Chapter 5: I am in love!

Ever had mixed feelings? I was going through the same when it started raining in the morning. It was the first rain of the monsoon

.

But then, everybody loves the first rain! Why was I having mixed feelings? Well, let’s see… Even I was elated to fell those first few drops of water on my face. This cool sensation after the long scorching heat of May & June was nothing less than any delight in the world. The rain had caused all nearby world to stop. No traffic, all offices closed! Everybody was home sipping their hot cups of tea with fresh pakode complimenting the season. In that peace, the smell of wet soil made me feel I was in   the deepest of the most beautiful jungles.

But as the rain continued to pour down whole heartedly, I started to become anxious. The timing could have been so much better! Never mind the fact that it was a Sunday and a really good rainy day was merged into an already existing holiday, what made it worse was that I had the semi-final match in the evening where she would have come to watch me play! It had been raining continuously for past 5 hours now! The match was just 3 hours away! What if it didn’t stop? I already couldn’t sleep the whole previous night because of the anxiety! I just couldn’t stand another week waiting for it!

I was continuously praying for the rain to stop when finally it did with just 1 hour to go before the match! I was so happy! I quickly dressed up and went towards the grounds to stretch a little before the match. I knew I was early, but I was a little surprised that I was the first one to reach. As I reached the ground, I realized my blunder. What I hadn’t calculated in my anxiety was that after 7 hours of continuous rain, the whole ground had been replaced by a muddy pool of water. I felt as if a lightning had struck me.

I knew there was no way the match could be played there unless we were thinking of some new sport of underwater cricket. I decided to whisk away and change before anyone realizes what a fool I had made of myself. Thank God I hadn’t woken up Billu to come along otherwise he would have laughed at me till death!

Thankfully I didn’t meet anyone of significance on my way back and safely changed back to my regular clothes. As I stood on the hostel balcony looking around, everything felt so pure & fresh! The grass seemed so much more lush green. The birds were chirping on top of their voices. There was still very less traffic making everything so peacefully beautiful! And then it started to rain again.

It was an irony. The same atmosphere that had made me feel so ecstatic in the morning was filling in a gloom in me. It was because of this rain that I couldn’t impress her today. What if she had some work and didn’t come to the next match? What if the match was scheduled in the morning and she couldn’t wake up for it? What if she didn’t come to know when the match was to be rescheduled? The more I thought, the worse I felt.

A group of guys & girls had come out in the rain to play football. They were playing randomly for fun without any rules or anything on the road. I started to watch the game. They were shouting and laughing more than trying to score. They all seemed so happy unaware of the tragedy that had happened with me. And then I saw her! 

Standing under the porch, with one hand stretched out to feel the droplets she was there in a pure white dress. Suddenly all my pain went away. I was just lost in watching her. And then a girl came from somewhere and pulled her out in the rain! She just stood there surprised what had just happened to her. And then she started laughing and pulling other girls out. It was like magic. Everybody was spreading happiness by pulling them out in rain. The ones inside wanted to come out but just too shy to come out by themselves. I don’t know how, a smile spread across my face as I watched her dripped in rain living the moment. I don’t know for how long I stood there watching her. It was as if she had some spell cast on me.

The spell was suddenly broken as I felt sharp pain on my head. I was so lost I didn’t realize when Billu came near me. Taking the best advantage of the moment, he smacked hard on my head. I was super irritated, more for breaking my spell than the hit. Just as I turned around to hit back, his words kind of froze me. Bhasisaab kuch kar lo nai to bhabhi kisi aur ki ho gai to bas Devdas ki tarah daaru pakad k rote reh jaoge. The only response I had was Paagal hai kya? To save my reputation, I sacrificed watching her and walked back in my room.

But I knew the truth in my heart. As I turned around, I understood why people blame heart instead of brain for love. I felt as if my chest had just been made 5kgs heavier. I was in love!

What I didn’t realize was that soon this love was going make me blind as well… Starting from that night itself!

Chapter 4: The Super Cricketer

We had decided to bunk the lectures and practice for the next day’s match all afternoon. By 6 o’clock, all my energy was up and I was about to collapse. I was about to appeal against the team’s decision of playing one last match of 10 overs before calling it a day as my eyes fell on something that almost made me jump. She was sitting on the stairs with her friend watching the practice match!

It was as if God had given me another opportunity! This was my chance to impress her! Suddenly, I don’t know how, I felt like I had a 10,000 volt battery up my dead ass. As the match began, I was commenting loudly at every ball, giving my suggestions to both the batsman & the bowler while constantly telling every fielder to buck up. I was getting impatient waiting for my batting. I was afraid that she might leave before watching me play. After 2 overs and 2 balls, finally the first wicket was down. I immediately rose and ran towards the pitch.

I had goose bumps all over me as I took my stance in front of the wicket. I was at the centre. She was bound to notice me! As the first ball came towards me, I tried for sweep shot to hit a four on the leg side. I miserably missed the ball. I missed the second ball as well and almost got out. I cursed myself. Oh God! Please don’t let me fuck up this game! I’ll go to temple just after the match!

I closed my eyes and then, like Amir Khan of Lagan, tapped the bat in slow motion on the ground. As the third ball came, I hit it hard and it went straight for a six! My teammates cheered. She had watched me hit a six! She had heard people cheering for me! My heart was throbbing faster than ever! As the last ball of the over was bowled, I took another shot and this time, successfully hit a four on the leg side.

My head was spinning! My heartbeat was so fast that for a moment I thought I was going to puke! I thanked God that it was the last ball of the over and changed the side. However, the comfort was short lived as we took a single run on the very next ball. As I came to strike, though the dizziness was lessened, my heart was still beating very loudly! Once again I tried to repeat my Lagan act to gather some magical power. The ball was a bit high. Still, I took a step aside and hit it with full force. Once again it went for a six but unfortunately, it was caught in the air just near the boundary. I was out! I had lost the battle!

I had some kind of heaviness in my chest along with the increased heartbeats as I came back to the stairs that acted as our pavilion. I tried to analyse my performance. I got out very early. But then, I also hit a six and a four! Hmmm… May be it wasn’t the best but still not the worst as well.  

I had one more chance left. I was once again ready to face the challenge with a renewed spirit!  Though I wasn’t going to bowl, I still could impress her by fielding extraordinarily well! I made a promise to myself that any shot on my side had to pass over my dead body.

As the opposite team came to strike, our team had made very few runs. I was high on energy. I was running madly after any ball that came to my side and was actually doing a commendable job. My heartbeats once again broke their own record as I caught a rather easy catch near the boundary. This was definitely going to add positive points in my plate! It was the sixth over. Our team had almost lost the match despite my best efforts to keep the score as low as possible. The batsman took a shot and the ball went high in the air. I ran towards the ball to catch it! It was going to land a little away from my reach. I was so close! I didn’t know how but I jumped at it! It was a picture perfect dive and I caught the ball! Unfortunately, I landed on some concrete that was lying for construction on the side and got my left arm heavily bruised!

Everybody came running towards me. Suddenly, I was the man of the match! The bad side was that my arm was paining and bleeding badly. Even worse was that I couldn’t cry for help or leave the match! I had to be a macho man in front of her not a sissy girl! Thankfully some of the guys protested against my wish to continue playing and forced me to go to the nearest hospital to get some medication! I made sure I was speaking loudly enough so that she could hear me say that it was nothing and I was leaving only because of my silly teammates. Finally the match was declared a draw and we all pulled the wickets out. We were going to meet directly at the time of the semi final match after this.

As I walked out of the grounds, I saw most of the spectators were looking at me surrounded with other players tending to my injury. She was also watching! And just like everyone else, she too had a concerned look on her face! Even though my arm was hurting badly, the fact that she had seen me play so well made me feel happier than ever! Every time I thought of her watching my performance, the song Haari Baazi Ko Jeetna Hamain Aata Hai came to my mind & I felt walking in slow motion like some hero. It was one of the best days of my life!

Billu joined me near the exit gates. I had almost forgotten he was also sitting on the stairs watching the game. Bloody bastard didn’t even come to the ground to see me when I got hurt! My anger boiled to even higher temperatures as I saw him grinning at me. And then, suddenly it went poof! Only he in the crowd had understood my real game, pain & joy! As I neared him, he said only one word, Chutiye!

I and Billu picked up a senior’s bike from the hostel & went to the nearest hospital. As promised to the benevolent God, I also went to temple & offered a bribe in the form of Prasad of Rs. 21/- to make the upcoming days even more like this one. The practice match had gone well. If the performance in the next day’s match went so well, I was sure to make a mark on her!

But as they say, life is stranger than fiction… Many more surprises were yet to hit me on the face! What God had in mind for the next day in my love story was beyond my imagination!

Chapter 3: The Disaster

After constantly firing Billu’s spy junior for around fifteen minutes, we left him alone. Billu’s mission had been prematurely aborted without any intel. The fool had gone to Billu’s hot chick and told her that two seniors wanted her details. She obviously had declined & asked who wanted the details. The only thing that rescued us was that the idiot didn’t know our names when the girl inquired who the seniors were. And now I had to act quickly before the same disaster fell on my love story.

My spy junior seemed particularly happy as he came closer towards us. It meant the cat was already out of the bag. Even before he could come to a halt, I fired two questions on him. Do you know our names? Did you tell anything about us to her? Both the answers were in affirmative. FUCK!

I felt like the faulty rocket at Diwali which instead of going up blasts at the ground itself. My love story had ended even before it could start! I was so depressed; I didn’t even want to fire him. Billu did the honors on my behalf. As I and Billu turned to leave, the junior called us from behind. What the hell? Wasn’t this much of firing enough for him? As I turned around, I saw him offering us a sheet of paper. She had given her details! FUCK!

I immediately snatched the sheet out of his hand and then walked briskly to my room eager to read it. Somehow despite the fact that my image would have been that of a stalker in her eyes, I was too excited to have the information on her. By the time I went to bed, I knew the sheet by heart! I didn’t actually know what to do next. For the next six months, the sheet was always in my pocket until one day she actually snatched it from me. Anyway, that’s a story for some other time.

For the entire next week, most of my time was spent thinking about her and trying to avoid her so as to save embarrassment. The only other thing in my mind was the upcoming cricket match on Sunday. I was going first down to bat. It was the semi-final match of the inter-departmental cricket tournament. We had been practicing almost four hours each day but the rumor had it that our opponents had a state player in their team from the first year whose batting skills were par excellence.

It was Friday night. Following my new routine since the embarrassing incident, I went early for dinner so that she wouldn’t see me. As I entered, my eyes fell on the oiled hair with two pony tails in red ribbons on top of a fairy white face. She was early for dinner as well! Seeing her in the first year girls’ dress code, it seemed as if the Euro crisis had been so bad that Londoners had opted for Indian village school education. 

I immediately retraced my steps as I collided into Billu who entering just behind me. I indicated to him that she was inside. It’s said a picture speaks a thousand words. He gave me a look that was filled with more than thousand abuses. I decided to override all his frustrations and run away just like Harry Potter does as soon as he seen a monster.

She took a freakishly long time of almost an hour to come out. In the meantime, our only saviors against hunger & boredom were the girls passing by. As she came out, I once again found difficulty in breathing. Even in her silly clothes, as the moon light fell on her face, she glowed like an angel! The difficulty turned into a heart attack as she looked at us while passing by.

I rose and almost ran towards the mess as if she would just turn into a werewolf and eat me up! But the incident kind of gave me a hope. Maybe my love story wasn’t over yet. What I didn’t know was that in our next encounter, she was going to give me a lot of cuts and bruises.

Would she have me beaten up by someone? Maybe. Let’s see in the next chapter!

Chapter 2: The First Session

It is just unfair how a man is a slave to his testosterone  The incident at dinner table had officially made me a jackass. Or so I feel now. I was completely high on her! A thousand questions were rattling my mind all the time. I just wasn’t being able to focus, be it anything. Even Billu’s new American Pie collection couldn't distract me!

It would have been somewhere around 2.00 at night. We were ‘mingling’ with the first year for the last three hours (or at least the security guards thought so). I sometimes wonder if my life could have been so much better had we not taught our juniors so many new ‘verses’. God must have heard them at least a thousand times using the same on us.

I was feeling nostalgic. Just an year ago, I was standing there in official first year dress code (formal shirt, pants & Bata white & blue slippers with tons of oil in hair) looking at my third button. I remembered our educational agenda for the first day:

• All seniors were to be saluted every time we saw them in the official manner. We had to bend 90 degrees with one hand raised & other on our soft couple.
• The official pledge had been dictated. It started off with giving ourselves a set of ’special compliments’. Then we had to swear on the masculine parts of our HOD that we would treat all seniors with respect while never looking at any girl throughout the first year. It was to be learnt by heart.
• Human anatomy had been taught in detail.
• All seniors had given their assignments to be copied from the nerds of their batches.

Suddenly I came back to the reality as our educational agenda for the juniors was almost over. The nerds who cried in between had been taken to other rooms to sober them up and then sent off to their rooms. The other potent candidates were given further assignments of buying condoms, bras and other such props. The day was finally over at around 3.00am. The juniors were reminded that they could opt out of the special educational program anytime. However, only those who were going to ‘follow the legacy’, would get help from seniors & gain respect from their juniors.

After the session was over, I and Billu took two juniors aside and gave them our own assignments. Billu had asked his junior to fetch as much intel as he could on some hot chick in first year. I had done the same except the intel to be gathered was on my elf. They were given a time limit of two days for the assignment. In return they got a relaxation from the official dress code for one day.

I had made the first move. The spy game had just begun! But I and Billu had forgotten to anticipate something while making our moves. And we were going to repent it. Let’s see what it was in the next chapter… ;)

Chapter 1: Meet Me, Her & Billu

Looking back now I seem to myself to be pretty confident that it wasn’t actually what I thought it to be. I know the statement looks pretty fucked up syntactically, but trust me, by the time I complete this story you’ll realize it’s the semantic part that’s really fucked up!

Who am I? Well I am definitely NOT a hacker as my Mom & Dad wanted me to be after watching me morph a photograph in MS Paint. I sometimes doubt had I not put Bill Gates’ face in our family photograph over my Dad’s face, I would have escaped not only the beating over the incident but also studying my ass off to try for IITs & then settle for a Good Private Engineering College (in top 20) (whose name sadly no one ever recognized!) Anyway, the realization of the fact that my engineering skills suck dawned upon my parents as soon as I got my first backlog in Mathematics-III (M-III) in Semester IV. God *Bless* the professor who checked my paper. Just a few days after I cleared my M-III, my parents blamed my friends for the backlog, I felt a sharp kick on my ass & found myself in an institute preparing for CAT. Once again, I was pretty confident about getting into IIMs but then had to settle for a Good MBA College (in top 20, again) (whose name sadly no one ever recognized, again!) So, coming back to the question, who am I, I am either you or the next door loser you know pursuing his MBA.

By the title itself, it’s pretty obvious that it’s a love story. So the next thing in order is the introduction of the prettiest thing God ever made, ‘the girl’. She was again, just the way they are! Pretty & Smart (‘&’ has consciously been put!) Ah, she was a dream come true! Honestly, just between the two of us, I never thought I could actually date a girl like her!

I still remember the first time I saw her! I and my friends were taking ‘introduction’ of the juniors. In just one glance around the old semi-broken benches, it was clear that the curse had prevailed; there were hardly any girls in our junior batch as well. The air of depression was held off by the hopes of getting to know the few faces of the fairer sex that were lighting the entire room. Though the numbers were same as our batch, all of my batch mates agreed the beauty had definitely risen in the college with the joining of our juniors. Sitting on the left hand side, third row from the last, she was amongst the best looking ones. Her greyish black eyes seemed to be attracting with some kind of magnetic power. Her hair with streaks of brown in black & her fair, soft skin made her look like an elf from Lord of the Rings. Her introduction was short but she had an attitude, an air of smartness, unlike the other chick that I really liked and my friends found not so good for some reasons inappropriate to mention on a public forum. I had rated her a seven on ten, quite a bit lower than my friends, knowing well that she was way out of my league! (& grapes are mostly sore!)

It would have seemed fate just like in movies when she was sitting on the dinner table next to ours unless the juniors weren’t being ragged and we hadn’t told them to keep away from the girls’ benches. Somehow just looking at her felt so ecstatic that I didn’t realize Billu was giggling at me.

Billu, the next character in the story is my best friend right from day one in the college. We started many things together in life including engineering, smoking & drinking (All three being injurious to health). He got his nickname ‘Billu’ from one of our seniors due to his unique style of running like comic characters with his pelvic region thrust ahead of his whole body.

Anyway, I immediately sprang to the rescue of my ego by reminding him of his maa, his behen & his yet to be born beti in a rather non respectful way. He got the better of me and said look she’s staring at us. I immediately got conscious though I knew he was bluffing. Still not taking any chances, I stole a look at her again, and indeed she was! It seemed she was telling something to her friend about us.

What happens next? Let's see in the next Chapter. :)