Page 145 - Till the Last Breath . . .

what it means to me. If you think you do, I feel about a millionfold better

than that!’ she shouted and everyone laughed. The two girls who had cried
hugged her and cried a bit more. ‘Though I wasn’t joking completely. I
have finished a bit of it.’

There was a fresh round of banter, after which the room slowly
transformed into a college hostel room after the last exam for which no one

had studied, everyone thankful that it was over. Pihu’s parents left. Soon,
the room was what teachers in school describe as a fish market! They

shouted, joked, laughed, cursed and fell all over each other. Pihu saw
Dushyant grumble and mumble irritably in his sleep, but no one was in any

mood to mellow down. They started to discuss their various professors,
their quirks, the dissections, other medical-college stuff and uninteresting
college gossip about who got caught making out and who was cheating on

whom. In the middle of the conversation, she would close her eyes for a
split second and imagine herself amongst frozen corpses, driving a knife

through them, studying their slimy insides and taking elaborate notes. In
those moments, she felt like she had lived a lifetime. Venugopal ordered

pizzas, stuffed with molten cheese of three delightful kinds, for all of them
and they ate like hungry cavemen. Pihu could really get people to talk and

people loved talking to her. Except the guy on the other bed.
‘Can you guys just KEEP IT DOWN? FOR FUCKING HEAVEN’S
SAKE!’ Dushyant shouted from the other side.

‘What the hell—?’ Venugopal replied.
‘If you don’t fucking leave this ward this very moment, I am going to

kick you out. All of you,’ Dushyant warned.
‘Try it,’ one of them snapped.

‘Yeah, fuck you,’ added one of the girls who had cried earlier.
Dushyant had blood in his eyes, like when those invisible veins in your

eyes fill up and make their presence felt. ‘Fuck you,’ he sneered and ripped
out the tubes from his hands. His forehead popped a vein as a stunned Pihu
watched in horror. Before she could react, Dushyant had jumped at

Venugopal and hit him with a left hook that landed squarely on his chin.
Venugopal lay on the floor in evident agony. He moved swiftly to the next