"And what is this for?" he asked

We spent the rest of the late evening and all the night, exploring my Q tab. Initially Neel was afraid of it. Of the bright lights, of the floating screen.

But he would never fail to flash a big smile, every time he would see my wallpaper.

"How did you go in here?" he asked like a cute kid that he was.

I had burst out in laughter.

I am sorry, but this was funny.

"What are you laughing at!" he felt self conscious.

"I am sorry, nothing." I said, trying hard to stop myself.

"Here have a look at this." I switched the camera on floating screen ahead of me.

"It's a mirror." He said, attempting to touch his fingers to the screen, matching his 'reflection'.

It made me laugh again, but I controlled.

"No" I said, trying to be as soft as possible. "This is a camera"

"Camera?"

Now I don't know what you call camera in hindi.

"Okay so here's what it does." I set the angle of the screen, and adjusted ourselves, and set the timer to 3 seconds.

"You have to smile okay?" I said as the timer started ticking.

"For what?" he looked at me confused, while I posed for the picture.

And here it was, our first ever picture.

A pretentious me, smiling at the camera, and a confused him, looking at me.

It so perfectly described, my initial few weeks here. Me being pretentious to survive here and him being confused about me.

I laughed at the picture until he took a note of that. He narrowed his eyes and leaned ahead towards the screen as if Neel from the other end would explain to him what just happened.

I chuckled to myself. Had I know his reactions would be so innocent and pure, I would have come out clean long time ago.

Maybe.

"I told you to smile." I told him, pulling him away from the screen.

"This...." He was lost for words.

"Okay let's try this again." I said, and set the timer once again.

"Look at me and see what I am doing and copy okay?" I said as the countdown started.

I smiled at the camera, and he too, gave a very fake and weird smile.

"What is this?" I squeaked

"It's so weird. Looking at yourself and smiling." He cribbed.

"You don't smile at yourself in the mirror?" I retorted.

"I don't get time to see the mirror." He gave a dry response. "If I am free, I am either with you, or with the ministers."

"That means you're never really free!" I rolled my eyes and sulked.

He smiled to himself, as he turned away from me to look back again to the floating screen and then looked at me through the screen, still smiling, which ended me with a frustrated laugh.

"We'll try again." I said, as I set the timer for the third time.

He looked at me directly turning in my direction ,while I stuck my tongue out, teasing him through the camera which made him chortle, and finally the camera was able to picture that beautiful instant.

"This is adorable." I pulled the screen close to have a better look at it.

To have a better look at him.

"Let's do it one more time." He requested this time.

"Someone's seems to enjoy this." I teased him.

He did not react.

I set the timer while he nervously shifted closer.

As soon as the countdown begun, he hesitantly wrapped his arms around my shoulders, struggling to match his eyes with himself on the screen.

I looked up at him, smiling at him, while he looked down at me, nervous. His hands still around me.

'Click'

---

"This is beautiful." We were laying down on his bed, making the screen float above us now.

I was swiping through the endless picture we captured tonight. Our poses only got intimate after every capture.

Him, kissing me on my forehead.

Me, holding his face. His stubble that makes him more handsome.

Us, entwining our arms with me laying my head over his shoulder and him resting his head over mine.

We were looking at each other and smiling at every pretty picture, and laughing at all the funny ones.

Neel was the one operating the Q now, at least swiping pictures. He was enjoying it all the more and gaining confidence and trust with every touch to the screen.

"Who is this?" his voice took my attention back to the screen.

"Oh that is my friend, Ela." I introduced.

"What sort of dress is she wearing." He scrunched his nose.

Ela was wearing an off shoulder one piece, that was a little too short.

"Shameless." He said under his breath, although I heard it and it made me go nuts. I was laughing hard at his reactions. Even to a couple of my pictures after that.

"And this... Hold on.. Is that Yug?" He focused on the picture.

"No, that's Mayan. But he looks like Yug doesn't he?"

He nodded in response, attempting to digest Yug's lookalike.

"WHAT IS THIS!" he almost roared, turning his face away from the screen and shutting his eyes. I looked at the screen and this time I was kind of ashamed.

It was my picture in a two piece attire. A tropical blue bikini.

I immediately pulled his hands down from the floating screen above and had shut the gallery.

"that's just..." I didn't know what to say.

"Why even bother wearing these." He taunted.

This had me chuckle again

"What" I asked

"Did you go out wearing these?" he sounded confused. Obviously he couldn't imagine anyone doing something like this.

"uhh.." 'this will affect your relationship' my brain screamed.

"Things have changed a lot Neel." I hesitated.

"But still, this is not descent."

I did not say anything to this. I know it was difficult for him to see any female like this, on top of that, his woman being one of these. Impossible. I get it.

After a long awkward silence, he went first.

"Have things really changed a lot?" he asked.

I looked at him and nodded.

"So who is ruling now. Is my dynasty still there or is it the Norths, or troops from the southern foreign lands."

"uhh...nobody"

"NOBODY!" he sounded shocked. devastated.

"ahan." I agreed. "there is a lot that happened after that."

"like?" he was curious. Ofcourse. All of these were somehow competitors.

I was thinking of the best way I could explain it to him.

"umm.." I began. "Many people who were not Indian.. ruled India"

"What! What nonsense!" he did not seem to buy it.

I did not say anything. I didn't know what I could.

"We are protecting it with our sweat, blood and lives. How is that possible. What are you people doing?" he sounded frustrated.

"Well technically it's not us. It's been 122 years that India finally got its independence." I tried explaining.

"So what went wrong?" he was curious.

"Well, things were never really good to begin with. We had many invaders coming to trade and then simply ruling. We were kind of dealing with it, but some Indians were foolish than other Indians and they joined hands with the opposite team. So the opposite team took advantage of it."

"Ofcourse they will" Neel got angrier with every disclosure. It got me wondering if telling him was the right thing to do or no.

I sighed helplessly.

"but things got really bad when the English men, the white men came to our land. They implemented 'divide and rule' and.." I scoffed.. "our nation got divided. While people blamed one another.. I still blame them."

"India got divided?"

"hmm.. India got divided.. India became poor. Everyone came and took everything."

Neel was devastated to say the least.

"Really?" he tried smiling. He blinked his eyes for a few times fighting back his tears. "ahh! It looks likes our contribution, our sacrifice is of no use."

"No way!" I corrected. "maybe things might get bad ahead. But it's because kings like you exist, it motivates other kings to do the same. It is because kings like you existed, it scared many rulers to attack us easily. Otherwise maybe we would have been slaves for longer than we were. Maybe we would have been in an even terrible condition."

He seemed satisfied with the answer. I had told him about the truth not because I wanted to snatch the purpose of his life altogether. I just told him the truth because I thought he deserved to know more about a country he is serving with his life.

Did I do things wrong?

"How is India now?"

"It has coped well. Despite everything. It is one of the most developed nations now. You see this right?" I raised the Q. "This is the advancement India can afford."

He gave a deep sigh of relief. "Then that's nice."

________________________________________________________________________________

Hey y'all

I am sorry there's only one chapter I can upload today. It's monday and you know how things get.

I am sorry about that but I hope you guys understand.

I love you.