Page 28 - You Only Live Once [BooksLD]

point of time, but the very fact that it would take a huge amount of time and
effort to become an established doctor had made me restless for nights after
writing the board exams. I loved English as a subject, and the primary

reason was the beautiful storytelling it involved. I did a couple of comic
mime performances on stage back in school, also wrote a few poems as a
young kid, and got some articles published in the magazine at the
university. The moment I left school, I wasn’t being myself suddenly. I was
chasing a career in engineering.

‘I am trying to be a version of me that my dad wants me to be,’ I say.
‘You’re always being yourself. I would say it again, even if you’re doing
what others want you to do, you’re taking the final call.’

I remember how my dad, a math fanatic, had once asked me as a child,
‘What is the best thing you can do with numbers?’
‘I can write jokes on them!’ I had replied innocuously. Two slaps

followed. No more. No less.
Akshaye is definitely correct. But what’s more? Why isn’t he coming to
the point. I keep wandering my gaze to every nook and corner of the

cafeteria.
‘What’s in your bag?’ Akshaye quizzes.

‘Umm…laptop, diary, charger, yeah,’ I take a pause.
‘Beach shorts?’ Akshaye grins.

‘No, uh…umm…’ I wonder what to tell him.
‘You must be off to Goa, it’s Friday tonight.’

‘Why?’
‘Why are you keeping secrets?’

‘What kind of secrets?’
‘When people answer questions with a question, they’re definitely hiding
something.’

‘That must be your definition.’

‘Getting defensive too.’
‘I’m not.’

‘You are.’
‘Actually, I perform at…’

‘Ricky’s Beach Shack,’ he completes my sentence.