Anyone Else But You...

by Mallik, Ritwik; Verma, Ananya

  “It’s over Sir…” came the voice. “…I have had enough of this place. It’s time I go Sir. I am not required,” Madhuri fell silent perhaps while hearing out the reply.

  “You knew I was the best person for the job but you didn’t intervene. You robbed me off this opportunity not once but twice,” she seemed agitated. “I am done for good Sir. For good. That woman kept me on the tenterhooks for weeks together and this is what she says in the end? It’s a big joke, that’s what it is.”

  She went silent again, some more explanations were coming from the other end.

  Madhuri heard him out and regained composure, “What’s done is done Sir, you’ll get my papers by today afternoon. I don’t want to stay here a minute longer. Thank you for your support, duly acknowledged.”

  Jai was stunned to hear about the latest developments but he didn’t dare to utter a word to Hardik who was standing just behind him, a little away. Madhuri ended the call and dialed another number, as it seemed from outside. “Forward me the resignation letter I typed last night,” she said and hung up.

  Jai turned around shell shocked. With Hardik’s question-marked expression, Jai couldn’t really keep this thing to himself. He walked along with Hardik slowly towards the ground. “Looks like your jinx isn’t broken yet…” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Madhuri is being replaced. And not just from late-comers’ responsibility; but for good,” Jai finished his half sentence.

  Hardik stared at him with an expression similar to his when he heard the news first. No-one knew what to do and how to react. But it was in their best interests that they kept the news to themselves.

  SEVEN

  Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you…Happy Birthday to Sahana, Happy Birthday to youuuu….!” There was a loud round of clapping and hooting after the chorus got over.

  The knife ran through the delicate, creamy chocolate truffle cake and Sahana broke a piece of it and popped it into Vanya’s mouth.

  Vanya took a huge piece of cake and made Sahana eat half of it and rest of it went on her face. Sahana groaned as her best friends covered every inch of her face with chocolate cake. Others laughed as they watched both of them fight and laugh. They too fed her cake and of course rest of it went on her face.

  Rishav stood there in one corner watching as a perfectly edible cake went on to spoil Sahana’s pretty face. He didn’t know whether to go and wish her among her old friends. He was awkward when it came to these things. He didn’t know what to do in such situations. He had just talked to her for approximately half an hour, that too, a week ago. He wasn’t sure whether this was enough to give her a card.

  He had gone to a sector nearby, for running an errand for his mom when he remembered it was her birthday. He wondered what would be the appropriate gift for a person whom you had talked to for a little while. He ran his fingers through the categories of an array of cards in the Archies gallery. He looked for something that was not too expressive. Just a simple birthday card. He chose a simple card with cream background with a small blue bear on the right hand corner with a little bit of sparkle on it. It had no double meaning whatsoever. Just a cute little wood creature.

  He took a black felt tip pen and wrote:

  Last week, a candle factory burnt down and everyone sat around it to sing Happy Birthday. Well I really don’t need to wait for something like that to happen to wish you a really HAPPY & AWESOME BIRTHDAY Sahana! Best wishes, Rishav.

  The next day he was standing with the card in a yellow envelope clutched tightly his hand. He was wondering when her friends would leave her side and give her a moment alone so he could give her the card. He didn’t want unnecessary eyebrow raising by her friends. That’d be just too much.

  He waited for nearly an hour or so when Sahana was finally left alone by her friends. He quickly walked up to her and handed it to her. “Happy Birthday, I hope you like it,” he said, looking down at the card and avoiding looking into her eyes.

  “Wow, thank you. It’s really nice of you to give a card to a person whom you’ve barely talked to.” She smiled.

  Rishav smiled, nodded and turned around and went to the bathroom since he had nowhere else to go.

  After a few hours he found himself sitting near the windowsill, on the other side of the classroom, watching his new interest of sorts. He had had many interests in the pasts but this one was particularly intriguing. Sahana was talking to her friends, sitting on a desk with her back facing him. He sat there with a sadness. What kind he didn’t know. There was this weird need to get up and go sit next to her. Obviously he wouldn’t do that. But his mind was so restless, insistent upon doing so. He again opened his book to read. As he began to read, he forgot all about the classroom. All noise dimmed, people around him seemed to disappear as he was transported into the world of mystery, deceit and murder.

  He was imagining the horror of rats cutting into the wounds of his legs when he was startled by the noise

  “You want some cake?” Sahana asked him, with a box of chocolate cake in her hand.

  “Sure,” Rishav picked up a small piece, and smiled up at her.

  “No. Take a bigger piece,” Sahana said.

  “How was your birthday?”

  “You mean how is it? Because it still is April 29.”

  “Yeah yeah. So how many gifts? Party tonight?” Rishav asked inquisitively.

  “No party. I don’t live with my parents. And the people whom I live with aren’t you know…” Sahana said without completing the sentence.

  “They are conservative?” Rishav asked; glad to know some private detail of this complex matter sitting in front of him.

  “To say the least. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it. Party in school is good enough for now. Chalo, I will talk to you later. I’ve gotta go. Bye,” she said, getting up and waving her hand.

  “Bye,” he said - which was too late since she was already too far to hear that.

  *

  Hardik and Jai huddled up near the corner of the basketball court. From the onset of it, it appeared to be an intense discussion of what strategies they were going to implement while play was on. If one managed to get closer, apart from the smells of sweat and stale breath, what one would get to sense is the amount of restlessness that had taken over His Highness Jai regarding the incumbency of his Head Boy’s post.

  “Dude, why are you worried?” Hardik asked.

  “Man, Madhuri Singh was a pet of mine…” Realising his mistake although it came from the interiors of his heart, he corrected it, “I meant I was a pet of Madhuri. The reason I could go about doing anything was because Madhuri was there. Now if she goes, there’s a big question mark over my application dude.”

  Hardik nodded. “She was a support you know, a huge one. She could single handedly get me this post but now with Bindu around; I doubt what’ll happen to me.”

  “New Vice Principal, you think?” Hardik asked.

  “Not really. Considering how autocratic this lady is, she’ll keep the group as core as possible. Maybe a promotion here and there but I doubt it whether we’ll get a new VP” Jai’s concern was evident in his mellowed down tone.

  “Dude tera toh katta ho gya!” Hardik started laughing loudly.

  “Motherfu*cker, shut up!!” Jai barked. “We need solutions here, not problems. You think I could get someone to side by me?”

  “Veenu?” Hardik suggested.

  “Veenu!” Jai exclaimed.

  They knocked on the door. Veenu replied, “Come in.”

  Jai and Hardik walked into her cabin with their hands at their back.

  “Morning ma’am,” Jai said. Hardik mumbled.

  Veenu nodded with a smile.

  “What brings you here Jai? Missing me? Hehehheheheee….” The laughter seemed more of an afterthought.

  “Ma’am actually I was inquiring about the Council and…” Jai started speaking.

  “Wait, wait, do you know this boy?” Veenu interrupted the ro
yalty even before he could complete his sentence. There would have been a million Hiroshimas happening within Jai at that moment.

  Veenu pointed towards a boy whose presence wasn’t noticeable as such, at least not to Jai and Hardik – the moment they entered.

  “This is Rishav Sen, he’s a new student. Your batch mate,” Veenu introduced.

  On being mentioned, Rishav faced Jai and Hardik and smiled.

  “Oh, okay ma’am. Ma’am as I was saying that the Council needs to be…” Jai started off again.

  “Listen na!” Veenu interrupted him again. This time there was going to be Pearl Harbour within Jai.

  “Yes ma’am?” A clearly frustrated Jai asked.

  “This boy Rishav, sweet boy he is. You should make friendship with him. He suggested that the top floor corridor is a hazardous prospect for the children because it is not covered. And there is no parapet, why didn’t you guys notice that before?” She shot a question.

  “Ma’am, erm erm…actually we were going to talk…” this was Jai’s third try.

  “Oh, wait. Rishav, this is Jai Chauhan, a very bright, intelligent and responsible student. One of the best we have in this school,” She said proudly. “And I hope that you too join them in the list of responsible and bright students of this school.”

  “Will surely ma’am,” Rishav nodded with gratitude.

  A visibly flattered Jai couldn’t really stop thinking about the words ‘bright’ and ‘intelligent’. It was like two ads were running in his head simultaneously. One was of Surya lights and the other, Intel Processors.

  “Yes, Jai…you were saying?” Veenu finally remembered that Jai was to complete what he had begun saying.

  The royalty couldn’t afford being snubbed a fourth time so he chose the easy way out, “Nothing really ma’am. Just came to say hi.”

  “Aaaw, how sweet,” Veenu said as she opened her drawer. “Take this,” she handed over to Jai a bar of Kitkat. Share it with your friend Hardik. She beamed with abnormal happiness.

  “Right ma’am, I shall see you then.” With his mission being nothing but a waste of time, Jai stepped out of Veenu’s cabin with unparalleled gloom.

  “Bloody bangali…!” he scowled. “Yo dude!” Hardik backslapped him knowing that a new kid taking away the spotlight from Jai wouldn’t really have gone down too well with him.

  No Madhuri and Veenu has a new poster boy…

  Could life get any worse for Jai Chauhan?

  EIGHT

  The bartender was ready to show his skills in the luxury apartment of Jai Chauhan. Jai was hosting the pre Council party to garner student support for his council application. Everyone had assumed that Jai would host it. As for Jai, he didn’t mind. After all he had to become the Head Boy. It was worth it.

  Plus, he had another reason - to meet his ex- flame- Arzoo. He had still not gotten over her since she unceremoniously dumped him. Three months ago. He hoped that this would be the time when he won her back.

  The terrace of Jai’s house was immaculately cleaned. The pool was cleaned and the water gave a blue-ish tinge to everything around it. The pool chairs were neatly arranged and a barbecue was set up. The ambience was perfect to one of the much hyped DHS parties.

  As one by one the guests arrived, the music got louder and louder and the party picked up its gusto. The dancing on the floor got wilder as people drunk more, of the expensive alcohol. But Neil Oberoi, the ex-Head Boy of Delhi High School, stood with his girlfriend stuck to his arm, sipping apple juice from his glass. He stood there, away from the dance floor – seemingly uninterested in the hooliganism on display. Instead, he laughed a bit, cracked a few jokes and mostly kept to himself and his girlfriend.

  Jai was dancing like a robot with his friends while in the other corner, Rishi and his girlfriend, Shruti were making out, hidden from the view of most.

  Jai’s one time best-friend and ex-girlfriend, Arzoo giggled her toothy horse like grin every time Jai tried to outdo himself with some act that he thought was funny.

  What a goon, she thought. Almost like a chimpanzee. Good riddance.

  “Watch me bitches,” screamed a girl as she took off her shirt and jumped into the pool. Everyone, especially the guys, looked at her as she took off her shoes and shirt. After she had landed in the pool with a loud splash, everyone hooted.

  Apart from the important ones, were present the not-so-important ones. Like Jai’s personal favourite ass lickers and the wannabe Jais who wanted some Jainess transferred into them. Topping the list of them all was Chintan. All his life, he tried walking like Jai, talking like Jai, even acting ape-like like Jai but never managed to get close to the million-dollar grace that Jai Chauhan carried.

  As the party went on, the music got louder and more and more people jumped into the pool taking their clothes off. With every splash there was a bigger hoot.

  “Do you want to go in?” asked Jai, hoping that Arzoo would’ve been impressed by now.

  “No. Sorry. I’ll get a cold if I go” she said and excused herself and stood next to Chintan.

  Jai depressed guzzled a few more shots of vodka. And jumped into the pool.

  As Arzoo left the party, a few others followed her cue and slowly the terrace of Jai Chauhan was almost empty except for Neil and his girlfriend and Rishi and Shruti.

  As Rishi dragged his girlfriend towards the washroom to get some action, a loud noise stopped them in their tracks… There was some kind of commotion going on. Rishi stepped out. He could hear Jai singing on top of his voice inside the pool. He noticed Jai’s dad, a noted name in the field of Telecommunications. Next to him was a person who appeared to be a cop in plain clothes. Drunk enough, he was to be talking gibberish to teenagers who were drunk enough to be not trying to understand what he spoke. White flowing mane and a French beard, Jai’s dad placed an arm around the cop and guided him towards the elevator. While the glass elevator moved down, Rishi caught a glimpse of Jai’s dad sliding his hand into the cop’s pocket. And then within moments, both were out of sight.

  NINE

  The Met department would have predicted turbulence in Vajpai's House No.23 as a destructive tornado.

  Sasha, Sahana’s cousin, had got the results of her Test Series.

  She was the daughter of Mr. Arvind Vajpai. The man with a temper of nothing less than a tempest, was screaming at his only child for getting a 91 in Mathematics. Sasha studied in APSN School, Delhi. Not having the prestige of going to her cousin's school didn't bother the frail looking, a little-slow-on-things girl. She didn't resent anything that her cousin had. Rather she pitied her for not having what she had for herself.

  Much to their chagrin they both had been born in a family that still lived in the 20th Century when it came to the way their children had to be brought up. Sasha’s family was complicated- to say the least actually. Sasha kept on worrying about what her dear mother and respected father would say to her about her marks.

  While on the other hand, Sahana avoided thinking about her family altogether. She would keep herself busy all the time to avoid thinking about it. Whenever something about her family bothered her she slept, ate while reading a book (most of the times), study (rarely), go for a walk (in a park where her friends would be there to greet her to take her for a round of gol gappas) and just more sleep.

  She rarely thought about how to solve the problems. She’d rather run away from them, far far away. Live alone and be happy. She wished to meet new people who had no clue who she was, so that she could be anything to them.

  She thought about every detail of her running away plan from the hell she currently lived in. That she would put her clothes in a backpack, take her money and go to the nearest metro station. Go to the New Delhi Railway Station and take a train from there to Kalka. From there take the bus to Kullu, where she had spent two years of her life. The time spent there, according to her was the best. She kept on daydreaming about what she would do when she got there.

  Maybe she would go to her old
school and ask for some shelter. She would convince them that she

  was an asset and they would let her complete her education and then become a teacher there itself. Or, she thought, a fulltime maid for someone. She would show those people her report cards. They would take pity and maybe admit her into a nearby school.

  She kept on coming up with alternatives each time. But that was only when she allowed herself

  to brood. She made sure that that rarely happened.

  Mr.Vajpai, Sasha’s father, was burning with rage. His daughter had yet again got the same marks in Mathematics as before. He was a man who lost his logical sense when he was angry. This time he was blaming Sasha, but indirectly, blaming Sahana.

  “You don’t study. Tumhara dhyan idhar udhur ki cheezon mein zyada jata hai,” he said with his daughter’s paper in his hands. "If Sahana is watching T.V, sit in the other room for god's sakes!” he screamed. "You stay in that room and get hooked on to the television. If she doesn't want to study, why are you not studying? She has already passed her 10th. You haven't!! Use padhna nahin hai toh tum bhi nahin padhogi?" He glared at Sahana meaningfully.

  “From today onwards you are not studying at all. You will do the housework," he said.

  “Seemaaa!” He shouted his wife's name, “Aaj se yeh ladki ghar ke kaam karegi.”

  Sasha'a mother came with hurried steps. She looked at her husband and her daughter. She didn't want to get involved. She knew that her husband's rage was going to go away soon. So she chose to keep quiet.

  Sasha was crying. But now that her father had said such words, she became defiant.