CHAPTER-18
AN UNPRECEDENTED EYE CONTACT
Dhilip’s POV
“...So, you may need Bayes theorem to solve this problem”, revealed Smriti ma’am, turning back and placing her marker on the lecturer’s desk. She folded her hands on the back as she began strolling between rows, as we got our hands dirty on our notes.
“Dhilip, what did you get?”, asked Jacob. I nodded as I continued focusing on my notes.
“I think it is ¼”, said I, peeping into Sameer’s notes, as Jacob skimmed mine.
“Sounds good to me too!”, added Kareena, gesturing a thumbs-up at me. We were interrupted by a funny Tik Tok reel playing aloud from a classmate’s mobile. We chuckled and turned all around the classroom while Smriti too frowned, rolling her eyeballs hither and thither, to spot the culprit.
A fair guy, of medium height, stood up from the last previous bench. He chuckled, raising his hand up and displaying his phone as if he entered the climax scene with just the right evidence!
“Sorry, ma’am! It suddenly started playing and is hanging now…”, he apologized, chuckling along.
“Come on, Anil. How will it start playing on its own unless you use mobiles in class?”, asked Smriti.
The entire class roared a burst of laughter. My eyes happened to go over Rohini giggling and then closing her mouth with her left palm. She closed her eyes and left her chest vibrating. Sexy! She was talented enough to laugh in several ways. I blushed and sighed, right after a moment, to stay cautious.
Aye! Smriti too chuckled at the whiteboard as soon as Anil hurried outside the class.
“Ma’am!”, Jacob called out, raising his hand up. Smriti got down from the stage and headed towards our desk.
“Hey, I’m not sure about the answer though…”, I whispered to him.
“No, Machan that's fine. Show before that girl swallows everyone’s chances”, highlighted Sameer, nodding at Jacob. Sexy! I won’t see Rohini as my competitor at least now, during the reliving journey. Neither should I have viewed her as one, back during my real life. Yes yes, I feel that’s exactly the point where I missed her. But, not this time, yet, will I be able to feel the same way for her?
“No Dhilip, ⅓ should be the answer? Hmmm…”, said Smriti, glancing at my solution. “Anyways, that bench too got the same answer as you. I happened to see Rohini’s notes while strolling there. She was in the previous step but…hmmm…”
Oooo! Look at the climax of my life: Rohini and I, of the entire class, ended up with the same answer. What an intellectual similarity! As she grew engrossed comparing my solution with the scanned pdf of a textbook, on her smartphone, I happened to arrest Rohini’s eyes.
“Hi!”, I waved and greeted her aloud. She shrugged and smiled a little, as she nodded and turned back. Was she staring at me? I blushed and turned at Sameer and Jacob who were already busy on their phones.
“Hahahaa!!” Rohini’s bad gang was busy laughing among themselves. Smriti turned at them and placed a finger on her lips. Rohini remained silent, immersed in her notes. I spotted Srithika pointing at her other friends, towards a backbencher. I followed her hand’s direction and spotted Sahil shaking his nose, looking up at the ceiling and pouting or sometimes shrinking his eyes and expanding them back.
“Oooo! What’s he doing?”, murmured I, chuckling along. Oooo, now I get it! Rohini must have turned back to watch the joke but destiny didn’t dare to miss even the trivial chance of romance. I blushed at how the scene of our unprecedented eye contact made my afternoon back then. Yet, how I wish she stared at me! I chuckled to myself as the long bell rang to conclude the memorable Math lecture.
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“Excuse me, sir!”, pledged Dheeraj, standing at the entrance. Pavan sir nodded and gestured for him to come inside. Dheeraj walked in, with hands in both pockets, and chewing his bubble gum hard, as he headed towards the last bench.
“Yuck! What an attitude!”, Sameer whispered to me. I just nodded, turning to spot Rohini sitting just on the bench before mine. She was busy blushing at Vaishnavi who turned back and shrugged. “Dude, stop! He looks like a side villain…”
“No, he is such a hero!”, Rohini exclaimed directly into Vaishnavi’s ears. The latter then dug her ears with the little finger. Veena, sitting beside Rohini, shrugged and chuckled.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nope, I know that all of us here have a huge crush on him. He is so heroic and stylish! Pah!”, I leaned a bit forward to overhear Rohini, on purpose, this time.
“No way! We have better tastes!”, said Veena, as the two continued making their running notes.
Sexy! Even Rohini has better taste. Aye, medam, turn back. Can’t you find this sweet young gentleman sitting just behind you? Medam, I’m single now. Imprison me in your heart before the vulture arrests me in its legs and flies afar.
“Dude, are you blind?”, highlighted Zara, turning behind and opening Rohini’s eyes, blind in love, “He is full of attitude. Can’t you see?” She pointed at Dheeraj styling his hair as he stood up, to discuss an open-ended question with Pavan, playing the presentation and nodding, from the dais.
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’
“No dude, he is damn cool!”, commented Rohini, at Dheeraj dragging, in his commanding and monotonous male voice, “Throughout time…So, sir, basically,...put in…the thing is…yeah, I’m coming to that…Exactly!...”
Rohini turned back to her friends. She shrank her eyes and shook her head. “No yaar, he is just cool. What a style! More than the hero’s entry in a blockbuster!”
“Movie will flop if he becomes the hero!”, said Vaishnavi, at which I dropped my pen and bent under the desk. I chuckled silently, as I grabbed the deliberately lost pen. As soon as Pavan left the class, I blushed secretly at Rohini pulling Vaishnavi’s ears.
“Kashmir tu mein Kanyakumari! Uthar ne dakshin ko…(Song lyrics!)”, murmured Rohini, chuckling at Vaishnavi, as she played with her bottle, heading outside the class. I followed her with Sameer who wanted to meet a project mate from the neighboring section. The bottle just slipped from Rohini’s hands so I extended my left hand at a tiny distance from her, but in the right position to catch hold of her water bottle.
“Oh, wow!”, she bulged her eyes and chuckled, taking her bottle back from me.
“Thanks, Dhilip!”, she smiled and thanked me. I chuckled and stood behind her as she waved and rushed towards Vaishnavi calling her from outside the opposite staffroom. I blushed as Rohini’s cute face excited with Dheeraj’s entry flashed over and over within me.
“Machan, come let's go da!”, called Sameer, waking me up. I nodded and accompanied him and walked along the corridor, as Rohini walked backward and chuckled like a mad lover, on the opposite corridor.
Oooo! Will Dheeraj disturb Dhilip and Rohini's love story?
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