CHAPTER-23
COMPETITOR
Dhilip’s POV
One afternoon, during another Algo Design-II lecture, Jodha Ma’am was busy discussing a cognitive graph problem with a few guys occupying the first few benches on the corner far from our row.
Is the answer really twenty-five? I rolled my meek and hesitant eyeballs hither and thither only to spot Sameer and Jacob discussing their study plan for the upcoming internal. Whom do I ask? I smiled at a few strands of hair extending from Rohini’s high ponytail to my plain white notes. Ooo, how did I forget you, medam? Aye, you are the purpose of my reliving journey. How can I forget my Rohini? Urgh…No, Dhilip, she isn't yet yours.
I glued my lips together and blushed, shaking my legs restlessly under the bench, as I patted her right shoulder with my black pen. She turned back.
“What did you get?”
“Twenty-five” She nodded and turned back, at once. Ooo, talk to me, medam! I won’t leave you this time. Sexy! I shrank my eyes and patted her again, this time, on the left shoulder, with my hand. Medam, you can’t escape me…But, why am I acting as if I want her?! I sighed. Aye, Dhilip! For now, you want to clarify your doubts.
“Wokie. Did you use 0-1 Knapsack or fractional?”
“Urgh! What’s wrong with this guy? Why is he beating me?”, I heard her mind voice as she raised her eyebrows and turned back to face me.
Sorry, medam! I never meant to hurt you. It's incredible that my palm is strong enough to make patting someone feel like beating them. Oooo, why would I beat you for no reason?
“0-1 of course…”, she said.
“Didn’t you compare it with fractional?” She shook her head, bursting out a round of laughter. I too laughed along as our eyes hugged each other for the next couple of moments.
“Even if we do it, we will end up proving 0-1’s answer as its optimal. Isn’t it?”
“Yes yes, I know that.” We chuckled again. “But, isn’t the problem supposed to be like a case study comparing the two approaches, as she elaborated it…?”
“Might be…Hmmm… let's do it in the exam. Why now, simply?”, said she, biting her tongue and shrinking her eyes. We smiled and continued chuckling at it. She turned back again.
What?! Medam, how many times should I call you? Rohini, unless we start talking properly, my reliving journey will continue to be pointless. Enough of trailers! I chuckled, patting her left shoulder again with my palm, this time, trying my best to slow down and give my girl a gentle pat. She turned back and smiled at me.
“What’s it now?”, I read her mind.
“What did you get for the LCBB question?”
Her pony swang along as she turned to peep into her notes and returned to me. “Five is the minimum cost, right?”
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’
I shook my head. “Hmm…I got…3”, I shared, at which she bulged her eyes and shrugged. She raised her eyebrows at her notes and scrutinized the steps while I blushed at her clueless eyelashes. I noticed her throwing her mouth a little open as she skimmed through her solution once again.
“Let me check”, I volunteered, extending my hands towards her. She nodded and handed over the notes to me. I pressed my forehead with my non-thumb fingers as I skimmed through the solution.
“I don’t know where I missed. I followed the algorithm as discussed…”
“Sexy!” She chuckled while I nodded and began, “Over here, you have already reached the last iteration. Look at the second level of your tree. So, this later has caused an additional branch…” She smiled, slamming her own forehead and chuckling at her careless mistake. I couldn’t take my eyes off her lips kissing each other as they moved while she narrated the confusing intermediate step of the algorithm. I smiled and nodded although my eyes captured her face at closeness. Are you really meant to be mine, Rohini?
######################################
“I’m not sure about 50 but I’m sure that I will get a 48”, said I, murmuring at Sameer. Jacob gestured a thumbs-up sign. I chuckled at Rohini nodding to herself and having leaned back. Oooo, were you overhearing me that day, medam? Or was it, by chance? Tell me. I wanna know. Tell me, Rohini medam!
“You’ll get it, Machan. Don’t worry!”, Sameer commented, patting my back. I nodded, sitting straight with my back glued to the backrest and folding my hands across. We turned back to face the slides put up by Pavan sir. A circuit occupied the entire slide.
Jacob yawned at it while Pavan went on and on, pointing at every wire and explaining their significance. I nodded and jotted down a few points, hither and thither. Rohini was closer than ever before. Hmmm, glad that things have been improving step-by-step! Sexy! Guys, by our closeness, I referred to her sitting right in front of my bench.
“...What’s the difference between PC and IR registers?”, asked Pavan, smiling at our row.
“Is he asking me or Rohini?”, I asked Sameer.
“Machan, of course, it's you, da”, said he.
“Whenever sir looks this side, he expects an answer from you and not Rohini or anyone else. Computer Architecture is your strength, Dhilip!”, Jacob added. I nodded as Pavan continued without waiting for any damn answer.
Ooo, why did I repeat the same mistake again? Why did you see Rohini as your competitor again? Urgh! Dhilip, she can be your soulmate. Stop competing with your own heart. She never viewed me this way, back then. In fact, neither did she view Srithika as an enemy.
Above all, have you forgotten how she shared her intimate personal matter with you, although you made her view you as a stranger? Hmm, she might be thinking of you as a stranger but never as a competitor or enemy. Stop thinking likewise, Dhilip, failing which you can never analyze your own life properly.
“Write a sample instruction for SHL and SHR. Come on, class, we have discussed it many times. Right?”, Pavan threw a question, writing the two main words on the whiteboard, with a red marker. The entire class looked down at their notebooks and began scribbling something just to avoid any kind of eye contact and put themselves in danger!
“Hey, what happened, students?”, asked he, chuckling and looking throughout the class, only to see all heads down. He strolled along the passages separating rows of benches. He happened to stop at Rohini’s seat. He nodded at her examples.
“These are the simplest examples ever. Go ahead! That's all!”, said he, handing over the marker to her. She headed towards the dias. She bent a little and switched her eyes from the notes to the board and vice-versa as she wrote the instruction. Hmm, her font size has increased a bit and is far better than her handwriting back during the Math lectures in the last semester.
Pavan shrugged at me. I showed my notes. He nodded, adding, “Yes, correct. A good example, Dhilip. Mention it there!” He pointed at the board. As I got up, he commented that it was a little complex instruction that he came up with. I strolled, as I stared at Rohini’s rough and thick dark ponytail, from behind. I smiled as soon as I reached the dias and stood right behind her.
“Done!”, she whispered, closing her notes and turning back. She held her breath for a second as she spotted me standing closer to her. She was taken aback and was about to slip when I caught her hand, good enough to suffice the slight jerk I gifted her. Our eyes were interlocked with each other.
“Thank you!”, said she, smiling along and breaking our moment, just after a couple of seconds. Urgh! Why, Rohini medam? Like just why? Don’t you enjoy romance?! Is she just into studies?! No, but she proposed to me back in our real life, on 5th January 2022. Won’t you do some hard work from your side? Why should guys do all the hard work in love?
Urgh! What love? Why do you want to relish romantic moments with a random girl? Aye, I don’t know if I will ever manage to love her! I wrote down my example, in a matter of seconds, and smiled at Rohini chuckling at Vaishnavi, as I took my seat behind her.
Aww, is Rohini indeed romantic?
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.
