CHAPTER 22-AURANGZEB'S AURANGABAD

Ananya and I were so engrossed in our conversation that we lost track of time but all of a sudden she started feeling cold and started to shiver. So I woke up Savannah Mam and informed her. It was summer and not chilly at all but Ananya being the delicate doll that she was somehow couldn’t take a slight drop in the temperature which was both amusing and frightening at the same time because she was really shivering. Naveed sir had woken up by all the commotion and asked her to put on a couple of pairs of socks too and in a little while she was back to normal. But one thing that did to me was suddenly made me very protective of her. I realized I couldn’t bear to see her in trouble again. The train reached Aurangabad and we all got down. I had gotten into the train with a frown but now I had a huge grin on my face. My friends not coming here was a blessing in disguise. Had they been here they wouldn’t have let me go to the girl’s compartment ever and I wouldn’t have had a chance to know this amazing girl who lived in the same apartment as me, went to the same tutorials as me but had remained a stranger for so many years. I thought to myself Ananya would have remained anonymous to me had I not come here thanks to daddy. And in hindsight when I look at it now I am happy we didn’t have smart phones back then. Had that been then she would have surely been playing candy crush saga and thinking about her crush and I would have been busy chatting on whatsapp with Preeti or my friends in Warangal or playing Ruzzle. But the cricket matches were always in the back of my mind and I am glad I had someone else who shared the same dilemma as me,Kaleem sir. Kaleem sir was only a year older to me and the youngest facilitator among the yuva sena members. He was the guy incharge of all the logistical arrangements and did his job with a lot of passion. He was also a part of the Hyderabad cricket team at that time and had to miss out on the Warangal tour like me because he was needed more here. He was the most wanted man at camps and everyone fondly called him Laalu because his cheeks would become rosy red whenever he stepped out in the sun or got a little angry or upset which was quiet a lot. We reached our stay which was basically a function hall with three rooms and a huge hall. The girls occupied two of the rooms and the boys were to share one room and the hall. As soon as we reached the place we jumped on the nearest mattress and collapsed into a sweet slumber, me more than the others because of the night long rendezvous with Ananya and I only woke up when Laalu shook me by the shoulder and asked me to wake up and get ready for the day. He also gave me the good news that we had beaten Warangal by 3 wickets in the first match this morning. I was very happy with the result and more so because now I knew I had someone here I could talk about cricket with. I freshened up, had my breakfast but I didn’t feel energetic until I saw Ananya look at me and smile and suddenly the day started looking brighter. I was hoping that when we were divided into groups she would be in the same group as me but unfortunately that didn’t happen. But in the bus she sat next to me and kept on talking about how excited she was that Arhaan was in her group. I was really happy for her and gave her a few tips that I thought would help her to get his attention. Laalu stood next to our seats and spoke a lot about cricket,specially Sachin Tendulkar because he was a die hard fan of the little master. We became really good friends after that and whenever he wasn’t busy making some arrangements or the other he would stay with my group and we would talk about a lot of serious stuff like life,future plans,love and the country. He wasn’t like my other friends, he was more mature,spoke a lot of sense and was a responsible person. It didn’t mean I did not like my gang anymore but this was a pleasant change when I wanted a serious perspective on something. That day we visited the Bibi ka Maqbara which is a poor man’s version of the Taj Mahal dedicated to the memory Emperor Aurangzeb’s wife. I had not heard any good things about Aurangzeb ever and this only added to the list that he had no creativity of his own and had plagiarized a monument built for his mother.But then we saw the Daulatabad fort which was enormous and had a three layered protection all around and was surrounded by a moat to keep the enemy away and we could see the Chand Minar,Bharat Maatha Temple and Chini Mahal from there. The tour guide spoke in broken English and gave us interesting details and snippets about the monuments but the most fun part was when Zafar and Salim who were in my group mimicked him and we all had an hearty laugh at how they murdered the queen’s English. The monuments were boring to my teenage mind but on the positive side I did learn a few things and make a lot of new friends. Ananya met me during lunch and told me she didn’t really like Arhaan’s attitude and he was not as interesting as had hoped but now he was paying her more attention that she had asked for and he kept trying to talk to her with some excuse or the other. That was exactly the opposite of what she wanted this morning and I learnt a very important lesson that day-it’s impossible for men to know what women want because even women don’t know what they really want.