In Episode 4 of Part 2, Student City, Dr Piyush Roy explores desire, ambition, friendship, manipulation, and emotional vulnerability as Avi and Biki confront attraction, identity, rivalry, loneliness, and the fragile meaning of finding home.

Student City is an ongoing fiction series by Dr Piyush Roy, published in the Kaleidoscope section of The Daily Eye. Episode 4 continues the evolving emotional journeys of its management students, where friendship, desire, ambition, and belonging collide.

Avi & Biki | Late-Night Truths Unfold

“So, you have finally split with Priya,” I confronted Biki while walking her home after one of those presentation-preparation-induced late nights spent making those theoretical PowerPoint bombs involving our neo-nascent interpretations of corporate jargon.

“Wrong, you should have asked whether I too have split with her? …Well, we both kind of decided that we had outgrown each other,” informed Biki with a pause and a wink!

“Oh yeah… so you got to know her so well, so soon, to even realise that you had outgrown her.”

“Actually, she has. Anyway she’s got better buddies now…isn’t it?” she threw a glance at me with another knowing wink.

Oh no, not again, that silent, omnipresent hint, which I had of late encountered from quite a few in the class. I should have known it would be coming.

“You are not that dumb, Avi. Anyway you guys make a lovely couple,” continued Biki.

“Not you, puh-lease…”

“But yes, darling, she definitely has the hots for you. Oh, the way she sticks to you and…”

“That way she had them for Rahul and even you too…not so long ago.”

“Ya, but I decided to stray, look around. Me’s the variety-is-the-spice-of-life types. And, if at all I had to be a lesbian, count me for better taste yaar.”

“Come on, there couldn’t be anyone spicier than Priya, not in our class at least.”

“But, you know, the incredible has actually happened. Priya’s actually run out of gossip.” The statement was enough to break the gathering ice. I retorted with a hearty laugh, “Ha ha ha…Thank heavens, she’s actually reforming and for the better.”

“But not of any use to me anymore…”

“You used her?”

“It was mutual, so don’t be shocked. These mind games women play won’t anyway register in your straight-thinking guy minds. But… there’s definitely going to be some more fireworks. In a way I’m actually raring to face her counters. After all, at war are two really ambitious and intelligent women.”

“Who, to make matters worse, are sexy too,” I butted in.

“You guys just can’t think beyond tits and ass. You are all the same beneath that so-called thin veil of sensibility…or…sensitivity, whatever.”

“We, too, are normal beings, and quoting the Kamasutra, isn’t it everything in the world after all the game of the hole and the pole.”

“Is that Mira Nair’s interpretation you are paraphrasing? What a reference!”

“Don’t be a prude.”

“It’s better than being desperate, and showing it too!”

“I have the guts to admit all that I mean. At least, I don’t play games.”

“Do I?”

“Ask your mirror? You both will know better…”

“You too believe in those allegations of a ‘heartless opportunist’ that abound about me?”

“So, you are aware of that. Still, I form my own opinions, which are definitely not hearsay, and I know that you are capable of much more than that, and still be the apple of everyone’s eye. Rather, be there perched as a reachable tease to be plucked, but the moment one starts the efforts, emerges the real distance beneath the miasma, that unmistakable unattainability.”

“But I can’t ever recollect anyone actually making a go at me? Is something or someone stopping you?”

Not knowing how to react to so specific a query over my general assertions, I just kept quiet, trying to look the other way. A brief pause, and a few silent steps later, Biki stopped. Looking straight at me as if confessing, she said, “I am not that bad.”

And I got my escape, rather defence. “I never insinuated you were even a bit evil. It’s not wrong to be ambitious. Though the means are. But, to each is his or her own operative parameter. Who am I to judge you or even grudge your lifestyle, until and unless you cross my path? So, if I did sound judgemental, that’s my folly and I’m sorry.”

“You are too complex to be deciphered…”

“Rather, beneath those so-called complex layers resides a simpleton, who’s too genuine for his own good. I only wish that this atmosphere doesn’t rob that away from me and my loathing for artificiality.”

“Touchwood,” she said with a caring smile, adding, “Missing home? Though surprisingly, unlike others, I have never ever heard you talking about your folks or your home.”

“How much of a real talk have you had with me anyway? Moreover, what’s the point of talking about something no one here has seen, nor will ever understand… My sweet home, yeah, I do miss it, perhaps every day…” or, Is it perhaps every time I don’t see Rahul around! I concluded with a soft mumble.

“But mine’s here, and thanks a lot for that lift…coming in?” Biki invited.

“No, have promised a movie outing to Rahul… Our latest Saturday night ritual. Will catch up tomorrow morning for that final bit of magazine work.”

As I said, rushing back ‘home,’ Biki stood by the door perhaps waving a ‘bye’ or a ‘smile of understanding,’ and this one wasn’t artificial.

Biki & Anisha | Sunday Secrets and Sunlight

“Just felt like disturbing you,” Biki was trying to decipher the reason behind that blanket slipping away from her through sleepy eyes waking beneath lazy eyelids. Anisha was purring the notes as Ita pushed open the windows, letting the blazing hot sun in. Morning had long given way to day, but who cared, it was a Sunday.

Biki saw the reading on the wall clock and screamed, “It’s 12!!! Anisha, I told you I had a meeting at 9 in the morn. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“’Coz I told her not to. At least not on a Sunday! Give yourself a break,” the momma in Ita spoke forth.

“And break that lusty Seenu’s (that’s what the juniors, rather the first-year girls, were entitled to lovingly call the college President Sreenivas) heart,” Anisha complemented with a naughty look.

“What was that?”

“Oh, come on, as if we all don’t know… those oh-so-long coffee dates, sudden disappearances and, of course, fixing official meetings on a Sunday with hardly any student around!”

“I was supposed to help him with the new souvenir, guys, and for all your imaginations of a secret rendezvous, let me inform you that Avi’s gonna be there too. To be precise, he was supposed to pick me up.”

“He only called up at eight in the morning to inform about the cancellation of your date. And one more thing, Biki, please tell your inspired cohorts not to ring my cell so early on a Sunday. By the way, our college Presi had to leave for Mumbai on urgent notice. So, you stay home with us, and don’t make any excuses to dump us this Sunday,” Ita warned.

Biki interrupted with an okay nod before sliding beneath her blanket again.

Ita knew what was coming and secured herself behind the bedroom door, as Anisha promptly emptied a bucket on Biki.