[Memory Stream: Accessing . Location: Har Ki Pauri Ghat]
Ghat ? What is a Ghat?
As if the system heard his query it chimed with information.
[ A ghat is a riverbank where a raised concrete platform, several feet high, has been constructed along the River bank sometime for several kilometres. ]
The moment the memory took hold, Rudra wasn't just seeing he was being. The scent of ghee and cremation smoke returned. The texture of cracked stone beneath his sandals. The voices of pilgrims mingling with temple bells and roadside vendors. And there she was.
The girl in the blue salwar kameez Dress.
Not walking commanding.
She stood at the centre of a shouting match, framed by chaos and sunlight. Her dupatta flared like a banner. Sharp cheekbones, black eyes alight with fire, a mouth caught in the middle of protest. Her hair flowed like ink spilled down her back, snapping as the breeze caught it. The peacock blue fabric shimmered with a defiance that made Rudra's breath catch.
She wasn't pretty. She was impossible to ignore.
"You said forty rupees!" she snapped, glaring at Birju the chaat vendor. "Now you're saying eighty? After I've eaten?"
Birju puffed out his gut and spat into the gutter, smug as ever. "You city people think we're fools. Maybe you didn't hear right. I said eighty."
"You're lying," she said flatly. "And you're bad at it."
Rudra Danny, in this skin felt his hands clench.
He somehow remembered Birju. The man had been running this scam since Danny was in middle school. It wasn't just the scam that bothered him. It was how proud Birju always looked when he pulled it off. As if cheating someone justified itself.
Beside him, Amit crunched into the last bite of a samosa and mumbled, "Maybe we should just walk away, bro..."
But Danny stepped forward.
"Let it go, Birju ."
"Let what go? The girl owes me money."
"She doesn't. I heard the price too. It was forty."
Birju narrowed his eyes, irritated at being challenged. "Then you pay."
Danny reached into his pocket slowly, pulled out a ten rupee coin, and flicked it onto Birju's cart.
"That's the real value of your garbage and the rest is for your attitude which the customer didn't like a bit. If you don't believe me, you may ask her."
Birju scowled but didn't argue. Too many eyes were on him now. He muttered and disappeared into the alley behind his stall.
The girl turned to Danny, eyes wide. Her expression wasn't just surprised it was calculating, studying. Trying to place him.
"You didn't have to do that," she said.
"I had to," Danny replied. "Someone needed to remind him not everyone's asleep in this city."
She held out her hand. "Kanika Sharma."
He took it. Warm palm, steady grip, short nails practical. "Danny."
Amit leaned forward. "And I'm Amit, Danny's friend."
She smiled politely, but her eyes didn't leave Danny.
Then Amit's phone buzzed. He gasped. "Results are out, Danny."
"When?" Kanika and I said simultaneously, turning to him in surprise.
Amit grinned, clearly pleased to have important news. "Just now. Rajat Uncle just posted them at the café!"
I glanced back at Kanika, suddenly nervous.
"Twelfth CBSE?"
She nodded.
"Yeah," she nodded, and I caught a flicker of anxiety in those beautiful eyes.
A brief moment of tension passed between them mutual recognition.
"Come on, Danny," Amit said, practically dragging me toward the cyber café. "Let's see what destiny has decided for us."
I threw a casual wave over my shoulder, not wanting to seem too eager. "See you, Kanika."
"Um... can I come with you guys? Please?" She asked, and for the first time, I heard hesitation in her voice. Already liking that.
"Why not?" I smiled, feeling like I'd just won the lottery. "Let's go to Rajat Uncle's cyber café together."
As we walked through the crowded streets, I couldn't help but steal glances at her. She moved with fluid grace, her dupatta catching the morning light, her bangles creating a soft musical accompaniment to our steps. Every few seconds, she'd look back at me, and our eyes would meet for just a moment before we both looked away.
"Are you nervous?" she asked as we approached the cyber café.
"Yeah. Everything's riding on this," he admitted.
"Same." She kicked a pebble with her sandal. "It's weird how a number on a screen can decide your whole life."
"It's only weird if the number's not good."
Kanika gave him a sidelong glance. "You're right, Mr Danny."
Danny shrugged. "I always am, Ms Kanika."
Kanika laughed, and it was real the kind of laugh that disarmed and invited.The kind that made Rudra, buried deep in Danny's soul, miss something he couldn't name.
The cyber café was a cramped sauna of anxious breath, hot CPUs, and half drunken tea cups pressed against monitors, clicking refresh like prayer beads.
Danny's pulse throbbed behind his ears.
"Rajat Uncle , is the server working?" Amit asked nervously.
Rajat Uncle, nodded in response.
Amit squeezed into the keyboard first." 15432…" he muttered.
Then: "EIGHTY FIVE!" he shouted, eyes wide.
"YESSS! I passed! I survived! I'm not a failure!"
"Congrats, Grandpa," Danny clapped him on the back.
Kanika smiled. "Seriously, that's great. Congratulation."
But Danny was already stepping up.His hands shook as he typed in his roll number: 13698.
Kanika placed a hand on his shoulder. The warmth of it. The casual trust. It grounded him like an anchor in the tide.
The screen blinked. Then loaded.
98.29%
For a second, I couldn't speak. Not even breathe. The café went quiet in his ears.
Then Amit exploded, throwing his arms into the air. "STATE TOPPER, BABY! HE DID IT! THIS BASTARD DID IT!"
Kanika's arms slid around his shoulders. Danny's head swam not just from the rush of victory, but from the warmth of her touch. He hadn't felt this since… Well. Maybe never.
But before Danny could enjoy the moment
Amit leaned in and whispered, "Bro, she's just trying to move you from the screen."
Danny's entire face flushed, a deep shade of pink blooming across his cheeks as reality crashed into his fantasy. But to get hold onto the situation
He turned to her. "Should I check yours?"
She nodded, suddenly shy.
Roll number: 36854
89.92%
She gasped. Danny saw tears in her eyes not of sadness but of relief. "I passed... with good percentile at that..."
Danny smiled. "I knew you'd score at least that much."
Then Amit chanted, "Party! Party! Party!"
Rajat Uncle growled, "This is a place of business !"
"Lassi!" Kanika shouted. "Mango Frooti! Momos!"
"You're in Scareford," Danny said. "There are no Momos."
"Then I'll find them," she replied, her eyes twinkling. "But you pay for poha."
"Deal," Danny said.
"And Grandpa pays for the drinks."
"Me? What the hell " Amit sputtered.
She just smiled and took both their hands.
They left the café in a trio, cutting through the old streets like a unit formed by fate. Something unspoken passed between them something light and real and terrifying in how rare it felt.
And Rudra, watching it all unfold, felt something inside him crack some long dead piece of him shifting beneath layers of bitterness and power and pain.
They were more than test scores. They were becoming something else entirely even if Danny didn't know it yet.
The memory ended there, and the system screen flickered into life one more time.
[Memory Fragment Ended | Next Memory ready to be watched.]
[CONTINUE]
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