CHAPTER-5
HI
Chapter Highlights...
“Is tomorrow a holiday?”, Rohini had texted the class group. Before anyone else could reply to her, I replied to her personally.
“Hi, I’m Dhilip. As it's the first Saturday, it will be a holiday tomorrow”, texted I.
“Oh, thanks Dhilip. So, when is it a working Saturday?”, she texted.
“First and third Saturdays are holidays. Second, fourth, and fifth are working.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah confirmed”
“Thank you.”
I blushed at the sky while hanging my mobile in the air; it looked as if I would drop it. Yes yes! Hmmm! It's incredible that I finally managed to speak to her. And that was our first interaction!!!
#####################################
Dhilip’s POV
“Students, fill in your contact number and email ID details here”, announced Sayuri ma’am, grabbing the file from the security. As the guard walked away, with his head down and eyes focusing on the white tiles of the corridor, she continued, “This year onwards we have been instructed to share study materials only across formal google groups. There should be a google group for every class.”
She sighed, leaning back on the whiteboard. Her eyeballs rolled from corner to corner to capture each of ours. “We need two class representatives for our section-one for the CS branch and the other for the CT branch. Volunteers?”
I whispered to Kareena to stand up. She, in turn, motivated me. “Hey, just because we are in the second year now, we can’t forget the first year. I was the CR last semester. It's your turn now”, said I, cheering within our gang. She bet my shoulder amiably. I urged her to volunteer soon for none else would come forward from our batch.
“Dheeraj Singh!”, said the bubble-gum guy, standing up and volunteering for the other branch. Kareena nodded and stood up for our branch. I rolled my eyeballs to the corner of my eyes to catch Rohini smiling at Kareena grabbing the name list sheet from our class advisor.
“Ma’am, shall we also have a class WhatsApp group?”, I asked her. She nodded yet emphasized the significance of the google group. “Do one thing. Let's have two google groups. That's clear, I believe.”
“Sure, ma’am”, agreed Dheeraj. He discussed with Kareena dividing their tasks and so on.
Sexy! Hardly did I know that I would be the CR next year….exactly a year and two days from then, to mention not, with Rohini. Life is a magic pot full of surprises. I smiled wondering at the fact, as my classmates from the other end began filling the sheet and passing it back.
“Excuse me!”, called a girl from behind. I turned but couldn’t stop my pupils from dilating at Rohini. Sexy! What a beautiful experience this is, knowing your future-knowing that yes, this very girl will be falling for you in the long run. Hmmm! I swallowed my excitement.
“Yeah tell me, dude. What happened?”, enquired Kareena.
“My name isn’t there on the list. Where shall I add my details?”, asked Rohini, in a commanding yet humble voice. Who knew this girl was sweet? I rolled my eyeballs from Rohini to Kareena and back to Rohini. Hmmm! Rohini didn’t bother to look at me yet. She left with Kareena to discuss her query with Sayuri ma’am. I couldn’t take my eyes off her while Dheeraj and two others too complained that their names were missing.
“Not a problem, students. Add at the end of the list. We haven’t received the details of new students yet”, ma’am consoled them. Rohini turned back and headed towards my bench. My heart bet as if tons of adrenaline were released all of a sudden.
Fuck! Stop looking, Dhilip. I turned away to peep into Sameer’s mobile which he checked under the bench. I chuckled at him throwing his mouth open and scrolling through the profiles of a few cute girls on insta. Sexy! Bruh, this is craziness, not true love. Chuck it, he too will realize sometime.
I looked around to spot Rohini back in her seat. She raised her eyebrows while grabbing her pen from an old red pouch. Her upper eyelashes touched the lower ones as she wrote with a blue cello pen. Aww, she loved being simple and genuine; now I observe every little detail.
“Bruh Dhilip”, called Sameer. I turned back and shrugged at him. He whispered, “Does the new girl only wear traditional clothes? She seems to be oldish.”
“Aye! Nothing like that”, said I, frowning and raising my voice a little.
“Cool, machan. Why are you overacting? Haha! Do you know her by any chance?”
“Nah! I mean…why judge others? She is entirely new here. In fact, she is from a different state. I have heard that girls mostly wear salwars to college in Tamil Nadu. But, I’m sure she will change after looking at the flexibility in our college.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Makes sense…”
“Maybe for the first day, she might have come in Indian…like…thinking why take the risk or get screwed? Right?”
He nodded. The bell rang loud enough to pierce through our ears and compete with the loudspeakers playing during a local fair. We grabbed our bags. Kareena joined us. I happened to witness Rohini once again as she nodded, handing over the name list to Kareena.
“Dude, I think we will only return by the end of the day. Give this to Dheeraj. I shall get it from him”, said Kareena.
Done! Now, look at me, Rohini. Alooo! I’m here, Rohini medam! Aloo! Urgh! She headed towards the last bench. When she speaks to someone, she only looks at them…literally nothing around. That’s why characters such as Priya took a little advantage of her. Aloo! I exist, Rohini!
“Anyway, why should we bother like a nosy relative enquiring about your marks and future plans when you visit them?”, I told Sameer. He chuckled. Kareena displayed her blank face at both of us. We laughed between us and shook our heads at her.
“What’s the joke?”, asked she, at which Sameer, Jacob, and I shrank our eyes and burst into a round of laughter.
“Guys, we are getting late for the lab. HOD ma’am! Oooo! Let's leave right now”, I reminded them, as we set our feet outside the class. I looked back at Rohini chuckling to a girl sitting beside her. Sexy! Life is indeed a thriller movie. Hardly did I know that the girl who didn’t utter a word or even set her eyes on my face, would, in the long run, set her heart upon me. I blushed. Jacob patted me. I shook my head and left.
“Machan, let's also ask ma’am for the timetable”, he suggested.
“Yes yes, we should…”
###########################
Sameer pushed a glass of water into his mouth. Jacob, Kareena, and I stood beside the water tank at the corner marking the end of the corridor.
“Machan, a glass for me too”, said Jacob. Sameer shrugged and looked away.
“Huh so mean, so bad of you”, complained he, turning on the pipe and filling a paper cup for himself. I chuckled at them.
“Dude, listen”, began Kareena, scrolling through her mobile.
“Ooo what’s it?”, I asked, shrinking my face like a tablecloth just squeezed by the washerman.
She displayed a white image to us. She zoomed in. “We have our Eco hour now. Let's return to the combined classroom.”
“Wait, is EFE combined?”
“Yes”, said Sameer, closing the lid of his water bottle. “Ma’am informed this morning in the very first hour when she listed out our subjects, which ones are common, which ones only our branch has, and so on…”
“Ooo! Yes yes, I recollected it now”, said I, nodding along. As we walked back to the lab-com classroom where we sat that morning, my heart froze to release a drop or two of sweat on my forehead. Sexy! It's the last hour of the first day. I hope Rohini at least utters a ‘Hi’ to me. Hmmm! Pity this poor guy, Dhilip. Why am I in love with an introvert?... Ooo! Wait, note a correction here, Dhilip saar, you aren’t in love with her; it may happen. You are analyzing your story as of now. But, how long will it take to make the first move? Sexy! By ‘first move’, I meant uttering the first word to each other.
“Oh, I see”, we heard Rohini as we headed to our bench. She sat beside Vidi. “Discrete Math”, said the heading written in block letters, on the whiteboard. Not bad! Something on the first day of the year!
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery until we feel love!
Following the same lines, one thus ends up falling for a bad partner-the wrong love. It's fine! Making a wrong decision is common among ordinary homosapiens like you and me.
However, correcting our blunder and returning to our right love is a worthy question whose answer may either be a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ or sometimes a combination of both! There is only one superpower that can answer this query: ‘TIME’.
“So, we are allowed to wear jeans on exam days as well including labs?”, asked Rohini, at which Vidi chuckled and nodded.
“Sexy! Look at her. She is enquiring about the dress code here. Didn’t I tell you?”, I whispered to Sameer at which the latter nodded. Jacob applauded me with a star clap. As soon as we neared our seats, I sat exactly in the middle with Kareena on my right and Sameer behind me. We turned back to face Rohini and Vidi sitting on the second bench.
Oooo! I can’t believe that I sat in the same line as Rohini sat. Sexy! She sat right behind me. Friends are friends! Somehow, our friend Vidi happened to sit with Rohini. Thanks to you, Vidi! You brought her into my vicinity. I smiled at Kareena mingling with Vidi and Rohini. Hmmm! I was stopping my eyes from contacting Rohini lest she would mistake me to be a creep.
“Acha, how come you know Hindi?”, asked Kareena.
“It was my second language from high school to +2”, Rohini revealed. “So, is everyone new to each other in our section?”
“Of course, dude”, agreed, Kareena. She pointed at me. “He introduced Vidi to me today. We studied in the same college for a year but we never came across each other.”
“Interesting! Toh maine kya kiya….”, Rohini commented and continued. The three girls were busy conversing in Hindi about google groups, WhatsApp groups, subjects, and so on. Sameer too involved himself, at times, in their conversation. However, the very word that emerged out of her mouth echoed within me: interesting. I looked at Kareena gossiping but blushed within me. “Yes yes, Rohini medam. You are going to find me quite interesting in the long run. Wait and watch!”
“Hey, Dhilip”, called Kareena, hitting my left hand and chuckling at me. I shook my head and shrugged.
“Hindi was your second language too yet you don’t speak Hindi. Why, dude?”, she asked me.
“Sure. I also heard that the new mechanical lab assistant is from Patna, your native…”
“What! What do you mean by that?”, dragged Kareena as Rohini and Vidi exchanged puzzled faces at each other. Sameer laughed and patted my back. Kareena shrank her eyes amiably and bet my hand again. “Aye! Stop beating me.”
Rohini too cackled out a bit of laughter. I didn’t dare to show my face to her. I knew that, of course, I wasn’t avoiding her…but I was scared to cling to a new person, especially a girl, on the very first day.
“Will the EFE faculty turn up today?”, asked Rohini, looking at the lonely doorstep and the classroom’s door thrown wide open.
“Dude, let's wait for another ten minutes”, said Kareena, “If he doesn’t arrive, let’s declare a free hour and leave.”Rohini nodded. She doesn’t seem to talk much although she mingles with us. Hmmm, looks like this poor Dhilip saar has to work hard like the bulls which used to plough the fields under the hot sun, back during the chalcolithic era.
############################
I sat on our balcony with my eyes on the little white glitters scattered hither and thither in the dark sky. I smiled, as my earbuds released melodious verses aloud into my ears. I leaned on the backrest and rested my arms on the long spongy armrests. I sighed as I hummed, at times, to myself.
“Sexy! Not a minute to rest even on the first day of college. Hmmm! I hope the year passes smoothly. Seniors advised that once you cross the first year, you will enter into your core branch and party, especially in my branch”, I grumbled, as I was interrupted by a series of notifications knocking on my tiny earbuds like dacoits knocking the judge’s door a day before the final hearing.
I opened WhatsApp only to blush at a message on our group from a new number. “Who is this?”, I wondered. I clicked on the number and hovered over it.
“Rohini!”, said the description, along with a simile. I dropped my legs from the wooden couch-like stool upon which I had rested them.
“Is tomorrow a holiday?”, she had texted. Before anyone else could reply to her in the group, I replied to her personally.
“Hi, I’m Dhilip. As it's the first Saturday, it will be a holiday tomorrow”, texted I.
“Oh, thanks Dhilip. So, when is it a working Saturday?”, she texted.
“First and third Saturdays are holidays. Second, fourth, and fifth are working.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah confirmed”
“Thank you.”
I blushed at the sky while hanging my mobile in the air; it looked as if I would drop it. Yes yes! Hmmm! It's incredible that I finally managed to speak to her. And that was our first interaction!!!
Sexy! What a long first day it was! None of my days have ever been this long until she entered my life.
“Dhilip!”, I heard my mother squealing. I stood up to catch her shrugging with a plate of food. I pouted at my father frowning at my mobile in mom’s hand.
“Sorry!”, said I, catching my ears and shrinking my tiny eyes.
“Be serious”, dad roared and walked away. I blew and massaged my chest. Mom chuckled and took her seat beside me.
“Thanks for saving my phone, mom”, said I, sitting opposite her. She handed over the plate to me. I happened to see a random heroine of a Hindi daily soap put up as Rohini’s WhatsApp DP. Oooo! She sounded like a swag. I grabbed my phone back and chuckled at it.
“Moneh (Son in Malayalam), what are you laughing at?”, asked mom.
I shook my head. “I clarified a new classmate’s doubt and she saved my number.” Mom laughed as she extended her hands and yawned at the chiming streetlights in front of our tall building.
“Good that she mingles unlike typical new students in schools who take time to make friends. She sounds like a sensible girl who likes to look forward. Dunno!”, mom commented.
As soon as I finished chewing my first mouth, I chuckled, “Aye! Mom, how could you deduce to such an extreme in one act? What are you?”
“That's how we, mothers are”, said she, patting my back and walking back into the hall. I blushed and sighed as I heard motors of various categories, buzzing from a distance, on the main road. Thanks for making my day, Rohini medam! I’m sorry I didn’t make your life but I will…I dunno, let me see…
How will Dhilip and Rohini's story take its shape? Fasten your seat belts, my dear readers!
Dear readers,
Thank you for following my series and reading the episode. Please rate it, write your review, give it a heart, and share it in your circle whenever you are free. Your voice matters a lot to me.
