18

                                   18

‘:p :p :p’- I saw on my mobile screen as I opened the message from pipasa.

I was amazed or rather shocked. I was wondering what to reply. I decided to go with 6 similar smileys.

‘:p :p :p :p :p :p’

She was expecting something else from me.

‘what???’- she sent.

‘what what??????’- I replied.

‘don’t you want to talk?’

How could she reach to such a conclusion. I couldn’t decide what to reply now. The same sentence twice!!! The idea seemed stupid. I opened the window of my room to get some fresh air in. It was raining. Slowly. With an ambiguous mind, I couldn’t enjoy the subtleties of the drizzle outside. I got back to my bed and typed.

‘oh….yes….obviously I do……well, I m very poor in starting conversations……in fact I m not getting a topic to talk about’

I stretched sleepily in my bed, arching my back and waited for her reply.

‘topic????? Hw abt love???’

‘oh love……interesting topic’- an excited ‘i’ replied.

This was the topic I wanted, that I had waited for days.

‘have u evr been in love?’- I sent again before she could reply to my last message.

‘every1 falls in love’- came her reply.

I was apprehensive. Does this mean ‘yes’ ?  Was it me with whom she was in love? Was it someone back from her school and intermediate days? Or was it someone else from our college itself?

I tried to erase all these questions from my mind, and couldn’t erase any. The questions were trying to break free of some invisible manacles in my mind. These questions were searching for answers.

‘and who z dat luckiest guy???’- I decided to go with this universally accepted sentence to form that question.

‘that I’ll tell u later. And u ???’- she preferred not to answer my question and to keep me confused.

I didn’t know what to say. Again. And I don’t know why I was so helpless in answering her questions.

‘and I . . . ‘- I replied with 3 dots reciprocating her 3 question marks.

‘you r trying to be diplomatic’- she sent.

‘diplomatic ’ was not the right adjective for what I was doing, I thougt. But then I was not interested to correct her or rather to search the right word to describe my action.

‘and I don’t know’- I replied, replacing the dots with words.

‘I m nt a fool 2 believe ur 'I dnt knw'. Hw can sum1 be so ignorant abt his love!!!’

‘oh…no…. I m nt ignorant…. I m bloody confused.’

And she was the one who had kept me confused. Time and again.

I waited for a few minutes and she didn’t reply. I went out of my room leaving the mobile there on my bed. I looked down from the balcony. I looked up into the dark clouds. I didn’t want to dwell in confusion.

But the truth was still the truth. While pipasa had never given me clear indication about our relationship., barsha had come into my life as an intruder. It was not my mistake that I was confused. Situation had made me so.

I saw the picture of pipasa and barsha passing before my eyes and being flushed by the rain, for ever. But both of them survived in my heart, or that is what I felt.............

17

                                                                       17

I,along with rahul and bidya, was standing just in front of our class-room, when the girls' hostel bus arrived. Pipasa couldn’t help smiling as she walked past us.

‘I see you’re very happy’- I said.

‘yes’, she said simply, her eyes resting on my face for a few seconds.

Rahul and lalu decided to leave to allow us a private talk, thankfully. Saina joined them.

‘you look even happier than me’, pipasa said, looking up at me, more confidently this time.

She paused and frowned.

‘techfest effect!!!! Hmmm………!!!!!!’

Pipasa began smiling again.

‘well’, I said,’ you are not laughing at me, are you???? ’

‘I’m not laughing at all,’ said pipasa.

‘smiling,I meant’

‘no, not at you’, said pipasa, ’at myself’, almost laughing this time.

‘ohhh………that is mysterious and confusing………………’- I said.

‘ There is nothing new about you being confused. You always are, and sometimes for nothing .’

Now we could see professor mishra coming towards our class and decided to go in before he reached.

My eyes followed her pink salwar for a few seconds as we settled in our respective seats. The image of barsha came into my mind. Pink is the wrong colour for her complexion, I thought. My attention veered to a new object of contemplation.

‘ You’re not writing anything today???????’- rahul shook my hand almost bringing me back from my exaggerated thoughtful contemplation.

‘oh’, I said, suddenly self-conscious.

I tried to bring back my concentration into the class. I saw pipasa and saina writing wverything that was written or even spoken by the faculty religiously. Bidya, as usual, was listening to the faculty carefully. He always preferred to understand the concept rather than writing down everything told. Rahul was studying- or was trying to study- I could not decipher.

After taking a view of all those who mattered for me, I decided to listen to the faculty, finally. Having missed first few minutes of the class, I found it difficult to follow.

The class got over and students started leaving the class one after another. We decided to sit back and let others leave first.

‘hey man……see the back of meenakshi……….everything is visible…….her dress is so fucking transparent………’- rahul said, excited, as bidya and I looked forward.

Meenakshi was wearing a white salwar that exposed more of her wearings than our eyes were privileged or prepared to see in reality.

‘she needs a carrot man’- rahul uttered spontaneously.

I decided to leave the class before I could picture the whole scene………..THE WHOLE SCENE………………….;)

16

                                 16

I had difficulty in sleeping that night. Girls have the ability to steal your sleep and even if you sleep, they will enter into your dream, effortlessly.

I preferred my black-pink combination to wear the next morning. Black-pink combination was pipasa’s favorite. So I expected other girls to like that combination as well. But I didn’t have a tie to match that. I took my cell and dialed smarak’s number to get me his tie. He drove all the way to my home and gave me his tie.

As anshuman and I entered the ITER campus for the second consequtive day, I started to search for opportunities to implement my plan successfully. We went to the registration counter expecting barsha to be present there. But I had to be disappointed.

We entered the main building and wandered through the corridors. It was 10.30 and time for a new event ‘CodeC’- which was a C coding competition. I was miserably bad in C unlike anshuman. He was a master of C programming.

Anshuman started moving towards the room no. 34-c to participate in ‘CodeC’. I started following him without even an iota of interest. I unconscious turned to left while walking found a familiar face in front of my eyes. I was elated to see her again. I was elated to see barsha again.

She greeted me with an usual ‘hi’ and I replied with the same. After meeting barsha I dropped the idea of participating in ‘CodeC’. Anshuman gave me an irritating look, but I ignored that. Barsha suggested to go to the cafeteria. Girls have views and preferences of their own.and it was unlikely for me to put down her suggestion.

The cafeteria was a rather crowded place than what I had expected. May be more because of the ongoing techfest. We searched for a vacant table and finally got one.

‘2 coffees please’- she ordered, as we settled down.

We talked on various topics. But one thing I discovered that she was not that much talkative as the girls usually are. Suddenly my cell rang putting a break in our discussion. It was pipasa.

‘good morning’- she said from the other side before I could say something.

It was for the second time on that day she had wished me good morning apart from the message in the morning. She was calling from the college after completion of the second class.

‘how is your day????? What are you doing now??????’- she asked, her voice, concerned.

‘mmmmmm……..i m in the cafeteria with a friend’

‘friend??????who??????anshuman????’

I paused for a few seconds.

‘hello’- she said suspecting a network problem.

‘ahhhhhh………….yes………….listen…………..i’ll call you later………….not getting your voice clearly’

She cut the call. I hoped the next class had started.

Barsha and I talked for the next few minutes. We exchanged contact numbers. Barsha cought a friend’s eye and waved towards her. Her friend wanted barsha to go with her. Barsha paid  the bill,finally,  as all my efforts to convince her failed.

And I was happy as I spent some time with her, got her contact number, with zero investment!!!!!!!

15

                                     15

It was already 2.30 and the lunch break was declared. Anshuman and I rushed to the canteen to satisfy our hunger. The canteen was much better and bigger than ours. Anshuman and I settled for a rs 30 ‘thali’ which was reasonably good.

Barsha came and sat down to have her lunch in the adjacent table  with a friend of hers. Thankfully, a girl!!!Yes, she was there, in front of me. Again!!! I was pleasantly surprised. My eyes continuously shifted from my plate to her. I alleviated my speed of eating and waited for her to finish. I noticed she was also ogling at me with a ‘tirchee nazar’. I got up as soon as she completed her lunch and rushed to the washing place. May be she noticed it.

I came out of the canteen and waited for her to come out. I had decided to start the conversation with her, finally. Same thing was in her mind, I hoped. Anshuman stared at me, unable to understand what was going on.

‘you do one thing…… wait for me near the academic block for five minutes…..will meet u in five minutes…’

He wanted to ask something….i could read from his face.

‘I’ll tell you everything later’. I pushed him away. He had no other choice but to go.

I saw barsha coming out of canteen . I checked my hair on my large mobile screen  for the last time before talking to her.

She came out and gave a smile on seeing me before the canteen. May be she was expecting me to be there!!!!

“hi, I am swayamsu”- I took my right hand forward to shake hands with her.

“hi….and I am….”

“barsha”- I interrupted her, “I know your name and the reality , in fact, is I had read it from your identity card at the registration counter”. I tried to act smart to impress her.

“and the augmented reality is I even know your name from the paper presentation session”- she said with a smile on her face and we shook hands.

Her hand was soft; the handshake was warm!!!!!

She was soft-spoken and had a sweet feminine voice that sounded sensuous to me. her hair was smooth, silky and long. Her eyes were brownish. I liked her….

We talked for quite a few minutes and after sometime she begged excuse as she had some work. She walked away and vanished in the crowd and I stood right there, stunned!!! It was not that easy to get over her soft hair, intelligent eyes and lovely features.

I went back to the academic block where anshuman was waiting for me. we participated in two other events before the day ended. I had started planning about the 2^nd day of the techfest, which was going to be held for 3 consequtive days. 

14

                           14

“INSTITUTE OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH” –I could read the huge board when I was a few hundred metres away. I was heading to ITER to participate in ‘CHAKRAVYUH’, the annual techfest of the institute. Anshuman was accompanying. We entered the main gate which proudly declared the organization of 10^th technical festival of the institute. Both of us went in and joined one of the 10 different queues to get us registered  for the techfest.

I took out 500 rupees from my wallet and gave it to the girl, who was there at the registration counter, as she passed me a file with the list of all the events printed on it.  I said ‘thank you’ and she smiled with a ‘welcome’  on her lips, as I turned back to walk out of the queue. But my eyes demanded to have another look at her.

“ohhh my gooddd!!!!”, I wondered, admiring her perfect shape beneath her black blazer. An investment of 500 rupees had started showing signs of profit from the very beginning!!!!

To call her beautiful or hot will be an understatement. She was something beyond that can be expressed in words. But I can certainly say, she was responsible for global warming, to a great extent.

Anshuman read out some of the events from the list that he thought we should participate. I was barely listening.

“you are not listening”- he said.

“certainly, I am”- I grinned.

“I think, we should go and get ourselves numbered in the paper presentation and after finishing that we will think of participating in other events”.

I nodded and both of is headed towards the academic block where the paper presentation was scheduled to be held. We entered into the conference room. We sat in the 3^rd row after getting ourselves numbered at 13. We were discussing about our presentation and after a few minutes we turned back only to notice a crowd of more than 200 in the hall, with almost all the seats filled up.

My eyes stopped on someone in the first line. I had seen her somewhere. It was her, BARSHA, the girl who was there at the reception counter. I had read her name from her identity card at the time of registration. This time I got to see her from the back and her perfect shape mesmerized me, again. It was magic!!!!

Our turn came and we went onto the podium amd presented our topic ‘augmented reality’. After completing our presentation we waited for questions from the audience. She raised her hand and asked.

“At least for the moment, I've found Augmented Reality to be one of those things that you just have to show people, because most folks have a hard time seeing it in their minds. What's your take on evangelizing Augmented Reality to the masses ?”

"Yes, often you have to show people but I describe Augmented Reality to be the technology that allows us to remove the shackles from the web and place it where it's most helpful, around us in those places it describes.  Every square inch of the world from ground to sky is chock full of information from history, to culture, to science.  Augmented Reality allows us to get at that data where it's most valuable."

I answered to her question and she looked satisfied. May be she was impressed as well. After a few more questions from the judges and the audience we came back to our place. In the rest part of the paper presentation, I only ogled at her. She looked amazing……..

13

                                13

Things had started changing in my life. The word ‘love’ used to conjure up a whole set of images in my mind- images of pipasa. Every silence made me hear her mellifluous voice, I started talking to her sun-consciously.

The ringtone of my cell phone pierced into my ears bringing me back from deep slumber. I stumbled to find it on my bed and tried to read the name flashing on it. I pressed the green button before I could read the name.

“hello”- this is what I could utter in a sleepy tone.

“what the fuck are you doing???? It is already 5……you know????”-I heard from that side.

Who the fuck are you???? I was sleeping my heads off……

“mmmm…..ehhh……sleeping….”- I blabbered.

“bloody asshole……..is this a time to sleep!!!!!!!”- the voice told from the other side.

This sentence brought me back to consciousness. Amlan- I read on my cell phone screen.

Amlan passed his cell to sourav.

“wake up u ass……n be here within 15 minutes”- sourav roared and disconnected the call.

“4 new messages

1 missed call”- I read as I took my cell off my ear.

The missed call was from amlan and 4 messages were from smarak,sourav,anand and amlan, 1 from each, which read reach park by 4.30. Pratyush and dev hadn’t texted me. Pratyush didn’t have the advantage or disadvantage, as he often says, of message packs. He had decided not to go for that. And dev, though had the facility of message pack, hadn’t sent me one, the reason of which was something to think upon.

It was a holiday, though not Sunday. The sun was calling it a day. I ran to our ‘khatti spot’, still holding my unbroken record of reaching at last, with my eyes red.

Four of them were sitting on a cemented chair while smarak and sourav were standing, as both of them along with me usually preferred to stand in our ‘khatti sessions’ most of the times.

“had a whole bottle or what???? Your eyes are red like anything……..”- sourav blurted.

“yeah…it is red…….but not more red than your red under-wear”- I said pointing to his branded red under-wear which was peeping out of his killer jeans.

Sourav tried to resettle his jeans as all of us guffawed.

Our discussion took its regular course and whole world was discussed in it.

“so swayamsu”, anand asked, “how is your pipasa and how far your relationship advanced????”.

“your pipasa????? Till now she is not HIS pipasa”- dev said impetuously, before I could say anything.

“I mean he has not proposed yet….so…….”- dev said again, trying to give an explanation for his previous statement.

“hey….u had promised to show us her pic….have you got that with you????”- pratyush interrupted dev.

The topic shifted!!!!

“no….. i mean yes…..”- I replied equivocally.

“no!!!yes!!!”- amlan spoke out and smarak repeated the same two words sounding equally surprised.

“actually, I don’t have her pic right now with me…….but you can see her pic in orkut……”- i said.


"she has given her pic in orkut!!!!"- dev exclaimed.

“hold on!!!! Dev!!!! You look so concerned. Saina has posted a group photo of the hostel girls……”- I replied.

Then all of us moved to smarak’s home. As none of us except me was in the friend list of saina and the pic was visible to the friends only, I had to log into my account to show them her pic.

All of them praised pipasa’s beauty with their own adjectives, any of which I didn’t find could describe her appropriately.

They told me to say her ‘hi’, as dev only stared, with his expressionless eyes……….

12

                                                                                   12

The ever increasing length of the queue in our college canteen just added to the woes of my ever increasing hunger.  I could easily guess that my number was after more than 40 in my line, excluding another line which was for the girls only. This kind of situation was like a blue moon for me as I used to find myself among the first 10 persons of the queue. In such a time, when I was going mad in the unbearable hunger, my eyes found a reason to be happy. A glimpse of pipasa , who was waiting in the other line for her turn to come, was enough to distract my attention from the grueling heat of the summer and hunger. May be the hormones secreted when I saw pipasa dominated over the acid secreted in my empty stomach.

Rahul and lalu, who were just behind me in the que, were trying their best to find a suitable meeting point their all irrelevant argument.  So I preferred not to interfere in that and continue my work (of eying at pipasa).

Pipasa, though knew that I was looking at her persistently, was busy in gossiping with her friends. She was looking at me only once in a while, may be to verify whether I was still looking at her or not (or to someone else!!!!)!!!!

All of a sudden, I found someone patting on my back and turned back to find that it was dev. He wanted to get into the queue and stand before me. There was no scope of refusal as dev was a good friend of mine. Dev, being of same height as me, obstructed my vision and and I couldn’t get the view of pipasa any more.

My hunger was deepening with every passing instant and now I began to feel it again.

‘don’t you think pipasa is too short for you???’- dev asked, “you are  almost 5’7” and she is hardly 5’!!!!”

May be he started doing the same thing that I had been doing for last 10 minutes.

“May be she is. But I don’t think so. It seems u think a lot about that.”- I replied, trying to be funny as usual.

“no”- dev said, his tone intensifying ,”was just thinking on behalf of you, as a friend ”.

Perhaps he was not expecting such a reply from me.

“Well, the true fact is , she is too short for you as well”- I heard rahul saying , “if both of you give a little thought about it, then I’m the only person to match her height among us”.

As all of us laughed out, I could easily see the discomfort in dev’s face, evincing his displeasure.

May be he didn’t like rahul’s words, may be he didn’t expect such a reply to his question from me and rahul, may be he didn’t like to be linked with pipasa in my presence. Or may be, on the contrary, he was in love; he was in love with pipasa……

11

                                                                               11

‘wt r u doin???’- pipasa texted me while I was taking a nap after returning from the college.

‘had my lunch…..just taking a nap….’- I replied.

‘n wt were u doin in d class 2day???’- she asked. Had she seen it all?????

‘same thing that you were doing…..’- I typed.

‘no u hv nt lookd at me even 1ce in d whole clas 2day….’- came her reply. Was she looking at me????

I was blacked out. TRUE!!!!

‘hey, may b u hv nt noticed…..well, dat z nt sumthng v shd hv a fight on……’- my trembling fingers replied.

‘dat z worth fighting swayamshu…..nywayz………leave it…….’- she sent me.

Thank GOD!!!! I took a sigh of relief.

She had developed an uncanny fondness in writing my name with an ‘h’ in the middle.

Yesterday she had admonished me to concentrate on studies instead of eying at her in the class. And today she is unhappy bacause I didn’t look at her!!! If you are trying to understand a girl, then you are probably doing a mistake.

I used to look at her most of the times in the class. She was so charming that I felt sheer delight as I watched her. And I had a strong logic behind doing so. All that are tought inside the class can be read from the book at home, but the visual pleasure that my eye entertained couldn’t have been compensated by any means. The only thing that I would be able to do at home is to think about her or hug her, mentally.

Amidst all these thoughts, I gad forgotten to reply to her message. My mobile screen blinked again.

‘k… I think I disturbed u…..u tk rest……..bye…’- may be this is what she derived from my silence.

But how can you feel sleepy when you have a girl in your mind and her message in front of your eyes in your cell phone!!!!

‘what is life without being disturbed by the right person!!!Page 138,2states, chetan bhagat’  - I replied, quoting from 2STATES, with the page number, though I was not sure about it. But I was sure that she was not going to verify, as she used to confine herself  in  the course books, most of the times.

‘thanx 4 considering me as the right person 4 u…..’- I received from her.

I was delighted as my effort of quoting from 2STATES had delivered desired result. She was happy for being the right person of my life!!!!!!

She had become an indispensable part of my life. Our chatting over message went on and continued for 3 long hours!!!! Finally, we decided to stop when her cell indicated low battery, though I had connected mine to the charger long before……

10

                                     10

              As soon as she entered the gallery no.119, she became the cynosure of all eyes. Gallery no.119 was where our MATHEMATICS-III class was scheduled to be held. It was impossible for everyone present in the class to blink their eyes even for a moment. It was same for the girls as well, though the reason might be different. I, trying to control my mind and hence my eyes, decided to see the reactions of rahul and lalu, who were sitting adjacent to me.

              Lalu gave an innocent look, as I looked at him, as if he was ignorant of everything that was going on in the class. Rahul was lost. Rahul was lost in lusty thoughts, I assumed.

‘hello’- I called out.

Rahul turned his head towards me.

Silence.

I was expecting rahul to come up with his trade-mark dialogue-‘’ she badly needs…….”. but there was silence. There was something special about this silence. There was something special about rahul’s unexpressed words. There was something special about Miss Sangeeta, our new math-III faculty. She didn’t have a surname, or may be she didn’t bother to mention.

                As she prepared to start the subject, the class was witnessing a never-seen-before atmosphere, as if it was not a class of engineering students any more…. Unbelievable concentrated. But the concentration was on the subject or on the faculty, it was a debatable question.

“PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS”-  the undesirable sound released due to friction of chalk and the black-board echoed in the gallery,as she turned back to write. As the class progressed, she discussed wave equation, laplace equation and all. Nobody cared about the equations on the black-board, everyone was trying to solve the new wave equation that was formed in the last few minutes in everyone’s mind. May be in the heart as well.

100 minutes had passed!!!!

A class of 100 minutes, which was usually nothing less than a turture for us, had passed. It was time. She left the class.

‘her eyes are so beautiful, as if the beauty of the whole world lie in those two hazel eyes’- lalu said, keeping rahul and me dumbfounded. We couldn’t find the inncocence in his eyes any more. It was somewhat different. Rahul’s eyes widened. He was silent,still.

I preferred to gaze outside the window. I was confused, as usual, still trying to solve the non-linear equation that was beyond the scope of mathematics……

9

                                                 9.

‘1 message received. Smarak’- my mobile screen flashed.

‘5. park’- it read.

                

                 It was a Sunday and we had 1 of our usual ‘khatti sessions’ at Vanivihar park. It was already 4.30 and I had to get ready as soon as possible as I had to travel 15-20 minutes on my 70cc scooty. The increasing traffic intensity of bhubaneswar made it difficult for me reach there in time and as usual, I was late,though 15 minutes only,this time. Everyone- sourav, smarak, anand , pratyush, amlan, dev- my school-time friends, had arrived,except me. I parked my scooty and rushed towards our ‘khatti spot’.

  


                

                 The ongoing discussion stopped at my arrival. Some of them gave me a smile and a few others gave an inscrutable look- which was difficult to decipher. I returned the smile and was waiting for the verbal communication to commence.

‘we need 2 flyovers- one at Acharya Vihar and another one at Vani Vihar, don’t we?’- finally I spoke, breaking the uneasy silence of 10 seconds.

‘Damn good idea’- amlan replied to that with a grin on his face.

‘well, I have 1 more good idea’- smarak waited for our reactions and and then started, ‘you need to upgrade yourself from a 70cc scooty to a bike,atleast 100cc’

Everyone, including me, burst out laughing and all of us were back to normal conversation, as usual.

The discussion varied from our college curriculum to the college girls, from movies to politics, every now and then changing its direction.

My mobile rang,in the middle of our discussion, unterrupting all of us. I took the cell out of my black jeans, as everyone lese looked at me with pin-drop silence.

The cell stopped ringing. Oops, it was a missed call!!!            

I took excuse from all of them and called back. It was pipasa. My conversation with pipasa went on for more than 20 minutes and others were busy in talking among themselves without giving a damn to my absence for such a long time.

‘call waiting. Dev.’- I read on my mobile screen and then I looked back only to find that everyone was looking at me and sourav,with his new 5mp camera mobile, was busy in taking my photos to upload in orkut.

Finally, I disconnected the call and came back to the group and found myself helplessly facing to the questions of others and making unsuccessful attempte to calm down them. At last, I had to tell them everything, everything about me and pipasa. All of them demanded to see her ohoto and I assured them to do that in the next meeting.

All of us were from different colleges, except Dev and me, who were from the same college,APEX. So they wanted a more precise description of pipasa from dev. Dev, pipasa and me- all were from the same branch-EEE