CHAPTER-45
INVISIBLE
Naomi’s POV
“No, that's not nationality. It's when a person living in a foreign State for a long time…”, began Karan.
“Dude, enough! I have realized that you’re confusing me. I want the definition of nationality not naturalization”, interrupted Vyomi, in her hurried tone.
“Oh! You got me?” Karan burst out a round of laughter as I chuckled and shook my head. We stood on the corridor of the third floor of our Law block. Vyomi hit Karan with her notes after his second attempt to confuse her.
“Dude, Naomi, how are you so calm? Study!”, exclaimed Diya, at which I shrugged.
“Hey, what are you talking about? She would have already finished studying everything and completed her revision for the umpteenth time last night. Haha!”, commented Tanvi, giving in a hi-fi at Vyomi as Diya threw her mouth open.
“No, that’s not the thing. I don’t want to confuse myself before the exam. Just leave it free. Look at the question paper and the relevant points will flash accordingly…”, said I. Karan whistled and clapped at it.
“Topper!”, exclaimed Vyomi, saluting at me. I chuckled and shrugged.
“Guys, I’m serious. You ought to try it once. I will forget everything if I keep revising for minutes before entering the exam hall. You can perform far better if you finish your revisions the previous night itself. Research too supports my point…”, said I.
“Noami Devi! Great!”, said Karan, joining his hands together and bowing a little, at me. “Somehow, I should also somehow pass this one last exam and phew, we will jump into the final year. No need to attend college for the next two months till then! Hurrah!” I chuckled as Diya and Tanvi too cheered at him while Vyomi closed her eyes and moved her lips as if she chanted mantras.
“How are you guys so happy? I’ll miss our time during the summer vacation. Won’t you?”, asked I, shrinking my eyes at Karan and folding my hands as I rested my back on the corridor’s wall behind me.
“Hmmm…We’ll miss you but I doubt if the reverse would be true”, teased Karan.
“Why?”, I exclaimed.
“Exactly!”, added Tanvi, “ You’ll only miss your Akshat sir.” My friends blushed as they neared me and cheered. I blushed, shaking my head along.
“Yes, I agree that I’ll miss Akshat sir but just like how I would miss all of you. What’s the big deal?”
“Liar! Liar!”, teased Karan, rotating his right index finger.
“Hua hai aaj pehli baar jo eise…(Song lyrics)”, Diya teased me. I bulged my eyes and placed my finger on the lips.
“There is nothing between us. Trust me!...”
“OK, agreed. We will trust you but do you trust your own words or do they conflict within you?”
“What?!”
The long bell rang. They closed their books. We packed our bags and arranged them in a line along with the others placed outside the opposite classroom. I happened to spot Akshat nodding and chuckling at a fair spectacled lecturer madam on the second floor. I blushed at his meek and hesitant eyes rolling to point at a printed paper in his hand. I had never been this close to a guy ever before. I felt my pupils dilating at his stern nod as he moved his lips, emphasizing a page in the textbook.
“Dude, just think about it. He has been supporting your career goals, surprising you with romantic dates, and doing more than anything else to keep you happy, both during your good and bad times including helping you face that creepy guy. What more to look for in a dream spouse?”, advised Vyomi, patting my shoulder.
“Accept off, Naomi. What’s the problem? There is no policy in love. Akshat sir and you-your love isn't wrong. Remove the forbidden thought before it's too late”, added Karan. “Sir is waiting. He is always ready to accept you.”
“All the best, guys!”, said I, faking a smile and hurrying into the classroom.
“Dude, it's totally fine if you wanna ignore us. But, don’t ignore your feelings for Akshat…”, I heard Vyomi as I folded my hall ticket and set out to read the roll numbers pasted at the corner of the benches to locate my seat.
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“Two hours more!”, declared the stout, spectacled, and short invigilator, as he strolled along the passages between rows, with his hands tied on the back.
“Leave the difficult and doubtful ones to the end. Dear students, note that I won’t even spare a single extra second. Three hours maane(meaning) exactly three hours. Carry on!”, added he, hitting a bunch of additional sheets on the lecturer’s desk upon the dais.
I nodded at my own bluebook as I continued writing fluently. I sighed, relaxing my palms, as I leaned back. My eyes happened to go over the girl occupying the other extreme corner of my bench. She moved her loose hair to insert a few strands behind the ear and raised her eyebrows as she massaged her forehead with a finger. I traced her line of vision and spotted the guy sitting two benches before and turning back only to lip-sing an answer. I held my breath at the girl sitting right behind our bench and throwing a chit perfectly on her lap.
“Sir!”, called I, standing up, at once.
“Yes. What happened? Supplement?”
I shook my head. I pointed at my neighbor girl. “Sir, they are copying”, I complained.
“What’s this attitude?”, roared he, getting down from the dias and heading towards us. The girl beside me stood up and frowned at me. I pointed at the other two students as well.
“Pooja!Suresh! Prisha!”, said he, reading out their IDs. “Huh, your batchmates have already started working or pursuing their masters abroad. And you guys are still here. Urgh! Shame on you!”, he rebuked them as they put their heads down. The entire class bulged their eyes at the three culprits. Pooja displayed her red eyes at me. I raised my eyebrows and shrugged, in return.
“Great of you, Naomi. You continue writing.” I nodded and turned the question paper to the second-last section.
“The exam cell will be here in no time. Huh! That's why even genuine students are being looked down upon. If I go that side, you utilize the time to copy on this side. Do you think you are so clever? Huh!”, said he, snatching their papers and escorting them towards the door.
A few minutes later, two staff appeared at the door. They were busy flipping the three outlaws’ answer scripts and rebuking them.
“Great! Keep it up, Naomi!” I lifted my head up to spot a tall and moderately fat middle-aged gentleman gesturing a thumbs-up sign and nodding at me.
“Thank you, sir. It's our duty to protect the university’s rules. Such law students, who violate the exam’s rules, how will they protect the country’s laws and fight for justice for the innocent tomorrow? How will they understand the significance of justice when they are unjust by themselves? Such acts must never be entertained”, said I, getting up again.
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?
He clapped. The exam hall was mostly filled with new faces excluding my bestie and Karan too applauded along. Karan whistled at which the exam cell member chuckled.
Wow! I felt like a lawyer that day. I smiled at the audience around me. I felt as if I spoke at the court to help the victim win and the masses applauded me. Aww, all thanks to you, Kiku! You filled me with such self-confidence. I shook my head. Urgh! Noami, what are you telling? Why are you thinking about Akshat now?
“The university’s reputation will be at stake. Please don’t malpractice, students”, clarified the head of the exam cell, frowning and shaking his head at Pooja. No sooner did he leave than Pooja barged in.
“Naomi!”, she shouted, at which the invigilator ordered her to get out, at once. She tossed her right fingers like a goon challenging a loyal cop, in a movie. “Do you think your life is a film and you are the heroine?”, she yelled at me, from the dais.
While I shrugged and the invigilator continued to shout at their gang to leave to the exam cell, she completed, “Finish your exam and step out. See what happens. We are struggling year-back students, as such. You’re acting as if none have ever copied during exams…”
“Hey, you go. Go now!”, shouted the security guard, pulling her out of the classroom as she bit her teeth and bulged her big red eyes as if I were a snake and she was a mongoose who wanted to eat me up.
“First of all, do malpractice and then screw those who fight for the right or take action. Phew! Get lost! Hoping to never see such students again on campus”, announced the invigilator. He sighed, gesturing for us to continue writing.
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I chuckled with my famous five gang, as we made our way along the corridor. Karan couldn’t stop his slight pop-dance at the fact that we were done with our semester exams.
“Kiku!”, thought I, as I happened to witness Akshat smiling and walking towards me, in the opposite direction. He looked quite handsome in the milky white suit embracing his pastel blue formal shirt inserted into white formal pants. Wait, I think I have seen you once in this shirt but not with the combination. Aww, Kiku is in a new suit today? What special, Kiku? I shrank my eyes and blushed at him as he neared me.
Urgh! Why, Kiku? Urgh! Why am I addressing myself with the nickname he christened me? Naomi, listen. You shouldn’t notice him like that. A gentle reminder again: He is your lecturer. Guru Devo Bhava!
“Hi, Naomi! How are you?”, asked Akshat.
“I’m good, sir. How are you doing?”, asked I.
“Sexy! What’s this? It has been a while since we spoke.”
“Exams, sir. Couldn’t even meet you in college”
“What’s this, Naomi? How could your semester exams make you forget this poor Akshat fellow?...”
“No way, Kiku! I can never forget you. How did you even think so?”, I interrupted him, with a hurried tone. His meek and hesitant eyes locked my black pupils as he blushed at me. Urgh! Wooo! Naomi, what did you just say? I hope it didn’t sound the other way. I swallowed a few drops of saliva only to stop myself from blushing back. I breathed hard as he continued rolling his light brownish-black eyeballs at my face.
Karan let out a round of whooping cough. I looked down and blushed as Akshat put his hands in his pocket and looked away. “Yeah, I too was on exam duty yesterday. I’m free today..”, diverted Akshat, looking back at me and continuing to establish our eye contact.
“Sir!”, chuckled Vyomi, “We too are here. Are we invisible to you?” Diya and Tanvi burst into a round of soft laughter. Akshat patted Karan and pulled him closer.
“Yes, sir. You were only asking Naomi how she is doing, how her exams have been going blah blah blah. But, what about us? Go, sir…”, teased Karan. Akshat blushed at me, as he pulled my friend’s ears only to make him squeal a little. I chuckled and blushed along.
“No, I asked all of you. Isn’t it, Naomi?”, Akshat asked me. I threw my mouth open but ended up nodding to take his side.
“Sir, it's the person with whom you create eye contact that you’re talking to. Haha! Don’t you know this, Naomi?”, Karan cross-questioned. Akshat pulled his ear once again to make him squeal a little louder, this time. I blushed and chuckled at Akshat standing closer and staring at me.
For a second, I felt as if we were high school students in school uniforms and he was turning the school’s Romeo, following me along the corridors, resting his chin on the right hand and smiling at me from the last bench, styling his hair and following my school bus in his bike, looking around only to carefully leave a chocolate on my table at the canteen, snatching my tiffin box and playing around to provoke me to come closer to snatch it back from me….
“Sir, we had your subject today. It went pretty well!”, said Tanvi, interrupting my dream world.
“Ooo, yeah right. I completely forgot about your timetable”, said Akshat. My friends thanked him for the helpful lectures.
“Yes, sir! It went fabulous. In fact, I couldn’t manage to revise the entire syllabus. I had to skip the last module, in the interest of time. But, your lectures saved my day. Phew! I survived the last section. Thank you, Kiku!”, I cheered, hugging him at once. I closed my eyes, resting my head on his chest and smiling along. I felt his cozy hands wrapping me back.
“Nice to hear about it!”, he commented, massaging my head along.
A couple of moments later, I heard Karan’s whooping cough again. What’s it now? I opened my eyes.
Urgh! What am I doing? Why are you giving him fake hopes and playing around, Naomi? You know that you will never love him. Sorry, Akshat. What did I decide the other day after our dinner night and what am I doing now? I released myself from his romantic capture. He stood, continuing to blush at me.
“Fine. All the best to all of you. Don’t waste your time during the holidays. It's advisable to revise the old law notes. Besides, try to get some exposure to a real courtroom practice if possible”, concluded Akshat, at which we nodded.
“Awesome!”, said Ruhi. Sana clapped along as the three musketeers offered us a wicked smile, as they headed from the passage on our left.
“Akshat sir, we know that you and Naomi have been seeing each other. But, how could your love story induce partiality among students? You guide them but don’t care about us. Right?”, Ruhi criticized.
Tina brayed at Akshat’s blank face. “Come on, dude. Why will he mentor us? Naomi is his girlfriend so he will, of course, want her to remain excellent.”
“But, how can you let your personal affair affect our studies? This is college and not your love life”, added Sana.
“Stop it, guys”, said I.
“Ruhi, you’re mistaken. I was about to post the same message to our class group. All of you are my students. Don’t pull my personal stuff here into the classroom”, justified Akshat, in his soft and gentle tone.
“Why are we wasting our time talking to you, sir? Go ahead! We don’t care anymore. We’re done!”, said Ruhi as the three frowned at us and left.
“Kiku, just ignore these idiots. They are born to annoy others”, said I, rubbing Akshat’s palm with mine. He blushed at my hand on his. I withdrew at once.
“Yes yes, I don’t care. I know about them. But, it looks like someone else cares for me more than how much I do for myself”, chuckled he. He leaned forward and whispered, “Why so, Kiku? May it be Rishabh or Ruhi, why does my problem ruin your peace?” We looked into each others’ eyes for the entire next minute.
“Because I’m your good friend? Or, is it because, I’m your well-wisher? If it were so, why didn’t you say it right away into my eyes?”, highlighted he, waving and walking backward as I tilted my head and bit my lips to stop myself from blushing at him.
Why so, Naomi? Think about it for once. Who is Akshat sir to me? Do I love you, Kiku?
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Vyomi and I licked our chocobars as we ambled down the dark street with the crescent moon being our only witness. I chuckled at her having a mango flavor during the summer, as the night breeze froze my face that had suffered throughout the sunny morning. We were walking back to our PG after a small celebration on marking the milestone.
We were intervened by a bike and a scooty overtaking us, all of a sudden. All the riders wore helmets. The two motors revolved around us over and over, for three consecutive rounds. Vyomi and I clung to each other as we tightened our palms into one another. We swallowed our anxieties at each other.
“Who are you?”, yelled I, as the two girls got down from the scooty while the guy jumped over his own bike to enter with a style.
“Ouch!”, screamed Vyomi, standing behind me as the anonymous bike rider landed beside her. They removed their helmets, in sync, and revealed themselves.
“Pooja! What are you guys doing here?”, asked I, at the moderately fat and chubby pinkish girl with loose hair on both sides in the front. The tall, lean, and fair girl offered a wicked smile at me. The tall and brown Suresh was engrossed in massaging his beard and checking me out.
“Being a beautiful girl, you shouldn’t have locked your horns with us. I adore pretty girls like you but you ruined my mood this time”, began Suresh. Prisha and Pooja laughed at each other.
“Shut up! What’s your problem? Why are you stalking me? I can’t withstand the wrong. I will question it. Malpractice was definitely being an outlaw….”
“Hey, you! Enough!”, roared Prisha, to puncture my eardrums. Pooja thrashed me to the ground.
“Dude! Naomi!”, called Vyomi, extending her hand towards me. No sooner did I turn back at her than Prisha slapped her and tied her victim’s hands on the back with her own hands as firmly as if they were tied with ropes. I bulged my eyes at Santhosh lifting the scooty’s seat up, to gather two thick dark brown wooden logs. He threw one towards Pooja who caught it like a professional throwball player.
I swallowed my fear and walked backward with my hands on the road and shaking my head at them.
“Hey! Don’t do this, guys. Are you students or goons?”, questioned Vyomi as I breathed hard at the cunning Pooja nearing me with Suresh following her.
“Shut up!”, yelled Prisha, hitting Vyomi with the hockey stick in her hand.
“Dude! Vyomi. Please don’t put yourself into trouble because of me. Stay quiet!”, said I, moving back.
“Wow! What a friendship!”, chuckled Pooja, striking my forehead hard with her log. Suresh targeted my hands and legs as Pooja continued beating up my shoulders.
“Help! Help!”, yelled I, in pain, after which Pooja hit me right on the center of my head. I remained half-unconscious as my head spun with my back on the road.
“Let others think you were raped. Hahaha!”, commented Suresh, tearing my night top wildly near the stomach area and hitting my knees hard one last time. Pooja got on the scooty and held the brake as Prisha chuckled, sitting behind her.
“Naomi!”, cried Vyomi, as my vision turned to clouds of smog while she hurried towards me.
“Kiku! Kiku!”, whispered I, shutting my eyes as I felt tears flowing down my cheeks.
Alas! What will happen to Naomi now?
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