The victory against Al-saints school had made us instant hits in our school and I was even more popular now but for the right reasons. Before this happened people remembered our gang for always getting into trouble and being really mischievous. I was specifically remembered for getting into trouble where no one could ever imagine, it was like I was in love with trouble and kept chasing it.
It all started when I was in class 6 and we had geometry as a part of math. I never loved math but then our class teacher Miss Rajshree was an extremely patient, sweet, soft spoken lady who worked really hard on us and that’s the first and the last time I got 100 upon 100 in any exam. But that’s not what this story is about, this is about me being at my creative best with a divider and using it as something it was never meant to be.
Everyone who has ever gone to school must have done this prank, placing your pencil on the bench just before your mate is about to sit down, giving his bum a surprise injection, noticing his shocked reaction and laughing as loudly as you can. I decided I was going to take it to the next level by using the divider instead of the pencil.
I used to share the bench with a guy named Roopchandan back then and looking at him you would realize that the name was nothing but ironic or his parents hoping against hope that someday he may use some magical chandan and gain some roop. I had no beef with him but he wasn’t a guy you would get along with easily, because he was clumsy, smelt of hair oil and ate with both hands. We had compulsory Telugu as a subject up until then and our Telugu mam Mrs KP Rao’s sight was enough to make any one hate the language for life. She was stout, loud and strict.Not a single class ended without her hitting someone on the knuckles with a duster.
It was our last class for the day, KP Rao mam hadn’t beaten anyone up so for and the P.A system had just announced for all of us to stand up for our day end prayers. I thought of it a perfect opportunity for pulling my prank. So when all of us stood up for the prayers I placed the divider on the bench and started praying with everyone else but all I could think about was how funny it was going to be, but things did not go as I had imagined. As soon as the prayer was over the school bell rang and Roop just grabbed his bag to go home and wasn’t going to sit down so I put some pressure on his shoulders making sure he sat down on the divider but I may have applied a little too much force because when he got up he had my divider stuck to his ass and was holding his bum and running all over the class room shrieking with horror. I could see the pain on his face and tears rolling down his eyes. I tried to put up a brave face and laugh it off but KP Rao mam was gonna have none of it, she yelled for everyone to stay where the were, then slapped the smile off my face, maintaining her 100% record intact. But my punishment wasn’t over, she asked the class monitor to take me to the principal’s office and tell him what I had done and then pulled the divider from Roop’s bum and sent him to get emergency medical attention. I knew I was in big trouble.
Once at the principal’s office, he asked me what I was there for and when I told him the whole incident, all he asked me to do was close the door behind me, hand him his cane and smacked the shit out of me, all the while calling me names like raccoon, bandicoot and other things I did not know were part of the English language. My friends were standing outside the office and I think they might have heard the sounds of the whipping. My parents were called the next day to inform what I had done and I advised personal counseling with the school counselor for a week. But whatever my punishment was, it was much lighter than what Roop had to go through. He had to take TT injections, couldn’t come to school for a week because he couldn’t sit properly without discomfort and I am sure all his life he hasn’t been able to sit in a chair anywhere without checking if there was a divider or anything else placed there. From that day on, I was always remembered as the kid with the divider but four year later someone else decided it was time to steal my thunder by placing a scissor behind someone’s ass and cutting a vein and almost bleeding him to death. Even though the victim survived, the culprit was suspended from school for good. Thus giving all of us an important lesson, you can always learn from others mistakes.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
CHAPTER 18-LADY LUCK AND CRICKET
I truly believe in the saying, Behind every successful man is a woman. According to my experience when things are going well for you in your love life the other aspects of your life work well too. Or it maybe just that because you have someone who brings a smile to your face whenever you see them, or someone who allows you to be yourself without being pretentious and share your thoughts, tensions and worries with you and you are a lot more relaxed while doing things making it easier for you to do them well.
Things were great between Preeti and me; we were meeting regularly at Samreen’s place and talking on the phone for hours whenever we got a chance. We would also see each other at Geeta mam’s tutorials and steal glances and smile at each other whenever no one was looking. Tarun and Chottu told me that they had noticed I kept smiling thinking about Preeti during the boring social studies period too and at cricket practice Mizbah remarked-“at the touch of love, everyone finds the goodness within themselves,” suggesting that I was a bit easy on the players when they made mistakes during fielding practice.
We were practicing real hard and putting in the extra hours and effort for the three match series against our arch rivals, Alsaints School, the alma mater of Hyderabad’s greatest cricketer ever produced until Little Flower Schools very own V.V.S Laxman took centre stage against the Aussies with a triple ton, Mohammed Azharuddin. They were the power houses in Hyderabad’s school cricketing structure with more than half of the team playing for the u-16 state team. They had a special coach for cricket Mr. Denny Lahm, a former Ranji trophy captain for Hyderabad and a very hard task master and a tough man to please. He asked for nothing less than perfection and expected his team to win every time they got on to the field. He was feared and respected not only by his team but also by everyone in the opposition. There were also rumors flying around that he would soon be appointed the next coach of the Hyderabad U-16 cricket team and all of us were keen to make a good impression. Our school had never managed to beat them. Once at the Monfort Games Quarter finals our seniors had ran them close to eventually lose by just 1 run and then too Denny sir had smacked his team with a huge cane in front of everyone immediately after they had won the game because he expected them to beat our school, (whose major concentration was on education rather than any other co-curricular activities) much more easily. If we managed to achieve even that feat and give them a close competition it would be a huge moral victory to see the winning side being punished.
The big day of the 1st game was upon us we had made our plans and strategies. We knew there would be a lot of sledging and they would come hard at us and our P.T instructor cum coach Om Prakash sir had prepared us for the worst by saying he didn’t expect us to win but trusted us to put up a good show. We arrived at Alsaints school grounds to a packed house of students ready to give us their most hostile welcome. We were booed as soon as we got off the team bus to the time we reached the players pavilion, which was just a tin shed open from all sides and all of them kept glaring and pointing at us whispering something in each others ears and laughing at giggling at us. All of us very already very nervous and intimidated except Rohan a left arm spinner who had seen it all before and our wicket keeper Zubaif who never really feared anything. Denny sir and his team made their grand entrance and suddenly the boos turned into huge cheers, cat calls, whistles, salutes and standing ovations. Denny sir shook hands with Om Prakash sir and with a huge smirk on his face asked- “is that your team?” The he wished all of us best of luck and introduced us to the umpires and called our captain, Manzoor for the toss. Manzoor was an attacking batsmen and our team was very dependent on him to get the runs, so we had planned to bat first so that he and our other batsmen were not put under any sort of pressure. But things did not go according to plan we lost the toss and they elected to bat first. I was going to open the bowling with Shezil, who was the fastest bowler in our side and the focus shifted upon us. It was a 25 over game with each bowler allowed to bowl five overs each. I thought to myself that if I don’t concede more than 6 runs a over in my spell and smack a few runs when I eventually get a chance to bat at no. 6 or 7 I would be pleased with my contribution. Their captain Vineet, an excellent all rounder who had already played for the state side for the last couple of years, was going to open the batting with Urush, another young talent who had represented the state side. I ran up to bowl the first ball and produced a rank half volley and Urush drove me though the covers for 4 runs and while I was going back to my mark to bowl the next ball Vineet at the runner end remarked, “I will teach you how to bowl with the new ball when its my turn to bowl, I can swing it like a snake”. That fired me up a bit and I tried to bowl faster and bowled three wides in that over and was smacked for another 4 by Urush. After then 1st over the scoreboard read- 15 for no wickets. Shezil also conceded 10 in his first over and things looked to be getting out of our hand very early on. I wasn’t expecting Manzoor to give me another over but he tossed the ball to me and asked me to relax and think about Preeti. That brought a smile to my face but I knew that wasn’t going to help because Vineet was on strike and he looked like he was in a very destructive mood. I bowled another half volley and as expected he smacked me to the boundary with ease. Zubaif was trying his best to motivate me from behind the wickets and all the boys were clapping and encouraging me which was a good sign. Andy who was fielding at mid on came rushing to me and asked me to bowl my slower ball that I had been practicing all week in the nets and that’s what I did. Vineet was two minutes too early into the shot and I bowled him neck and crop. I was on top of the world and made sure I gave him a grand send off with the snake dance. But it wasn’t too much cause for celebration because the next man walking in was Hariram another one who had played for the state and was known for his ability to hit sixes at will. I conceded 40 runs in my five overs and managed to pick up one more wicket of Urush but not before he had made a stroke filled 53 of just 47 balls. Hariram played well too for his 43 of just 30 balls and all others chipped in with the crowd supporting them throughout and cheering their every run. Alsaints eventually managed to score massive 212 for the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 25 overs and the figures of all our bowlers looked really bad with the exception of Romit who picked up 3 wickets for just 25 runs in his five overs. All of us kept our heads down as we walked off the field and did not speak to each other but Manzoor and Om Prakash sir tried to motivate us and asked us to just go out there, give it our best shot and try and have some fun chasing down the huge target they had set. Rajesh our steady opening batsmen suggested that we promote someone to do the pinch hitting up the order instead of him and Manzoor really liked the idea. Nazeem and I were the options available and I was eventually chosen because I was a left hander and would be an ideal foil for the right handed Keerthan.
During the innings break I made a quick phone call to Preeti and she wished me luck and said she would pray for our victory. I knew even with prayers on our side this was going to be a very difficult task. Keerthan and I walked down to the middle and he asked me to take first strike, I marked my guard and was all set to face Vineet who was going to be opening the bowling too. His words rang in my ears and I wondered how he was going to swing the ball like a snake. He had a very attacking field set with three slips, a gully and mid on and mid off both up inside the 30 yards circle. All I wanted to do was get bat on ball, take a single and get to the other end before I went after the bowling because I did not want to get out on a Duck. Vineet started his run up with the cheers getting louder as he got closer to the crease. He bowled the ball right up looking for some swing and I got to the pitch of the ball and hit it smack in the middle of the bat through mid off and it raced away for 4 runs. I smiled at Vineet as he gave me the glare and mouthed something and shouted at the fielder to give it a better attempt to field the ball. All of a sudden I felt confident. I felt like I belonged at the top of the order and could bat and that’s half the battle won because once you have the mental strength and self belief, you accomplish anything and not just in sports but life too. That over I smashed Vineet for four boundaries and could see the excitement it was generating in the pavilion. Andy,Zubaif and Rohan were jumping with joy while Manzoor waved his hands frantically towards me asking me to stay at the wicket and calm down. But my adrenaline was on an all time high I was going to try and smack every ball out of the park and it was my day. Everything worked for me, everything I tried came off. I even played shots that I didn’t know I could play when I pulled one of their quick bowlers for a huge six. We could see the crowd support dwindling. The noisy audience was a lot quieter now. Some of them had already started leaving sensing an embarrassing defeat and some of them turned on their own team by name calling and shouting abuses in their direction. Vineet had tired everything he could and was running out of ideas. All the bowlers he tried were put under tremendous pressure and they conceded around 40 extras in wides and no balls adding to his misery. The smirk on Denny sir’s face had been wiped right off and he turned a shade of red with fury. I was eventually dismissed when the teams score was a comfortable 170 for 3 of just 15 overs for a swash buckling 81 of just 46 balls filled with square cuts over cover and point for sixes, and lofted hits straight down the ground off the spinners. Zubaif and Manzoor completed the easy win in the 21st over and all of us rushed on to the ground for our victory celebrations. Shezil and Romit lifted me on their shoulders and for a victory lap and andy tore my tee shirt off. I was on top of the world; my lady luck had worked her magic.
Things were great between Preeti and me; we were meeting regularly at Samreen’s place and talking on the phone for hours whenever we got a chance. We would also see each other at Geeta mam’s tutorials and steal glances and smile at each other whenever no one was looking. Tarun and Chottu told me that they had noticed I kept smiling thinking about Preeti during the boring social studies period too and at cricket practice Mizbah remarked-“at the touch of love, everyone finds the goodness within themselves,” suggesting that I was a bit easy on the players when they made mistakes during fielding practice.
We were practicing real hard and putting in the extra hours and effort for the three match series against our arch rivals, Alsaints School, the alma mater of Hyderabad’s greatest cricketer ever produced until Little Flower Schools very own V.V.S Laxman took centre stage against the Aussies with a triple ton, Mohammed Azharuddin. They were the power houses in Hyderabad’s school cricketing structure with more than half of the team playing for the u-16 state team. They had a special coach for cricket Mr. Denny Lahm, a former Ranji trophy captain for Hyderabad and a very hard task master and a tough man to please. He asked for nothing less than perfection and expected his team to win every time they got on to the field. He was feared and respected not only by his team but also by everyone in the opposition. There were also rumors flying around that he would soon be appointed the next coach of the Hyderabad U-16 cricket team and all of us were keen to make a good impression. Our school had never managed to beat them. Once at the Monfort Games Quarter finals our seniors had ran them close to eventually lose by just 1 run and then too Denny sir had smacked his team with a huge cane in front of everyone immediately after they had won the game because he expected them to beat our school, (whose major concentration was on education rather than any other co-curricular activities) much more easily. If we managed to achieve even that feat and give them a close competition it would be a huge moral victory to see the winning side being punished.
The big day of the 1st game was upon us we had made our plans and strategies. We knew there would be a lot of sledging and they would come hard at us and our P.T instructor cum coach Om Prakash sir had prepared us for the worst by saying he didn’t expect us to win but trusted us to put up a good show. We arrived at Alsaints school grounds to a packed house of students ready to give us their most hostile welcome. We were booed as soon as we got off the team bus to the time we reached the players pavilion, which was just a tin shed open from all sides and all of them kept glaring and pointing at us whispering something in each others ears and laughing at giggling at us. All of us very already very nervous and intimidated except Rohan a left arm spinner who had seen it all before and our wicket keeper Zubaif who never really feared anything. Denny sir and his team made their grand entrance and suddenly the boos turned into huge cheers, cat calls, whistles, salutes and standing ovations. Denny sir shook hands with Om Prakash sir and with a huge smirk on his face asked- “is that your team?” The he wished all of us best of luck and introduced us to the umpires and called our captain, Manzoor for the toss. Manzoor was an attacking batsmen and our team was very dependent on him to get the runs, so we had planned to bat first so that he and our other batsmen were not put under any sort of pressure. But things did not go according to plan we lost the toss and they elected to bat first. I was going to open the bowling with Shezil, who was the fastest bowler in our side and the focus shifted upon us. It was a 25 over game with each bowler allowed to bowl five overs each. I thought to myself that if I don’t concede more than 6 runs a over in my spell and smack a few runs when I eventually get a chance to bat at no. 6 or 7 I would be pleased with my contribution. Their captain Vineet, an excellent all rounder who had already played for the state side for the last couple of years, was going to open the batting with Urush, another young talent who had represented the state side. I ran up to bowl the first ball and produced a rank half volley and Urush drove me though the covers for 4 runs and while I was going back to my mark to bowl the next ball Vineet at the runner end remarked, “I will teach you how to bowl with the new ball when its my turn to bowl, I can swing it like a snake”. That fired me up a bit and I tried to bowl faster and bowled three wides in that over and was smacked for another 4 by Urush. After then 1st over the scoreboard read- 15 for no wickets. Shezil also conceded 10 in his first over and things looked to be getting out of our hand very early on. I wasn’t expecting Manzoor to give me another over but he tossed the ball to me and asked me to relax and think about Preeti. That brought a smile to my face but I knew that wasn’t going to help because Vineet was on strike and he looked like he was in a very destructive mood. I bowled another half volley and as expected he smacked me to the boundary with ease. Zubaif was trying his best to motivate me from behind the wickets and all the boys were clapping and encouraging me which was a good sign. Andy who was fielding at mid on came rushing to me and asked me to bowl my slower ball that I had been practicing all week in the nets and that’s what I did. Vineet was two minutes too early into the shot and I bowled him neck and crop. I was on top of the world and made sure I gave him a grand send off with the snake dance. But it wasn’t too much cause for celebration because the next man walking in was Hariram another one who had played for the state and was known for his ability to hit sixes at will. I conceded 40 runs in my five overs and managed to pick up one more wicket of Urush but not before he had made a stroke filled 53 of just 47 balls. Hariram played well too for his 43 of just 30 balls and all others chipped in with the crowd supporting them throughout and cheering their every run. Alsaints eventually managed to score massive 212 for the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 25 overs and the figures of all our bowlers looked really bad with the exception of Romit who picked up 3 wickets for just 25 runs in his five overs. All of us kept our heads down as we walked off the field and did not speak to each other but Manzoor and Om Prakash sir tried to motivate us and asked us to just go out there, give it our best shot and try and have some fun chasing down the huge target they had set. Rajesh our steady opening batsmen suggested that we promote someone to do the pinch hitting up the order instead of him and Manzoor really liked the idea. Nazeem and I were the options available and I was eventually chosen because I was a left hander and would be an ideal foil for the right handed Keerthan.
During the innings break I made a quick phone call to Preeti and she wished me luck and said she would pray for our victory. I knew even with prayers on our side this was going to be a very difficult task. Keerthan and I walked down to the middle and he asked me to take first strike, I marked my guard and was all set to face Vineet who was going to be opening the bowling too. His words rang in my ears and I wondered how he was going to swing the ball like a snake. He had a very attacking field set with three slips, a gully and mid on and mid off both up inside the 30 yards circle. All I wanted to do was get bat on ball, take a single and get to the other end before I went after the bowling because I did not want to get out on a Duck. Vineet started his run up with the cheers getting louder as he got closer to the crease. He bowled the ball right up looking for some swing and I got to the pitch of the ball and hit it smack in the middle of the bat through mid off and it raced away for 4 runs. I smiled at Vineet as he gave me the glare and mouthed something and shouted at the fielder to give it a better attempt to field the ball. All of a sudden I felt confident. I felt like I belonged at the top of the order and could bat and that’s half the battle won because once you have the mental strength and self belief, you accomplish anything and not just in sports but life too. That over I smashed Vineet for four boundaries and could see the excitement it was generating in the pavilion. Andy,Zubaif and Rohan were jumping with joy while Manzoor waved his hands frantically towards me asking me to stay at the wicket and calm down. But my adrenaline was on an all time high I was going to try and smack every ball out of the park and it was my day. Everything worked for me, everything I tried came off. I even played shots that I didn’t know I could play when I pulled one of their quick bowlers for a huge six. We could see the crowd support dwindling. The noisy audience was a lot quieter now. Some of them had already started leaving sensing an embarrassing defeat and some of them turned on their own team by name calling and shouting abuses in their direction. Vineet had tired everything he could and was running out of ideas. All the bowlers he tried were put under tremendous pressure and they conceded around 40 extras in wides and no balls adding to his misery. The smirk on Denny sir’s face had been wiped right off and he turned a shade of red with fury. I was eventually dismissed when the teams score was a comfortable 170 for 3 of just 15 overs for a swash buckling 81 of just 46 balls filled with square cuts over cover and point for sixes, and lofted hits straight down the ground off the spinners. Zubaif and Manzoor completed the easy win in the 21st over and all of us rushed on to the ground for our victory celebrations. Shezil and Romit lifted me on their shoulders and for a victory lap and andy tore my tee shirt off. I was on top of the world; my lady luck had worked her magic.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
CHAPTER 17 HOME VISITS
CHAPTER 17- HOME VISITS
So now that mom had found out about me and Preeti we were very careful not to get caught talking on the phone or anywhere else. For a few days we decided to tell my friends too that we had broken up. The only people who knew the truth were Preeti’s friends Samreen and Shruti and their boyfriends so that we could communicate with each other using them as messengers. We gave up seeing each other in front of people and only spoke on the phone and that too had a process. When one of us was home alone we would give the other one a missed call and that was an indication to call back as quickly as possible. The thrill and excitement of all this kept us on her toes all the time but after a while it became frustrating because when one of us had something urgent or exciting to share we had to wait for the right moment when no one was around and more importantly when you are teenager in a relationship you want to flaunt it not hide it from your peers. Today’s teenagers have it easy with their easy internet access, facebook, cell phones and blackberry messengers but for our generation, the only easy thing was falling in love but as I found out keeping it going was real hard work.
After around a month and a half of these shenanigans something came our way. Samreen’s parents were going to USA for good to earn dollars and live the American Dream and she was going to stay back in the care of her aged grandma so that she could complete her schooling here. So now, whenever I had a chance I would call her and Preeti would come down to her place and we would chat for hours, so much so that now the phone booth from where I usually made the calls recognized me instantly and gave me a stool to sit down and make myself comfortable because my endless, meaningless gibberish and puppy love were good for his business. Our conversations usually fluctuated from important stuff about what had happened in school, and what I was planning to do after the 10th class to silly stuff like how mom had yelled at me, how she had fought with her sister for her favorite nail polish but always interspersed with our grand confessions of how much we loved each other after every three and half complete sentences and a million flying kisses in between. Things were smooth now and mom too had eased her vigilance on my whereabouts and actions but the problem with us teenagers was that whatever we have is never enough. Samreen’s grandma used to go to prayers for a couple of hour’s every evening and Shurti’s boyfriend Ameet came up with the novel idea of using that time for the six of us to meet up at her place and enjoy a delightful rendezvous. I was very reluctant and hesitant initially, not because I wasn’t excited to see Preeti but I was afraid about what would happen if we were to get caught? But Preeti and Rajesh talked me into it and I finally decided to go with the flow. So everything was meticulously planned from how the three guys would be together around that time and how Samreen would call Rajesh as soon as grandma was out of the house. We also planned on saying we were going to Pappu’s house (one of Samreen’s neighbors) if the watchmen asked us where we were heading. We decided to avoid using the elevator too and use the stairs to climb up the six floors to decrease the chances of anyone who knew us or our parents seeing us. Everything went according to plan and the girls ushered us inside. Rajesh and Ameet felt more at home and seemed really relaxed about the whole thing; even the girls were pretty cool about it and I felt like I was the only one who was tense, maybe I wasn’t as brave as them or maybe I wasn’t as stupid not to care. I kept glancing towards the front door and asked Preeti to make sure it was locked properly. We spent a good hour there and I had to literally drag the guys out of there before grandma made her presence felt. Our first attempt had been successful and we were proud of our selves and because it had been so smoothly executed these home visits became a weekly affair and even my nerves were eased a bit now. Life was good for us and we were having a great time and now we decided to inform my gang too about the whole plan of faking the breakup so that they could cover for my absence in tuitions and if my parents asked them anything. But if you ask me what all went on in the house I would tell you what I told Billu and Timmy whenever they got really curious- “I am a gentleman, I don’t kiss and tell.”
So now that mom had found out about me and Preeti we were very careful not to get caught talking on the phone or anywhere else. For a few days we decided to tell my friends too that we had broken up. The only people who knew the truth were Preeti’s friends Samreen and Shruti and their boyfriends so that we could communicate with each other using them as messengers. We gave up seeing each other in front of people and only spoke on the phone and that too had a process. When one of us was home alone we would give the other one a missed call and that was an indication to call back as quickly as possible. The thrill and excitement of all this kept us on her toes all the time but after a while it became frustrating because when one of us had something urgent or exciting to share we had to wait for the right moment when no one was around and more importantly when you are teenager in a relationship you want to flaunt it not hide it from your peers. Today’s teenagers have it easy with their easy internet access, facebook, cell phones and blackberry messengers but for our generation, the only easy thing was falling in love but as I found out keeping it going was real hard work.
After around a month and a half of these shenanigans something came our way. Samreen’s parents were going to USA for good to earn dollars and live the American Dream and she was going to stay back in the care of her aged grandma so that she could complete her schooling here. So now, whenever I had a chance I would call her and Preeti would come down to her place and we would chat for hours, so much so that now the phone booth from where I usually made the calls recognized me instantly and gave me a stool to sit down and make myself comfortable because my endless, meaningless gibberish and puppy love were good for his business. Our conversations usually fluctuated from important stuff about what had happened in school, and what I was planning to do after the 10th class to silly stuff like how mom had yelled at me, how she had fought with her sister for her favorite nail polish but always interspersed with our grand confessions of how much we loved each other after every three and half complete sentences and a million flying kisses in between. Things were smooth now and mom too had eased her vigilance on my whereabouts and actions but the problem with us teenagers was that whatever we have is never enough. Samreen’s grandma used to go to prayers for a couple of hour’s every evening and Shurti’s boyfriend Ameet came up with the novel idea of using that time for the six of us to meet up at her place and enjoy a delightful rendezvous. I was very reluctant and hesitant initially, not because I wasn’t excited to see Preeti but I was afraid about what would happen if we were to get caught? But Preeti and Rajesh talked me into it and I finally decided to go with the flow. So everything was meticulously planned from how the three guys would be together around that time and how Samreen would call Rajesh as soon as grandma was out of the house. We also planned on saying we were going to Pappu’s house (one of Samreen’s neighbors) if the watchmen asked us where we were heading. We decided to avoid using the elevator too and use the stairs to climb up the six floors to decrease the chances of anyone who knew us or our parents seeing us. Everything went according to plan and the girls ushered us inside. Rajesh and Ameet felt more at home and seemed really relaxed about the whole thing; even the girls were pretty cool about it and I felt like I was the only one who was tense, maybe I wasn’t as brave as them or maybe I wasn’t as stupid not to care. I kept glancing towards the front door and asked Preeti to make sure it was locked properly. We spent a good hour there and I had to literally drag the guys out of there before grandma made her presence felt. Our first attempt had been successful and we were proud of our selves and because it had been so smoothly executed these home visits became a weekly affair and even my nerves were eased a bit now. Life was good for us and we were having a great time and now we decided to inform my gang too about the whole plan of faking the breakup so that they could cover for my absence in tuitions and if my parents asked them anything. But if you ask me what all went on in the house I would tell you what I told Billu and Timmy whenever they got really curious- “I am a gentleman, I don’t kiss and tell.”
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
CHAPTER 16-THE MAIDEN GETS CAUGHT
The next morning mom was shocked to see my swollen eye and red cheek. I had tried to rub ice on it all night long and made sure I did not come out of my room before 10.00 am because that is when dad left for work. Mom was curious to know what had happened but she didn’t have to ask anything just the look in her eye was enough for me to understand what was going through her mind. So I told her a story that we had come up with and said that a few guys tried to steal money from Timmy’s friends and when we tired to stop them they hit us and ran away from there. I don’t know if mom bought my story or not but she didn’t say much afterwards and returned back to her chores in the kitchen when the phone rang and I ran to get it. Mom asked who it was and I said it was Tarun calling when actually it was Preeti who was very worried about the events of last nights and started throwing questions at me rapidly. I tried to explain it to her that mom was around and I couldn’t disclose much right then but everything was alright now and there was nothing major to worry about. She was not satisfied and said that she wanted to meet me tonight and see for herself. So I told her I will meet her at our usual place after tutorials.
So in the evening I went to the tutorials with a band aid on my forehead even though I wasn’t hurt there just to increase the affect of injury and get all the sympathy love I could get. After tutorials I went to our secret place behind the apartment in colony and waited for Preeti to come and shower me with love and tell me how proud she was of what I had done and how thankful her friends were. For around 25 minutes I strolled up and down the alley and kept peaking at the way where she was supposed to come from. There was no sight of her anywhere and I wondered what had happened. Finally my patience ran out and I went home dejected, disappointed and worried because never before had Preeti failed to turn up for a date.
I guess I wasn’t able to hide my disappointment at the dinner table because mom kept looking at me in a funny way. She looked to be angry at something but I wasn’t really interested in anything and kept thinking about how I was ditched. Next day while on my way to school I stopped at a telephone booth and called her place but her mom answered and I slammed the phone down and went to school. Throughout the day all I could think about was why hadn’t Preeti turned up to meet me. Bad thoughts ran through my mind and I even thought of trivial issues like maybe the band aid that wasn’t really required that had pissed her off. At cricket practice I did not bat or bowl and just stood there and yelled out instructions to the juniors taking out my frustration on them. I couldn’t wait for the evening when I could go to the tutorials and ask her what really had happened.
Usually when I get home I have my lunch and straight away head to my room to watch some TV but that day I sat in the hall by the phone waiting for Preeti to call and quickly answered the phone every time it rang but her call never came and I was dejected once again. I got ready earlier than usual and left for the tutorials and waited near the gate for Preeti to come with her gang of girls. All passerby’s kept asking me what I was doing near the gates like a watchman and all I did was smile meekly and said I was waiting for a friend to bring me my notes that he had borrowed. But going by my reputation I don’t think any of them bought my story.
Finally Preeti arrived and I was expecting her to be angry at something and throw a lot of tantrums instead she straight away came to me and started apologizing vociferously. I knew the ball was in my court now and my time to call the strokes so I asked her with a glum look on her face that I needed a very good reason from her for not turning up and apologizing just wouldn’t do. She looked surprised and told me,
“You’ve got no idea what happened, do you?”
I vaguely replied “no”.
She then narrated the events of last night and said that after tutorials when she was about to come to meet me, my mum along with Timmy’s mum had caught hold of her and told her she knew what was going on between her and me and asked her to keep away from me. She also warned her to never call me ever again and if she caught her doing so, the consequences will be extremely bad for her and she will even go to her parents and complain about this inappropriate behavior.
I was left stunned while Preeti was saying all this and shook my head in disbelief when the events of the last couple of days came rushing back to me. I realized that mom had eavesdropped in our complete conversation with the cordless phone she had kept in the kitchen with her and since then had been acting wierd. I knew now why she looked angry at dinner and hadn’t spoken much to me since then and that is when I recollected something. Dennis the menace, the cartoon character was a pretty funny kid but he did say a few things that made a lot of sense and that day I realized something he uses very often to be extremely true, “you can fool some people all the time and all people some of the time but you can never fool mom.”
Thankfully Preeti had taken it all very sportingly and our challenge in maintaining our relationship had increased ten fold but as all normal teenagers with their rebellious streak, the more they tried to stop us the better we got at doing it.
So in the evening I went to the tutorials with a band aid on my forehead even though I wasn’t hurt there just to increase the affect of injury and get all the sympathy love I could get. After tutorials I went to our secret place behind the apartment in colony and waited for Preeti to come and shower me with love and tell me how proud she was of what I had done and how thankful her friends were. For around 25 minutes I strolled up and down the alley and kept peaking at the way where she was supposed to come from. There was no sight of her anywhere and I wondered what had happened. Finally my patience ran out and I went home dejected, disappointed and worried because never before had Preeti failed to turn up for a date.
I guess I wasn’t able to hide my disappointment at the dinner table because mom kept looking at me in a funny way. She looked to be angry at something but I wasn’t really interested in anything and kept thinking about how I was ditched. Next day while on my way to school I stopped at a telephone booth and called her place but her mom answered and I slammed the phone down and went to school. Throughout the day all I could think about was why hadn’t Preeti turned up to meet me. Bad thoughts ran through my mind and I even thought of trivial issues like maybe the band aid that wasn’t really required that had pissed her off. At cricket practice I did not bat or bowl and just stood there and yelled out instructions to the juniors taking out my frustration on them. I couldn’t wait for the evening when I could go to the tutorials and ask her what really had happened.
Usually when I get home I have my lunch and straight away head to my room to watch some TV but that day I sat in the hall by the phone waiting for Preeti to call and quickly answered the phone every time it rang but her call never came and I was dejected once again. I got ready earlier than usual and left for the tutorials and waited near the gate for Preeti to come with her gang of girls. All passerby’s kept asking me what I was doing near the gates like a watchman and all I did was smile meekly and said I was waiting for a friend to bring me my notes that he had borrowed. But going by my reputation I don’t think any of them bought my story.
Finally Preeti arrived and I was expecting her to be angry at something and throw a lot of tantrums instead she straight away came to me and started apologizing vociferously. I knew the ball was in my court now and my time to call the strokes so I asked her with a glum look on her face that I needed a very good reason from her for not turning up and apologizing just wouldn’t do. She looked surprised and told me,
“You’ve got no idea what happened, do you?”
I vaguely replied “no”.
She then narrated the events of last night and said that after tutorials when she was about to come to meet me, my mum along with Timmy’s mum had caught hold of her and told her she knew what was going on between her and me and asked her to keep away from me. She also warned her to never call me ever again and if she caught her doing so, the consequences will be extremely bad for her and she will even go to her parents and complain about this inappropriate behavior.
I was left stunned while Preeti was saying all this and shook my head in disbelief when the events of the last couple of days came rushing back to me. I realized that mom had eavesdropped in our complete conversation with the cordless phone she had kept in the kitchen with her and since then had been acting wierd. I knew now why she looked angry at dinner and hadn’t spoken much to me since then and that is when I recollected something. Dennis the menace, the cartoon character was a pretty funny kid but he did say a few things that made a lot of sense and that day I realized something he uses very often to be extremely true, “you can fool some people all the time and all people some of the time but you can never fool mom.”
Thankfully Preeti had taken it all very sportingly and our challenge in maintaining our relationship had increased ten fold but as all normal teenagers with their rebellious streak, the more they tried to stop us the better we got at doing it.
Monday, June 21, 2010
CHAPTER 15-SLAP SLAP BANG
So by now everyone in the community knew about our love stories and that is why they say that word of mouth is the best way of marketing. But you should not believe all that you hear. All of us, i.e all three couples would look for an opportunity to meet each other and because everyone was talking about us we wanted to keep it really discreet and the more we tired to do that the more it looked like we were doing something wrong and the more people followed us and kept and eye on our movements. There was a parking lot in the back of an apartments in the colony where we used to meet and one day someone spotted a couple kissing there and there was speculation that it was Preeti and me but the fact of the matter is that we were the only couple among the three who hadn’t even thought about kissing yet. My friends used to ask me and I would get really irritated about what base I had reached yet and how was I to tell them getting to any base was the last thing on my mind and that I loved her with all my heart.
Navratri was here and like every year all of us were planning to go to the celebrations organized by a neighboring colony. Preeti and her gang would be there too and we had planned that whatever opportunity we get we were going to play garba together. Five nights went by; everything was going smoothly and according to plan. We were dancing all through the night and sleeping and day dreaming all through the day. My parents weren’t happy and Preeti’s family especially her elder sister who too came there every night was giving her a hard time. On the sixth night, the gang and I were near the food stalls munching on some delicious chat and mithaai while the girls were playing garba. A couple of romeos from the locality approached them and started acting fresh. Billu was the first one to notice it and alerted the rest of us. I rushed towards them and confronted the goons and one of them pushed me away. All this was getting a lot of eyeballs and undue attention towards us. I tried not to fight even though I felt like beating the hell out of them but once the bloke started verbally abusing me I gave him a low blow and he started shrieking in agony and withering in pain. In the mean time the other bloke had run away to call on the rest of his goondas and I knew this was going to be a big bad fight. Sallu suggested that we send the girls’ home before it starts getting ugly and Billu said we too should leave immediately. But Rajesh and Ameet were not leaving until they dealt with the goons who had the balls to tease their girls and make sure that no one else ever tried doing it. I was scared and apprehensive but did not want to the others to think I was being a coward so I unwillingly said that we should stay. So we sent the girls home and waited for the consequences of our actions. I felt sorry for Shehbaaz kalu,Motu,Billu,Sallu and Timmy, they had nothing to do with the fight except for the fact that I was involved and now they would have to get beaten and bruised because of me. I also felt proud to have such good friends who did not question me whether I was right or wrong and stood by me. But all this was like the last thing on our minds. All we could think about was how we were going to deal with the situation and what were we going to do if the guys were really strong and powerful. I wished Hardik would somehow magically appear there with his gunmen and scare the hell out of the romeos. I thought of calling Tarun who was always ready for a fight for a solution but it was already way past midnight and he would have been fast asleep. In the mean time Timmy was creating a bigger gang for our fight. He had a few friends who were his age, Altaaz, shoheb, firaaz and Mubeen who came forward to help us but looking at them and their skinny figures I knew it was only going to add to the numbers and not our strength. Now a few more people would be getting a sound beating because of me. All of us were really tense and sat there with glum faces and hardly anyone spoke to each other. Billu tried breaking the tension by saying that if Timmy called a few more of these skinny malnourished looking friends of his then maybe they goons would pity us and let us go and all of us could just manage a nervous smile. This was the first time Billu’s joke hadn’t cheered me up. We waited for 10 minutes before the enemy arrived but it seemed like an eternity.
Fifteen angry looking men were standing in front of us. At the helm of the group was a bald looking neta type uncle in white kurta pyjama and he straight away grabbed Ameet, who was closest to him by the collar and pulled him up from his chair. We all yelled at him asking him to let him go and told him to listen to our side of the story before he did anything. He gave Ameet a mighty jerk before letting go of him and he fell among the chairs. Motu acted as out mediator and told netaji what had happened and it looked like he understood what had happened but suddenly one the blokes from the back slapped Motu and asked him to keep his tone lower. The velocity of the slap shook Motu up and we too felt the shivers and all I wanted to do then was yell bhaago and get out of there as quickly as we could. But Motu lowered his voice and continued with our story, with his right hand firmly placed against his bruised cheek. Turns out netaji was the father of the bloke who I had punched in the sack and wanted to know who did it and if we told him who it was he would let the rest of the group go. All eyes wandered towards me and I said I had done it and he called me forward and asked his son to slap me. The eve teaser swung his hand with all his might and whacked me across my face and got me in the eye too. My eyes were moist and watery and everyone thought I was crying. Netaji felt that he had humiliated us enough and his job here was done but before he left he called the organizers of the event, pointed towards us and asked them not to let anyone of us inside ever again. It was a premature end to the navratri festivities for all of us but I was thankful no bones were broken. I learnt a lot of things that night; in India only the powerful and the unruly have a say, never start a fight no matter what, my friends were the best things that happened to me, Timmy’s friends were my friends too, by being slapped and standing up for the girls I had become a hero in their eyes and no matter how hard to try to hide your wounds, mom will eventually find out about them.
Navratri was here and like every year all of us were planning to go to the celebrations organized by a neighboring colony. Preeti and her gang would be there too and we had planned that whatever opportunity we get we were going to play garba together. Five nights went by; everything was going smoothly and according to plan. We were dancing all through the night and sleeping and day dreaming all through the day. My parents weren’t happy and Preeti’s family especially her elder sister who too came there every night was giving her a hard time. On the sixth night, the gang and I were near the food stalls munching on some delicious chat and mithaai while the girls were playing garba. A couple of romeos from the locality approached them and started acting fresh. Billu was the first one to notice it and alerted the rest of us. I rushed towards them and confronted the goons and one of them pushed me away. All this was getting a lot of eyeballs and undue attention towards us. I tried not to fight even though I felt like beating the hell out of them but once the bloke started verbally abusing me I gave him a low blow and he started shrieking in agony and withering in pain. In the mean time the other bloke had run away to call on the rest of his goondas and I knew this was going to be a big bad fight. Sallu suggested that we send the girls’ home before it starts getting ugly and Billu said we too should leave immediately. But Rajesh and Ameet were not leaving until they dealt with the goons who had the balls to tease their girls and make sure that no one else ever tried doing it. I was scared and apprehensive but did not want to the others to think I was being a coward so I unwillingly said that we should stay. So we sent the girls home and waited for the consequences of our actions. I felt sorry for Shehbaaz kalu,Motu,Billu,Sallu and Timmy, they had nothing to do with the fight except for the fact that I was involved and now they would have to get beaten and bruised because of me. I also felt proud to have such good friends who did not question me whether I was right or wrong and stood by me. But all this was like the last thing on our minds. All we could think about was how we were going to deal with the situation and what were we going to do if the guys were really strong and powerful. I wished Hardik would somehow magically appear there with his gunmen and scare the hell out of the romeos. I thought of calling Tarun who was always ready for a fight for a solution but it was already way past midnight and he would have been fast asleep. In the mean time Timmy was creating a bigger gang for our fight. He had a few friends who were his age, Altaaz, shoheb, firaaz and Mubeen who came forward to help us but looking at them and their skinny figures I knew it was only going to add to the numbers and not our strength. Now a few more people would be getting a sound beating because of me. All of us were really tense and sat there with glum faces and hardly anyone spoke to each other. Billu tried breaking the tension by saying that if Timmy called a few more of these skinny malnourished looking friends of his then maybe they goons would pity us and let us go and all of us could just manage a nervous smile. This was the first time Billu’s joke hadn’t cheered me up. We waited for 10 minutes before the enemy arrived but it seemed like an eternity.
Fifteen angry looking men were standing in front of us. At the helm of the group was a bald looking neta type uncle in white kurta pyjama and he straight away grabbed Ameet, who was closest to him by the collar and pulled him up from his chair. We all yelled at him asking him to let him go and told him to listen to our side of the story before he did anything. He gave Ameet a mighty jerk before letting go of him and he fell among the chairs. Motu acted as out mediator and told netaji what had happened and it looked like he understood what had happened but suddenly one the blokes from the back slapped Motu and asked him to keep his tone lower. The velocity of the slap shook Motu up and we too felt the shivers and all I wanted to do then was yell bhaago and get out of there as quickly as we could. But Motu lowered his voice and continued with our story, with his right hand firmly placed against his bruised cheek. Turns out netaji was the father of the bloke who I had punched in the sack and wanted to know who did it and if we told him who it was he would let the rest of the group go. All eyes wandered towards me and I said I had done it and he called me forward and asked his son to slap me. The eve teaser swung his hand with all his might and whacked me across my face and got me in the eye too. My eyes were moist and watery and everyone thought I was crying. Netaji felt that he had humiliated us enough and his job here was done but before he left he called the organizers of the event, pointed towards us and asked them not to let anyone of us inside ever again. It was a premature end to the navratri festivities for all of us but I was thankful no bones were broken. I learnt a lot of things that night; in India only the powerful and the unruly have a say, never start a fight no matter what, my friends were the best things that happened to me, Timmy’s friends were my friends too, by being slapped and standing up for the girls I had become a hero in their eyes and no matter how hard to try to hide your wounds, mom will eventually find out about them.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
CHAPTER 14-STUPID STUPID LOVE
It was official. Preeti and I were a couple but we did not want anyone else to find out. Of course other than the people we were always surrounded by i.e. my friends, her friends, my friends at school, her friends at school, her friend’s boyfriends and friends of our friends. Pretty soon everyone got a whiff of the affair and we did not know who to blame. Was it our friends who had told the others or was it us who had told about it to so many people or was it our being so deeply in love that everyone could see it in our eyes or maybe it was a combination of all three.
Before Preeti proposed and we became a couple we used to talk to each other casually in front of everyone but now that we were a couple there was a sudden urge to hide the fact that we were talking to each other from everyone. Now we used to meet behind parking lots, talked in sign language in the tutorials, avoided each other in public and call on each others home phones when our parents were not around. We talked about the same things as before but said I love you to each other after every three minutes. We had been brought up that way because everyone around us always gossiped about people having a affair and used to talk about couples in derogatory terms like he’s after her and they have hooked up and stuff like that but nobody ever said that they are in love or anything positive about being a couple and that put the thought in our minds that what we were doing was totally wrong and unacceptable.
In school, I could not concentrate and always thought about her. When the Biology teacher talked about how the heart pumped blood and how it passed through arteries and veins all I could think about was how my heart beat became faster every time I saw Preeti. When in the history class the teacher talked about Rasputin and the affair with the Russian Queen I would be reminded of our affair. When the Hindi sir talked about Krishna and Radha I would imagine it was us and even during recess I would be busy updating the guys about what was happening with my relationship. As soon as I got home Preeti would call me from a telephone booth and ask the guy there to ask for me and if anyone else answered the phone tell them it was Tarun who was calling for me. The thrill and excitement of the affair became so exciting that we started taking bigger risks. We would decide on what clothes we were wearing and wear the same colors and she would walk past me as many times as she could when we were standing in the colony. We would buy chocolates for each other and share it when ever we got a chance to pass it around.
I also hung around a lot more with Rajesh and Ameet (Preeti’s friend’s boyfriends) and we used to go on group dates to the Public Garden for a walk early in the mornings because we thought that nobody we knew would be up so early in the morning. But we were wrong there were thousands of people there every morning and hundreds of them were well acquainted to us. So when were on our leisurely strolls too we had to keep our eyes and ears open and our instincts razor sharp and be ready to run and hide if we saw a similar face. We did not even know how many times we had been caught and seen with each other and there was this constant fear that if someone went ahead and told about it to any of our parents we would be in deep trouble but the adrenaline rush and the thrill of it all kept us going and we used to come up with newer ways to meet and hook up. I had also befriended guys who lived in Preeti’s apartment so that on the pretext of playing cricket or visiting them I could catch a glimpse of her.
Then one day at school in the English class we were studying the chapter about Chacha Nehru’s letters to his daughter Indira Gandhi when he was in prison and in one of the letters he had written to her that she should do whatever her heart wished to do but make sure that she doesn’t do anything that she wanted to hide from the others because if you want to hide something from the others it is because your conscience is telling you that it is wrong and one should never fight their conscience. That got me thinking and I thought that when I knew I was in love and was doing nothing wrong why did I want to hide it from everyone and why did it feel so wrong? I decided that I should tell my folks about my girlfriend and come clean and clear my conscience but as soon as I got home and Preeti called me using Tarun’s name and I realized that ideologies like Nehruji’s did not work in the real world and even if they did there was no place for it in my world. I was having too much fun being secretive and wrong. It was all over the top and crazy stuff but being in love makes you do so many stupid things and I was doing them all at once because according to me once your heart starts beating faster your brain stops functioning properly and mine had but I did not regret it one bit because when you are in love, stupidity is your shadow.
Before Preeti proposed and we became a couple we used to talk to each other casually in front of everyone but now that we were a couple there was a sudden urge to hide the fact that we were talking to each other from everyone. Now we used to meet behind parking lots, talked in sign language in the tutorials, avoided each other in public and call on each others home phones when our parents were not around. We talked about the same things as before but said I love you to each other after every three minutes. We had been brought up that way because everyone around us always gossiped about people having a affair and used to talk about couples in derogatory terms like he’s after her and they have hooked up and stuff like that but nobody ever said that they are in love or anything positive about being a couple and that put the thought in our minds that what we were doing was totally wrong and unacceptable.
In school, I could not concentrate and always thought about her. When the Biology teacher talked about how the heart pumped blood and how it passed through arteries and veins all I could think about was how my heart beat became faster every time I saw Preeti. When in the history class the teacher talked about Rasputin and the affair with the Russian Queen I would be reminded of our affair. When the Hindi sir talked about Krishna and Radha I would imagine it was us and even during recess I would be busy updating the guys about what was happening with my relationship. As soon as I got home Preeti would call me from a telephone booth and ask the guy there to ask for me and if anyone else answered the phone tell them it was Tarun who was calling for me. The thrill and excitement of the affair became so exciting that we started taking bigger risks. We would decide on what clothes we were wearing and wear the same colors and she would walk past me as many times as she could when we were standing in the colony. We would buy chocolates for each other and share it when ever we got a chance to pass it around.
I also hung around a lot more with Rajesh and Ameet (Preeti’s friend’s boyfriends) and we used to go on group dates to the Public Garden for a walk early in the mornings because we thought that nobody we knew would be up so early in the morning. But we were wrong there were thousands of people there every morning and hundreds of them were well acquainted to us. So when were on our leisurely strolls too we had to keep our eyes and ears open and our instincts razor sharp and be ready to run and hide if we saw a similar face. We did not even know how many times we had been caught and seen with each other and there was this constant fear that if someone went ahead and told about it to any of our parents we would be in deep trouble but the adrenaline rush and the thrill of it all kept us going and we used to come up with newer ways to meet and hook up. I had also befriended guys who lived in Preeti’s apartment so that on the pretext of playing cricket or visiting them I could catch a glimpse of her.
Then one day at school in the English class we were studying the chapter about Chacha Nehru’s letters to his daughter Indira Gandhi when he was in prison and in one of the letters he had written to her that she should do whatever her heart wished to do but make sure that she doesn’t do anything that she wanted to hide from the others because if you want to hide something from the others it is because your conscience is telling you that it is wrong and one should never fight their conscience. That got me thinking and I thought that when I knew I was in love and was doing nothing wrong why did I want to hide it from everyone and why did it feel so wrong? I decided that I should tell my folks about my girlfriend and come clean and clear my conscience but as soon as I got home and Preeti called me using Tarun’s name and I realized that ideologies like Nehruji’s did not work in the real world and even if they did there was no place for it in my world. I was having too much fun being secretive and wrong. It was all over the top and crazy stuff but being in love makes you do so many stupid things and I was doing them all at once because according to me once your heart starts beating faster your brain stops functioning properly and mine had but I did not regret it one bit because when you are in love, stupidity is your shadow.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
CHAPTER 13-IGNORING HER IS BLISS!
My ego was hurt, my heart was broken. I had imagined the camp to be one of the most memorable and happy chapters of my life but it had turned out to be a tragedy. I couldn’t understand why Preeti had reacted the way she did. As soon as we got back from the camp Preeti’s elder sister who was equally hot came up to me and gave me a lecture on how they were from a good family and if word got out about Preeti and me her name would be tainted forever and her dad wouldn’t allow her to attend tutorials anymore and if I did not give up on persuing her she would get her cousins to beat me up. I was a little scared but now getting Preeti to agree to become my girlfriend was a matter of pride for me. How could her sister have insulted me in front of my gang who as a matter of fact just sat there and saw the whole tamasha? I was even more motivated now and that is when love also became war for me. But I was really confused too, so I decided to share this with the boys at school. None of them had any experience in wooing a girl but I just wanted to get the burden off my chest. Tarun couldn’t help but laugh his heart out because for the first time in his entire life he got a chance to pull my leg. The others too were sarcastic rather than being sympathetic and I felt like a loser. But Andy gave me an idea. He said he had seen a Telugu movie in which the hero tries to woo the girl but fails and after that he starts ignoring her and making her feel insignificant and finally the heroine realizes what she is missing out on and makes up for her folly. I thought it was a stupid idea because that was exactly what Preeti had asked me to do, to leave her alone. Anyway, I had nothing to lose and decided that I should give it a go, what other choice did I have anyway? So I started ignoring Preeti in the tutorial, I would smile pleasantly and say hi to her friends Shruti and Samreen but when she tried to make eye contact I would make a face and look the other way. If she was coming towards me from the opposite direction I would suddenly change the direction in which I was going and made sure that she knew I was running away from her. I ignored her completely. I did not ask about her to her friends anymore and when they tried to bring up her topic I would tell them without any hesitation that I was over her and did not want to talk about her. I could see that my strategy was working but I wasn’t really sure about it.
One day while talking to Rehman, a tuition mate who I spoke to often because of our common interest in cricket the topic of girls came up and he told me that his cousin Ruheen had a huge crush on me and thought that I looked a lot like Shah Rukh Khan and wanted to be friends with me. I had seen Ruheen around a lot in the tutorials and also when she came to pick up her younger brother after school who was three classes junior to us. But I had never given her any real attention up until then. She was really pretty and made all the boys’ heads turn every time she stepped inside our school gates and the best thing about it was that she was oblivious to the fact that she was so gorgeous. I was happy and relieved at least some girl wanted to be friends with me but I had already signed sealed and gift wrapped my heart, ready to be given to Preeti. But my mind started working faster than a computer and I came up with a master plan. I would befriend Ruheen and talk to her after tutorials everyday and make sure that Preeti was looking. I thought that would make her jealous about the fact that the importance given to her by me would decrease and anyway girls are a weird lot, even if they don’t like a particular thing they wouldn’t want anyone else to have it.
Rehman introduced me to his cousin and we were friends. Now every time she came to school I made sure I was either batting in the nets or if sometimes I was bowling my run up would become longer and I would bowl a couple of miles faster. I didn’t know where the sudden burst of energy came from but she had that effect on me. I would try my hardest to impress her but I was careful because I did not want the teachers to notice I was flirting with a girl in the school campus. We exchanged gifts on our birthdays, valentines and friendships days and pretended to talk to each other everyday after tutorials but there was no real conversation. She was really pretty, elegant and lady like but the spark between us was missing. I could never imagine her as my girlfriend no matter how hard I tried. On my birthday she gifted me a musical card that could sing Happy Birthday and looked really expensive. She had addressed it from- Me, I couldn’t take a chance and have anyone at home become suspicious that it was given by a girl so I changed the Me to Mizbah (If you remember, he was Tarun’s arch enemy in school because he had told on him once and gotten him badly beaten by Suzie Miss.). But my folks wouldn’t know all that. Now it was her birthday and my turn to gift her something equally good if not better, so I thought hard and bought her an audio cassette of the upcoming Shah Rukh Khan movie Dil se and got it gift wrapped for her. But as soon as I got home I couldn’t stop my urge to listen to the songs once before I gave the cassette away so I tore the gift wrap, removed the seal and enjoyed listening to the songs a couple of times. I was engrossed listening to the songs and lost count of time and was late for the tutorials and mom was shouting at me to get out of the house right away. I realized that I did not have enough time to gift wrap it again so I removed a few stickers from the birthday cards given to me by my friends and stuck them on the cassette case and gifted it to her. She really loved her gift and the decoration too. But I was actually happier than her because Preeti had seen me giving the gift to Ruheen and ran away from there. The next day her friends told me that Preeti might have a soft corner for me because she kept mentioning my name a lot of times since the day I started talking to Ruheen and was very anxious and eager to know if we were seeing each other. They also told me that she was almost in tears when she saw me gifting something to Ruheen. Just then Preeti arrived and extended her hand towards me as if she was signaling a sign of friendship. I wanted to jump up in the air and celebrate but instead I shook hands with her and smiled. I was happy my plan had been successful but Preeti did something that totally swept me off my feet she went down on one knee and said the three magical words “I love you.” I was blushing like a girl and quickly replied I love you too and grabbed her hand and brought her up. I cleared things with her about Ruheen and told her that she was just a good friend and nothing more than that. I had won my love and also the war but I lost a good friend that day. Ruheen never spoke to me from that day on and for many months I thought it was because she liked me and was disappointed that we couldn’t be together but one day Rehman cleared my misconception and told me that it was because one of the stickers on the cassette I had gifted her read “I love you sweetheart” and she thought I had proposed to her and then cheated on her. My stupid mistake had resulted in a huge misunderstanding which eventually helped me in getting my girl. Life is like that- cruel and unpredictable. I had found love but at the expense of breaking another fragile heart.
One day while talking to Rehman, a tuition mate who I spoke to often because of our common interest in cricket the topic of girls came up and he told me that his cousin Ruheen had a huge crush on me and thought that I looked a lot like Shah Rukh Khan and wanted to be friends with me. I had seen Ruheen around a lot in the tutorials and also when she came to pick up her younger brother after school who was three classes junior to us. But I had never given her any real attention up until then. She was really pretty and made all the boys’ heads turn every time she stepped inside our school gates and the best thing about it was that she was oblivious to the fact that she was so gorgeous. I was happy and relieved at least some girl wanted to be friends with me but I had already signed sealed and gift wrapped my heart, ready to be given to Preeti. But my mind started working faster than a computer and I came up with a master plan. I would befriend Ruheen and talk to her after tutorials everyday and make sure that Preeti was looking. I thought that would make her jealous about the fact that the importance given to her by me would decrease and anyway girls are a weird lot, even if they don’t like a particular thing they wouldn’t want anyone else to have it.
Rehman introduced me to his cousin and we were friends. Now every time she came to school I made sure I was either batting in the nets or if sometimes I was bowling my run up would become longer and I would bowl a couple of miles faster. I didn’t know where the sudden burst of energy came from but she had that effect on me. I would try my hardest to impress her but I was careful because I did not want the teachers to notice I was flirting with a girl in the school campus. We exchanged gifts on our birthdays, valentines and friendships days and pretended to talk to each other everyday after tutorials but there was no real conversation. She was really pretty, elegant and lady like but the spark between us was missing. I could never imagine her as my girlfriend no matter how hard I tried. On my birthday she gifted me a musical card that could sing Happy Birthday and looked really expensive. She had addressed it from- Me, I couldn’t take a chance and have anyone at home become suspicious that it was given by a girl so I changed the Me to Mizbah (If you remember, he was Tarun’s arch enemy in school because he had told on him once and gotten him badly beaten by Suzie Miss.). But my folks wouldn’t know all that. Now it was her birthday and my turn to gift her something equally good if not better, so I thought hard and bought her an audio cassette of the upcoming Shah Rukh Khan movie Dil se and got it gift wrapped for her. But as soon as I got home I couldn’t stop my urge to listen to the songs once before I gave the cassette away so I tore the gift wrap, removed the seal and enjoyed listening to the songs a couple of times. I was engrossed listening to the songs and lost count of time and was late for the tutorials and mom was shouting at me to get out of the house right away. I realized that I did not have enough time to gift wrap it again so I removed a few stickers from the birthday cards given to me by my friends and stuck them on the cassette case and gifted it to her. She really loved her gift and the decoration too. But I was actually happier than her because Preeti had seen me giving the gift to Ruheen and ran away from there. The next day her friends told me that Preeti might have a soft corner for me because she kept mentioning my name a lot of times since the day I started talking to Ruheen and was very anxious and eager to know if we were seeing each other. They also told me that she was almost in tears when she saw me gifting something to Ruheen. Just then Preeti arrived and extended her hand towards me as if she was signaling a sign of friendship. I wanted to jump up in the air and celebrate but instead I shook hands with her and smiled. I was happy my plan had been successful but Preeti did something that totally swept me off my feet she went down on one knee and said the three magical words “I love you.” I was blushing like a girl and quickly replied I love you too and grabbed her hand and brought her up. I cleared things with her about Ruheen and told her that she was just a good friend and nothing more than that. I had won my love and also the war but I lost a good friend that day. Ruheen never spoke to me from that day on and for many months I thought it was because she liked me and was disappointed that we couldn’t be together but one day Rehman cleared my misconception and told me that it was because one of the stickers on the cassette I had gifted her read “I love you sweetheart” and she thought I had proposed to her and then cheated on her. My stupid mistake had resulted in a huge misunderstanding which eventually helped me in getting my girl. Life is like that- cruel and unpredictable. I had found love but at the expense of breaking another fragile heart.
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