Book Excerpts

Three Impossible Wishes | Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream | An Extract

2

Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream

 

Mom always told me that if I made three impossible wishes, the most impossible one would come true.

Here’s how I hacked that process – I keep the wishes interconnected. That way, when one comes true, all come true.

My wishes were simple.

1) For Sahil N to kiss me at Graduation.

2) To get a full score on my Accounting exam.

3) To be happy.

Of course they sound ridiculous, they’re supposed to be impossible. Now, if the Sahil Mahlotra wish comes true, it means I’m definitely graduating, which means I’d actually passed Accounting and passed my second year.

For my second wish to work out, I’d have to be brilliantly motivated and totally focused- which couldn’t happen if I was depressed due to my crush snogging someone else. And finally, my third wish is entirely dependent on the first two coming true.

I write these down and shove the paper into my backpack, hoping it would miraculously grant me a new life.

But according to Dad, wishes won’t work if you don’t. If I want to ace this exam, I need to open the textbook. To do so, I first need to buy the textbook.

A cleaner stands outside the campus bookstore with his broom and bucket of soapy water, scratching his head as he wonders how to remove the posters covering every inch of the brick-lined façade. Splashed across all of them is the boy I’m going to kiss next year. The very Delhi, the very charming, the very ‘Are you my best friend/Are you my boyfriend’ Sahil Mahlotra, whose band covers popular Bollywood songs. Girls who don’t even understand Hindi show up at his gigs, swooning.

I always promise myself I’ll skip the next gig, and yet, I somehow always show up. The bit I always dread is when he chooses the most romantic line from the most romantic song, looks straight at me from the stage and sings it to my very soul – with a wink right at the end as if to reaffirm that ‘Yes, Arya, “Aate jaate jo milta hai tumsa lagta hai” was really meant for you.’

Tell me that’s not a move?

WHAP!

Everyone in the store turns to see which grand idiot has walked into the very obvious glass doors. It’s me; it’s me, of course. Just announcing my entry as usual. I quickly scurry in and bury myself in one of the aisles.

Rows and rows of shining books greet me. My top four smells are of freshly baked bread, brewing coffee, warm chocolate and, above all, books. I enter an aisle stacked with glossy, happy, exciting books … which means I’m in the wrong aisle. The books in the next section look solemn and serious. They stand side by side, starched and still, like soldiers ready for a great battle. My great battle. And of course, the book I’m looking for is right on top, where I can’t reach it.

Introduction to Accounting looks down at us peasants from that great height. It’s a 500-page mammoth; why keep it up there? Its contents are already enough to slay any poor student, why test their physical strength too? I try to get the attention of the pimply, gangly store assistant.

‘Excuse me, could you help me get that book down please?’

‘Are you a second-year student?’ he asks seriously.

‘Yes.’

‘Shouldn’t you already have the textbook by now?’

‘Would I want another copy of it, if I did?’

That shuts him up. Though, technically, he is right – this textbook was on the mandatory booklist during my first year here. I should have definitely bought it then, but it’s never too late, I suppose. With a long stick he dislodges the book.

We watch it free fall, landing on the ground with a great thump, squashing an ant in the process.

I feel like that poor ant.

DOWNLOAD AND READ THE EBOOK! bit.ly/ThreeImpossibleWishesKindle

HCI

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