I'm posting the story here but if you have Ao3, please leave a comment and kudos if you like my work!!
Disclaimer: This work is purely fanfiction based on the movie Dhurandar. All the characters belong to The Great Adhitya Dhar. This work is not based on the real life terrorists and the author does not approve terrorism.
Author’s Note: Please don't repost it in any other site. If I want I will do it. I'm introducing a few known and three oc characters in this chapter.
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Love thy neighbour (and his puppy)
Chapter 2 : Ginger teas and Family talks
The Doodhsoda Café was a small but cozy place, tucked away in Sector 26, Chandigarh. Many locals knew and visited the place regularly, especially for the ambience. Jassi usually worked with the weekly scheduling of the staff, making sure the quality of food was top-notch, handling the customers, managing and reporting the financial aspects of the café to its owner Aalam Bhai and inventory-checking what was needed and what was already in stock, ordering fresh products from dairy farms and other vendors. In addition to their authentic doodhsodas, they served what most cafes typically served - coffees, sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, pastas, cakes etc, but their doodhsoda was the most popular.
Jassi worked morning shifts from 10.15 am to 6.15 pm during regular college days and the part-time night manager Shahbaz Shirani, an MBA student in the nearby University, worked from 6.00 to 9.30 pm. If it was exam days though, they switched a bit and Shahbaz opened and managed the Café for the first three hours and then Jassi took over. Since Shahbaz’s second semester had just begun, Jassi was back to the day shifts.
Since it was Saturday, the Café was crowded more than usual. Students from nearby hostels and day scholars in the area had decided to study there, as usual. The Café owner Aalam Bhai had built the Café so that it was a comfortable space for both the general public and students. Jassi was looking into the next week's schedule but his mind was fully on his cute neighbour. He had already made about 5 mistakes, which he never did and was about to give up when Aalam Bhai came by to his table.
“Jassi I've been observing you and you're not in the usual work mode. What happened, son?” he asked. “Nothing Bhai. I was just thinking about something,” he tried to escape the conversation and Aalam Bhai understood. “Alright. But if anything or anyone is bothering you, tell me. I can take care of it,” he said and patted his back. Only then Jassi remembered Bhai usually never came in on Saturdays.
“Bhai, what are you doing here today? I thought you were going to take the day off?” Jassi enquired and Aalam motioned at the students. “So many customers and everyone is buying doodhsoda, Jassi. The rooh afza will become empty by tonight at this rate. I thought of preparing another batch.” he replied, while simultaneously collecting the ingredients from his storage for the next batch. “Ok I'm going to the backroom. If you need anything, come without hesitation.” he reminded Jassi of the initial conversation and went to the backroom.
Jassi realised his brain was in jumbles and decided to have a doodhsoda. Since both the baristas Amit and Rohan were busy, he made one for himself and went back to his place. By the time he finally finished the scheduling and rechecked the previous day's accounting, the time was already 5.30 pm and he already had to separate two groups from fighting, assure 3 new customers that the doodhsoda doesn't curdle and cause kidney stones and explain why their vegetarian café doesn't serve egg or non-veg option to a 10-year-old kid.
Jassi realised he was too tired to cook anything for dinner and asked their chef and his best friend Rizwan for some creamy pesto pasta so he could eat at home. By the time it was in his hands, Shahbaz had already arrived and took over from him.
The drive to his place was fast and he took a quick shower immediately after clearing whatever little mess there was in the hall. He preferred to keep everything clean and organized. It was a habit his dad had ingrained in him and his two sisters since childhood and now it was a routine for him.
Just as he finished dressing up, the doorbell rang and Jassi's heart started beating faster than usual due to the anticipation of seeing his cute neighbour again. He opened the door and Uzair stood there in his pyjamas with a bright smile and the puppy was struggling to get down. It looked like he too had taken a shower as his hair was wet. He invited them inside and got Sheru from Uzair but he was still wriggling so he let him down.
As he turned, he saw Uzair standing awkwardly and asked him to sit. “Do you prefer tea or coffee, Uzair?” he asked and when he chose tea, Jassi began making it for both of them.
“I was actually thinking of bailing out and coming over tomorrow morning. Two members in our team took leave and the remaining 3 of us had to split up the work. I didn't even get a break but got a severe headache. But then I thought chatting a bit might help reduce it, so here I am” Uzair said and Jassi silently added some adrak to the tea.
“How does your team usually work?” he asked curiously. “Well, our team generally has 6 members but one person recently quit. We work with romance novels and short stories. Everyday we're assigned a specific number of books and should follow how the sales rate is going and if some books are not selling more than others, we advertise it more. Also we have to keep up with the trend, right.. so we look into what kinds of romantic books people like. For example, do they like the ones with more angst or are the ones with happy endings preferred. I've personally received some requests for books where the characters choose themselves first, get character development and then the leads get together. However, these kinds of books aren't written very often. So we inform the agents and when they get in touch with authors, they'll discuss public opinion and the author's comfort in writing the stories and come to a middle ground. When new authors publish books in the romantic genre, we make sure they're promoted by the social media marketing team properly and regularly follow their growth. So yeah this is a little gist of what we work with but there are several other things as well.” Uzair said and Jassi was surprised to find out this much work happened in one single team of a huge publication company.
Meanwhile the tea was made and he brought it over. When Uzair took a sip, he was extremely surprised. “Wow this is amazing. Honestly, this tastes just like how my bhabhi makes when any of us male folks have a headache in our house. The ginger is extremely soothing, Jassi. Thank you for this” he praised and Jassi felt his face heat up. “Well a little something for my new friend's dad so that I could keep meeting the puppy often” he teased and Uzair fake pouted. “And here I thought I was your friend. He's making me feel jealous now” he exclaimed dramatically, making Jassi laugh.
“How old is he anyway? And how did you get him?” he asked, gesturing at Sheru, who was jumping and then trying to chew his own paw. “Oh he's actually the pup of my nephew's golden retriever. She gave birth to 6 pups and we gave away 3 for the male dog's family, one for my brother's assistant and one for my nephew's classmate. He's 2 months old now. I tried to make him socialize with my family and friends back home but he simply refused to go to anyone other than me. It's honestly a surprise he sought you out” he said and when they turned to look at him again, he had started to zoom into Jassi's single sofa and tried to jump on it. When he couldn't, he yipped and started biting it. “Oh no. Sheru stop it. You should not bite other people's things. You're being a bad boy, Sheru!” Uzair started reprimanding, making the puppy immediately stop and pull the same ashamed face from that morning.
“Come here. Just sit on my lap and don't do anything else. I don't want to damage the property of the first friend I've made in this city” he said and Sheru went obediently. Jassi couldn't stop smiling on seeing their dynamics. “Wow. He listens quickly. It's like you've had experience raising dogs all your life” Jassi praised and Uzair shrugged. “Well I did raise Soni, Sheru’s mother, when she was a puppy because my nephew Naeem was a kid. But then he's grown up now. So I decided to keep Sheru because I miss her so much. It's a good thing he didn't get attached to others because he'd be missing them so much” Uzair said.
Jassi had gone back to the kitchen to wash their cups and Uzair took his time looking around. Everything was neat. He had a small bookshelf and a study table next to it. On the showcase, he kept flowerpots, a few small figurines, a painting and some photo frames. He got up and went to examine them. One photo had Jassi, standing next to a bullet. Another one had him between two women, all of them captured mid laugh. Another photo had all three of them with an older couple. In one, Jassi stood between one of the women and a man and the same pose was there in another photo with the other woman and a different man. And in a photo, both men were there with the whole family. Finally, one photo was of all three men on the bullet, wearing cooling glasses. Uzair couldn't stop his smile at the clear display of the happy family.
Jassi came back and when he saw Uzair looking at his family photos, his heart skipped a beat. He went over and took the one with all his family members. “See this one? She's my elder sister Harleen. She's expecting and the baby will be out any day now. And this one is my younger sister Jasleen. The guy next to Harleen is her husband Navdeep Singh Pawar and the one next to Jasleen is her fiance Gurbaaz Singh Munga. This is my Maa and Papa Ji” he pointed each one out and Uzair memorized them with rapt attention. “All of you have a great dynamic. You seem to be close with your brothers-in-law too.. are they back in Punjab? That's where this is right?” he asked.
“Oh yeah. I'm from Pathankot and they're still living there. Actually, Pinda - I mean Gurbaaz, and I were classmates. Pinda is his nickname. And Navdeep, who we call Nivan, lives about 5 houses away from us and is about 4 years older than me and Pinda but we all used to play on the streets since we were little. So we all knew each other since we were in diapers. My older sister fell in love with this one and younger with Pinda. So we're closer than before.” Jassi explained and Uzair nodded but seemed to be in deep thought.
“What about you? Do you have any girl back home or here?” he asked and Jassi immediately shook his head vehemently. “Oh, no, not at all! No one is waiting for me. It's just... I've been so busy with work. But if I do find the time, and the right person, I'd absolutely love to go out with them” he replied while unconsciously fiddling with his watch.
Jassi was about to ask about Uzair's dating life, when Sheru started to whine and bark, making them turn towards him. He trotted up to Uzair's legs with his tiny feet and using his front paws, tried to climb up. “Oh it's way past his dinner time. I need to feed him now or else he'll get louder” Uzair exclaimed. He turned to Jassi and gave him a hug. “Thanks for this great tea, Jassi. It was really good speaking with you. If you're comfortable with it, can the three of us walk to the park together?” he asked and Jassi readily agreed. Uzair picked Sheru up and made him say bye by shaking his paw sideways, which made Jassi laugh.
Once they left, Jassi immediately ran into his bedroom, jumped on the bed and screamed into the pillow like a lovesick teenager. He couldn't wait to go for that walk with the cute duo from next door.
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