Chapter XVIII
Restricted: The Lunch Box Journal

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It all started when the whole gang was already on a trip, the one they had to go to the police station for with a phone call. A friend of Akhil had called him and asked to plan something, something in which their friends’ group could hang out, some place close by. A trip was the whole idea of the conversation. Being the nice guy that he is, he said that they should meet soon and plan something in the near future.

But now that the trip had already ended, everyone was still reeling over the memories of the past trip while Aryan was busy posting the photos of the trip confusing the people into believing that he was on a trip just that past weekend. But in reality, it had already been a few weeks past that trip and all the memories had already started to fade from the people’s mind when Akhil comes up with a brilliant plan, or to be more precise it was his friend’s idea for an ideal trip. It is the trip of all trips, or as they say that trip that never works out. But this was not one of those plans. Or so they thought.

Akhil and Neel had already teamed up for the trip as there was just one basic criteria for being eligible for the trip. One needed to have a date. In short, it meant that it was a couples trip (and no single guys were allowed). Akhil was never dry in that area, but the question was whom would he allow to tag along. It was a very tough choice to make for him. But then, there was this one friend who really wanted to go on a trip while these guys were already in one, so she was in by default. Since she was in, she needed a date for her, so Neel seemed to be the perfect partner for her. Now it was Akhil’s turn to make his choice. After days and nights of permutations and combinations and calculus and geography and astrology and whatnot, finally, he narrowed down to one person, Likhita. The stars were aligned in the right way this time and it had to be her. Otherwise, may be he won’t go on the trip either because she might not let anyone tag along with him.

The trip was planned, the perfect partners were finalized, the official holidays were found out from the calendar, the dates were finalized, leaves were applied, the tickets booked and everyone(whoever had a date) was set for the journey a few weeks in advance. Because there was no backing out now since it is a general assumption and a proven fact that “The Great Goa Trip” can always go sideways anytime, even just a day before or even on the day itself. Everything was set but what they didn’t consider was involving the other members of the group of six. Among this group of six, two were married while the other four were bachelors of who two were going on a trip, and of whom one was the epicenter of the whole trip, because bachelors were a strict No.

A week close to the journey day, it so happened that Aryan came across a meme on Goa Trip which somehow aligned perfectly with his situation and in lieu of mocking the people abandoning him, he shared the post. Akhil happened to be going home that very weekend and came across this Goa Trip by Aryan. What he didn’t realize that Aryan was pulling a friendly banter on him which was clearly missed by Akhil, who for some reason felt bad for not involving him, decided to book the tickets right then, right in the middle of his journey. Before Aryan could even process what his end of the story was, Akhil had already tried booking the tickets. Their journey started with a bus journey to Goa and Akhil convinced Aryan that he had already booked the tickets without even listening to Aryan. But that quite didn’t happen, because it just might have been a restricted trip and no single guys were allowed. The rule didn’t apply for the girls.

And then just before the trip, “Demonetization” hit the entire nation like a big wave of a tsunami.

(To be Continued …)

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Did Aryan go on the trip? Was he the singleton in the group? Did they even go to the trip? If they did, how did they manage with the old notes? Or did they even? Read on...

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If it interests you, you could find the other parts here :

Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter II: Be the Sherlock
Chapter III: A New Leaf
Chapter IV: Adieu
Chapter V: Being Decent
Chapter VI: Capricious 
Chapter VII: Delighted
Chapter VIII: Too Early
Chapter IX: Fitness..zzz
Chapter X: The Health Guru
Chapter XI: Horror Story
Chapter XII: Impulse
Chapter XIII: Jinx
Chapter XIV: Keep up
Chapter XV: Lock up
Chapter XVI: A Miss
Chapter XVII: Swipe Right
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