I sipped my favorite Nescafe Classic sitting on my couch, watching the latest songs. It’s another beautiful Saturday morning, which means a lot to me, yah I am Preethi, hard core IT employee. It’s already 10.30 AM, but I was least bothered, cause this is the day where there are no onsite calls, status updates, KT sessions, Training sessions etc. etc. My mom urged me to take bath; because this is the day my parents were waiting for. Yah most of the decisions were done, the horoscopes were matched, both the parents are satisfied with various different constraints and criteria’s. The only thing pending is that the girl and the boy i.e. me and Rahul has to see each other personally as we have confirmed our decisions only by seeing the photographs. I sighed. I went to my bed room, where my maid was cleaning and arranging all the old stuffs. One of my chudi stuffed in the old box got my attention. I took it; it smelled with the old cardboard smell, it’s a striped cream top with purpled bottom and dupatta.I couldn’t bear the burden in my heart. I don’t know what was that feeling exactly. It’s none other than my college uniform. I sat on my bedstead holding my college uniform. My mind rolled back 7 years back.
Owing to my family financial constraints, I was forced to take a local college, so that my parents can reduce the hostel fees. My parents were disappointment cause I didn’t score enough to secure a seat in a government college, but they are satisfied that I at least got the Dote 2 quota i.e. Free seat, in a decent college in my home town itself. I dreamt of many things, how will be my class, how should I speak, my staffs, department etc. and I also dreamt of the guy of my life..hmm..how will he be??
18 JUNE 2007 was my first day to college. My parents accompanied me. I saw few of the guys from my school, who I literally hate to see. We had the induction session. Once that was done, a hand patted my back. It’s Thivya. She screamed, you joined here ? I smiled back at her. She is my school mate. Thivya introduced me to two other girls Anu and Priya. Somehow we gelled up very soon. The formalities were done and the college has arranged buses for departure. I waved bye to my friends and moved towards the bus bay. There were some volunteers helping the parents and the new joinees to take the right bus.
My mom exclaimed, hey Vikram what are you doing here? He turned back! I literally fainted the moment I saw him! He was tall, brownish and handsome. He smiled broadly at my mom, and said aunty, I study here. I am in to my second year CSE. My mom screamed Oh great! I am so glad, my daughter Preeti is joining here this year in CSE department only. So no worries of ragging for my daughter since you are here. She said, Preeti this is Vikram , my best friends son. I said Hi weakly! He replied back with a base voice and a beautiful smile HI!!!I couldn’t see his eyes and I diverted immediately. He introduced Shiva to my mom, aunty this is Shiva!! My best friend, We are buddies from our 5th standard, he too is in 2nd year CSE. They exchanged few words and Vikram guided us to our Bus. I sat in the window seat bewildered, without knowing what is happening in my mind. The bus squawked and started, I hesitantly looked back and my eyes met two pairs of eyes ..hmm…both Vikram and Shiva gazed back at me. Hastily I turned back and didn’t breath for few seconds. I washed my face, and headed to sleep. I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought about Vikram all the time, sometimes I laughed, sometimes I felt stupidly irritated. Without knowing that the next four years of my life is going to be a roller coaster ride, that will etch a deep mark in my heart, I headed to sleep.
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I stood waiting for my college bus, with all new stuffs on me, new blue chudi, new bag, new hairstyle, what all to say. I boarded my bus, the girl in the front ushered me to move to the 5th seat...oops again I saw both Vikram and Shiva smiling at me sitting in the seventh seat behind the staffs. The staffs sit as a wall between the girls and the boys. After a few stops Thivya and Anu boarded the bus. We all sat together and giggled talking about our new class. Priya boarded in the last stop, she waved at us and sat in the other end.
We all sat in our new class. It’s a broad class room with three windows on each side of the room. There were 3 columns with 5 rows in each column. The 1st column was occupied by the girls and the rest two columns were the boys. We occupied the last row…ha ha…The last row girls… Our first staff, Mr. Raj gave a bright smile and introduced him. He made everybody to introduce themselves with their objective. Ganesh, the weirdest guy in the class made all nasty jokes and gave a look at the girls for every 10 second interval. God!! I hated him like anything. An office boy interrupted us and told all the students to move to the computer lab to collect their uniforms, books and instruments.
We giggled and moved and we all stood in a queue to collect the things. Suddenly Priya whispered, hey look at the guy in the first row in the nearby class, he looks awesome…Anu sighed awwww…Priya interrupted he is Ok de not awesome. I leaned back to look at the guy, Oh God, I nearly dropped. It was Vikram and Shiva. I was not sure whom they were talking about. Since they were in uniform, I don’t know how to distinguish and confirm. I stood erect, posing that I am least bothered. But really I did know how fast my heart was beating. We collected our stuffs and went back to our seat.
In the interval, one of the senior girls called all four of us in to nearby classroom. There were around many girls and boys. We dint know what to do. She gave a strong stare at us and questioned what u girls formed the gang from the very first day ...hah? So what’s your name? Trembling I replied Preethi!! Everybody gave a loud thud of laugh! I wondered what is so funny about my name! One guy from the back, shouted! Ok Preethi enact the preethi Mixer Grinder AD!!! I was startled! It’s none other than Vikram! I couldn’t believe. The senior girl patted his back and said well-done Vikram! And yelled at me Hey do it! I did Weakly and softly I said “ Preethi Vanngha Naan Guarantee”[I guarantee for buying Preethi mixer and grinder]They all laughed all together, Then Vikram screamed again…hello madam do it with actions!!! What is this? Have we come here to see mono acting? My tears were about to fall! I breathed heavily and from nowhere Shiva came in to the scene and said to me, take your friends and go to your class Preethi ! Vikram and the other seniors looked at him startled and nobody spoke a word. I looked at him so gratefully, by that time, my tears were rolling down my cheek. Shiva said, don’t cry and ushered us outside. As I was moving out of the class, I heard Shiva shouting at Vikram on the behavior with the new joinees.
I sat in my class, thinking about it. My friends teased me on behalf of Vikram and Shiva. I sighed. But somehow, the naughty character of Vikram attracted me. Most of the days I will look for Vikram in the bus or whenever I cross his classroom and almost all the time I will end up seeing 4 eyes ,yah both Vikram’s and Shiva’s. It’s already a month, I always had the rush to talk to Vikram, but somehow I couldn’t. That evening I was speaking with my mom, and carefully I opened the subject about Vikram and my mom exclaimed yah Gayathri’s son …Hows he doing?
After a chit chat, I took my mom’s phone book and started searching. I found two gayathri! I don’t know which one! I dialed from my landline to one of the Gayathri’s number.A lady picked the phone, I asked tremblingly, is Vikram in home? Astonished! She replied in a stern voice, who are you? I disconnected the phone! My hands were already wet with fear. I sweated. I didn’t know what to do! I didn’t know what I dialed his number! I was terrified to the maximum thinking, what will happen, if he finds out? Will he embarrass me or what ? what? I got a severe headache! Again I dint sleep properly that night!
The next day, I didn’t dare to look at him in the bus as well in the college. In the Lunch break, Vikram came to my class, with another guy. He called me out. I started to tremble from my feet, my three friends joined me. I went near him. He introduced the new guys Madhav , to me. I said Hi weakly. Then casually he asked…so Preethi “Did you call my home yesterday”. God!! I stood still, suddenly I couldn’t hear anything. I felt that the world stopped rotating. I wondered how on the world he found that! Priya gave me a shake. I came back to reality. I took a deep breath and with a cold face and tears in my eyes, I replied back, how dare you ask me this? What do you think of me? Do you think I am a girl going after guys? I never expected you to be this cheap!
Vikram stood stunned without knowing what to do??
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Yelling at Vikram, I rushed to the nearest wash room. I really couldn’t understand how I acted so well. But fear and guilty feeling gripped me so badly. When I came out my four friends convinced me and scolded Vikram so badly. I couldn’t bear those words, but somehow I told them to stop speaking on that topic and headed back to my class. In the evening Interval, in the pantry, Vikram came straight to me, and calmly said a simple Sorry. I didn’t reply back. He broke the silence and told me, my mom told that a girl called me, I don’t know why, but I got an instinct that it was you. But never meant to hurt you. I am sincerely sorry. He moved saying this. I stood staring at him dumbfounded. My friends gave a glare at me.
Next afternoon, whole of our classes were divided in to two batches. Except for Anu, I, Priya and Thivya were in the same batch. We all went inside the lab, but the second year CSE students have occupied already. I saw Vikram and Shiva sitting in the left corner. They departed from the lab, I turned to the opposite direction, so that I don’t have to face them. Our lecturer directed us to occupy any seats; I pulled Priya and took the same seat where Vikram and Shiva were seated. Our lecturer started with simple exercises on VB, and when I opened the system, it had many documents saved with Shiva’s name. Then I realized in a hurry I took Shiva’s seat. I cannot tell this to Priya, because I was maintaining a decent image with my friends. Any way now and then I interrupted Priya and peeped in to Vikrams programs and documents. Priya started to notice that I am taking lots of interest on Vikram. I created so many documents and I created my profile with my likes and don’t likes and saved with my name. This I did purely for Vikram to take notice.
But unfortunately, I started to get disturbances from Ganesh, my class mate. He made rubbish comments when we passed by. He occupied the same computer, as he is in the other batch. He made lots of stupid documents. This started spreading like a wild fire. One fine day, during the lunch break, Vikram , Madhav ,Shiva and 2 more other guys came to our class. They called Ganesh and his friends outside. They had a discussion for few seconds. Once our seniors moved away, Ganesh came straight to me, he shouted, What Preethi! Threatening me with seniors!!hah!!! As of now I will leave it and I will take my revenge at the right time! The moment he moved away, my face brightened and I couldn’t believe that Vikram has started taking interest in me. My friends started to tease. But I strictly told them, that I don’t like these kinds of comments.
We got a circular, that the fresher’s party is going to happen the coming Friday. The fresher’s party was on the 45th day since our first day. The whole college was on causals, it’s a cool break from our weird uniforms. We had culturals, games, lunch, competitions etc. After lunch, the senior girls called all the fresher girls and gave knitting threads and told us to do rakhi bands. We were confused initially. Then around 4.00 PM, they told us to tie the bands to any guys we want. It was so funny to watch, guys running here and there. We four girls stood watching this and laughing.
I said, I will tie this band to Ganesh! Priya reacted immediately and said, why you don’t tie it for Vikram. A moment, I suffered from electric shock. But I stood, as if I was least bothered and I replied back, Big deal! If he is ready then I can tie. Not a Problem. I literally prayed to God, that Priya shouldn’t take any adverse steps. But without waiting a second, she ran and called Vikram, who was standing at the other side of the corridor, and called me from there. I didn’t know what to do. I felt, I will run away somewhere. But Anu and Thivya started to scream, hey Preethi, come…come… lets have fun. I felt like that I was having stroke. But we moved near them. Vikram looked confused. Madhav and Shiva stared equally confused.
Priya screamed, Vikram anna (Vikram Brother), Preethi wants to tie this rakhi for you. Vikram smiled casually, Oh is it…Good then I have got a beautiful sister…he exclaimed! My world really stopped when he uttered these words. I dint speak anything, I dint even look at him, I took the rakhi and tied it in his right hand. I tied it and my hands trembled so violently. Priya mocked at me, why dear your hands are shaking as if, hadn’t taken food for many days. Vikram alleged back, may be Priya …she wouldn’t have got such a handsome brother like me.
I ran to the washroom. I cried , cried, cried,…That is what I did. I couldn’t believe what had happened. I cursed Priya, I cursed Vikram.I cursed everybody. But in vain. I didn’t speak to anybody in the bus. I was completely out of form. I came to home and slept immediately. My mom woke me in the morning, I excused to take an off to college stating that I was not feeling well. The whole day I was really struggling with emotions. I cried. I couldn’t sleep. The next day, I had no option but to go to college. I boarded the bus and I sat near Priya. I didn’t say a word. Thivya and Priya kept on giggling, but I dint speak a word. After some time Priya slipped a book, with a big white paper on it stating ‘Go to Page 45’. I gave a cold stare. But she pointed her finger to the book. Irritated I opened the page 45. Bewildered, I saw the same Rakhi which I tied to Vikram, covered in pink polythene with a small note in it. “I will never accept you as my sister”.
I….I don’t ….Know….I…what to do….what to react….???!!###&&*&(^%$!!!
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I sat still, without knowing what to do. I squeezed Priya’ s hands and pulled her near me and whispered in her hear ,’who gave this to u’? She gave a loud laugh. I urged her to be quiet and tell the story. We leaned on the bus seat, and Priya with a bright smile on her face narrated.
‘Vikram called me yesterday during the lunch break. Shiva was not there but Madhav was along with him. He enquired me, why you were absent today? Then he gave this book to me and told me not to open this and also he insisted me to give this to you only in the bus, as he wants to see your reaction.’But anyway , we all saw what was inside the book yesterday itself de!!!
Aiyoooooo….I couldn’t control myself. I felt like jumping. But this time I failed to maintain my reaction in the face. I was very sure that Vikram would have realized the relief and happiness in my face. I kept a smiling face, wondering how the college‘s most handsome boy started taking interest in me. All four of us went inside the classroom and got seated in our last desk. Unusually, the window near us was closed completely. The fan above us is a name sake fan, so Anu went near the window to open it. The moment she took the latch out, the guys at the other end screamed. They blasted in some unknown words, and Ganesh shouted, if anybody tries to open that window, their hand will be gone. (The boys wanted to close the window, as it was near the corridor. So they get caught as the Principal or the staffs often peeps through that)
I was sure that Ganesh spoke some very very bad word and got outraged. I walked straight to the window and I pushed Anu aside and I opened the big window wide open. I turned back and leaned myself in the wall and I folded my hands and kept my legs crossed in a very stylish position and gave a glare at the boys. All my friends were stunned and the whole class was clam looking at me. Sensing the stillness of the classroom, suddenly a fear gripped me. But no matter what, I didn’t show that in my face. Ganesh came straight to me. He was so huge and tall, the moment he came near me, I looked so tiny, and I was only till his chest. He gave an ugly smile and told me, it would just take seconds to throw you out. I sighed, and I gave a cruel hatred smile at him and I barked back, I would use those few seconds of time to give a tight slap to you and the rest of the 3 years you have to spend your days , as a coward who got a tight slap from a girl.
The whole class was stunned at my words. But only God knows how violently I was trembling and how badly I was choked with fear. He gave a cold look at me and shouted, so the seniors are backing you lady, that is the reason behind your boldness. I replied back, Shut your mouth. Between, our lecturer Mr. Raj came inside our class. Immediately we all got seated in our seats. My friends were awestruck at my boldness and I was so proud of that.
I was in Cloud Nine ?thinking about Vikram ‘s refusal on Rakhi and Victory over Ganesh and I hardly listened to the class. We didn’t take any notes and all four of us were giggling. Suddenly Mr. Raj came to our last row and we didn’t notice that at all, as we were busy teasing each other. He roared, Preethi, what is happening there, and show me your notes? Oops, the note book that I had on my desk was Civil Note Book. But Raj deals with Engineering Drawing. All four of us stood up with our heads down. Raj gave a look at my notebook and threw it outside. I couldn’t believe what had happened. He told all four of us to stand outside the class room. God, this has never happened in my life. What a shame. We all stood near the door. Ganesh’s friends and most of the girls who likes Ganesh gave a sarcastic smile at us.
The same moment Shiva and Vikram crossed our classroom. OOOh God!!! Why on earth! This happens to me. I urged my friends not to look left and right. Once they crossed us, I slowly turned right to see Vikram.Oops he immediately turned back, and gave a mocking laugh at me. Chaa…… I hate this…. always I get caught!!!!
Again after sometime I turned right to see Vikram……but this time it was Shiva who turned back….It’s worse than the earlier!!!
Now a circular came, it’s nothing but the …Timetable for the Periodical……..Exams………………..
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I hardly studied anything. My mom was pampering me with Tea and snacks to aid me to study well. But all the while, I enjoyed the hot tea and kept dreaming. Whatever the questions, I came across; I just thought I will study it in the bus. The next day, in the bus, we four kept giggling and teasing each other. Often we received cold vibes from other students, who were sincerely reading for the exams. We confirmed out exam halls and I was thrilled, when I heard that we will be sitting with the seniors for the exams. Except for Anu, all three of us were in the same hall. I was sure that, both Vikram and Shiva will be sitting with us, since we fall in the lower part of the alphabets. Keeping fingers crossed, we appeared in the exam hall, leaving our bags outside.
The hall was occupied with 4 columns and 10 rows. The 1st column for 1year, 2nd one for 2nd year and 3rd and 4th year thereon. Who bothered about 3rd and 4th year? I walked so coolly, as if I was a studious girl, thinking only about the exam paper. (But honestly, I was praying sincerely so that Vikram should sit next to me). We walked looking on the numbers written on the desk. I saw my number and the desk next to me was empty. I still had hope. Priya sat behind me and Thivya sat at the dead last seat. I kept turning back and made gestures to Priya and Thivya. The invigilator gave a bang on her table and gave a cold stare at me. Immediately, I sat still without making any motion.
It was exactly 9.58 AM, Shiva and Vikram came in to the class. They walked checking the numbers on the desk and Vikram passed crossing me. My jaw dropped. Oh God!! Why I am so unfortunate and the most ..most…unfortunate thing is Shiva sat parallel to me. Ayooo!! Without showing expressions, I turned to the other end, staring at the wall. Priya kicked my chair and I turned back, she gestured with her eye brows to look at Thivya. To Break my heart more Vikram sat parallel to Thivya and to pierce me more , he was chatting with her with full smile. I turned back and suddenly I felt more jealous on Thivya. The invigilator distributed the question paper and the answer sheet. Now and then my eyes met with Shiva’s and I will give a ugly smile at him without knowing how to react. The next shock is when I saw the question paper. I have never even heard about the terms mentioned in the question paper. I kept staring at the question paper, but Shiva already completed the first page in the answer sheet.
God!!! I wrote my number and I wrote the question. I didn’t know what to write more. I have never been like this during my school times, I felt so ashamed of myself. Since its periodicals, it was 1 hour and 30 minutes examination. Somehow I pushed one hour. I struggled so much and I completed 4 pages. It was just 10 minutes more, suddenly the CSE department HOD came inside our hall. He peeped in to the students papers. He came near Shiva and took his paper in his hands, he gave a glance and appreciated him….Good Going Boy and gave him a pat.
But all of a sudden, he pulled my paper. I was shocked and suddenly most of my body went numb. He gave a look and told me , see lady, you should at least write minimum of 10 lines in a single page. You shouldn’t write 5 lines in a page and waste the paper. As I expected, the whole exam hall roared with laughter and Vikram laughed as if he will fall down from his desk…..
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