A few minutes later she dumped her bag on a desk. She took out a hair brush and kept it into a pocket and rushed to the washroom.
She saw all the girls chitchatting and immediately spotted her friend, Vanya.
“I don’t know why strange things happen to me” she said as she opened her hair to comb.
“Hieee!! How are you?” Vanya jumped.
“I am good. What about you?” Sahana replied.
“Nothing much. Just that I went to Indonesia and saw the cutest guy possible.”
“Whoa, woman! Why do you always see hot guys and I whereas don’t even come near on, EVER?” Sahana exclaimed.
“Well, that’s called bonne chance. And what strange thing, by the way?”
“This stupid ugly woman in this strange black car stopped next to me. I got scared ki pata nahin kaun hai. I was ready to put up a fight when the window slid open and this ugly lady with kajal smeared over face said “You’re late for school on the first day” I toh couldn’t say anything. I just shrugged and she ordered the guard to open the door and he did. I was so relieved that she was a teacher. Phew!” Sahana explained.
“Hahaa. Good that it was a teacher. But it would’ve been more fun if it were this weird little witch who had come to warn you not to come late to school. It’s God’s way to tell you to wake up early, Sahana. I think you should listen to Him,” Vanya teased.
“Oh shut up,” she said as they walked out of the bathroom.
FIVE
The loud bell of DHS rang, spreading cheer all round. Teachers raised their eyebrows at their apparent joy but nobody could give a damn about them. But the end of the Political Science period in class XI G made Rishav curse the noise. He was almost done with buttering the new subject, back and forth when the noisy- cheery bell rang.
Damn. Rishav thought. He had bragged a little. Well, a lot. But in these times you can’t get noticed without tooting your horn can you? He waited for the right opportunity to start up a conversation. And when he got his chance he couldn’t stop. Going from one thing to another; Offering his opinion and listening to hers too. Although I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what you thought about Salman Rushdie, he thought. But he had to care. He praised her and then thanked her for complimenting him in a not-so-modest way. And just when he was going to ask about her family and tell her about his lineage, the bell rang.
“I would love to stay and chat but I‘ve got some work to do. I’ll talk to you later, Rishav,” the lady named Mrs. Sunita smiled and spoke.
“Okay, ma’am. See you later.”
Sweeeet victory, he smiled in his thoughts.
“Too hard. Trying, I mean… too hard,” the girl who sat closest to the door spoke.
Rishav turned; intrigued that someone was closely observing him. “Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow
The girl smiled with a tilt of her mouth.
“101 Ways to Impress a Teacher’ - someone gifted it to me. Borrow it from me sometime. Handy tips,” Rishav smirked.
The girl got up, “Sure babe. I will borrow it the day I want to be like you; which let me warn you now, won’t ever come. New?”
“Yeah. You were here in tenth?” he asked
“Yeah,” Sahana said curtly while she got up from her seat and turned to go towards the door.
“Rishav. And you are?” a short pause followed.
“Sahana. You know, you need to pick out the targets for your buttering with utmost care. There are around hundred here. And you can’t impress all of them. Unless you address them in the M.P. Hall and tell them all about yourself.”
“Haha. You know, I actually won’t mind that. It’s pretty convenient, you see,” Rishav followed Sahana as she ambled her way out of the class towards the corridor.
“I am telling you. You are wasting your time on non-consequential people.”
“Really?” they had reached the staircase which led to the top floor.
“Really,” Sahana said with sarcasm. “But for god’s sake at least make it less apparent. Teachers aren’t that dumb,” She walked ahead of him. “Or maybe they are,” she said, giving him a meaningful look.
“It all works out to my advantage. And there’s no harm in a little bit of buttering. And everyone likes to be praised. Even if it’s not true. Human nature it is. Where are you going anyway?” Rishav asked her as he followed her into the maze of corridors.
“Where I want to.”
“And the place being?” he followed it up.
“….my friend’s classroom. She’s in Commerce.”
Sahana walked with haste.
“What’s the hurry?” Rishav asked, biding for time.
“Break is for freaking 20 minutes. Five minutes the teacher takes. Five minutes early the next teacher arrives. Leaves us with exactly ten minutes to eat and meet people. Bloody, stupid school system.”
“Ohkay. So that’s why you are rushing. No-one ever bothered to tell the teachers about this thing?”
“The only time the teachers will talk about anything, apart from studies, is break; which we can’t afford to waste.”
“…and then you complain,” he chipped in.
“Excuse me?” Sahana abruptly turned around and raised a finger. “It’s your first day. You know crap about this school. You have no right to judge. When you have spent 10 years in this school, then maybe you are allowed to say that. As for what I just said, I was purely kidding. We’ve told them. But they are reluctant. What else can we do?”
“Okay, okay. My bad. Sorry?” Rishav said, with an apologetic face.
“You better be,” Sahana said and walked off.
*
The break was over. The teacher hadn’t come yet. Rishav sat near the windowsill with his book, trying to read it. But to his annoyance, he couldn’t. He looked at the page full of words and kept looking at the words instead of reading the sentences.
All he could think about was the stupid conversation with Sahana.
I’ve managed to create one enemy. Not that bad, Rishav, he thought.
He looked at the page again. He couldn’t bother to hold that book in his hand anymore. He put his bookmark on that page and kept it on his desk. He was about to get up and go to the washroom, since he had nothing else to do, when Sahana entered with her friend.
He sat on his chair again. He thought of all the ways of approaching her but decided against it.
Not in front of her friend, he thought. Wait for the friend to go. Then, maybe. Till then, read the book. Yes. That is much better.
He opened his book again, blankly staring at the page. He tried to read the first sentence. Makes sense, he thought. He continued to read it, when he was interrupted by her voice. “Nice bookmark,” she said.
“Thanks,” Rishav replied with a smile, wondering why she, herself came to talk to him when clearly she was pissed a little while ago.
“So you forgave me.”
“What?”Sahana asked, puzzled.
“I said sorry. You walked off. But you are talking to me right now. So you forgave me?”
“Well…you could say that. Everyone’s allowed one mistake. You made yours. And you are new. I didn’t want to give you a hard time. It’s difficult, I know. I’ve been there.”
Rishav raised his eyebrows wondering at how hotheaded she seemed a few minutes ago and how understanding she was now.
“Thanks. It is pretty hard. What’s with the corridors, I don’t get. Why don’t they have signs? It’s such a confusing place.”
She laughed. “I’ve been there too. I have changed four schools. This is the fifth. I always used to forget the way to my classroom, so this time I had decided to remember it. I remembered the way… and the number of stairs too. On the second day I ended up climbing the same stairs four times. The first time I went, I saw the piece of paper above the door. 9B was written on it. I went down again - counted the number of stairs. And then, came up again to find myself exactly at the same place. I did this four times. Until thi
s girl came and said ‘Sahana, where are you going? Our class is here’. That was 9B. But actually it hosted 7D,” Sahana explained.
Rishav laughed.
“You were a stupid kid,” he said.
“I was new, okay? All these people were so intimidating that I was afraid to ask them. What if they took me to a corner and ragged me, like I had heard?” Sahana said with a defiance.
“You were paranoid too,” Rishav said.
“If you were there, you would’ve known,” Sahana said with a little hint of anger.
Rishav tried to change the subject hurriedly; afraid he would make another mistake, which he couldn’t afford to make.
“So you came here in seventh?”
“Yeah. Bad year. Don’t ask,” she replied looking out of the window.
“First year is always bad. It’s when you are getting the hang of things.”
“Yes,” she said with a distant look in her eyes.
A silence prevailed.
“You better hope that your first year is not bad since you have only two years here,” Sahana said with a playful hint.
“Well then I need someone who could help me get the hang of things around here,” Rishav said, with a hope that Sahana would get the hint of what he was trying to imply.
“I can tell you what not to do. But ‘what to do’ depends upon which of the cliques in our school you wanna belong to, you know?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Rishav asked.
“See, we have a lot of groups in our school. There’s the ‘Geek and Nerd Group’. These people are the ones who are in science and computers both. We have the ‘Council Group’. These are the ones who aspire to be in the Council of this school, over achievers, basically. Then we have the ‘Gossip Group’. You know, what that group contains. We have the ‘Freak Group’. This is where the non-academic and non-anything people are. And we have the ‘Middle Group’. These interact with the gossip, a little bit of geek group, and with the council. So which one do you wanna be in?”
“Let me think. Which one do you belong to?” Rishav asked.
“None,” Sahana replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Huh? How is that possible?” Rishav inquired.
“Why would it not be? See, according to me I don’t fit in anywhere. I have friends. I don’t care of whatever group they belong to. It’s a stupid concept. Although, it’s not like all these groups don’t talk to each other. They do. But they just don’t hang out with each other,” Sahana explained.
“Wow. I didn’t know that,” Rishav said.
“Why? Weren’t there any cliques in your school?” Sahana asked.
“There were, but not so much. Or maybe I didn’t notice,” Rishav replied, trying to remember what it was like in his previous school.
“I think this all started with watching those movies like Mean Girls or whatever. Some were so influenced by it that they also wanted something like that. And they did. But now, it’s not that much, because all such people have gone.”
“Good for us,” Rishav smiled.
“Yep! Good for us,” Sahana replied.
The teacher came and Sahana went back to her seat.
SIX
The tube lights of the conference room flickered to life. Next was the AC which started efficient cooling within moments of it being turned on. A beautifully decorated flower vase adorned the centre of the 50 seater conference table. The chairs smelt of polish and the room of vanilla. Just about then, the doors to the room creaked open and Madhuri and Kalsi walked in.
Kalsi seemed sluggish in her walk. Her eyes reflected a kind of soreness that could have only been visible due to lack of sleep. Madhuri on the other hand displayed anxiousness. She was nervy and tense. They took two seats closest to the door.
“When will the staff arrive?” Madhuri asked adjusting her spectacles.
Kalsi stared back at her as though a highly insulting question had been asked, “I presume we discussed it yesterday itself Madhuri.”
“Oh yes, yes, I remember now.” Madhuri recollected the timing in her head. “Do you have good news for me?” Madhuri knew that it was hardly plausible to ask Kalsi this question when the entire staff would be present. Hence, it seemed ideal to pop in the question now and let Kalsi have a feeler of things to come. Knowing Kalsi’s habit of keeping things close to her chest, deep within Madhuri existed a feeling that she would not really get the answer she was looking for.
“You need to understand Madhuri…” Kalsi started off with her squeaky and incomprehensive tone. “There are a lot of things one needs to take into consideration while appointing someone the post of the Principal. It is not really entirely in my hands you see…” Kalsi paused to notice the change in expression on Madhuri’s face. Kalsi had to be clever; she had to camouflage her autocratic tendencies with clear cut diplomacy. And it was as difficult as asking Hitler to let his daughter marry a Jew.
“But Bindu dear, I think you are the supreme authority there at Greater Delhi High School. Isn’t the Director supposed to call the shots?” Madhuri tried to prod Kalsi’s tremendous ego by reminding her of the powers she possessed as the Director of Greater Delhi High School which was located around twenty kilometers away. Madhuri thought that all Kalsi wanted was a reminder of her endless power and by boosting her ego, Madhuri would stand a chance of getting her work done.
“It is not an autocratic setup. Running a school isn’t autocracy,” Kalsi’s left eye twitched while saying this. “I have weighed my options very carefully and in the end I have arrived at the right decision and I hope I’ll be having your support on this Madhuri,” she gazed at Madhuri expecting some kind of an affirmative reply. She waited for a silent assurance that Madhuri would accept any decision taken in the right spirit.
That assurance never came. Instead the door treated them to some loud knocking and an instant later, a head popped in, followed by the entire body. It was Veenu. “The staff is here,” she announced.
Kalsi took in a deep breath of air, “Ask them in.” She slightly adjusted her sari and then placing her hands on the table, propped up her heavy head with an evident look of reluctance.
Madhuri looked on apprehensively as the seats went on filling in one by one.
*
Heavy footsteps in the form of His Highness Jai Chauhan made its way across the 1st floor corridors of Delhi High School. A constant growling noise under his breath and a chimp’s spine accompanied him as he walked past the innumerable students filling the corridors during the change of a period. The occasional - ‘Sup bitch?’ was followed by a hand shake or a back slap when he met a familiar face. In case it was a girl, the general mode of interaction would be to call out the name of a girl in different tones and voices. Otherwise, the royalty didn’t really bother to look around for attention; he had got enough of it from the moment he was born. It was a matter of concern that so many, in fact most students looked upon Jai as a role model. And Jai in his jainess never cared a fuck about them. Chutiya hai sab, he would say and walk ahead in his arrogant strut.
Jai bumped into his good friend Hardik, on his way to class, “Fuck man! Where’re you going?”
“Nowhere man, going to Madhuri’s office. I got late today,” Hardik made a puppy dog face.
Jai started laughing on hearing this, he even backslapped Hardik, “You will never change will you dog? Tell me once in four years, when you’ve come on time?”
Unkempt hair, spectacles hanging on his nose and unshaved, Hardik searched for an answer but couldn’t really come up with one convincing enough.
The year before, the school began at 7.30, Hardik woke up at 7.45. Soon, due to excessive heat during summers, the timings changed to 6.45 and Hardik woke up at 7.15. Then came winters, the school got delayed by an hour and a half to around 9. Even then, Hardik reached school a good twenty minutes late. In the last four years or so, it’s been seldom that someone’s not seen Hardik running into school late on time with disheveled hair and a
constipated look on his face. Meena Singhal had got so tired of seeing Hardik’s face every day that she soon shifted the responsibility of late comers to Veenu and Veenu after a month of dealing Hardik asked Madhuri to take over. By far this would be Hardik’s sixth visit to Madhuri this month, if he managed to reach her office on time in the first place.
“Dude, you think Madhuri will scold me?” Hardik asked.
“Do you think that’s even worth an ask? Of course she will, not unless she gets replaced,” Jai replied.
“Replaced? Why man? Now why will she be replaced?”
Jai shook his head, “Look at this, this way. Every time you’ve been coming late continuously for a fortnight, at the end of it the person looking after the late-comers has either been shifted from duty or has voluntarily asked to be replaced. And I bet Madhuri has had enough of you.” He chuckled.
“Not sure dude. Tu chalega?” Hardik asked unsure. “Man, you’ll be the Head Boy; I’m sure she’ll take your side and not take my case. Chal na?”
Jai contemplated the outcome of his actions. After deliberating, he realized that it would only help him earn his reputation of being a real students’ representative in front of Madhuri and decided to tag along with Hardik.
As they made their way across towards Madhuri’s office on the ground floor, they could see teachers coming out of the Conference room in flocks. “Some kind of meeting must be on,” Jai said in a serious tone.
“Yes dude?”
“Yeah,” Jai replied in affirmative. “Let’s see if someone’s there with Madhuri or not.”
As they went closer to Madhuri’s office they could hear her talking loudly on the phone. They went closer and peeped in through the small glass panel on her door. She was talking on the phone and nervously pacing her room.
She kept on repeating the word, “Unacceptable.”
“What’s wrong?” Hardik asked.
“Shhh….” Jai replied. He went a little closer towards the door so that he could get a better ear to what Madhuri was saying.
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