CHAPTER-27
HER REACTION
Dhilip's POV
The intruder scribbled zig-zag lines on the equations and solutions ma’am had written. “Stop! How dare you? Who is disturbing my class?” I scrolled through the participants list on the left side of the screen. The thief went on and on, as he used air picker to draw dots and finally complete spirals, of a variety of pastel colors.
“Nimbu Nimbu! Who is this? He doesn’t belong to our class, neither CS nor CT. Why has he joined this call?”, I dropped the message on our CT batch’s WhatsApp group.
“Oh, is it?”
“Who is doing this?”
“Machan, maybe someone from the other sections?”
“Yes dude, this is possible”
“Makes sense”
“Why is he targeting our section?”
“Spammers”
As the heated conversation continued among our classmates, the Zoom class meeting suddenly ended.
“Did the class stop?”, asked Rohini, in our common class group.
“Yes”, texted Veena.
I banged my study table as we received a warning mail from our class advisor. Our section was screwed for misbehaving during the online class. We were threatened with disciplinary actions. But, we hardly did anything. I gnashed my teeth at bearing the blame for no reason.
“Who was doing that rubbish? Yaaro avanu thika muchkondu irakkaagaalvaa? (Can’t you close your ass and sit)”, I texted. I frowned at the way the mysterious guy unmuted himself and played Bollywood party songs during the class. What an irritating attitude!
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’
When I checked the recipients who read my message, I closed my eyes and sighed after finding Rohini in the list. I slammed my forehead for having used such abusive words on the group. Ooooo, what will Rohini medam think of me? But, I hope she understands my frustration. Such incidents piss me off very easily. I closed my eyes and massaged them restlessly.
Oooo, I shouldn’t have used such curse words on the group. It might have sounded displeasing as well. Will Rohini judge me? What do you say, medam? How else to handle such idiots? Do you think they will change if we explain?! How would you react if someone irritated you like that, Rohini?
Hmm, I laid back on the bed and slept restlessly that afternoon. However, I received Rohini’s reaction to my foul language, much later!
Sexy! Wait, I’ll tell you soon…
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Laws agreed to release vehicles parked at Maharashtra’s border into Karnataka. Masses were furious at our state because COVID cases were spiking in Maharashtra back then.
“It's not an issue. Cases in Karnataka aren’t as many as those in Delhi and Maharashtra. So, let the border open”, stated the decision. What?! They just need a reason to continue businesses, I understand, but how can they put lives at stake? As such, an elderly gentleman from Dubai spread the infection to other customers at a daaba in Mangalore from where the waves of the pandemic began surfing here. Fuck! Chuck it, anyways, we are all safe here, working and studying from home.
“Do we have to do the Microprocessors mini project?”, Rohini texted me.
“Ooo, we were supposed to mail the requirements by today”, replied I.
“How will we manage to do it? How can we order those electronic components online? The pandemic is going on…Do you think delivery boys are allowed?...”
“Sexy! No way! It's lockdown everywhere. Wait, let me ask around”
“Sure! Thanks!”
A while later:
“Yo Rohini!”
“Any information, Dhilip? I’m tensed. My team is also very tensed. We can’t even meet at a place and work on an electronic project just like that? I’m so blank…”
“Chill! Others say they are just going to submit the circuit project we did during the last semester. Anyway, report, working documentation everything is in place.”
“Oh, right! Phew! You always relieve me, Dhilip! Thanks for your superb solutions!”, thanked Rohini. I blushed, lying back on the bed and folding my right leg. I rested the back of my head on my folded hands behind me and sighed.
“You always relieve me, Dhilip!”
Aye! Those words echoed within the four corners of my heart. Maybe you just told it casually, Rohini medam. I chuckled, pricking my heart with my right index finger. But, your words touched my heart. My smile narrowed as I wondered why her little actions affected me. Why do I bother if my little actions would affect her? Is there much more between us? Those signs were indeed just the beginning…less than that of a trailer.
####################################
I couldn’t take my eyes off the editor’s dark mode as my fingers danced on the keyboard. I bulged my eyes at the screen and massaged my forehead with the tips of my fingers as the code halted with a dark red error message in the middle of its execution.
What’s triggering the error? C errors aren’t as readable as Python. I thought as I scrolled through the line numbers it complained. I skimmed through the code to scrutinize the pointer variables once again.
“Have you completed your mini project?”, Rohini’s text vibrated my heart…Ooo, no, my mobile, I meant…Urgh!
“Not yet. I’m struck with errors. What about you?”, I replied.
“Same here. None from my team are contributing to the code too. I don’t know if I can even fix it and present it tomorrow.”
“Ooo, what’s your topic?”
“N-puzzle using branch-bound. You?”
“CPU scheduling itself with optimal data structure and strategy this time. Why didn’t you continue with your disk scheduling itself?”
“No, fine. Doesn’t matter as well. Anyways I have to do everything here.”
“Yes, yes, almost the same here. They give ideas and do a little, at the most.”
“At Least they contributed a bit:(“
“Everything has been rushed this semester due to COVID. Algo Design mini-project’s deadline was announced two days ago. I started coding today.”
“Yeah, the semester is already delayed. It's June 2020 now. Our yearly summer vacation must have started now.”
“Yeah, the pandemic collapsed our academic plans.
“Ok, let's get back and try. I hope to finish this soon.”
“Same here. Let's do it!”
“Bye!”
“Ttyl!”
I was struck. You texted me only to convey that you too were struck. Why were both of us struck with errors at the same hour? Why was it exactly you who came up to tell exactly this?
Ooo, yet another sign again! Why didn’t I notice any of these back then during our original lives, Rohini? I blushed and chuckled in the midst of all the tension floating across the tissues of my brain. Both of us were meant to be in the same boat, even in life! That's our destiny’s plan for us. Hmm, can I ever love you, Rohini medam?
The next morning, Rohini was asked to present after the first team. She executed her mini project for a couple of test cases and successfully edited parts hither and thither on her white Dev+ editor, as per the changes Jodha Ma’am asked on the spot.
“Ok, good. Next team, please”, called Jodha ma’am, on the 'Go to webinar' conference call. Hmm, zoom, google meet, Webex, teams, go to Webinar were our new classrooms, and Google Classrooms and google-drives were our lecturers’ new tables where we had to submit our assignments.
I was about to text Rohini that Jodha ma’am took my name.
“Dhilip, are you there?”, she asked, in her soft yet commanding tone.
“Yes, ma’am”, I replied, in my meek and hesitant voice.
I closed the WhatsApp Web tab on my laptop and shared my screen. I presented the code and ran it over a few test cases to illustrate our problem statement and optimacy. After a few discussions for the next couple of minutes, I confirmed that my teammates met at my house the other day and worked together.
“Who came? I need the names. Contributions matter.”
Ooo, why only our team? Sad! None contributed to Rohini's team. Rohini had to do all the smart work by herself. Hmm! This is one of the several cons of being friendly with professors. Sameer, I, and the others in my team keep updating our professor about our other project. Hmm, that's why, it becomes hard when they too become friendly, for, we dunno if they are indeed friendly!
At once, I grabbed my phone.
“Hey, you presented well”, I texted Rohini.
Wait, why did I text and acclaim her? Did I do it, to make a conversation with her or really found something technically unique in a tiny mini-project? Am I falling for you, Rohini?
“Thanks! You too!”, Rohini thanked me.
Sexy! If you keep your conversations short and sweet like this, when will we start talking with each other? Hmmm, when will I begin to understand you, Rohini medam?
What’s in store upcoming to bring Dhilip and Rohini together? Will they ever get closer?
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