Pass and Aggregate:Chapter 4:College And Beyond

Chapter 4: College and Beyond

Life changed after first year of college, I had to fulfill the promise I made to dad but I never over burdened myself. I took Math tuitions from a teacher who was a Mathematics Professor at a reputed Institute. He made my concepts very clear. Along with Karan I jointly studied other subjects for CA exams which were 6 months later. I also started enjoying my college.

I met Sagorika Bandopadhya, apart from being a talent pool she was a very sweet girl. She was the secretary of Cultural events of our college and senior of mine. Every community of India has some inherent talents the Bengalis are good at theatre and singing. No offences to my Bengali friends, but a few of them are not that good but of course they have the Bengali tag. Sagorika was a decent singer but her acting was far better than her singing. One might think how can I judge some thing that is quite alien to me but in fact I had learnt Carnatic singing from none other than U.Sudha Iyer. You may not know about this singer but she was one of the best singers that our country would have boasted of, had she not settled in matrimony with I.Vaidyanathan Iyer, (those who still cannot make out, I am talking about my parents). My mother was a very good singer and I inherited my singing talent from her. Sagorika knew my talent and often asked me to sing in college competitions but I always declined.

Once I was sitting idle in the college canteen and enjoying the aroma of filter coffee, when she saw me and said “Adithya, come with me, I have some work for you”. I just could not deny her, after all she was my senior at B.Com and I had to take my 2^nd year notes from her, I followed her. She brought me to the grounds of our college; there I saw the theatre group preparing some street play. She brought me there and introduced me to Prakash Ranjan, head of theatre group, named as ‘Endeavor’. It sounded like some MBA coaching class and he appeared as a head the class. He said “hello.” I found him rude, I was wondering why I was brought here. Sagorika said “Actually if you are free why don’t you join their group and help them in composing songs for their stage play, you will be given attendance, whenever you drop a class for them.”In real sense I had no options, I had to take notes and composing music won’t take up much time so I agreed. The theatre group gave me the lyrics and told me to give some tune to the songs. They were doing a musical play on ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’. Although Carnatic music and the music as required by the songs of ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ were no way comparable yet a basic knowledge of music was more than enough. Now I had some work other than studying. When I composed all the songs I went to them, they were very pleased with the songs. I rehearsed the songs with the group for many days. I enjoyed working with the theatre people, but still I was not too much involved with them. Once when the play was ready and they had to perform in some fest at the North Campus they invited me, although I was reluctant to go earlier but Prakash and Sagorika almost kidnapped me and took me along.

The play was staged and our play won the second prize, every one at Endeavour was happy. Even I was, I don’t know some how even I felt attached to that group. While coming out from North Campus I met Shekhar. He was an old friend; I was meeting after a long time. Shekhar said “you Moron, where were you, idiot????” I was meeting Shekhar after the last day of 12th Boards Exam. When we were in school, he was one of my close friends and partner in crime on many occasions, but after exams he shifted from Mayur Vihar, we just lost contact. He had joined some rock band, for his band he was ‘Shake’, he invited me to his rock band performance at his college St’ Stephens the following day. Hearing the venue of the performance, a concoction of thoughts swarmed me, I thought may just for the sake of venue I should attend the performance.

On next day I reached St’ Stephens, the crowd was colossal and vigorous, I enjoyed the rock band’s performance, although I can never understand why these people behave in certain weird fashion, they have a weird sense of dressing and even weird singing and dancing style. When I was young I used to make senseless songs and most of these rock bands are still in their childhood. While I was returning home Shekhar introduced me to Shruti Sharma, his classmate. She was beautiful, extremely polished, she was like ‘Simi Garewal’, poised, pretty, elegant, if I don’t put a full stop here I can continue talking about her, I might end up composing ‘Shruti Chalisa’. I was dumbstruck to see her. My heart skipped a beat when she said “hey, even I am on my way to east Delhi, can I drop you”. Suddenly violins and Guitars started playing in my mind, the busy and crowded road of the University appeared lovely. Though it was early winter, my heart was in midst of spring. I know for you all who have not been in love this might sound stupid but for me it was pure bliss, I was in love…………………………………..

Shruti Sharma, I liked everything about her except her surname, ‘Sharma’ is one of the most common surnames in India. At times I feel pity at the surname; I mean it is the one of the most vulnerable and exploited surnames. The advertising people have misused it, all Sharma households don’t have insurances, their house is in bad condition, the paints have started peeling off, they have been looted, even the color of the uniform of their school going child appears in some shade of yellow and so on and so forth. I pity the surname ‘Sharma’; in fact if I fight an election I promise to give quota to the people using this surname, believe me they deserve it.

Ok enough about the pitiable conditions of Sharma Households across India I am back to ‘Shruti Nama’. She was intelligent enough to take my number. She asked me “so are you a Madrasi?” In usual circumstances I hate this question, since neither all south Indians are Madrasi (the way usually all north Indians think of us) nor all Tamilians are Madrasi (that is a fact). I just nodded my head and replied “nopes I belong to this beautiful and famous place called Rameshwaram”. She knew nothing about it, but does that matter! She was impressed by me; we talked regularly and met occasionally.

On studies front CA exams approached again, this time I was more confident than the last time. November is far more ideal to give paper than May, the weather is pleasant, the hullabaloo is less and time is energizing. After having a look at Maths paper I was relaxed, but suddenly an hour later I was confused and scared, abruptly I became fidgety and in no ways I thought I could write any further, all because of that stupid girl sitting in front of me. She took a supplement just after half an hour of exam commencement, “how could she do that? We have 24 pages in the main sheet before we have that extra sheet” I said to my self, she also took log tables of which I had no idea where could one use it. According to me, we as humans are more interested in knowing what is happening in others world, we by birth are the Peeping Toms, I was stupid to think about her supplement, may be I should have thought that she is doing some stupid stuff but I thought I am a looser. As a result I became edgy, just in time I completed the paper and started praying to God.

Finally exams got over and results were near. I would not be wrong if I say results are scarier than exams. In between I met Shruti a lot of times and on once such occasion I just blurted out that I loved her. I said it in a very cliché and monotonous way but she started laughing, I considered myself to be the dumbest person on the face of earth, I prayed to God, that Earth should take me inside itself, the way it did to ‘Sitha’, or some lightning should strike me then and there. But to my astonishment she replied assertively, I was shocked I had a girlfriend. I never thought it would be that simple, to have a girlfriend like Shruti, I mean it was Mission Impossible which was now a reality. The night she said yes, I called up Karan, Ankit and Sakshi. Though Karan and Sakshi were fine with it, Ankit told me “He dude! Watch out! I don’t thing she is the right girl for you.” On one of the occasions when I met Shruti, Ankit was with me and he never really liked her, may be that was the reason of his disagreement. But I was madly in love with Shruti and to me no voice that was against her could be heard. We often talked to each other till the dawn, to me she was sweetest.

My results came out and I passed, lady luck was smiling at me. My father was so happy with my result that he announced a gift for me, a brand new bike that I yearned for. Just two days after my result I got my bike. The day I got the bike we went to the Guruvayur temple in our neighborhood, though I was not a frequent visitor at the temple but taking my brand new bike was something different. My mother prayed at the temple and splashed the kumkum and flowers on my bike. I was so excited, I thought in my mind now I am an inch closer to become a CA, I have a bike and a girlfriend, life was picture perfect. I was day dreaming of riding the bike with Shruti, when my father told me that I had to pick my younger sister from IIT. All dreams were shattered, my maiden voyage and that too for bringing that Giraffe home, think about it, terrible.

While driving I kept on thinking about Shruti, the Delhi’s polluted air was like a fragrance to me now. When one is in love even the most stupid thing looks beautiful, and I was experiencing it, to me even the red lights reminded of red roses. After that beautiful ride I reached IIT, Delhi which was like being in labyrinth, I had no clue how to get to my sister’s hostel. It is a weird place; they had few geometrically unusual cemented structures that were spread over the entire campus. Finally I found my sister and brought the monster home.

Akshya spied on me and soon found all about Shruti, and then started an unending blackmail. I am sure she would have never thought of telling anything to my parents, who were, though not conservative but belonged to a different era but still she was able extract some favors out of me all the time.

With Shruti I was going great, but at times I was upset with her. Although I never told this to her, the fact that she was taking me for granted and at most of the times, there was hole in my pockets for the coffees we shared and gifts I gave her. When ever I met her with her friends she was a different person. I was now becoming a jester for her group, but I thought it is just a phase and will pass. At other times we enjoyed each other, I liked walking in the Mughal Gardens, but she thought that Connaught Place was a better option, we had disagreements but those were minor tiffs which we ended by sharing ice cream at Nirulas.

Once while I was waiting for her in her college canteen, I met Shekhar, he was tired and while talking, his self esteem was no where to be seen. We were talking like this after ages. He was feeling low, I kept on asking him the reason but he was very upset. I thought may be he fought with his dad because his dad was an army man and he wanted Shekhar to be in army like him but he wanted to become a painter or a musician. He kept on asking me to come with him for a walk, seeing him I agreed but then Shruti came. We had to go for a movie that day, she was upset when I told her about the change in plan, she was literally screaming on me. Shekhar heard that, in fact any one in Delhi could have heard her yell; her decibel was at the peak. In our 3 month relationship it was for the first time I felt like shouting at her but Shekhar then insisted that we go for the movie, I kept on refusing but he said we will discuss it the next day. I agreed and told him that I would come to his college, the next day for him only. We left him at the table near the canteen. I said him “Take care and relax, everything would be fine.”