“How did you solve the other two?” Arjun is still shocked.
“What do you mean?”
“They were the toughest ones. The first three I solved in five minutes. I have been trying to solve the other two, but no luck! You did it right away.” Arjun fails to hide his apparent disbelief.
“Arjun, I happen to be in the same class as you are.” I peek at him through the corner of my eyes. Some boys can be annoying sometimes.
“I think you should pay more attention in class. You could do really well in exams.” He offers his unrequited advice and my brain clouds with anger. Really! I thought I did not have filters in my brain. I guess, maybe more people suffer from the filter disease.
I glare at Arjun. “Was that a compliment or sarcasm?”
Arjun looks visibly scared and wisely chooses not to reply and opens his file to start writing the queries.
At some level, I know why he would say that. I do average in my exams. That is also because I do not have much interest in the world of databases and applications.
I do about enough to get me through one semester to the other. I wish I had a passion for this dry land of logic. The only time I have felt the blood pulsing through my veins is when I write in my diary. Hey, no judging! Writing my experience with different people and places makes me happy. Lately, one more thing equally or more passionate is talking with Mr. Raag Purohit.
“So, how are you?” A childlike voice startles me.
“God, Anju you scared me,” I reply and exhale. She looks cute in her pink capris, jean jacket, and a white T-shirt. Her straight, shoulder-length, burgundy hair complements her petite build and sharp features. She stands right behind us and looks curious as she raises her eyebrows a few times. I can’t help but smile shyly.
“Yaar! Tell me, no…what is it? You are totally blushing!” She hops over the bench and sits right in between me and Arjun. Arjun looks visibly annoyed, yet she pushes him further right. “Did you talk to Raag? What did he say?”
“We did talk,” I reply while pretending to focus on the screen, playing with the keyboard.
“And?” she whispers as the assistant professor Ms. Mudra enters.
“Anju! Can’t we talk at the bus stop? Ms. Mudra would tell on us…”
“No, she won’t!” Anju says carelessly. “Now tell me. What did Mr. Right say?”
Agh, Anju can be tenacious. I look at the desktop pretending to understand and say very slowly, “Raag said that he loves me too.”
“Oh my god! What!” she shrieks, and now everyone is staring. Which makes Ms. Mudra, who is dressed in green shalwar kameez, to glare at our table. Ms. Mudra is probably three years older than us; she was hired as an assistant right after her graduation. She used to be a female version of Arjun at her time in college. I have heard that Ms. Mudra is one of the assistants with whom boys do not mess with. She is smart and has a firm attitude.
“Do I know what’s going on in here?” Ms. Mudra asks with a straight face. She scurries toward us, arranging her emerald green chunari, a scarf Indian women wear traditionally on a dress.
“Um…ma’am…Arjun solved the last query as well. It was tough. I came here to see if they solved it,” Anju promptly replies, and both Arjun and I stare at each other.
“You are supposed to solve the problems with the help of your lab partner.” Mudra looks at Anju. “Not with other groups.”
Arjun corrects Anju in a firm tone as if Ms. Mudra wasn’t enough. “Ma’am, I did not solve the last query, Mayuri did.” Though Anju eyes him, he still goes on. “In fact, the last two!”
Oh, if looks could kill. If I were Arjun, I would have kept my mouth shut. Nobody messes with Anju. Arjun must be a brave soul.
“I am sorry, ma’am. I will go back to my bench. We are also almost done here.” Anju steps over the bench, and scuttles toward her lab partner Lakshmi. Lakshmi is Anju’s Arjun.
Just as Ms. Mudra starts looking at our paper, Anju signals with her hands from behind Ms. Mudra, for me to wait for her at the bus stop. I deliberately try to avoid looking at her. Someday, she might get me in trouble.
*
After college, we meet at a super crowded and super noisy college bus stop. I tell Anju everything that she wanted to know. She gets so excited that she even passes on one bus just so she could hear more about my weekend adventures. Tonight she’ll probably dream of the same too, I think.
“Do you think you love him?” she asks loudly, arousing curiosity among students waiting at the bus stop.
I shush her and slowly say, “What do you mean? Of course, I don’t just think that I love him!” I emphasize. “I know I love him.”
“Aww…look at you!” She rolls her shoulder blades up. “Do you feel the butterflies and violin and all the bells and whistles?”
“You have no idea.” I roll my eyes and smile shyly. “But more than that, I have this divine feeling like…like my heart is at peace. As if I have found the elixir or something.”
She rolls her eyes teasingly. “Wow! Do you even hear yourself?”
“I know…”
“But he must love you, yaar!”
I frown at her as I utter, “You had doubts about my feelings, but him, you are sure!”
“You told him that you like to write…” Anju cocks her head to the side. “In your diary!” she adds as if making a joke. I bump her shoulder with mine and join her in a laugh.
Yes, he must love me!
“So…when are you two getting married?”
I can’t hide the horror from my voice. “What?” I frown at her. “Marriage?”
“Yes…you like Mr. NRI!” She flutters her eyebrows as she smiles like a devil. “No, no…not just like, more than like, you love the NRI. And he loves you too. Marriage is the only final destination. Once you are married, your life is all set.”
“My life hasn’t even begun!” I narrow my eyes at her as I frown. “I have to get a degree, start working, and stand on my own two feet. Besides, do I look ready for marriage? I can’t even make a roti for myself. Forget about cooking for two people.” I speak fast, expressing my fundamental thoughts on marriage.
“Well, isn’t that how arranged marriages work? After a brief chat…a man sort of likes a woman, a woman sort of likes the man, they get married, have a bunch of kids, live happily ever after…” Anju says everything as dramatically as she can. Then adds, “The happily ever after part occurs some of the time!” She raises her eyebrows a few times in her classic gesture.
“Are you out of your mind?” I shout. “You know I don’t want to get married this early…I’m just nineteen!”
“I know. I happen to be the same age. Besides, you have to deal with your parents on that.” She raises her hands in the air, disarming. “Not me.”
“Look, I didn’t plan this. I’m not sure where this is going. All I know is that I am dying to hear him talk right now…” I muse. “And that could only be achieved if I don’t miss this bus.” I point at the arriving bus and rush past her to join the small crowd of students.
As soon as the bus comes to an abrupt stop with the screeching sound of tires, the crowd rushes in through the back entrance and so do I.