jo chup hai, Warna kya baat kar nahi aati"

"Ya ya whatever. Just tell me what will it take for you to be happy?"

"You, are what will take for me to be happy."

"That is not possible. Atleast not in this life."

"Maybe not as long as I am alive. But maybe after I am dead. What say?"

"Don’t ever say anything like that again. You have a long life ahead of you. You have to make your parents proud and me too."

"Well, I have told you what will make me happy. You and nothing or no one else will do."

"Hmmm… well if that is the way you want it, then so be it."

"How?"

"I will be there with you all the time. And the times when you think I am not, I will be trying to do something to make you happier."

"And why cant you be with me all the time?"

"Because I don’t want to be with some one so glum all the time. Now I am going to leave. And remember the condition for me being with you is that you will be cheerful and happy. The very moment you are sad I will vanish."

"With you around, how can I ever be sad…."

"Bye for now Sameer. Whenever you need me just close your eyes and remember me. I will be back. And for God's sake, don’t misuse it."

"Hee Hee. Sure, as you say."

******

The next morning the campers were awakened by a cheerful whistling. As Abhishek, Vikas and Raj came out of their tent, they were greeted by the site of Sameer preparing breakfast for all the people in the camp and whistling cheerfully whilst bustling around the camp with his preparations. The Sameer of old had returned it seemed.

Puzzled by this sudden change and naturally being very curious but not wanting to be abrupt, Abhishek commented, "Some one is looking cheerful today."

"Good Morning Brother. Nice morning isn't it?"

"Yes, so it is. And seems you are enjoying it to the most." Vikas chimed in.

"Ya man, I am feeling very happy today."

"And may we know the reason for this sudden increase in your level of happiness." asked Raj, quite abruptly.

"Guess who I met yesterday by the campfire?"

"Who?" All the three chimed in, eager to know.

"I saw her. I saw Kashish. We had a long nice chat. And she made me promise that I will be cheerful. Not that I need any more reason now. What with her being back." replied Sameer grinning from ear to ear.

The trio looked dumbfounded at each other. Sameer seemed to have lost his mental balance.

By The Campfire...

The quartet was driving along a lonely forest road heading towards Kanha National Park where they intended to stay overnight before heading else where. Sameer was behind the wheel when Abhishek requested him to make a stop to ease his bursting bladder. Sameer obliged and seeing a small clearing pulled over to let Abhishek out. As the rest of the friends also trooped out of the car to relieve their bladders or for a smoke or just to stretch their legs, Raj’s ears caught a distant sound.

“Hey, is that music that I hear?”

“What music?” enquired Vikas, obviously not as gifted in auditory faculties as his friend.

“Ssshhhh!!! Be Quiet!” hissed Abhishek.

As the four stood stone like, cocking their ears to the distant sounds, the faint sounds of music were heard in the distance where some soothing music was being played on a player.

"Come on guys let check this out." said Raj as soon as all the four friends felt certain that they had

"Yeah, ok by me." replied Abhishek trying to sound interested but not overtly so as not to give the game away to Sameer. It had taken a lot of planning on the part of Vikas, Abhishek and Raj to get the place almost precisely correct and more than half a dozen rehearsals till they got their act together. In planning the entire thing they had taken the help of Abhishek's friend, Mili who had brought a long a few of her trusted friends who were ready to help.

They had all gotten together and pitched a camp in a clearing near the national park after ensuring that no tigers were around. Then getting a call from Abhishek, Mili had put on some calm and soothing music, just the kind to which Sameer would be drawn to.

It took the quartet a few minutes to find the clearing in the forest. And when they did they were greeted by the sight of four tents pitched almost in a semi circular fashion with a gap left for a path which obviously led to the highway. The people present were busy in various tasks - some were ensuring that the tents were steady, some ensuring that there was enough firewood for the camp fire, some were bringing the belongings from a van standing a small way up the path and still others wandering about aimlessly or chatting animatedly with each other.

As the quartet walked towards them, the campers stopped their chores to take a good look at the strangers.

Abhishek as had been pre - decided spotted Mili and walked right up to her "Hi Mili, fancy meeting you here."

"Hi Abhishek,it’s a surprise indeed. How have you been? And what are you doing here?"

"Well, we were out on a camping trip, just the four of us. Come let me introduce you to my friends."

"This is Vikas………. Sameer………...Raj. And guys this is Mili, my friend from college. "

As the pleasantries were exchanged, the rest of Mili's friends trooped in to make introductions. And soon the youngsters were all chatting like old friends. It was decided that the quartet would join the group at the camp thereby making the total number of members to twelve consisting of seven girls and five guys. And soon another tent had been setup to accommodate the increased number of members. Since the quartet had brought along some supplies of their own, there was enough for every one to eat and drink.

As the evening wore on and it became dark the campfire was lit and everyone gathered around to sing and dance. After dinner when everyone decided to sing songs, Sameer declined to be a part of the activity,rather preferring to sip beer. When others tried to protest against this, Sameer's friends intervened and requested the rest to leave him alone.Soon the rest of the campers were having fun singing songs and even dancing around the campfire. After making merry for a long time, around midnight the campers retired to their respective tents leaving only Sameer with the camp fire still burning bright. As Sameer sat on a stone drinking chilled beer, he fancied he saw someone sitting in front of him. Thinking that it must be the beer which was taking its toll, he chucked the empty bottle into a waste collection bag. However, hoping what he was seeing was true, he sat on the stone, looking at her as she stoked the campfire with a stout stick...

The road trip

Vikas was smoking what he thought was his last cigarette for the day when Abhishek walked up and sat down next to him.

"Brother, don’t you think you ought to give up smoking? You have become a chain smoker in Raj's company."

"Hey chill man, I don’t lecture you when you drink your pints of beer, why you lecturing me man?"

"Brother I am not lecturing you. Smoking causes irreversible harm to the body, drinking occasionally does not cause as much harm. In fact drinking in small amounts daily, helps increase appetite."

"WHATEVER!!! Stop it man. You know I don’t like discussing my smoking."

Abhishek chose to remain silent after that. He had known for long that his friend's smoking habit would cause massive problems to him in the future but he felt helpless for not being able to do anything for it.

Abhishek and Vikas had been friends for almost an year. They had met through a common friend and the three had hit it off in a big way after that. Sameer their common friend had off late been in need of their support and true friends that they were, they had pitched in with all they could do. Abhishek had been living in Sameer's locality for more than five years and had known Sameer for a long time. Of late his friend's sad state had caused Abhishek a lot of heart ache and he had called Vikas to discuss just that. Vikas who had studied in college with Sameer had been worried too about Sameer and ever since Abhishek had called him to discuss a way to lift Sameer's spirit, Vikas's mind had been working overtime to find an answer. And now he had come up with a few ideas which he put forth Abhishek.

"How about getting him a new girlfriend? My girl friend's friends cried when I narrated his story to them, they will surely be interested out of sympathy."

"Come on Vikas! Let him atleast get out of the grief that he is facing right now."

"Hmmm…. Well then how about diverting his mind from the entire matter. Remember when we first met each other through Sameer; he expressed his desire to go on a road trip with a few friends and have lots of fun on the way without giving a damn about anything or anyone else."

"Hey that is a good idea brother. In fact is an awesome idea. The only concern is… will Sameer agree?"

***************************

It was around 7 p.m. in the evening when the movie finished and the trio stumbled out of the theatre. The action movie had been pretty fabulous and all the three were all praise for the movie.

Sameer was the first to start, " What a movie yaar. I am pretty impressed by the cool stunts in it. Worth watching at least once."

"Definitely worth watching dude" said Vikas agreeably.

"Well how about dinner now? I am feeling somewhat hungry guys." Abhishek cut in, obviously feeling the repercussions of a very early lunch.

Vikas and Abhishek after a long discussion had agreed to try to get Sameer into a good enough mood to get him to accompany them on an outstation trip before he rejoined college. And they hoped that roasted chicken and a bottle of whiskey would do the trick for them.

As the dinner progressed both noticed that Sameer was in somewhat better mood than before. And Vikas took the chance of popping the question.

"Sameer we both were discussing about going on an outstation trip for a few days. You want to come along? Just the three of us.We'll have loads of fun."

After thinking it over Sameer replied."Ummm, sure why not"

Vikas and Abhishek looked at each other incredulously. They had not thought it would be so easy. Both had expected that they would have had to convince Sameer to go with them, but their friend had unexpectedly very easily agreed.

"Hey what happened to you both?" said Sameer looking at the look of astonishment on faces of his friends.

Both Vikas and Abhishek came to their senses and after some small talk steered back to the conversation of the trip. By the time the trio broke up it had been decided that a road trip was in order and they would be camping out so that they could have as much fun as possible.