Chapter 16: Did she say Yes ??

 

Unexpectedly my life had a different implication to it. That tiny ray of hope on college day gave me a gigantic boost to look forward for excellent things. Things which looked not so bright for quite a while unveiled quiet dramatically. It was commencement of 4th semester and I was just back from Jaipur. I think it was the fifth day since my return, a fatiguing opening day of 4th semester took a toll on my body, I succumbed to sleep at around 10 in the night which was way too early.

Someone is screaming my name “Anky, Get up and come out”,

Am I dreaming ? There seem to be too many people, but where ?

I got up in fright. I looked around but it was just me in the dark room.

I think it was a delusion, but wait, someone banging the door of my room “Anky, get up”

I got up and unbolted the door, it was VK and behind him there were 20-30 juniors, my juniors who were in conflict. They were holding on to something and were completely pissed. Before I could be aware of anything Patti came face to face to me and yelled,

“Why the hell did you give photographs to Deeps ?”

I was still half asleep but I managed to retort, “What photos are you talking about ?”

“The photos where all our juniors are posed as Superman”, he spat his rage on me.

It quickly struck to me and my stomach lurched,

In 3rd semester few of us (Excluding me) carried out a very comical ragging session, in that meeting we asked every junior to pretence as superman. In short, they had to be dressed in their underwear over their jeans and tuck a towel on their shoulder for the cape. In no time there were roughly 30 Superman in different colors and sizes, lined up in front of their dementors. As if it was not good enough for dementors; they decided to make it a remembrance and clicked few pictures of them. I don’t know who sought those pictures and whose proposal it was but it was done on Patti’s camera. Now somehow those pictures ended up with Deeps who was uninformed that with all other pictures “Superman” pictures are also up for the show. She used to take the college bus and she happened to share the seat with a junior girl Harshika (Name changed) who again “happened” to be the classmate of most of the supermans in the shoot. So when Deeps and Harshika were going through those pictures, out of the blue they met with a queue of supermans and the Harshika burst into laughter. Deeps did not find it hilarious because she did not identify anyone but Harshika recognized almost all. Listening to her vociferous laugh, more girls and guys in the bus came to witness those pictures and rest was history. The following whole day, week and month; every superman faced the finest awkward time of their life. The same day when they were a subject of laughter all over the college; in the evening it was Patti’s turn to get the bashings because it was his camera which took those breath-taking pictures.

“I did not give any picture to anyone”, I clarified while rubbing my eyes, still trying to come to life

But soon the flock of juniors came close to my room. And as soon as they grasped that it was me who gave all the pictures to Deeps, which resulted in their attractiveness in no good sense; they started shrieking on me and demanded an explanation. Before I could explicate the correct picture; some of my divine batch mates came for the rescue and joined the juniors. They began to recite the same song what juniors were singing. VK came to salvage me and shooed everyone away. I went back to my room and tried to sleep but sleep was miles away,

How the hell can I cause such a gaffe, I need to find the truth.

Later next day, upon uncovering the truth everyone realized that the film roll was handed to Deeps by Patti much before I came back from Jaipur. He gave it to her because she lived in city and to get film roll developed will be a painless chore for her. She did her job but the only 2 slip-up she did was that,

# She looked at the pics, and

# She was my “girlfriend”

I met her that day and discussed this matter briefly, my main aim for that day was to get involved in her thoughts and try to get as much information as possible so that I can make her value why it will be good if we get together. I tried a lot but she was obstinate on the answer no, I explained her a lot, I explained how much I care for her and how happy we will be but the answer remain un-changed. I did not understand, I concluded that the college day message was just to cool me down and nothing more. I guess I lost it again, I was drained of explaining her and I also was tired of crying. Yes I cried A LOT in front of her so that she will melt and say yes but no she was a ROBOT.

I decided to give up because it was already 6 months since I proposed her and it did not seem to be working out from any direction. I spoke to Arnold, I used to tell him everything, we were best buddies,

“She will not say yes, I am quitting”, I said with a disheartened expression

“Don’t you quit or you will never get her”, he showed some anger

“No, I cannot do this anymore”, and I succumbed to sleep, I was mentally tired.

Next day it was a regular day, I was getting organized for the college and surprisingly I heard “Anky Phone”

That’s weird !! Who can it be now ??

I reached down to the phone, I held the handset against my ear and said “Hello”

“Hey it’s me”, it was Deeps

“Hey what’s the matter, are you not coming to the college ?”, I speculated

“No I am coming but this isn’t about that”

“Okkkkk, so what is it about ?”, me sounded absolutely confused

“Anky I am also into it”

“What do you mean by that”, I scratched my head

“Anky I am also into it what you are into me”

I missed a heartbeat, is this it ?? Am I dead ? Am I in heaven where my last desire is about to become a reality ? I gathered all my nerves one more time and asked,

“Are you saying that you are in love with me ??”, I asked calmly

“No I am just into it”, she recited

What ??

“I also like you a lot, I gave it a lot of thought and resoluted to tell you this”, she clarified

“So you are also into “it” but you don’t love me”, I was completely clueless by now

“Yes”

What the F%$& !!!!

“Let’s speak in the college today about it”, she said and hung-up

I stood there for 1 complete minute with the phone receiver still attached to my ear. I was trying to figure what the hell just happened ??

Did she say yes ??

Chapter 10: Fugitive Aunty

I never told her that I am in love with her. Just my heart knew it. There still were way many considerations which I required to consider of if I wanted the love marriage, to be very accurate, Inter-caste love marriage. Sounds intimidating ?? Hearing so many things like honor killing these days? YES it was scary . I wanted to ensure if she is the right girl who could fit into my world and in my people. Will she be blissful with me and will keep me and my parents happy ??? So I decided to give me some additional time before I could launch my verdict onto her. For next few days I was in the process of evaluating her, I was posing various categories of direct and oblique questions which could give me a straight judgment. Questions like, “What do you think of Inter-caste marriages”, “Do you like north-Indian food” blah blah blah. I went on and on and on and on and first round result was out, after processing all the reactions and answers from her I was standing in front of a BIG NO . But I was/am not a quitter , if I wish for something I make sure I get it. But I had to lay my further love valuation lower in the priority for few days because,

Reason No. 1 – No one was after her and she did not have any boyfriend, everybody was still attracted to Apsara, which means I was in safe hands .

Reason No. 2 – 2nd semester assessments were impending and I had to keep up my 1 semester’s performance.

It was study time in the entire hostel. People used to come out just at the mealtime or to take a break to go to the Somnhalli Gate to indulge in god’s devotion in Ranjani Bar because after 2 pegs everybody makes directly to a single destination described as “heaven”. I think it was 15 days ahead of the exams and lecturers were trying hard to complete the lessons so that students get supplementary time for revision. On one rainy Wednesday evening we returned from college and noticed something extremely awful within the hostel. There was a sense of chaos and we heard people shouting . Hostel was in totally baffling state. We could not comprehend what was the dilemma so we went into our rooms to find some rest. We studied for few hours till it was suppertime. Routinely we took our plates and went en route for the hostel-mess. When we arrived, the panorama of the canteen was not amusing, the canteen was uninhabited and there was nothing except for tables and stool. Everything had vanished, no vessels, no food and no aunty!!

We instantaneously got in touch with hostel representative and he made us aware that Aunty, the food in charge, from last week was making plans to take a trip to her hometown and for the same reason she was borrowing cash from nearly every student who could lend her some money. She said that she has to buy gifts for her family and that’s why she needs plenty of money. Since she was a trusted known face people did lend her a generous amount of currency ranging from 500/- to 10,000 rupees. And Aunty, who worked out a brilliant plan, gathered everything and fled!!! Yes she collected every valuable and went absconding. The evening chaos was from people who lost their money. They started getting their hands on whatever they could locate left in Aunt’s room. So the message for us was unambiguous that there will be no food for a blurred period of time. It was very well for us because it gave us a certified explanation to request for extra money from the house and the best part; we can go out and eat at the close by dhaba every single day .

After 2 days it was all settled down but few people started strolling in the hallways like zombies . They could not sleep because of their loss. They were hassled because they were not able to give attention to studies for the approaching theory tests. They were still hopeful that Aunty might turn up in front of them, dressed up like goddess Lakshmi (in front of a halogen lamp which will illuminate her appearance) and hand out their money back but that doesn’t happen anymore!! Does it?

But the days of calamity had just begun. Within next 2 day since aunty fled, the adjacent or you can say hostel’s power source transformer was busted. A truck crashed into it, the estimate time to bring it to the working state was 7-8 days which in simple English implies, we were COMPLETELY fucked up for next 7-8 days, No Food, No Power and if their is no power how can water be pumped, so no water either, not even drinking water. So you could visualize the 2 different people in 2 tremendously different situations at the same time,

    

Those 7 days were the most dreadful days in the hostel. People made provisions for unusual things, some tried taking bath at the nearby polytechnic college and some did not bother (meaning they did not take bath for 7 days) . The entire hostel started sleeping on the terrace under open sky. Charlie, one of our inmates, used to light up mosquito coil on the terrace to get rid of mosquitoes, funny guy isn’t he !!

Those days soon got over and everyone was looking ahead for the exams. We had lab external examinations which went pretty well. In those laboratory examinations we discovered the person with incredible cleverness , it was Thapa. There was an experiment in the physics lab in which you need to uncover the frequency of the tuning fork by changing the water level in the water container till you come across the perfect resonance when tuning fork is smacked on the table and held over the water level.

You will be given any of the shown tuning forks and by adjusting the level of water bit by bit and looking for the correct sound which will present the frequency of the given fork. Thapa was dazzling in dark novelties , criminal mind to be very specific. Rather than taking all the pain of fine-tuning the water and listening to the sound on every occasion, he memorized frequency of each fork against its length !!! And Bingo !!! In the external lab when he was given a fork and guess what he did the first thing ?? He just measured its length and as soon as he had its length he knew its frequency and he knew what water level will give him the accurate sound . Thapa passed that lab with flying colors . Thapa was that kind of human who had loads of intelligence but it was completely used for wickedness. In one more occurrence he disagreed with his lecturer in external lab of C++. His lecturer said that the program he has written is acceptable but he said not its not because output is not in sync with the input he has given, Its not the same output (what he memorized) for the input (he memorized) and hence program is not right !!

Exams went sound and 2nd semester finished with an elevated morale. I had 2 complete days in the train to dwell on my subsequent move in the next semester to carry on with my one sided love story. It was unmistakable that it is virtually impossible but I had to make it happen anyhow .