CHAPTER-17
HOUR OF MESMERIZATION
Dhilip’s POV
“Oh come on dude, you didn’t even tell us, your friends about this…”, Srithika began, dashing Rohini’s shoulders and blushing at her other friends. They kept shooting Rohini with a smartphone every time Dheeraj Singh walked in and out of the class. They turned the mobile under the desk to capture him secretly. They laughed at the top of their voices as they played DDLJ’s famous ‘Tujhe Dekha Toh Yeh Jaana Sanam' song, in the background.
“Wait, what? Does Rohini like Dheeraj?”, wondered I, with my aorta forcing itself deep inside my heart and partitioning the left and right ventricles into two separate islands. I swallowed my tears as I felt my head spin a bit, alongside. Oooo, yuck! I hate that creep.
No! My eyes happened to go over Dhilip chewing gum and staring at Rohini, right at her boobs. Neither she nor her friends noticed the same. He massaged his hair and shook his head as one does while exercising, as he waved at a fat and tall guy and left the class. He blocked Vaishnavi’s way, on purpose, and chuckled, waving for her to get inside.
I shook my head silently noticing the other gang of guys dining on the last benches setting their eyes on Rohini being ragged. Oooo, Srithika and those other girls pranked Jayant, a Computer Technology classmate, and he caught them red-handed; it was the talk of the town. I wonder how she didn’t learn about this. Why didn’t I ever notice the innocence behind her genuine eyes back then? I wiped a drop of tears appearing at the corner of my eyes.
“Sad! She shouldn’t be friends with them anymore.”
“Yes, bro. She can decide to stay as a loner instead of mingling with such toxic people.”
I overheard her friends, and some other guys, commenting among themselves. What! I can’t and won’t stand this anymore. Pulling my Rohini’s legs is equivalent to that pestering me. Wait, what’s wrong with you, Dhilip? Yo! Are you sure she is yours? No, I don’t know…I still have a very long way to go…
“What’s the point of this reliving if I don’t defend you when necessary?”, thought I, getting up from my desk. I shrank my eyes, pushing my tiny sleeves a little behind as if I was going to fight a roadside goon.
“Excuse me, girls. Do you think Rohini is alone? Do you think there are none to raise their voice against all that has been happening here since the past few minutes?”, asked I, frowning along.
“Girls matter! What bothers you?...”, Srithika began. I displayed my palm and gestured for her to stop.
“There is no girls or boys matter, as such. All of us in the class can look at how much you guys are making her feel uncomfortable. You are literally ragging her…” I looked up at all heads nodding at me while a few right hands raised up and gestured a thumbs-up sign. I shrugged at her friends who proved their shamelessness by chuckling among themselves. So inhumane!
“Rohini! Come, let's go!”, said I, catching her left hand and pulling her away from the spot. I walked, holding her hand, thereby making her follow me. Aye! I blushed at the floor, realizing myself to have been protective.
“Ohoo! What do you think of yourself, bro? Are you a hero?”
“No, no. Rohini, has your heart already moved to Dhilip from Dheeraj? Hahaha!”, they whispered, hitting a hi-fi with each other.
“Stop! It's one’s personal feeling. You can’t mock like this. I’m sorry to call you girls emotionless”, argued I, turning back at them.
“Hey! You…”
“Stop it! Please!”, said Rohini, closing her eyes and scattering her palms in either direction. She shrugged at me.
“Dhilip! What’s wrong with you? I mean thanks for defending me. Keeping it aside, you shouldn’t be rude with classmates like this…”, she looked into my eyes and whispered.
“I don’t care. Why are you being so damn nice to every damn person out there? That's why Priya took you for granted…”, I argued.
“What! Who is Priya?”
“How could you forget that idiot who hid such a big truth and played the fool of you, at first, followed by me? Seriously? I mean…”
“Dhilip! Have you gone nuts? A blunder once again!”, I heard a heavenly angel yelling within me. I held my breath and shook my head as everyone around me froze, for a second. “None are supposed to know that you’re reliving. A gentle reminder: Priya entered your lives a year later. It's only you who has the power to foresee here in the world. Enough now! I am going to stop your reliving journey…”
“No, Angel! Please don’t do that! I don’t wanna live all my life in a coma, on a hospital bed. Please let me continue the analysis”, said I, finding myself in a white suit, kneeling down on my coffin-like unknown residence where I was thrown, minutes after I slipped into a coma, and looking up at the pinkish sky and joining my hands together.
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery
until we feel the 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’
“Great heavens, our story hasn’t yet started. Trailers have been running endlessly even till this very moment and you’re already talking about cutting my reliving journey? Please don’t…I beg your pardon…”, said I, after which a heavy gem hit my eyes. I opened them again to find Rohini patting my shoulders and shrugging, raising her eyebrows along, at me. I shook my head and left.
“Weird! What was he saying? Who is Priya?!”, she sighed, walking away.
###############################
“Excuse me, ma’am! An announcement here!”, we heard a familiar voice from the entrance of our classroom. Jodha Ma’am nodded, as she joined the last two nodes to complete a graph on the whiteboard.
“Yes!”, said she, her wide grin accompanying, as usual.
“Guys!”, called the student, facing the class, as she walked to the stage. She announced, “Whoever has participated in the Mehendi competition, all the best! Please assemble on the second floor after this hour at four. The two best teams will get to participate in the cultural fest at the main campus next month.” She completed, nodding at Mahadev on the first bench. He chuckled while Jayant, sitting behind him, spoke our hearts out, “Hey! Are you silly? Why are you nodding at us as if we are going to participate? Hahaha!”
I chuckled at Jacob and Sameer who shut their eyes and returned a silent laughter. I happened to catch Rohini blushing and cheering in Zara’s ears. She was sitting beside Zara on the bench just in front of mine. Zara raised her hand at the frustrated announcer girl leaving the terror-like Jodha ma’am too to hide a round of laughter.
Oooo! Sexy! Rohini is going to get her hands dressed up with henna. Hmmm! I should look at her hand after she gets it done. I blushed at her humming music and chuckling as Vaishali kept whispering, “Dheeraj! Dheeraj!”, in her ears.
“Dude, don’t forget to hide ‘D’. Got me?”, she whispered to Zara who chuckled and nodded vigorously.
“Sexy! Look at how fate is coming together. Rohini medam, you will just be mine, in the long run. Too attracted to a guy full of attitude! Hmm, you will realize it soon”, thought I, completing the problem’s solution. I patted her shoulder. She turned back and shrugged.
“What’s the answer you got?”
She looked back at her notes. “Four!”
I nodded readily. “But, ma’am says it's zero.”
“Zero? How?!”, exclaimed she, at which I pointed at the board. We chuckled at each other. She came closer to peep into my notes. I felt the broken pieces of my heart gluing as her curvy eyelashes glued themselves to the curly braces showing two possibilities for two different cases, as I had written on my notes. She kept tapping the zero written on my notes, with her black gel pen.
The long bell halted my hour of mesmerization. I stood up and followed her as she left with the other girls towards the stairs. I leaned on the glass window and blushed, capturing every design her hand wore as she sat opposite Zara on the ground and the event started.
“Machan, I got to know how it's zero. Listen! Look at this. It's a special case…”, began Sameer, displaying his notes and dissolving his words into air. I blushed, staring at Rohini who was busy chuckling and getting her mehendi design done. Sexy! I tilted my head a bit to spot the ‘D’ on the fat skin below the thumb.
Why bother when I have a shepherd boy’s mentality?! A shepherd is least bothered about his cows grazing in different directions, for, at last, they would return to him. They go to a different field just to graze for a while but can’t settle without their lovely master. I chuckled as the scene of Rohini proposing to me, back during my original life, flashed in my mind.
“Bro! Listen to me! What’s wrong with you? Hellooo!!!”, Sameer bulged his eyes and waved his hands to grab my attention. I chuckled and nodded at him who shrugged and followed my eyes drawing a line towards Rohini exhibiting her left hand with wet henna occupying half of her left hand.
“Machan, you will find better and more beautiful girls. Don’t love her. Come on, what’s your taste? A nerd?”, asked Sameer. I placed my finger on his lip. I shook my head.
“Done with prioritizing external beauty over internal beauty…”
“Come on, bro! It's good to listen to such mind-blowing and eye-opener dialogues in the films, but not in reality. It's such a boon to have a fair and loving girlfriend. I’m sure you will find…”
“Machan, please! My life! It's my decision. Beauty doesn’t matter, at least to me. Had enough of it!”, said I, walking away as I remembered how Priya justified her selfish need for a boyfriend, to her besties, during her birthday party.
Aww, Dhilip is such a true lover. But, firstly, will he manage to fall for her at least during this relieving journey? On the other hand, why has beauty always been a prerequisite for love?
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.
