Chapter 1
14th February, 2008
“C’mon bro, she’s all alone right now.” Sunny whispered in my ear. “What are you waiting for?”
“Yeah, it’s the perfect time. Even that Sharma won’t bother us for at least half an hour. Just go for it.” Chetan said and covered his face with a thick book called ‘Animals around Us’. I don’t know from where he found that book but it was doing a good job in hiding our three faces. Right now the three of us were on a mission, The Proposal Mission, which was to be executed here. Our boring Library will witness this memorable day.
“Bhai, just man and give it a go. Bhabhi is sitting right over there. You remember your lines right?” Sunny said.
“What lines?” I asked out of confusion.
“You know those stuffs like ‘You are the love of my life’ and ‘I will never leave you’ and… there are plenty of t-“
“No, you’re not going to say that lovey dovey good for nothing stuff. It sounds so impractical.” Chetan interrupted. “She would probably say no”
“C’mon man, that’s what girls like these days. And might I remind you Mr. Wanna be IITian that you know nothing about girls and their taste.” Sunny and Chetan, the polar opposites of each other in every way possible, were at it again.
“Guys would you stop for a minute. We are in the middle of something important.” I threw them a stern look and my gaze went back to the girl sitting in the isolated corner with her glasses on and two thick books lay on her table. A typical nerd…
Shefali Mehra, an exemplary student and the love of my life.
28th October, 2007
THE MEETING
The bell rang, shit!!
“Not again!!!” I cursed under my breath. Damn, I am dead man if that bull dog Sharma catches me. I was running late again and missed my football practice again. It was for the fourth time in this week. To be honest, I don’t even remember listening to my alarm this morning. Maybe it’s out of battery or something. Although mom’s constant nagging about me being late to school was an alarm itself and its battery never drains off. But today mom woke up late herself so by default I have to be late. I couldn’t even blame her but it seems that I am habitual to my mom’s nagging alarm.
I was running past the teachers and staff recklessly to my class which was on the third floor and this goddamn building doesn’t even have lift but thanks to my football drill I had a great stamina but still all the running from the parking area to the third floor was so draining. I was panting insanely by the time I reached the third floor. I paused for a moment to take a good long breath and ran my fingers through my sweat-sticky hair to convert them somehow into Ronaldo’s signature style kind then I went for my tie to drag them a little lower so that I can breathe and look cool at the same time and now here come my sleeves, I folded them up to my elbows. I double checked myself in the glass of nearby office’s window. My biceps were bulging and outlining the hem of the shirt, shirt hugged my body neatly but again showing the outline of my muscular shoulder, I have worked so hard on. Thank god, the results are showing. It seems very funny to me that how bad our school wants us to turn into good boy kind of material by abiding us in some dress code, rules and all schoolish crap but then somehow we find a way back to our badassary no matter what. We always do since ancient times.
Okay, now I am ready for the class, everything looks right in its place… except for one thing. I glanced down to look at the thing which was giving me a hard time since the morning.
My shoelace, “not again” I muttered and bend down to tie them up again. I don’t know for how many times I have done that since the morning but these damn things wouldn’t stay intact.
“Ouch…” I heard someone stumbled on the stairs. A girl, I guess, with the way that ‘ouch’ was spoken. If it were for a boy, he would definitely use his Delhi slang to curse the staircase or anyone passing by. But a girl would likely maintain her dignity even in front of the staircase. I pulled myself up to railing to have a look but all I could see was books scattered on the staircase. I bend a little only to found a pair of hands covered in the uniform sleeves getting all worked up to arrange the books that were scattered on the steps of the staircase. My gaze went to the beautiful silver colored watch flickering in the sunlight while hanging lazily on brown creamy wrist of its owner, who was busy piling up the books but they just too many for those little and delicate hands. Maybe I can help her, I thought. But another thought came up about seeing her, I don’t know why but it made curious. I wanted to bend some more to have a look at the face but a slight pat on my shoulder and the sight of a long and thick stick resting on them made me realize that someone was standing behind me. And that ‘Someone’ might be that one guy in his forties who carries a thick stick and pot like belly around with him along with his Bhojpuri accent and a packet of Paan Masala. He was the one who was officially appointed as our Physical Edu. Teacher but unofficially he exercised the right that no other teacher had; the right of kicking our asses with that damn stick.
Mr. Brijmohan Sharma a.k.a bull dog of St. Joseph Sr. Sec. School was right behind me, ready to take a bite of my sorry ass.
“Yes boy. Turn around… let me have a look at your face.” He barked. Usually, we boys, used to avoid him as much as possible and ever since we entered grade twelve we liked to abide by our boys law ‘keep a low profile’ because we knew he had our Physical Edu. Marks and that’s the only subject which will save us from getting a back in twelfth standard and getting thrown away from our homes.
“Good Morning, Sir” I greeted him in the most pleasing voice as possible with a even though I was so disgusted to see his Paan Masala dripping from the corners of his blood red lips.
“Raghav…oh…Bahute jaldi aa gaye school; Thora aaur late aate, hai na. Kaa ho jaata?”
“Sir actually, my bike… my bike ran out of petrol. So, I-” I tried my best to give him a good reason to believe but as we all know, he won’t take the bait. He shushed me before I could say some more.
“Ehh… don’t want start my day with your nonsense excuses, especially when I am on my fast. Turn around and receive your punishment.” He said and raised his stick. Way to start a day. Reluctantly I turned to face the nearby wall.
Sttt…sttt…sttt... The corridor echoed when the stick hit my legs and my lower limbs. Damn this is painful. I bit my cry but it was becoming harder with every shot.
“Excuse me, Sir.” I heard someone calling from behind.
“Ji, beta.” Sharma spoke in a pleasant voice. So it became quite clear that the ‘beta’ was not some boy as it looks like but definitely a girl. Does he have some kind of alter ego that appears only when he’s around some girl student? Girls do have some perks.
“Sir, could you please tell me the way to room no. 135?” The girl asked. Her accent was really cute though.
“Yeah, go straight and take right. The first room is room no. 135. It’s twelfth C, right?” Sharma explained. “You have so many books with you. Are you new admission?”
“Yes sir, I am from Lucknow branch.” She said.
Sharma bombarded her with his nonsense questions about changing school in midsession and its effect on studies and some more crap about our school but I didn’t paid heed to his questionnaire because one thing stuck my mind. ‘So many books’ he said, that staircase girl too had so many books.
I froze in silence when I realized it was the same girl, who I wanted to see so baldly, whose soft creamy wrist has a beautiful watch. And now she was standing right behind watching me taking hits from the goddamn bull dog. Man, it was so bloody insulting. Probably she saw the whole episode. What could go worse than this? I wanted to get buried right then and there or probably Sharma beat me to death. Whatever be it, I’ll take it.
“Oh, here Raghav is also from the same class. He’ll show the way around.” Sharma spoke and again patted my back with his only weapon, asking me to turn my back. God… today is the worst day of my life. I would rather take beatings from Sharma than face the girl shamelessly and moreover show her around the school.
“Raghav, gone deaf or what? I said move.” I gritted my teeth out of anger and embarrassment but slowly and reluctantly I turned to face her.
“Shefali beta, you can go to your class with him. He’s in the same class. He is naughty but he can show you around. Tell me if he gives you a hard time” He glared at me for one more time and then disappeared in the stairs; probably looking for his next victim.
Only one line came to my mind when I looked at her. ‘A bullet coated with sugar’ or in another words insanely beautiful but too innocent acknowledge it. She was looking at me with her big shiny eyes. Those brown eyes were actually complimenting her whitish complexion and like other girls her hair too was braided that gracefully rested on her shoulder. She stood up to my shoulders so I guess her height might be five feet three or four. She hugged her books tightly to her so to not let them fall again, just then I noticed that she had a well toned body, more like athletic one with those broad shoulders but it was hot in some way. Overall she was my type, not that I knew my type but right now it feels like, she is the definition I was looking for ‘my type’ up until now. Damn, I have gone from stud type to a cheese ball one in straight fifteen seconds.
My eyes went to her lips; it was so soft… wait… it moved. No… She’s saying something.
“Are you checking me out or what?” she said as her eyebrows narrowed and a frown appeared on her face. Shit…she’s damn straight. I wasn’t checking her out; I was just… probably complimenting her body with my eyes. Okay fine, I was ogling her but I or we boys actually can’t help it. It is a contagious disease we get from our teenage years.
“I…Umm…no…not at all. Why would I? I mean I’m not that typ-” before I could explain myself, she gracefully walked past me but not before throwing me deadly glare and her middle finger. Not that innocent though but a hot head innocent kind.
I started walking to my class as well but I stayed right behind her, close enough to smell her Vaseline body lotion.
“Checking out my ass now?” she said but didn’t turn around as she continued her walk.
“Don’t get obsessed over yourself, newbie. I wasn’t checking out your ass or any other body part.” I said “I’m just on my way to the class and just so you know, I’ve seen better.”
I smirked at my own remark but the newbie turned around to look at me. Her eyes were so captivating that I can go on admiring them endlessly.
“Good, then you can help me these.” She motioned her books towards me.
“Yeah, sure.” We split the bunch into half as we started to make our way to the classroom.
“By the way I’m-”
“Raghav” She completed the sentence for me. My name never sounded so pleasant before even when she added her disgusted look.
“And I wasn’t checking you out.” I added. Though that might not be completely true but giving her the impression of a complete pervert was not in my mind right now.
“And I don’t care even if you were.”
And just like that she entered the class. Damn, the girl is beautiful and all but that attitude needs to fix. But I really like her beasty side even when she was being too blunt.
“Raghav, you’re going to stand outside for the rest of the day or what?” Mrs. Kumavat, our biology teacher shouted. “Get in quickly.”
I entered the class of thirty five students out of which twelve were boys and the rest was girls. Yeah, there were some perks of choosing Science Bio.
Shefali was busy herself enrolling in the attendance register and giving her personal details while I walked up to my seat next to my best friend Sunny. ‘Sunny’ was actually a nick name for Sundar Lal Patel which was given by Sunny himself. Except for me, Chetan and teacher, no one knew his real name. Coming from a Gujarati family, he was anything but Gujarati. He doesn’t even carry that typical Gujarati accent or dot on Theplas and Chiwaras. One could actually say that he’s Delhi guy or at most Haryanvi guy based on his dinking habit but no one could go this far to think that he’s from Dry state unless that person visits his house. His house itself was mini Gujarat; from watchman to gardener, everyone was a Gujarati. Even the name plate on his house was written in its regional language. I still remember what a blunder this name plate created on the day when I and Chetan came to meet him at his place. It was new friendship and who was aware that Sunny is actually Sundar? And this big mansion was nothing less than a miniature version of some State I’ve never been to.
“I think we are in the wrong house” Chetan whispered in my ears as we sat down on the sofa.
“But the address is correct.” I said and looked at the paper slip that Sunny gave me the day before. Just then a maid entered the room with a tray of refreshments.
“Sundar Bhai is coming.” That maid said and offered the drinks.
Chetan gave me a perplexed look. What if we actually landed in the wrong place? And now who’s Sundar? Damn. Chetan hesitated to drink, and I, on the other hand gulped the drink out of embarrassment. I wanted to kill Sunny as much as I wanted to meet him right now. How dare he put us in this situation? I signaled Chetan to move and leave the place quietly. He nodded.
It seemed like our prayers were answered when Sunny, himself appeared in the room. He came yawning and scratching his forehead like he’s been sleeping all day. That might be true though.
“You know I can kiss you right now.” “Why didn’t you answer my call?” Chetan and I spoke at the same time. I looked at Chetan who was actually relieved to see Sunny for the first time in his life.
“I am straight man, so no kissing and all” Sunny sat in front of us and took a sip from his drink. “I was sleeping and the phone’s battery drained off.”
“Care to tell us who Sundar is?” I asked
“Well… it’s a long story”
And that’s how our friendship started and led it to brotherhood.
Chetan, I and Sunny were inseparable since then. Even though Chetan was pursuing his engineering dream by opting for Science Math, he still managed to hang out with us.
“A new girl” Sunny said. I really can’t believe that he’s literally up and paying attention to Mrs. Kumavat biology class. On normal days he would doze off or bunk the class or do whatever it takes to survive the boring lecture. But here he’s sitting all upright and arms folded like a man on mission.
“Shefali… And I dibs on her.” I said.
“Sheefaaliii…nice name.” he deliberately outstretched the name and stared at her for a couple of minutes.
“I said I like her.” It was really irritating me by the way he was looking at her. “And you are already in a relationship”
“No need to get all worked up man; I just take her as my Bhabhi.” Well that’s a relief, I thought. “But the others are not just ready accept the post of Devars. I mean look at them.”
He was right; all the other boys were looking at her or just stealing glances at her. I sighed; this is going to be a long day.
The bell rang and next period was a substitution. “Wanna go out somewhere?” Sunny asked.
“I think I’ll pass.” I said.
“Why? Oh… I get it. Shefali Bhabhi”
“Well…” he got me.
“You should at least go and talk to her then.” He said as he played with the basket ball. I snatched it from his grip and placed it on my index finger to balance it.
“I did and now she thinks I am some pervert.”
“What? Pervert?” his brows arched up.
“Yeah” and here goes the explanation of our first meet.
“Hmm…she’s something, man… you were checking her out?” he asked. I shrugged. “I take that as a yes then.”
“Like you need to ask?” I said and placed the ball on the table.
“So, what are planning to do then?”
“I don’t know yet.” I said as I leaned back in my chair.
“Then how about we start working on clearing your name from the ‘list of perverted people by Shefali Mehra’ first?” Sunny too leaned in his chair as his eyes roamed on the ceiling.
“And how do we do that?”
“I got a plan” A creepy devilish smile appeared on his face.
