[Fictional]
Beautiful it may seem, harder it is to think about Sweeter it may seem, complicated it is to talk about Innocent it may seem, a huge impact it has upon.
School, the name itself has too many memories attached and there was I like everyone, savoring all the memories in my little head. The best ones are mentioned, yet there were some hard and difficult times too, but what do we remember the most are those felt deeply, may it be for a moment or for a fraction of second or for hours or days, but are scribbled in our minds like tattoos, difficult to replace, can’t re-create (if done, it turns out to be mess), always leaves a mark. Here in this article, will like to take you to a journey of my high school days, to be more precise my high school crush. Its 5:00am in the morning, the world will be rising soon. My father has this habit of getting up early and preparing morning tea for my mother, how romantic! Not just my father but my grandfather too, this has been a trend in my family, right from when I was little I have seen men’s in my family prepare this “adrak wali kadak chai” for their wives, which is decorated with the fancy name called ‘Bed tea’. As the day progress, everyone gets on with the day. And when the clock strikes 6:00 am, I know it would be a torture time for me. I am not a morning person but school! God! Why do they need to be in morning! Aren’t they aware we too need a sound sleep! I was so happy when I was in 7th, it used to be in afternoon, loved that additional hour of sleep. My thoughts were interrupted by my Dad’s voice, “Betu uthja, paani pile”. I have this habit of drinking warm water when I rise, that makes my bowel moments smoother and on time. Or else I would turn into bombshell in a negative way throughout the day! Haha! Happens with everyone, this is not a special case okay. So here finishing honey and water I took an extra 5 minutes of nap as they were busy in their own work. But my moment was interrupted by a voice, “Arey, kitna soyegi, ab toh uthja 6:30 ho gaye (honestly it was never 6:30, it was always 6:15am.) But my mom, always adds 15 min whenever asked for the time. Getting ready for school was always 10 minutes of work for me, but I usually take 30 min for my morning coffee. So it all sums up to 50 min for school, adding 10 min to watch roses in my garden! I know I am weak in mathematics but not that weak okay, so now it sums up to 50. 30 min to coffee use to irritate my mom a lot! She never understood my love for coffee. If I was asked to marry coffee seller, I would happily marry, just to have ample amount of coffee whenever I want! Crazy right! I know I am and my thoughts too. Hehe! But today was something special, I took 20 minutes to get ready, like literally was more interested in that hairs to look perfect. There was no specific reason for that, at least that’s what I convinced myself. There was half an hour journey to school and we use to travel with Bakulbhai, our morning rides to drop us school. Okay, sitting in the auto rickshaw we raced towards my friend’s house, i.e. Pariti, oh sorry Parithi (with a ‘h’ in it) We were best friends and use to share lot of stories back then, that almost everyone beside us use to say “yaar ab toh chup ho jao!” We had so much to discuss you know, about our lives, funny stories she used to share mostly of ghosts and supernatural powers, it was funny and actually very interesting. I was actually talkative around my friends, but today instead of engaging in conversations, I was preferring to look out, to trees, to vehicles passing by and absently recalling some flashes from our last picnic. Everything was normal by the day we all had great fun, but this evening’s one incident, that was like constantly repeating in my mind. It was nothing peculiar but while returning home we sat in bus and through window I saw something. A reflection, a pair of eyes they were looking right through me, and it gave me chills, like literally. It felt as if suddenly temperature dropped down to 1degree. The sensation I felt at that particular time was something different, everything just stopped for a while. Mind was numb, with a sudden sense of self consciousness, just wanted to run away, hide myself somewhere. This incident was so glued to my mind, that I repeatedly played the same plot number of times to actually figure out what was odd in that. Was that me, who was making this a big deal but again I had never felt like running away and wanting to keep staring at the same time. Something about that moment was a mystery, and I was so hooked up in that feeling that I missed that camel, I didn’t say Good luck, now something would turn bad, that’s what my auto mate said. But I don’t give up that easily. I sprawl out my head, rose a little from my seat and with neck stretching like a giraffe I stood and guess what I finally saw! Quickly started saying Good luck 13 times and kissing my finger with 13th one. And with that we reached school, there’s still 10 min for gate to close, I entered my class which was on the 1st floor. Thank God, we weren’t called downstairs for morning assembly nowadays. Hence, we all gathered for morning assembly, and prayer started.
Classroom is always an amazing place, but condition applied, "if friends are present". Here, the day started with attendance, I was roll no 2 and the other roll no. that got my attention was roll no 31. Glad he is present, stole a look and yes there was he with his friends. Okay talking about Roll no 31. He is a mysterious boy. In Maths and science lecture, he always use to sit on the first bench, or I notice him on these two lectures, as if he is so much interested in Lucy mam’s class! God, that teacher is so torturous. Her speech itself is weird. I have met many south Indians, even my friend is also one, but the way this teacher speaks is weird, like a music recorded with high and low frequencies, words being kept on 0.5x speed. Haha! And I actually don’t know why he was so much interested in this class. Anyways, here is another lecture of Science, and yes he is here on the first bench. Honestly, I am drawn to this guy, just can’t figure out why would I keep looking at him. That’s obvious he was on first bench, but still there was something about him, something peculiar, something unexplainable. Maybe his frameless spectacles are good, or his personality? No maybe he is innocent, or maybe the way his hair are comb is perfect. Tbh, he is the only guy I find in class who glows! Maybe his mom put lot of effort in washing them. I wish my mom could be this hardworking. She expects me to wash it! How mean, why can’t she just acts like a normal mom.
Okay, going back to mam, opening the book, she turned towards black board and starts the topic! “Motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position over time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, speed, and time” this is according to teacher. But in my head, it was a little different story,
“Motion is the phenomenon when our body is ready to excrete, the change of place of excreta from our a*** to commode, is displacement, its logically described as stomach feeling light, and mind ready for ahha moment”
So gross I am! Or probably it’s my imaginative gross mind who is doing all this thinking. But that’s how I used to keep myself from her extra slow and difficult to understand accent. Actually it wasn’t difficult to understand but it was hard to pay attention to what she says when you are so hooked up on their look. Our Lucyman, she used to wear that salwar suit, with a big dupatta, which hangs like “kuch kuch hota hai me kajol ka saari”. When she walk past the benches, her dupatta created sharukkkan moment with almost all the student she walk across, again my mind creates its own unique plot, “if she ever pass from here I will tuck it on screw of our bench, it would be fun right? When she turns and finds out that screw was the one to tease her, not students. What a fun!!! And the other interesting fact about her was her hair. Those hairs were so long and thick, I use to envy, but again who would want all that trouble of washing them on Sundays! Extra effort, plus combing would be a very big issue, like I was the one combing hairs in just 5 min and here I’ll have to spend whole 15-20 min more. Not happening dude, it’s not my cup of tea.
And now sitting over there on second bench, she saw me, I have this habit of getting lost in my own thoughts when I feel things are boring! And they couldn’t figure it out too, cuz I am so smart in faking attention. But now I have to be attentive as she can ask a question and I would be blank. “Wait a minute, what did I just see, Mr. Specksy is sleeping! All these time I was thinking he is studious and listens every lecture attentively! Great talent he has, I mean honestly sleeping while being on the 1st bench is a different kind of talent.
“ Pst..pst.. wanna play truth and dare? my classmate aka Tarun, asked. Yes, definitely, science class is doing me no good! I replied. We started merging students for the game, I, my best friend, Shreya, Taniya, Tarun we were fixed. But it couldn’t last more as, the bell rang. And it’s a break! why the hell bell needs to ring when the period was just on the verge of being interesting! Its seriously said, “time flies when you are interested and time nearly stops when it’s boring”.
Maths lecture-
And again It was Lucy mam’s class, ah, we can now continue the game which we left off, Truth and dare, I and Tarun looked at one another signaling it’s the time to start where we left off and gathered all other students to play. Again, we all joined. We were thinking what to roll and suddenly Tarun got an idea.
“Let’s roll the pencil, Tarun said.
We tried rolling but it did stop, didn’t rolled that smoothly.
“how, about a pen? “Shreya said. Again tried with it, but same happened.
Okay what if used a water bottle? Finally, we screamed and tried with it! And guess what it was successful. Hence, we all took our positions, sitting to the edge of bench as we use to have separate rows for guys and girls.
Sherya, please roll the bottle, we are waiting! Tarun said. It started spinning and there my heartbeat stopped because it is pointed towards me. OMG! Very first time, this should not happen.
“Which one would you choose, Truth, Dare or Situation? Jay asked. As he was the one with the tail of bottle. Choosing Truth is always the safe side for girls, and that’s what I choose. But who knows that could be difficult to answer for me! There was a common question thrown at my face to mention my crush’s name! I don’t have any, yet they won’t be convinced. [actually I had, and he is sited on very first bench with a cute little name Specksy”] but that can’t be revealed just then, hence I lied, yes I do have one in tuition. Why tuition? Because it is always safe to play when no common school mate attends your tuition except one, and that can be handled well with a plate of pani puri! Hehehe this is how our school life is.
To be continued..
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