Naomi's POV
“Move guys”, said Akshat, to the three musketeers. He placed his small Tupperware bottle on his desk and sat back.
Ruhi threw an answer sheet on the table. My eyes went to it. I saw my roll number.”50”, announced it, written in bold red, on the bottom right-hand corner of the cover page.
I shrugged at Ruhi. No sooner had I extended my hand to grab it than she questioned Akshat,” Sir, this is not fair. I compared my answer with hers. Both of us have written the same points. How could you reward her full marks while literally none for me?”
Akshat smiled at me. I enlarged my eyes, smiling back, not knowing why.
He turned to the fifth page of my answer sheet. He asked for Ruhi’s paper. She directly opened the third page and handed it over to him, pointing at the beginning of the page. His eyeballs rolled at her answer and then mine.
“I need the exact answer. It's only three of your classmates who had written all the points properly-Naomi, Manisha, and Ivans because they had enrolled in the ACJSI MOOC course which I had recommended in the class.”, defended Akshat.
Manisha and Ivans were standing beside us. He called them and showed them their papers, pointing out,” See, I have given them three out of three marks for the question. I always correct leniently and try my level best to boost a student’s grades according to their performance.”
“The exact and clear-cut points required to answer the reasoning-type question were in the first lecture of the MOOC course, right?”, asked he. The three of us nodded at him who later shrugged at Ruhi.
“No sir, don’t involve Manisha and Ivans. I don’t care about their marks. How could you reward a perfect fifty to Naomi? This is very biased…”, interrupted Ruhi.
Akshat frowned at her, raising his tone,” Oh! So should I give an explanation regarding how I award marks to every other student to you?”We laughed, excluding the three musketeers who frowned back at him.
“She has answered all the questions with clear-cut points. You haven’t written the most important points for the two answers. I guess you found it hard to manage your time in the exam hall…Better..”, elaborated Akshat.
Ruhi cut him,”No,sir.Please don’t try to cover up. You are biased. How is it that she is the only one who scored a perfect centum in the entire class? You are infatuated with Naomi and that’s why you are favoring her everywhere.”She raised her tone, ordering,” But, how can you play with our marks?”
“Unbelievable”, said I, bulging my eyes and shaking my head at her.
“Shut up Ruhi. Is this the way you talk to your professor?”, shouted Akshat, getting up from his seat. I turned to him and stood speechless for the next second. I had never seen his anger; he was such a calm, sweet, and meek gentleman in my eyes.
”You have secured a forty-five and I have rechecked every paper twice to ensure that I didn’t miss out rewarding marks anywhere. You are justifying yourself to cover up your mistakes...Such a venomous attitude this is…”, Akshat screwed her.
As Sana pressed her palm and Tina patted her to calm down, but all in vain, she stuck to her argument,” No way, sir. I won’t believe you.OK if not love is it because she is beautiful? You keep calling her smile lovely too, right?...”
Akshat snatched her paper and wrote a big minus five beside her score. He looked at all of us, justifying,” Guys, you are all the witnesses. Did you see how she spoke to me?” As we nodded, he continued,” I am hereby reducing five marks for your insane and prickly attitude, Ruhi.”
He threw the paper back to her. She argued,” Why, sir? I was demanding my right that’s all…”
“First, accept your mistake. Try to learn from the points you missed to write in your answer sheet. Also, this isn't the way you must be talking to a human being. You lack humanity. Please go away from here before I cut another five marks”, concluded Akshat, sitting back and gulping water.
“I will beat you in the semester. Wait and watch”, challenged Ruhi, extending her finger at me as if she were a rottweiler guarding a bungalow that I had intruded.
She left outside followed by the other classmates. I nodded at my gang, pointing at Akshat who was busy frowning at his table, and they too left. I peeped outside to ensure that they were all gone, especially the three musketeers.
Love is so blind that it just happens unexpectedly.
You may fall for anyone!
Would you let go of your policy if you fell for someone you shouldn't? What would you choose-your policy or your beloved?
I sat opposite Akshat. I caught his hands. He looked up at me; his meek and hesitant eyes had returned with a shade of light brown. "Does Kiku have such cute catty slightly brown eyes?", wondered I, smiling along.
”Sorry!”, said I, which coincided with his ‘sorry’.
We blushed.
”No sir, its because of me that you had to hear…”
“You have written outstanding answers. You deserved full marks. I thus ended up rewarding you the same but look at the way a student of your age is misunderstanding things. This is such a not-done attitude. We used to tremble before uttering a word to our professors, eight years ago…”
I nodded, adding an insightful opinion,” Sir, it's neither of our faults. Ruhi has such cheap thoughts that’s all I can say. She overthinks and is never ready to accept her mistake, I feel.”
He agreed with me. I took out my hanky, stood up, and went to the other side of the table. I sat down and neared my hanky to his shirt. He leaned backward, smiling and moving away from me.
I blushed, pointing at a small orange petal, peeping out, from the pocket of his pista-colored formal shirt. He looked down at it and blushed back at me. I took it carefully with my hanky. We smiled at it. I closed my eyes, blowing the petal gently. I opened my eyes to realize that it had then been out of our sight. I turned and blushed at Akshat whose eyes glazed me.
One evening, I walked in the corridor to the lab where I sat with Vyomi to complete our assignments for the ACJSI additional course. The lab was in the opposite building. I had to cross the parking lot and go through the basement for it was the easiest route.
It had been four already. I saw cars, bikes, and scooters busy making their way out, with their horns roaring and wheels rubbing against the floor. I walked along the side as my eyeballs rolled hither and thither.
As I reached deep inside, I spotted Akshat packing his black wildcraft bag on the back seat. His car had a darker shade of peacock green; it wasn’t a luxury car such as Audi or BMW yet it looked royal. It was the first time I had seen his car. He, standing by the driver’s door, was busy checking his phone.
”Incomplete work!”, remembered I. I recollected the kiss of gratefulness that was still pending as I had been caught up with studies, the course, and assignments all these weeks. How he had traveled all the way to Bangalore from Pune also struck my mind, raising my heap of guilt as tall as Kangchenjunga. He had done so much for me, a stranger! I badly want to kiss him!!! I definitely had to kiss him-his sweet little demand specifically because I had left it in between that rainy night.
”Naomi, he helped you more than a family would do and you cannot gift him what you said you will gift him that rainy night on the terrace when he met you with your admission notice? It's nothing wrong! It's just a cute kiss of gratefulness. Won’t you thank such a selfless gentleman? Come on, go ahead Naomi!”, encouraged my soul.
He was about to sit inside when I called him out,” Akshat sir!” He turned back and blushed at me, in surprise. I ran towards him, who was seven feet away from me.
I blushed at him as he enquired,” Hello Kiku! How come you are here?” My rosy lips eyed his handsome cheeks housing his lovely, innocent, and wide giggle. He was dressed all in black that dusk. I happened to notice the CCTV camera fixed to the pole beside which he had parked his car.
I stepped back, closed my eyes, and hissed. He chuckled, asking what had happened. I smiled and shook my head.
I looked at his car and asked him,” Are you leaving home?”
He nodded.
I continued,” Are all your works complete, Kiku?”
He blushed, nodding and adding,” One work has been incomplete for a month or more by now. But, the one who has to do it isn’t bothered much.”
“No not at all!”, said I, shaking my head vigorously with my pony swinging along.
He blushed and I continued,” Why don’t you insist she complete the incomplete task, Kiku?”
“Sexy! I don’t like to force, Kiku. It's her wish. Yes, I was behind it in the very beginning but later felt that she is perhaps uncomfortable doing it. So, I just left it”, reasoned he, clarifying me.
I felt bad. I frowned at the CCTV camera capturing us, peeping down from the top of the pole. ”All because of you! I hate you! I finally remembered and gathered all the courage and determination to kiss his haute cheek above his moderately fat line of beard extending from ear to ear and you do this to me!”, scolded I, gesturing a punch at it.
“Bye!”, said he, sitting inside the car.
I waved at him as he closed the glass of his driver’s window. He drove away leaving me behind. I stood there, blushing at his car, moving away from me.
” I will kiss you very soon, Akshat sir. I won't let Kanchenjunga break inside me and regret anymore”, murmured I.
He suddenly stopped at the straight dead end. He must have caught me looking at him from his rear-view mirror, I reflected. I slammed my forehead, blushing and chuckling to myself. He peeped out from the window and looked back at me. I looked away as my eyes twirled around to find none.
We blushed as he teased loudly,” Don’t miss me, Naomi! Let's meet in the afternoon class tomorrow.”
I shook my head, denying,” No sir…I wasn’t…”
“Sexy Kiku! So, you don’t care about me?”, questioned he.
“Not that either!”, I shouted back, still blushing.
“Sexy, so you don’t miss me. Bye!”, he frowned. He then turned back towards the steering and began to drive.
“No Akshat sir! Don’t mistake! I mean…”, shouted I, running behind his car which he drove like a snail strolling, which I knew was on purpose. I stumbled on a tiny hump and fell down. He stopped his car, got down, and ran back toward me.
“Are you fine?”, enquired he, holding my right hand and helping me stand up. I nodded. He worried to me,” You must be careful, Kiku. How come you didn’t notice the hump? What if you had been hurt?”
“Anyway, you were fine, right, sir? I would have been hurt…why are you so tensed?...”, questioned I.
“Shut up!”, he said, interrupting me. He wrapped his cozy arms around me and rested my head on his heart. I could feel how much he cared for me from his heartbeat which had gone astray from its rhythm then. I felt safe and secure being enclosed in his black coat.
“Aww, Kiku! So sweet of you!”, reflected I, blushing to myself. Kanchenjunga grew two meters taller and warned me to kiss him.
One afternoon, as I walked with Vyomi on the corridor, back to our class from the loo, during the lunch break, my eyes were up, roaming hither and thither. I hissed once in a minute, frowning at the CCTV cameras everywhere.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?”, Vyomi asked me, interrupting my investigation.
“Dude, why are there CCTV cameras everywhere on the campus?”, squealed I, in excitement.
“Why else? For safety Dude! Simple second standard doubt this is”, belittled she. I looked at her, finally taking my eyes off the ceiling. I asked her if she knew of any little spot on the entire campus where the CCTV camera was absent.
She laughed, doubting me,” Dude, you sound like a burglar now. Why should you be so bothered about CCTV and all?”
I folded my hands and begged, after which she laughed, explaining,” No way! It's there everywhere…the fire exit, classrooms,labs, corridors, lawn, parking lot, libraries, canteens, auditoriums, playgrounds…yes! Not in loos, of course!”
“Loos isn’t the solution as they are different for us.”, said I, in a flow.
“What nonsense? Dude, what's running in your mind?”, enquired she.
I bit my own tongue and smiled at her, shaking my head. As we crossed the stairs, I hit someone by mistake. I turned towards him, brushing my loose hair on his face. I blushed, apologizing,” Oh! I am sorry, Akshat sir.” He blushed and spotted the peach band-aid on the front of my left hand, opposite to the elbow joint.
Catching my hand, he freaked out,” What happened? You were fine when we left the last evening, right? How come?...”
Vyomi informed him that I had donated blood at a camp last night. I nodded, smiling as proud as the peacock. He smiled and advised,” Good thought but why do you want to participate in all of this at such a young age?”
“Sir, I am twenty. I am an adult!”, argued I.
He shrugged and asked us to go to class.
As we still stood there, he shrugged, wondering at us,” Why? Go!”
“Yes, Akshat sir but only if you let go of my hand…”, I reminded him, blushing. Vyomi smiled at me and looked away.
“Sexy!”, exclaimed he, leaving my hand. Vyomi dragged me towards our classroom while I turned back and blushed at Akshat who too stood, blushing at me.
A week later, I desperately gloomed, on my way back to the class for lunch, after Akshat sir’s offenders' act class in the audio-visual room.
”Waiting a trillion hours just for a cute little kiss? Huh!”, thought I.” Which fool invented CCTV cameras?”, scowled I, walking towards the end of the corridor on the ground floor of our block. A lush-green lawn lay to my right, with the love birds on the silver oak tree mocking at my situation.
I googled the question on my smartphone.” Walter Bruch! I hate you!”, I shouted, but all in my mind.
I stepped down and walked inside the lawn to stand beside the silver oak tree. I looked up at the sky, begging for my justice, again, all in my mind,” Hey Bhagwan! I want to thank him that’s all. What’s more special than a kiss of gratefulness? Ganpati papa Morya, why are there so many obstacles in the form of CCTV cameras everywhere around me? How long should I live with this guilt of my promise that I couldn't fulfill?”
Being too exhausted, I sat, leaning on the bench there. I closed my eyes and sighed.
“Arey baba rey baba! Why do you come with such lame excuses,rey baaba?”, said a tensed male voice, of around fifty, emerging from behind me.
Will Naomi manage to fulfill her cute promise to Akshat?
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