Continuation...
The engineering admissions took a bit more time to start. As any other guy who wants to do engineering would do, I applied for the colleges and waited for the call letter. It’s already been 1 month for her in the college.
I still remember the first day she called me and told me about the ragging in her college. Her college seniors asked if anyone had any boy friends. She said she told them that she has a boy friend. I asked her, ‘who is that?’ She said, ‘Who else? You!!! You have a problem with that?’ The usual romantic background score started playing in my mind. Then she said, ‘I didn’t want to say I don’t have anyone and get embarrassed in front of everyone.’
I was still hearing some background score, but this time it’s the funeral number, and what is being buried is my heart.
She called me the week after and told me about all her new friends and she even told them about our encounters and she said they felt pretty cool about it. I sighed and continued listening to all her short stories on only one topic, college.
Finally, the day had come to decide my next four years. I gave it a little thought. My brothers were busy in finding out about each and every college available and choosing what is best for me. I wanted to see how the world looks like away from home. The omen was good and I could choose a college away from home.
Soon, the word spread and everybody came to know, I am going to a different city to do my studies. All my friends inquired on why I am taking it in a different city. I just made a lame excuse that the college is good and wanted to do it there. I didn’t hear from her for a long time and the day I was leaving she called me.
I answered, ‘Hey. How are you?’
Between sobs she said, ‘I am fine. Why are you going away from me?’
I didn’t know what to say but said, ‘Miss u…’ and the line went dead.
I reached my college on my joining date 14th July 2002. My parents were not allowed inside the auditorium and I was finishing my joining formalities. I had to wait my turn as there were many students doing the formalities before me. On the other side of the table, there was a girl sitting and looked all nervous. The hormones in me started its reactions. I wished the lady luck to put her in computer science department.
She went to meet a bespectacled office staff who was verifying the students certificates. I could hear her conversation clearly but all I could hear was ‘Computer Science’ I thanked the lady luck.
First day away from home. I thought I was strong, but couldn’t hold back my tears seeing my Mom and Dad leaving me in the strange place. I had asked for it and I know how to deal with it.
I had to share my room with two other guys. I came there first, I saw a shelf locked and was wondering who the smart guy is who reserved his shelf already even before getting his things.
I met my other room mate in some time. We introduced ourselves. We started arranging things and he took me to another room where he had one of his school mates. We all were excited about our first day. The hostel room walls were scribbled everywhere. The seniors had left some knowledge on the bad words and the slangs used in the college. We read all these new terms hard than our subjects. Another guy joined us, and through him, we met another one, and he happened to be from my department. Soon our network expanded with some more additions.
First day of college, though ragging was not allowed, we heard enough stories about it already. I was in the class a bit early. I took the third row on the left side; I found some bags on the first and second desk. More guys started coming in and they started filling the seats. The girl I saw in the auditorium came in and took her bag and moved to the other desk where all the other girls started filling in. I sat next to the guy I met the day before in hostel and we started ranking girls one by one as they entered.
We started counting the number of good girls in our class and being scared of ending up with no count, we relaxed our expectations a bit. We were so desperate that we started counting out loud and we could hear someone else is syncing with us in counting. And from then on, those three guys joined our club.
After the class, we went back to our hostel and started discussing about girls in each department. Soon we started making a list of top ten from each class.
The days rolled on with more fun and time was spent most of the time in chatting and playing cards. Soon we even christened our gang and were enjoying each and every moment of our college life.
I didn’t get a chance to meet this girl until one day in the chemistry class, her instruments were not working and the instructor had directed her to me to the experiment. I was excited on what experiment I am going to do. I had to use the pipette to suck some acid for testing and was doing it. She was standing beside me and observing what I was doing. I did it more meticulously to impress her. After taking my readings, I passed her the pipette and the other chemicals. I sucked the pipette and didn’t rinse it. I expected her to rinse it before using it. She started sucking the chemical and the challenge is to stop it right exactly at a mark She was struggling to get the chemical sucked in exactly unto the mark.
She looked at me and smiled sheepishly, and attempted couple of times more and couldn’t get it.
This time she looked at me and said, ‘Can u help me with this?’
I grabbed it from her and was not sure whether I should rinse the pipette before using it as out of anxiety she was literally sucking on the pipette for a long time.
I saw her and she smiled. I then started sucking the pipette and both the chemicals in me and the pipette started rising.
The two hours session went in a jiffy. We took all the readings together and she promised to meet me tomorrow to check the calculations. I skipped dinner that day.
Next day she looked so bright and dashing in her yellow salwar. She came to me and apologized for not doing the calculations. I hid the calculations I had done and we started doing the calculations together. She was so engrossed in the calculations and I in her.
The next lab session, her instruments were fixed and I cursed the institution for being so dutiful. She looked at me and went to the instructor and spoke to him and he gave a couple of glance and nodded. She turned smiling at me and came to me and said, ‘Can I do the experiment with u?’ I kept nodding for five minutes and this time some heads turned towards us.
Soon chemistry made to the top of my favorite subjects.
I used to hate the fact that there are only two sessions in a week allocated for chemistry lab. The weeks used to drag but the lab sessions used to be short.
From that day onwards, we started doing our lab sessions together.
The exams were round the corner. She asked me to meet her in the temple.
I was on top of the world that day. I started imagining all sort of things on our meeting that day. I had changed into fresh pressed clothes and changed, don’t know how many times. I reached the temple; she was waiting for me outside. She smiled and we both went in. She closed her eyes and was praying for a long time. After we finished our prayers, I inquired on why she called me.
She said, ‘Should there be a reason to see u???’
The background score started playing loud now. The bells ringing started ringing deep in my heart.
She continued, ‘My parents are trying to get me into one of the colleges in my city itself.’
The romantic bells changed its tone and sounded like the funeral bells.
‘I was praying God that I shouldn’t get admission in any of the colleges in my city.’ She winked at me. ‘Will you pray for me?’
I was so dumbstruck that I was just nodding my head.
Final lab exams were going on. I was walking to my desk passing the store room. Suddenly a hand from the store room pulled me into the room. It was her in her lab coat with a mischievous smile.
She asked me, ‘Got scared?’
‘What are you doing? Our Exams are going on.’ She came to the store room making an excuse to get the test tube.
She put her finger on my lips and leaned towards me and kissed on my forehead. The chemicals inside me started boiling. I pulled her close to me and my lips felt her soft lips. I was getting better in art of kissing.
We heard someone opening the door. By the time it was fully open; we had some test tubes in our hands and went out.
Finally, our first year exams were over and everybody packed the bags heading home for the vacation.
I met her in the train station. We didn’t speak for most of our time together. I pulled out a gift wrapped packet out of my pocket. She was surprised and opened her eyes were all wet. She hugged me tight and I could feel my shoulders getting wet. I had flicked the pipette we had shared the first day of our Chemistry lab and gifted it to her.
The train started moving and I had to force her to get into the train. The train gained pace and even my legs started gaining pace after it. She gleamed through the window and all I could see were her wet eyes trying to say something and the train disappeared into the dark.
Engineering 1st Year
The chemicals started reacting,
The week was long,
The lab sessions were short,
She passed the test tube,
I touched her soft fingers,
The electrons were exchanged.
I want to tell her, I want her to know that
I don't want to be just friends,
I love her but I'm just too shy,
and I don't know why.
To be continued…………………..
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