The World is not a b@d Place after all

I don’t know why I am blogging so frequently. This is my second post in a row with a time lapse of only 7 days. Keeping with the trend that an engineering course has set up in this country I shouldn’t be doing this to me. You can’t expect a growing engineer to utilise his spare time so judiciously. We aren’t supposed to do that. Does this mean that I have a lot of spare time? Well I guess I have to reconsider this thought.

A note to all my readers: I say this again; don’t have high expectations with this author. I don’t belong to the class of writers you expect. This is a simple engineering student sharing something that he wants too. I scribbled something in my first post and was very much applauded by you. Thanks to each one of you. My second post, here it goes.

12^th September, 2008 “Hey why are you so unrest and uncomfortable”, Kislay asked me. The question didn’t come as a surprise to me. When you keep patrolling incessant for 30 minutes from one room to another you always expect a similar question from your roommates. “Nope dude nothing serious”, well such sentences always gives the opponent the feeling that ya something is seriously wrong. I looked the watch it was still 9:52 pm. “Still 8 minutes to go”, I mumbled. This was sequentially the fourth time I flashed up my cell phone for Time since last 15 minutes. Sometimes something goes so slow, I never expected. What was so special about 10 pm, 8 minutes later? Was I to get some reward or was I waiting for my semester results. Hmmm...to be precise nothing of such sort, though two things was very special about 10pm - 8 minutes later.

Firstly, it was going to be 10 pm, an end to restlessness of all the Airtel subscribers to Friendz plan, especially the love bugs. “Why?” Am I hearing same question from all of you. If so, my answer is “why shouldn’t?” 10 pm meant only 10 paise/minute if you dial to a local number in Maharashtra. Is that not a reason enough to celebrate? I guess a reason strong enough. For love bugs it was a blessing from Divine creator.

Secondly, I was calling her for the first time. And thanks to almighty she too had procured an Airtel number. This meant no monetary hurdles between us?

A few hours ago I wasn’t sure whether I should call her. “What would I talk to her? What if she misinterprets me? What If I end before making a start?” But a strong voice helped me, “dude you should, you can & you will”, and it was not late before I recognised it was my own. It was 10 pm, 9...9...7...0...9...9...0...0...9...9, I dialled the number, 2 seconds later two consecutive beeps on my cell and what I could see on screen was “Network busy”. “F*** the network”, I shrieked. Nonetheless my spirits never died. Like a millions of battling Airtel Army soldier I dialled up again. “Error in Network Connection”, the call disconnected after two subsequent rings. I cried, she might think I am giving her missed calls”, @ this stage I can’t do that @least. Though this mighty Airtel had helped a lot to new Romeos like me, but the network sucked as usual. I tried again. This time god helped and I could hear “Dil Kho gaya ho gaya kisi ka, ab raasta mil gaya khusi ka..............teri ore.... teri ore” the famous track from the latest flick Singh is King (though a hello tune then) perfectly synchronized with my heart. I was lost in the song imagining myself with a waist coat on, the barren desert and she was in my arms, until I heard “HULLO...” I felt a terrible shake & recollected myself from the dream. Her sweet voice had struck the chords of my heart.”

3 days before. 9^th September, 2008, Tuesday evening 5.50 pm, My cell buzzed I wasn’t able to pick it up coz as usual I had this big thing earphone glued to my ears where ‘In the End’ – the famous linkin park tune was roaring in. 3 buzz more and I heard a shout, “why don’t you keep that headphone stuff away from you rascal or @least keep your cell in your pocket”, I realized it was Prem’s voice as usual. Taking off the headphone I picked up the cell. It Showed ‘A.D calling’. “Hullo...”I said. “We have DSP (DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing) submission tomorrow”, he said. “So?” I asked as if the submission was a lecture to attend. “So prepare well for vivas or you are fucked. And for your kind information you have three vivas pending” “Viv...a..a, F..uck man”, I replied in astonishment. “C ya 2 Moro”, he replied and hung up. I thought why does it matter so much when the famous LP said “In the End it doesn’t even matter”. I hated DSP and its mind boggling signal transforms and Fourier analysis. The next possible things that I could do were keeping away LP and find some DSP tunes which I had to sing next day. I hurriedly went to my table and scanned if I can find any book for DSP. Soon I realized I didn’t have book. “Damn it...the library huh!!!” “Dude m comin 2 Ur flat for DSP, I dun hv book”, I keyed in the SMS and immediately forwarded it to A.D. Within a second my cell flashed up and I knew it was A.D’s SMS. It said “kkk...” “Seems he is too keen to study DSP with me so three consecutive k’s”, I said to myself and left for his flat.

We had done a fair amount of work with DSP concepts and signal components for last 3 hrs. And more importantly I never studied 3 hours in a row after I joined MIT. I needed a break and my breaks in terms of minutes were more than those consumed while studying. “Let’s stop it man here. Its 9.20 pm. I don’t think we are gonna flunk anyway. Let’s take a break” I said to Anuj. “Kool”, he replied.” “What about a cup of coffee @ Durga”. “Fine”, he said. While I was waiting for Anuj at the basement I thought over the famous CCD tag ‘A lot can happen over a Coffee’, though nothing substantial had happened with me.

Durga...the famous coffee shop near our college was famous for its sizzling cold coffees’. Though the hoarding said we are single, I actually had figured out three Durgas in pune. I was least interested to investigate who was imitating whom. Durga had this wonderful student crowd as it was only a few meters from college campus. You can always find good amount of ‘quality’ chicks there. And that probably was the reason why we often picked that place for the so called ‘break’. We ordered for two cold coffees. The cup hardly required 5 minutes to finish but the ‘quality crowd’ that I was talking about took us 20 minutes to finish. It was already 9.50 pm. “I am leaving bro...I will prepare the rest from the e-book I have. Anyway I hardly see the chance of flunking 2 Moro and more importantly we aren’t so scheduled like Ankit and so not supposed to mug up the entire syllabus for vivas”... “True Man, shall I drop you home?”A.D asked. “No I would rather prefer to walk. I see this tummy thing protruding out of me and seriously this can pull down my popularity among the chicks”. A few roars of laughter and we took leave of each other.

My flat was almost 2 km from Durga coffee shop. I loved walking at night under the grace of moonlight. It always felt serene and composed. I had treaded a few meters when I saw that BOB (Bank of Baroda) ATM. I inspected my wallet. It had only two cuddled up 10rs note. So I decided to pull out some cash. I made my way to the empty queue and saw someone inside the ATM. My cell phone buzzed again but this time it was mum on line. It was a routine call to find if everything was well with me. I went outside to receive the call. After 5 minutes of long conversation with mom and dad (which rarely happens) I came back in. To my surprise the ATM was still occupied by the same person. I felt desperate to knock @ the transparent door. 2 more knock when the door opened & I lost my senses. I looked like a paralysed animal. What I saw then was something that made me happy and afraid. Happy b’coz it was Her.

Yes the same girl whom I saw at the restaurant last Sunday. I was afraid because like an uncivilised guy I had banged hard at the door. “II....mmm...Sorrryyy...” I replied after a moment regaining my senses. I tried to be polite. “It’s Ok”, she replied. “Any problem you seemed to stick here for so long.” like a gentleman I asked. “Ya actually I am not able to access my account”. I saw her...this was the first time I saw in her eyes. It had a thin line of kajal. I blushed and winked mine then. “Shall I help?” “Hmmm...Ok try”, she said. I went in and swiped the card through the slot. It worked then. “The world was not bad enough”, I thought. Suddenly she took hold her of card and inspected. A few seconds of specular scrutiny & silence, she burst into laugh. I watched her. She was beautiful. No make-up except the hint of gloss. Her smiling lips, her deep black eyes, the deforming facial muscles when she laughed, the delicate fingers with a white shining polish, the thin silver bracelet on her right wrist, an Aqua shade kameez with white salwaar. She looked candid. A white stole with some fabricated light blue flashes added extra to her grace and charm. It was just perfect. Serene and blissful, I would rather say. I couldn’t get why she laughed, but I cared the least for the reason. I wish I could see her laughing all my life. I felt strong warmth @ my heart. “What happened?” I asked her regaining my senses. “I was inserting my card upside down into the slot” we burst into laughter & this time I joined her. I saw that heavenly sight again. She went outside while I made my transaction. Though my one eye was on my transaction procedure the other was on her. She was waiting for Auto – rickshaw. I flashed my cell phone. It was 10.20 pm and so I was sure that she will hardly get any Auto-rickshaw. I came outside the ATM. “Hey you seem to look worried anything serious?” “Ya I am already late to hostel and no Auto-rickshaw. I think I will have to walk through” “Shall I accompany you?” I asked like a perfect gentleman”. “It’s ok you shouldn’t take so much trouble”. She replied back. “It’s 10.30 pm” I said and the she didn’t say anything other than “Ok”.

I was happy and proud of my intelligent take on escorting her. I had used minimum of words with utmost gentleness and I was walking with her. I was happy with my success...and thought “Stage 1 cleared”.

“Btw I am Anshu, a third year computer engineering student in MIT pune”, I introduced myself formally and floated my hand. “Myself Rashi, a second year economics student at Fergusson College” we shook hands. I realized then that girls interestingly gave only half their palm while shaking hands. I held her hand for a second. They were so soft and tender. I felt as if I was holding a fresh leaf. Some qualities of girl leave you awestruck. I think I am making a mistake probably many. We resumed our talk. We started from our short personal intro like places where we belong to, our courses, our ambitions to stuffs like our interest, hobbies etc. I told her about my college schedules, how I bunk classes and slog entire night before exams. She seemed pretty interested in my talks.

It gave me a feeling that probably it was the first time she was talking to a budding engineer. “You seem to be quite an interesting character.” She said. “Shall I ask for the phone number? What if she refuses? What if this creates a false impression of mine?” such thoughts flooded my mind while we were getting close to her hostel. Finally we reached the hostel gate. “So here comes your hostel. And we are safe in... &” I flashed up my cell phone, “...8 minutes before time” “You are quite calculative”, she replied. I thought I will speak up. “Btw when are we meeting next time?” I spoke...I couldn’t believe I spoke. “Let’s see if the I get stuck with ATM again”, we laughed again... “If this doesn’t hurt you may I have your cell number, I guess we are friends now”. “Friends...hmmm you seem interesting.” And she gave me her cell number, I heard the first 4 digits 9,9,7,0 and I was even more elated as it was damn Airtel. I saved the number to my contacts. “Stage 2 cleared”. I was happy @ my success. “Btw I think you should leave now. It’s already late and you have your DSP vivas 2 Moro. Nevertheless thanks for escorting me to the hostel. Good night and all the best for your vivas” “The pleasure is all mine maam...thanks for your wishes...good night”. I replied back. She smiled and went in taking my soul out of me. I was happy and felt a sudden surge of warmth in my heart. I had my DSP vivas 2 Moro but who the damn cared. Lost in her thought I came back to my flat. I thought to celebrate the occasion by offering myself a nice sleep with her dreams drifting in. “The world is not such a bad place indeed”, I thought as I closed my eyes.

Anshu Kumar