Anyone Else But You...

by Mallik, Ritwik; Verma, Ananya

  “Yes ma’am,” Rishav replied with all sincerity.

  “Take a seat,” she pointed towards the chair in front of her.

  Rishav took the support of the armrests to sit down comfortably; he didn’t want a situation where he would miss the chair and land on the floor with a thud. He looked up and saw the faces that surrounded Bindu Kalsi, apprehensively.

  There was Veenu Sharma, glowing more than what the moon would on any given night. There was Neeti Chopra who wore a sari that was gloomier than her expression. There was the Eco teacher who gave Rishav, nightmares of his first interview and megalomaniac Physics H.O.D. who seemed to be interested in almost everything that happened in the school.

  “Nice recommendations Rishav, hehehee…!” Veenu broke the silence.

  Her closing laughter killed all the nervous tension present inside the room. Rishav nodded, slightly more confident than what he was when he first entered the room. He could feel the beads of sweat that were trickling down his neck and back.

  “You have applied for?” Neeti Chopra questioned, also adjusting her dull sari while she did so.

  “Head Boy ma’am!”

  “What have you done for the school?” Bindu sounded sepulchral.

  “Since, I am a new student, my contributions have been limited but besides that in my limited opportunity and time, I have done the following…” Rishav listed down all his contributions and achievements over the brief period he had spent in DHS.

  “I see, I see…” Kalsi acknowledged. “Why do you think we should give you this post?”

  Rishav waited for a few seconds to answer that, “Ma’am, I feel that I…”

  “You feel?” the Eco person intervened.

  “Uh, sorry, I know that I am the best person for this job. My man management skills and my leadership abilities will back me to complete any task given,” he answered her query.

  “Will you find time?” Kalsi followed.

  “Definitely ma’am. I always have managed to do so.”

  “Do you have any girlfriend?” Veenu asked.

  Rishav tittered on hearing this, “Ma’am?”

  “You heard me right, go on. Tell us.” Veenu added.

  “No ma’am. I don’t have a girlfriend,” Rishav thought of Sahana almost instantly.

  “How is it relevant Veenu?” Kalsi cut Ms. Sharma when she was preparing herself for another go at Rishav.

  Now why is she doing this to me? Rishav thought. Veenu Sharma knew Rishav well enough to not be asking these questions.

  “How would you see your juniors?” The Physics teacher decided to pop in now.

  Rishav was frustrated as none of his reforms were being asked about, from girlfriend to juniors…what next? The name of my unborn child?

  “Sir, I will try and inspire a new group of leaders rather than create a new set of followers,” Rishav said.

  The guy who was the next closest thing to Chulbul Pandey of Dabangg fame, didn’t get head to tail of what Rishav just said and instead muttered something that sounded like E=MC^2.

  “Do you like fast food?” Veenu asked.

  Kalsi on hearing this didn’t even gather the energy to butt in. She dropped her pen and placed her hand on her forehead and looked at Veenu skeptically.

  “Junk food? Yes ma’am definitely!” Rishav kind of had started liking the direction in which the interview was going. No serious questions, just a whole lot of crap. So much for wanting to be Head Boy, he atleast got to know what really happens in these so called high profile interviews.

  “Your parents scold you for eating junk?” a follow up question. This time from Neeti Chopra whose gloominess had disappeared after supposedly being infected by the Veenu Virus.

  “Yes ma’am they do.”

  “You fight with them?” Veenu asked.

  Rishav’s head swiftly turned to answer the question, “Yes ma’am at times.”

  “Haaaw, naughty boy!” her tone wasn’t the best.

  Kalsi sat there, with her palm covering her face. The expression of hers was hardly noticeable but it wouldn’t really take knowledge of rocket-science to know how irritated she was seeing the discussion go awry.

  Rishav looked out for another question. Maybe one asking whether his motions were clear or not, but nothing as such came. Kalsi could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

  “If your questions are done…” she hissed. “…may I ask Rishav a final question?”

  Everyone nodded in unison.

  Kalsi kept an eye on Veenu all the while she spoke her sentence, “If not Head Boy, then what post shall you want to have?”

  Rishav straightened his expressions; he was absolutely ready with his reply. With confidence oozing out of his voice, “Ma’am, I believe that if I ask for anything less than what I deserve then I deserve even less.”

  This time around a genuine smile reflected on Bindu’s face. She took the comment in very good light it seemed, “All the best!” she said.

  *

  Sahana sat next to the balcony door, lost in the world of her thoughts.

  She thought how she could escape the hell-hole of her life. She travelled through all the possibilities, thinking of all the places she could run away to. She just wanted to be alone.

  She smiled sarcastically at the irony of the fact that she was alone in that house yet not alone enough to cry. She feared that it would warrant unnecessary attention to her. And the last thing she needed was her uncle to blame her for distracting her cousin again!

  Sasha was a good person, so knew Sahana. She was bright enough just that at times Sasha lacked the determination. She took things too lightly. Anyway, Sahana thought. I need to just stay here for a few months more and that’s it!

  She tried to not think about what she had done a few days ago. It was so because if she looked at the angry red marks on her thigh, she would be tempted to do it again. When she was angry or upset, she just wanted the pain to go away. Hurting herself was one way to turn the mental pain into physical pain. The physical pain, according to her was easier to handle.

  She often thought about why she lived at all. She was good for nothing. She wasn’t good at dance, music, majorly sucked at public speaking and was just fine in studies. With what her uncle told her about the world out there, she would never get a job which could earn her her meals.

  She took in a deep breath. She wondered, who’d remember her after she died. Who would care enough to remember her after her funeral? - None other than her parents, so she thought.

  She rested her head against the door. She was sick and tired of everything surrounding her life. She wanted to start afresh. And college was the one place, where one could be a whole new person. But again, that was a good two years away. She longed to be nice to all; she wanted everyone to be happy; because she couldn’t be happy if somebody else was unhappy. No matter how farfetched it sounded, but that was the way it was for Sahana. She put others happiness first.

  Anyway, get over with the brooding bit, she forced herself to feel this way. …if you think anymore, you’ll probably end up doing something that you’d regret and the scars wouldn’t fade away for long.

  She got up, took her mobile, plugged in the earphones and switched on the radio with full volume. She grabbed her books and started studying.

  A lot of times Sahana thought. A lot. But thinking according to her was not good. So she slept to not think, read books to not think, watched TV to not think.

  But always, there was one second of the day when she thought of not living. She refused to like anyone. Boys spelled trouble and she could not at any cost, afford more trouble.

  She thought of him. However, a little pretentious & blowing his own trumpet like he was, he was genuinely a nice person. At times, the thought of him as something more came to her mind. But she quickly dismissed it. She convinced herself not to like anyone and that meant anyone. A few people in the world were genuinely nice and according to her, he was one of them.

  But they woul
d just remain friends right? No need to get into all this relationship crap – boyfriend and girlfriend complexities!

  She knew that he was trying to talk to her. It satisfied her vanity. She could see everything that he was thinking, read everything on his face. She could sense when he was trying to lead the conversation to past relationships. She could sense his desperate yet failed attempts to fix a meeting outside school (which he did, largely due to coincidence).

  She didn’t want all that and she was going to make sure he knew that pretty soon. He deserved the right to know, what all she thought about these sappy and crappy relationships.

  SIXTEEN

  Sahana walked towards her tuitions with much anticipation. It was the time she got away from that house where she lived. A house. Not a home.

  She climbed up the stairs and saw that the peon was reading the newspaper with his legs up on the desk. Sahana raised an eyebrow. She wondered at the incongruity of his posture in the environment where the English teacher had particularly ordered them to maintain discipline.

  “Aaj Sir kahan hai bhaiyya?” asked Sahana.

  “Tuition cancelled hai,” he replied without looking up from the paper.

  Sahana hurried down the steps. For the first time in so many months, the teacher had cancelled a class. She was really happy about not studying for once.

  She took out her phone and stared at the screen for long.

  Whom should I call? She thought. Vanya can’t come. Nobody else would bother to come for an hour and then go back.

  Rishav would, of course!

  Would he?

  She dialed the number nonetheless. She would ask him where he was. If he was at his home and free only then will she tell him to come.

  She waited for him to pick up. One ring…two…three…four.

  “Dammit. Pick up, you ass,” she said.

  The number you have dialed is not answering this moment. Please try again later, the sing song voice said.

  “Great. Nowhere to go,” she said to herself.

  She started walking towards her home when her phone vibrated. It was Rishav’s number.

  “Why didn’t you pick up when I called you?” Sahana asked in an offensive voice.

  “Because I didn’t want you to waste your money. Mine is postpaid, you see,” Rishav replied jokingly.

  “Whatever. So tell me. Are you free vaise?” Sahana said choosing her words carefully.

  “Yes. Why?” Rishav asked, excited that they were going to talk on the phone.

  “Umm… My tuition’s cancelled and I didn’t want to go home. So I called you,” Sahana replied with a little hesitation.

  “Oh cool. So we can talk.” Rishav said, while sitting upright on his bed.

  “Actually, umm… I was thinking that you could umm… come here. Like you know it’s not that far. My tuitions I mean, from my home. So it couldn’t be far from your home, youknow”Sahana said.

  “Oh. Umm” Rishav jumped up from his bed as he tried to look for something good to wear in his wardrobe.

  “If you don’t want to come it’s okay… Like really…” Sahana said sensing his hesitation.

  “Oh no no… I want to come. Just tell me where exactly your tuition is,” Rishav replied hurriedly.

  Sahana gave him the directions of her tuitions.

  “See you in ten then.” Sahana said, with a hint of excitement in her voice.

  “Yeah. Ten. Bye,” Rishav replied while trying to not show too much of enthusiasm.

  Sahana sat on a bench in a very tiny park. The grass was overgrown and yellow. She sat with her legs folded on the bench afraid that some insect or lizards might be crawling in that thick jungle of grass.

  She played SNAKE on her mobile for 15 minutes until a voice interrupted her game.

  “Hi.” Rishav said while panting.

  “Wait. I am about to beat Sasha’s high score,” Sahana said without caring to reply to his greeting.

  Rishav looked at Sahana with astonishment.

  “Umm… That’s rude, you know” Rishav replied with a tone of disappointment.

  “Uhuh,” Sahana replied without looking at him.

  “Donee,” Sahana said with an enthusiastic tone.

  “You’re rude,” Rishav replied.

  “Yeah yeah, I know. I had to beat her score, you know. Plus you were panting. You needed time to breathe easily.”

  “True. But still…That’s not how you greet your friends whom you’ve called from so far to meet you,” Rishav said.

  “Oh God. Will you get over it? And it’s my choice how I greet people. If they don’t like it, guess what? I couldn’t care less about ‘em. And you’ve come from near my sector and that’s hardly ‘so far’, okay?”Sahana said with indignation.”

  “Fine, fine. Got over it,” Rishav said, afraid that he would offend her and this chance of meeting her would go to waste if she got angry.

  “Good. So what do you wanna do?”Sahana asked him while sitting on the bench with folded legs.

  “Umm… talk?” Rishav replied as he sat next to her on the bench.

  “No. That’s stupid. If I wanted to talk I would’ve spoken to you on the phone, you dumbass,” Sahana said.

  “Oh yeah. Why are you sitting like this?” Rishav asked her.

  “Because, idiot, the grass is not cut and there might be some insects lurking. Or snakes maybe? What if they crawl up my legs and bite me?”Sahana shuddered.

  Rishav laughed uproariously.

  “What’s so funny? One could die you know,” she said, offended.

  “Oh God. Get up. Let’s go eat phuchkas. Now don’t ask me what phuchkas are.” he said as he caught her hand and pulled her up.

  “I know, ok? They are gol gappes” She replied.

  “How did you know?” Rishav asked surprised that she knew the Bengali term for gol gappes.

  “Long story.”

  “And we’ve got all the time in the world. Tell me all,” he said.

  She told the story about how she was watching this show where this Bengali girl was interviewed and she said that she loved phuchkas and a video was shown of her eating them.

  “Wow. Even stupid TV shows can be quite informative at times,” Rishav replied with a smile.

  “Shut up, ok? There was nothing else on TV that day,” Sahana replied.

  They walked towards the street vendor and stood with their plates in their hands.

  “I love ‘em. Like really. In my hometown every corner has them.”

  “No wonder you’re so into eating,” Rishav taunted.

  “Oh please, ok? I eat because I am depressed,” Sahana said while popping the huge gol gappa in her mouth.

  “And why are you depressed?” Rishav asked, intrigued that someone like her was suffering from depression.

  “It’s a depressing story. And I don’t want to talk about it. It is family stuff,” Sahana said, while she wiped the water she spilled on her shirt.

  “It’s good to share. The burden lessens you know? Why don’t you talk to Vanya about it?” Rishav said.

  “Wow. I haven’t thought of that before,” she said with sarcasm dripping from her voice, “Oh my god. You are so intelligent. How can I ever thank you?”

  “I was just giving some advice,” Rishav shrugged.

  “I think I have enough people in my life giving me unwanted advice. I definitely don’t need another one.”

  “Okay, okay. No advice. Fine?” Rishav said, raising his hand in the air.

  “Yeah,” she murmured.

  “Waise if you want to share something, I am all ears. I won’t tell anyone anything. Promise,” Rishav said in a meaningful tone.

  “I know you won’t tell anybody. But it’s boring… and depressing... and sad. And uhhh…what’s worse than that?”She asked.

  Rishav paid the vendor and they walked towards the park. Sahana sat with her legs folded.

  “They are not gonna eat you,” Rishav said.

  “Yes, yes. The omniscie
nt Rishav Sen knows that the poisonous insect living in this jungle will not bite me. Right?”

  “Oh god. Ab tell me already?” he pleaded.

  “What?” Sahana asked.

  “Umm your sad story?” Rishav asked.

  “Oh that. Well you see…” Sahana began telling him the story of her life.

  After an hour, Sahana looked at her mobile and shouted. “Oh crap. I am late.”

  “It’s okay. Take an auto,” Rishav said, trying to calm Sahana down.

  “God! What am I gonna do?” Sahana panicked.

  “It’s okay bubah. We’ll grab an auto. It’ll take max five minutes,” Rishav said.

  “Let’s go,” Sahana grabbed his hand and they ran towards an auto on the main road.

  Rishav didn’t ask for the fare. It didn’t matter. She had to get home. It was already dark. And from what he had heard of her life, he was pretty scared.

  “What the fuck will I say to them?” Sahana asked herself as she bit her nails.

  “Bhaiyya, jaldi” Rishav told the auto driver. “It’s fine. You’ll reach. Say that the rickshaw was charging you too much and you had to walk. Ok?” Rishav explained to Sahana, trying to calm her down.

  “Yeah okay. Fine. Urggggghh…my life,” Sahana groaned.

  “Listen, Sahana. You’ll get out of this murk soon enough. You need to keep your head till then. Okay? Don’t do anything stupid. Geddit?” Rishav said.

  “Yeah,” Sahana said with a sad smile.

  She looked up at Rishav and said, “Don’t tell anyone. Okay? Not even your best friend, your mom or your dad. No one. This will go to your grave. If I find out that you did, you are so dead.” Sahana said with an assertive tone.

  “Yeah yeah, Like you can. Ab chal. Tera sector aagaya hai,” Rishav replied while laughing.

  Sahana hit him.

  “Shut up,” she said.

  She got out of the auto before her sector’s gate. The sky was already dark and the street was deserted.

  “Thanks for coming,” Sahana said to Rishav as he got out of the auto too.