CHAPTER-28
BLOCKBUSTER ROMANCE
Dhilip’s POV
It was the 4th of August, 2020. Sexy! How can I forget that same day? Indeed, how can I forget the month of August itself? Back on August 1st, 2019, Rohini had stepped into my mundane life only to transform it into a beautiful rainbow. Hmmm, hardly did I notice it back then. A year full of trailers today until my blockbuster romance film was finally gonna launch today!
Wondering why I said that my love story with Rohini was going to start that August? Wondering what will happen in the upcoming minutes? Sexy! I know everything but, guys, you don’t know, right? Oooo, my bad! Stay tuned, you too will figure it out yourself!
Aye, no offense! Every individual’s love story is a blockbuster for them. Mine is a blockbuster for me. Urgh! Dhilip, concentrate! Now is the time to focus! Why are you calling it a love story when you don’t know if it can be one? Urgh!
I bet my forehead and chuckled, sitting in front of my laptop. It was the first day of our fifth semester-the first completely online semester of our batch.
“Good Morning students!”, greeted a soft yet a little bossy female voice on our Zoom classroom call. “I’m Ayesha. I’ll be handling PD lectures for your section this semester.” She turned on her camera and nodded at us with a formal smile. Oooo, ma’am was in college. Despite the pandemic, lecturers were called to conduct online classes from MSA, just to avoid network issues from their end. Pity those times! Whenever the COVID waves hit their troughs, lecturers were advised to work from the university.
“Good Morning, ma’am!”, said a few classmates, unmuting themselves while some introverts typed away the warm greeting only to spam the chat box.
“Great! Great!”, chuckled Ayesha, nodding along. “Is it your first lecture this semester?”
“Umm..yes ma’am”, said I, in my meek and hesitant voice, as I unmuted. “It's our first day this semester. We just had an online orientation session yesterday.”
“Ohk, good. Shall we begin with your introductions then?”, she cheered. Hmm, if it were an offline class, we would have exchanged awkward giggles with each other. How I miss those days! Sexy! Online classes had their own pros and cons.
“Dear students, what’s this deafening silence? Huh! No issues. Let me begin with my introduction. I’m Ayesha. I have three years of industry experience and three years of lecturing as well. I have a specialization in database management itself. Who would like to go next?”
Her words followed another pin-drop silence.
“Dear students?! Come out and speak!”, she motivated us. “You can’t be quiet in my classes like this. PD has a major weightage in interviews as well. I expect more involvement. Come on! Just utter your name and your branch if you’re from CS or CT as it's a combined section…”
“Yes ma’am. I’m Dhilip from CT”, I began, turning on my video.
“Great initiative, my dear student! Awesome! Next, please!”, said she, as I turned off my webcam.
Pity Ayesha Ma’am and many other lecturers taking those online classes back then. Online lectures were our ultimate freedom; we listened when we wanted to, otherwise just muted the tab and played on our mobiles:) But, dedicated students like Rohini and I always listened!
“Ma’am, I’m Komal…”
As students took their turns one after the other, Ayesha nodded and spread out her enthusiasm. I blushed as Rohini turned on her video. She smiled, inviting dimples on both cheeks, as she introduced herself, “Morning, ma’am. I’m Rohini from CS.”
Rohini! Rohini! Rohini! Her name echoed within the four corners of my heart. Aye, our journey is going to begin very soon, Rohini medam! She hadn’t combed her loose pony yet. Her pale wheatish face made her feel wearier in her pink shirt.
I chuckled as I looked up and sighed. Hmm, how adventurous is life when you know everything upfront? Hahaha! Back then during my real life, it was a surprise, but, now, it's a love test for me!
“Great! I admit that I can’t remember all your names but will slowly start recognizing you all. Fine, before we begin, I need a favor. Dear students, as you all know that our class is combined, can I have a volunteer for CS and CT each? PD needs regular daily assignments. I need two class representatives to manage the same for the corresponding sub-sections. Who would like to come forward for the same?”
“Ma’am, Dhilip is our CR from CT”, said Sameer. I turned on my video and nodded. Ayesha acknowledged me.
“And from CS?”, she asked, only to receive another round of deafening silence. “Come on, who is it from CS? You are a batch of seventy with most from CS. Speak out, dear students! Looks like I need to push your batch a lot…”
Oooo, that August was the season of romance rather than that of the monsoons. ‘Dear students’, Ayesha Ma’am’s slang was another remarkable sign on its own. Hmm! I know who it is going to be from CS. Sexy! I feel supernatural with this forecasting power. I threw my mouth open at Vishal trying to unmute his mike. I shook my head. No, how can things go astray? What’s this new twist?
“Fine, if none from CS, then…”
Tears almost flooded my eyes.
“Ma’am!”, I heard Rohini’s voice. I blushed and nodded, shrinking my eyes and gesturing a ‘Yes’. My shoulders hopped as she continued, “Rohini from CS. Shall I volunteer for CS?” I bet my chest and moved my hands to dance to myself.
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’
“Sure, dear Rohini. I appreciate you!”, said Ayesha, turning off her video.
“Thank you, ma’am!”, replied Rohini, smiling and turning off her video.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally, I get to talk to Rohini medam! Sexy! This time, things will go as I’ve planned. Hmm, hope I analyze my feelings, if at all I ever had any, for you, Rohini! Focus, Dhilip, focus! It's just the beginning.
“Dhilip and Rohini, we need a WhatsApp group dedicated to PD. Rohini, please ensure that everyone from the CS batch is added. Dhilip, you ensure the same for CT. Above all, only three of us should be the admins…”, Ayesha began.
Dhilip and Rohini! Hai hai! Our names when spelled together struck my heart like the sharp arrow from the hunter except for its head constituting a pool of lovely roses. As I quickly grabbed my smartphone and created the Whatsapp group with just Rohini and me, at first, Rohini began chatting at once:
“Yo Dhilip!”
“Hi!”
“Wait, what are you doing? Leave something for me. Lemme do some work!?!”
I replied with three laughing emojis in a line.
“You created the group. Now, you’ll start adding members. What shall I report to Ayesha ma’am then? Let's divide all the work and do”
“Yes yes, xdd!”
She replied with a line of laughter emojis. “Also, shall we add Ayesha Ma’am later during the break? Why risk using WhatsApp during class hours?!”
“Oooo, yea right? We shouldn’t be using phones. What if we get caught? :)”
We exchanged another line of laughter. Aww, even a couple of minutes with her, makes me feel special and happy. Why didn’t I notice you back then, Rohini medam?
“Hey!”, Rohini texted me after a while.
“Hi!”, texted I.
“I shared the joining link across last semester’s CS groups. I’ll check if everyone joined, at the end of the day. What, say?”
“Yes yes, I have also shared across our groups. Anyways, we shared across our common group also.”
“I hope everyone joins”
“Yes yes, they are still joining.” We again shared three laughing emojis in a line.
“Two new backlog classmates have joined. Did you add them?”
“Sexy! You should add for they seem to be from CS xd”
“No, let's divide everything…”
“Aye, this isn’t fair. This is your work xdd”
“Hey, what’s the big deal? You text Haasini while I text Tushar.”
“Wokieee xdd”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“Done!”, our texts popped at once. Hmm, it was yet another sign from the great heavens, that Rohini and I were destined to be together, otherwise why didn’t Vishal continue to volunteer that morning? In fact, why didn’t anyone else volunteer, for that matter? The coast was clear, just for me to hold Rohini’s hands and walk down the aisle, but, hardly did I spare a second for you, Rohini medam. How bad of me!:(
But, can I ever manage to do it now? Or is our story meant to be just a ‘story’ and not a “love story”?
How far will the tag of Dhilip-Rohini go this time?
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