CHAPTER-29
NICKNAME
Dhilip’s POV
Ayesha Ma’am used to share Google Forms every day for our daily home assignments. It was a five-question assessment that lecturers used, back during the COVID days, to mark our attendance. Hmm, it was a smart solution to fill our lazy minds with some sort of seriousness.
“Isn’t the fourth question a mess?”, Rohini texted.
“Yeah, the options are confusing.”
“Exactly!! Select both B and C..why does ma’am give this option?”
“I know right? It confuses us the most.”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“Sexy! The third question went wrong for the entire class yesterday. Did you observe?”
“Yea, ma’am was explaining it in today’s lecture. But, how come, I thought that just the both of us marked it wrong.”
“Oooo, no no. Did you too circulate answers?”
“Hmmm, my friends asked so I shared on our girls’ group and three guys. Why?”
“Sexy! Join the dots, now. I too share answers with just Sameer and Jacob.”
“Ohhhhh my goodness! I see! Such big mouths.”
“See that's why one shouldn’t copy like this. Even our Computer Architecture open-book assignments, they just shared across, changed the cover pages and submitted off.”
We shared three laughing emojis once again in a line.
“Copycats!”, she teased.
I shared three laughing emojis once again in a line.
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“Alooo! Rohi medam!”, texted I, grabbing my phone, as soon as I woke up on Saturday morning. I yawned, extending my hands up, in either direction. I shrugged at the single tick of my messages. I rushed to the attached bathroom and shrank my eyes at my own mirror image, as I populated the purple brush’s hair with a cobalt blue paste and dug it into my mouth.
A couple of minutes later, I bulged my eyes and spat out, at once. Fuck! I exclaimed as I filled my hands with the cold tap water and attacked my face over and over, twice in a row. Why did I text her like that? What would she think now? Sexy! Good that she hasn’t woken up yet. I will delete the message right away.
I breathed hard, grabbing my phone and unlocking the screen. I blushed at her reply. Ooo, have you seen it already?
“Hello Dhilip saar!”, she had texted. I chuckled at her reciprocity. Hmm, while I called her ‘medam’, she addressed me as ‘saar’. I began while you completed it, Rohini. But, why didn’t I complete it, back then? I sighed, wiping my face with the white cotton towel with thick dark green borders.
Aye, Dhilip, think about it. Why did you even feel like addressing her with a nickname, if she never meant anything to you, at all? You acknowledged it and proposed to Priya, down the line, with the same saar-medam story. Why did you give up on Rohini then, if this was your style? I swallowed my tears, as I sat back on the bed. I smiled at Rohini’s chat, rolling my meek and hesitant eyeballs at her reply addressing me back with a cute nickname.
I don’t know why, but Rohini perhaps, had been grabbing my attention, somehow. Hardly did I prioritize her nature more than her looks. I sobbed and shook my head along. Whatever, I should utilize this reliving opportunity to make just the right decision.
But, even back then, why did I text her, out of nowhere, even when there wasn’t anything to talk about at all? Was it because I had already fallen for you, Rohini medam? Why did I just call you that? Aww, Rohini is so calm. Why didn’t you ask me back why I was addressing you so? Why does this girl arrest such typical questions within her heart?
Speak up, medam. Speak up. Ask me why! Ask! Ask!!!
You too are responsible for my state today on the bed. Yes, Rohini, you too. Why didn’t you speak up right there? Even now, look at your silence. Are you an obedient schoolgirl to acknowledge everything that comes your way? You have an identity-Rohini and look at what I just called you….Perhaps, if you too had played around that day, our sweet story might have turned into our mutual love story far earlier.
Not only did you miss me but also did I miss you…Wait, why should I miss you? Why should you miss her, Dhilip? Does it mean that you love her? Why will you miss her unless you love her? I sighed and rushed back into the loo.
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“Yo Rohini”, I texted.
“Yo Dhilip!”, she texted.
“Can you share the OS meeting links every day?”
“Why?”
“Medam, Jodha ma’am asked us to leave our old Google group due to the rumor mail that the college is reopening next month. She asked our entire CT batch to trace our IP addresses and prove our innocence. Please share it, medam. Our entire class can attend the OS lecture only if you share the link with me, medam. Plzzz!”
“Hahaha, sure, Dhilip saar!”
“Please don’t forget to share it before each and every lecture. She keeps changing the links daily.”
“I know right, it should have been a recurring link like our PD lectures.”
“Guys, which link should we join today?”, a text popped up, on our common unofficial group.
“Ooo, it's PD class next, right?”, I texted Rohini.
“Oh yea! I too forgot, chatting here!”, she replied. Hmm, why do we forget the entire world and lose ourselves in our own worlds when we chat with each other, Rohini medam? Firstly, why do I feel this way? Is this love?!
“The Zoom link today, right?”, she asked me.
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’
“Yes yes, joom only, medam. Google Meet is only when the ‘A’ section is combined with ours”, texted I.
“Joom hahaha!”
“Joom Zoom Joom!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
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“In the example table you presented, I wanted to ask this earlier as well…I know that you’re Dhilip. Who are Philip, Tulip, Milip, etc.,? Haha!”, she texted, after a PD class.
“That's called creativity, medam”, texted I.
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“Wow! You’re so funny, Dhilip saar!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line. My mobile vibrated with the google forms link on our PD group.
“Hey, today’s questions are hard. What do we do? Shall we skip them, saar? Please!”
“Sexy! Medam, then Ayesha ma’am will be shocked at her deer students being defaulters”
“Deer? What’s deer?!”
“Medam, deer! Deer!”
“That's what..what’s a deer? I don’t know…”
“Medam, go back to play school.”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“Saar, I really don’t know...Haan, I’ve heard of the term but…”
“Oooo, what’s this Rohini medam?” I shared a cute deer emoji with two horns.
“Ohh, shit! Got it, saar!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“Ma’am keeps calling us dear students and you manipulated dear to ‘deer’. Urgh! You’re a puzzle, Dhilip”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
###############################
No sooner did I close my notes than my mobile beeped with a message from Rohini. I blushed, opening our chat and downloading the PDF she had shared.
“Sycc! The material has a wrong answer. Let's inform ma’am about this”, I texted.
“What? Sycc? Are you calling me a psycho?!”, she texted.
“Aye, no, sycc means its nice. Rohini medam, learn Bangalore English.”
“Oh my goodness! Thanks, sycc, sexy, medam and more…Dhilip Shabdhkhosh!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
“What’s shabdhkhosh?”
“Dictionary in Hindi”
“Oooooo”
“Dhilip saar, you must create an app just for your language. Phew!”
“Rohini medam, it's already out there. Sexy! Don’t you know? All my friends know.”
A couple of minutes later, she continued chatting:
“Saar, I googled but it's neither there on Google play store nor anywhere else on the Internet. Where have you published? Private network? Add me there!”
Aww, Rohini medam, how are you such a cute kid? Aww! I blushed and laughed to myself.
“Ooo, medam, did you indeed search? It doesn’t exist. I was just playing around.”
“Saarrrrrrrrrrr!!!!Noooooooo!!!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
######################################
“Rohini medam, can you please share the OS lecture’s link to this poor Dhilip guy? Pls plzz”, texted I, with a series of tearful faces in a line, as soon as the zoom window with ‘Cryptography’ titled in the center, disappeared after Pavan’s last words of the lecture: ‘Thank you, class’.
“Oops, sorry, Dhilip saar. I forgot about it today!”, Rohini texted, with the blue underlined URL following her message.
“Thenks thenguuu varyyy muchhh!”
“Dhilip Shabdhkhosh!”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line. Aye! If you keep talking to her like this, where will our story go? Sexy! You’re shy. She is shier. Your love story will be the slowest one ever. Ooo, super, Dhilip! It will rock if it continues at this pace!
Hmm, I miss those days, indeed. As soon as I joined the next class, I rushed to stand by the flying curtains. I closed my eyes as the morning breeze, carrying a tinch of rain’s smell in it, brushed upon my face. Aww, Rohini and I were getting so close back during those days. Why didn’t I ever give anything a thought? Why didn’t I feel it when my right love-my true love was around me? She was right under my nose while I jumped into the drainage resembling a high-class fancy swimming pool from outside.
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“Class now, Honey!”, Ayesha ma’am’s text popped up in our common group. Although she deleted it within minutes, I happened to read it. Oooo! Wow, no sooner did Rohini and I start getting closer than the monsoon turned into romance, for all!
“Medam, big medam texted class now honey!”, I texted Rohini.
“Yeah, saw it!”, she texted. “But, when did you happen to see it?”
“Yes yes, it notifies although it's deleted.”
We shared three laughing emojis again in a line.
I blushed, leaning back on my study chair, closing my eyes, and laughing. Hmm, how romantic! Aye, what a coincidence, here I have been wondering if I can love Rohini and if external factors are, as such, creating a romantic ambiance. Sexy! Let's see where it goes…
Are Dhilip Saar and Rohini Medam too immersing in the romance monsoon season?!?!!!
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