Pushpa Saxena. Age 23, 5'5 in height, slender built, fair, attractive.

I know a lot about Pushpa Saxena. Like her address, for example (#3003, 3rd Floor, Olympian Heights, Napean Sea Road, Mumbai). Or her cell number, both Vodafone as well as Airtel. Or her email address.

I really know a lot about Pushpa Saxena.

In fact, I think I know a lot more about Pushpa Saxena than her own parents. A lot many details. Her weekly schedule, for that matter: gymnasium, swimming, beauty salon, college, pubs and the rest. Or the fact that she has spent more than fifty thousand rupees to be a regular Sunday client at one of the upmarket spas in town. Or the address of the designer from whom she gets all her party clothes stitched. Or her usual shopping haunt for t-shirts, and the like. That she prefers to stop by at Tiger Lodge every Friday for a drink before she reaches home. Or that her favorite hair stylist's name is Megan. Or the names and addresses of everyone in her friends' circle.

I even know things about her that she does not know.

Like the fact that her friend Riddhima bitches about her behind her back to the rest of her friends.

Riddhima, Riddhima Sharma. Riddhima is Pushpa's best friend. They grew up together – attending the same school as well as college, calling each other "Pushpie" & "Ridds". Riddhima is an aspiring model, now planning to break into television.  Perhaps the biggest stumbling block in Riddhima’s career is Riddhima herself. Oh, the girl is a study in self-defeat. Despite of frequent assurances to the contrary by all and sundry, Riddhima firmly believes that she’s got a misshapen nose, much like her mother’s. Riddhima is of mixed blood – Punjabi mother and a U.P. father. She gets so self-conscious in front of the camera that it takes quite a while to get her ready for the ‘glam’ look. She’s being noticed lately thanks to a photo campaign that she’d done for one of the clothing brands. And for that, she owes full thanks to Rahul.

Rahul, Rahul Sharma. Rahul is Riddhima’s first-cousin. He runs a successful studio at Lokhandwala, where he does portfolio shoots for aspiring models. Rahul’s made quite a name for himself – in fact, he’s just about to land a calendar project with one of the leading ladies of Bollywood. Rahul is a charming fellow, and unknown to Rahul, Pushpa fancies him a lot. That is Pushpa’s little secret. So far, she has only told Riddhima about it.

Unknown to everyone, Rahul’s got a little secret of his own. He’s gay. I was with Rahul and another friend for one of those New Year parties downtown. And trust me, the things that those two were doing to each other at the parking lot would’ve put a porno movie maker to shame. At one point, I even had to ask them to keep their grunts low to avoid attention.

Parmeet is another one of Pushpa’s friends. She’s got a crush on Rahul too. I’ve heard her say it to Riddhima. Something Riddhima has dutifully kept away from Pushpa.

All of them like to crash at Andrew’s Lonavla bungalow frequently. Andrew is a true Goan, always happy-go-lucky and perennially on the lookout for a girlfriend. The girls don’t really like him much – they find him a bit of a brat, actually. But no one sings or plays the guitar the way Andrew does, and he’s good on the dance floor as well. Often, he is the life of the group.

Andrew hates Siddharth. Siddharth Meswani, the last member in the friends’ circle. They call him Sid. Siddharth lives alone in a duplex close to Worli. He is pretty moneyed – his family runs a shipping business or something. Siddharth has got a secret that he’s kept from the most of the group – that once he was nearly arrested for illegal possession of drugs.

It was at one of the weekends at Andrew’s Lonavla house. Andrew and Siddharth were putting together a surprise party for the rest of the gang and there was an unexpected knock on the door. Five burly men, from the police. Apparently Siddharth had been on the police radar for quite some time, and this was a crackdown. Siddharth was caught red-handed with 4.5 grams of cocaine in his jeans pocket. It took all of Andrew’s contacts in the police to have the matter dropped. And also, a hefty bribe of Rs. 85,000, all in crisp notes. I delivered the cash myself.

Siddharth has paid him back the cash, and pleaded that the matter not be mentioned to his family or any of the others in the group. And Andrew being Andrew, he has kept shut about it. But he hasn’t quite forgiven Siddharth for all the trouble that he caused on that day. Riddhima once had a crush on Siddharth, but now she’s pretty much cool about him. I wonder if Andrew had anything to do about it.

And that’s the friendship group – all six of them. Each with their own stories, their own secrets. And I guess I am the only person who knows so much about each of them, the common thread interweaving the gang of six. And guess what, none of them even know that I know so much about them. Which is just as well, after all what good is all this knowledge to me? I’m just a driver. I drive Ms. Pushpa and her friends around whenever she needs me. And listen to all their conversations in the back seat.

THE END