‘I think we should head back. I don’t like sitting here.’ Each time Jaishree spoke in long sentences, she was very serious. Souvik agreed after a second of hesitation. Holding their cones, they walked out of the place that had a glut of dating couples.
It was pleasant outside. Acool breeze blew while deep grey clouds filled one corner of the sky. Jaishree’s light green salwar with a bright yellow dupatta fluttered in the wind, playfully dancing about. A few rebellious locks had broken free from her flimsy hanky giving extra work to her dainty hands that kept pushing back her strands behind those delicate ears. Jaishree was wearing hanging earrings that she had picked up at the exhibition. The light green stones danced animatedly when she spoke and occasionally caressed her slender neck.
When Souvik was with Jaishree, silence was the only thing that did all the speaking. Souvik actually liked it that way. With Jaishree it was always a comfortable silence, Souvik was slowly learning. This in turn truly amazed him. Of course they had spoken during their almost two hour long date. Souvik had told her about his plans of going abroad, his brother’s wedding and his ideas about his future, and even his plans for the country! With such grand plans, if nothing else, Souvik could at least look forward to being a politician.
Jaishree in a series of monosyllables had informed him that she came from a close-knit family with her elder sister already married. Her mother had passed away in a freak accident six years ago and now it was just her father and grandmother who stayed in their ancestral home. Jaishree spoke mostly Tamil at home, hence the lawyer in Souvik deduced that those from Tamil Nadu had a linguistic advantage when it came to matters of planning a future with Jaishree.
They had crossed the road and had reached the college gates when it started to rain. With their melting strawberry cones they started jogging towards the building and Jaishree suddenly let out some pure hearted giggles. Souvik stopped to listen. He had never before heard Jaishree emit such happy sounds. They had trotted some distance when Jaishree decided it was futile to run, and a walk in the rain would be far more pleasant. The romantic in Souvik was delighted.
Licking the last of their soggy cones, Jaishree and Souvik walked through the steady drizzle alternately laughing and avoiding muddy puddles. Souvik was suddenly thankful to the municipal department for doing such a shoddy job in laying the roads. He had never seen Jaishree so ecstatic before. She had transformed into a little child as she went about giving a girlish squeal before crossing huge puddles in the middle of the campus road. After a point, she was crossing each puddle with the deliberate intent of getting splashed.
The rain washed sky watched over the playful pair as they made their way back to the hostel. The sweet smelling earth and the cool breeze from the freshly scrubbed green leaves seemed to give their approval as Souvik sat down to write in his diary after drying his hair. This had been the most romantic evening of his life.
Nineteen
‘He deserves Paradise, who makes his comrades laugh— so goes a line from the Holy Scriptures. In that case, I’m sorry to disappoint you folks, but my services can’t be availed of in Hell. Try not to miss me,’ Ankur was saying, a mischievous grin on his face.
He was standing atop his chair making his grand speech to an amused audience. Ankur often doubled up as a class comedian, entertaining a bored set of students during a free hour. The school boy in him made him indulge in chalk fights and he had once even dislodged the noisy class fan with Vyas. Of course he was then forced to make arrangements for its repair or risk having a case slapped on him by a classroom full of sweating lawyers.
It was a lazy afternoon and except for Ankur’s energetic chatter, a cloak of lethargy covered the lecture hall. Sonali sat alone in a corner, she had been unusually quiet these days. Ever since that day when Ankur broke his own record of foolishness by lending his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend his laboriously compiled notes, he wasn’t too eager to interact with the pretty Gujarati who had been a broker in the deal.
Even Sonali was a bit guilty. Yet more than guilty, she was sad. During the first three years in college, she used to share everything with Ankur, yet now there was a chasm between them, even though they were in the same class. All thanks to Rohit who was a class apart. The guy wasn’t to be seen these days. Perhaps that was the reason behind Sonali’s round face turning long. Yet Ankur had the vague feeling, that perhaps Sonali was hiding something. The very thought made him uncomfortable.
For the outspoken Sonali to be hiding something seemed ominous. There had to be something. Nothing else could explain her long disappearances from class, with Rohit missing as well. Whatever it was, it wasn’t making Sonali too happy. Sneaking off for dates was not exactly uncommon in class, yet the naughty glow it would give any happy couple was always a dead giveaway. But this didn’t seem to be the case with Sonali and Rohit.
Ankur was confused. Yet the one thing he was sure of was that his once best friend and Rohit’s current girlfriend held a secret. The thought of which made him feel very unsettled.
‘Astrology is always three-dimensional. Fate, Free will,
and Super Consciousness. The third is the most important factor, without which the first two are redundant,’ Sonali was lecturing to a dreamy Jaishree as they sat on the lawn within the girls’ hostel.
Jaishree had just finished telling Sonali about her walk in the rain with Souvik. She still carried the dreamy expression she had the day those rain drops danced upon her head and heart. It was the first time ever. A date, that is. Jaishree refused to believe that her feelings for Souvik were anything more than a ‘crush in a rush’.
Ever since Souvik had gifted her that poem, Jaishree had rather naturally begun rhyming her words. And everything in her life that moment on seemed to have been moving in slow motion—the mild swaying of campus trees in the far distance, the rustle of the carpet of brown leaves on her way to the library, the bluer than blue sky. But of course, Jaishree Subramaniam was not in love. Tamil Brahmins never fall in love.
‘All 6-8 vibrations almost always fall in love,’ Sonali was saying as the two sat on the little patch of green with a clothes line hung, some distance from their heads. The little lawn in the girls’ hostel was surrounded by a series of rooms on all four sides with a square clothes line acting as an inner perimeter. The girls’ hostel was built in such a way that no male lawyer on campus could ever dream of entering the premises lawfully. So the girls walked about uninhibited in their night gowns and bathroom slippers.
With the absence of the opposite sex there is instantly an absence of any pretence towards looking good.
‘What is 6-8 vibration?’ asked Jaishree almost irritated to be shaken out of her dreamy stupor.
‘There are seven vibrations in astrology, more specifically in the Zodiac,’ Sonali began lecturing again. ‘Vibration is the name given to the “vibe” that two people at any given time share. For example, there are some people who might have just met, but they get along really well. That is because there is a certain vibration at work.’ Jaishree nodded. But it was more to herself. For the first time perhaps, astrology did not seem all that interesting. Something far more interesting was dancing about in Jaishree’s mind. But Sonali was undeterred so she carried on.
‘These vibrations are said to be a result of past life associations. That explains the phenomenon behind instant like or dislike. In fact sometimes for some reason we might get into an argument even with someone we hardly know and we fight with an intensity that surprises us. Probably it was an old score to settle…,’ Sonali completed. Suddenly she also went thoughtfully quiet as if she were reviewing her own life.
Jaishree was idly tweaking a blade of grass. ‘I was just wondering if…,’ she said haltingly.
‘Wondering what…,’ Sonali asked impatiently. She disliked half completed sentences. The Leo in her disliked even more, the idea of someone’s attention being diverted while she spoke. Ankur would never do that, a painful voice inside her informed her.
‘Souvik probably just likes me for the way I look,’ Jaishree completed her sentence, looking a bit sheepish. Probably for the first time, Jaishree was being vocal about her own beauty. Sonali was almost surprised, but she shook her head in disagreement.
‘Souvik, no doubt, like every other guy, admires your physical beauty, but he’s not shallow,’ Sonali said admiring her own depth of thought. Jaishree was not convinced. Though she wanted to be.
‘Souvik is sweet, but how much does he really know about me?’ It was a profound statement. But how much did Jaishree know about herself? Especially these days.
‘Yeah but…,’ Sonali said framing her own incomplete sentence.
‘Okay enough about me. You tell me, how are things with you?’ Jaishree asked. She found it easier to refer to Rohit as ‘things’. Ankur would second her on that.
‘You don’t want to know…,’ Sonali said getting up. ‘Let’s head back.’
‘No you go…I like sitting here,’ Jaishree said, caressing the grass. It was late at night, but within the hostel it was safe.
The little green lawn right in the centre of the hostel was like an oasis. Jaishree could make out the faint outline of clouds in the dark sky. The trees that surrounded the hostel ensured regular monkey visitors in the corridors during the day. They were perhaps the only males who were allowed inside without being stopped at the reception desk.
The pale moon glowed softly on some of the girls walking sleepily back and forth to the common bathroom. Sonali and Jaishree had finished their chores for the day. Jaishreewas done with combing and braiding her long hair even before the two had sat down to talk. Now with most of the girls back in their rooms, a peaceful silence took over the hostel as lights within the rooms began to get switched off.
Under normal circumstances, Jaishree would not have been keen on sitting out late by herself. But today it was different. She wasn’t alone. She had Souvik on her mind. All the time.
Twenty
The year was drawing to a close and All Idiots of the Universe were out to live up to the high levels of idiocy set by preceding batches. Campus recruitments had begun for the final year students and Ankur was glad he was still in the fourth year. But that again meant that he had to slog endlessly for the upcoming external assessments.
The fourth year students of AIU College simply hated exams. Not because with the arrival of the results it would be discovered that the ‘marks’ and ‘sheet’ had gone their separate ways, but because of rather practical reasons. Eating usually took a back seat, hence the canteen always wore a deserted look. Deserted look was something that even Ankur wore as he realised he could no longer do mock tests with Sonali like he generally did. If anything, his life was reduced to a farce with Rohit’s mocking face making an appearance every now and then.
But all said and done, Rohit would have to make an appearance in the exam hall, an experience he was generally not used to. So while Rohit coped with the novel changes in his life, Jaishree had to keep away the romance novels that she had begun reading.
Souvik meanwhile could only hear the pitter-patter of no, not raindrops or his heart, but of Articles and Amendments that he had drummed into his head. Now that Jaishree seemed positively interested, it had motivated Souvik to study hard so that he could land a good job, make money and then…well, more.
Besides, he had got himself a book that said, ‘Learn Tamil in 30 days.’ Clearly, Souvik was determined to work hard. Both for his exam in law and test in Tamil.
So, when after days and nights of sitting up with law text books, when their last paper was done, the lawyers could finally lord over the free time.
Pavan Nair was in high spirits. Quite literally. The boys had decided to save whatever little semblance of modestythey had in them until the fourth year, which is when they would finally drink. As if to mark the beginning of readying to leave the campus. Of course they still had a whole year left. But for Ankur it hardly made a difference. He had not touched a hard drink during the first three years in college, because he knew Sonali did not like it. Now he did not like Sonali. Well, not really.
It was still normal to experience a stab of pain, each time Sonali called Rohit to come sit next to her.
For Ankur, the line between normal and abnormal had begun to blur. He could still be abnormally obsessed with feelings he had for the Sonali he once knew, yet he could be miraculously detached when he was around her. A paradox, that’s just what love was, Ankur was learning.
Yet there was simply no reason for the rest of the class to be sad. In fact, now with the exams over, they were quite happy. And they were out to prove it. The students of fourth year, whom an elderly professor called a very ‘layjee’ class were actively involved in the most productive activity they ever did—booking movie tickets in bulk. The whole class had decided to troop to the nearest theatre to give the theatre manager a shock. Probably for the first time, the manager would see a whole battalion of lawyers in one place. Sitting in silence for three whole hours!
The movie that the legal brains of the country chose was a Hindi bubblegum romance. After the tough exam in law, their collective minds had gone numb. Ankur twitched uncomfortably as he sat next to Jaishree watching a dripping hero profess his love through the mushy lyrics of a song.
The rain scene on screen seemed to have kindled memories in Souvik who sat next to Jaishree on the other side. Jaishree, on the other hand, joined Ankur in feeling uncomfortable, especially since she suddenly became acutely aware of Souvik’s elbow on her seat’s armrest. Sonali and Rohit sat together, at the far end of the row, though Ankur even in the darkened theatre could perceive that Sonali wasn’t feeling too comfortable as she crossed the obstructing knees of her classmates to reach the other end.
The air-conditioned theatre was by far the best place Vyas could find for an afternoon snooze, considering he spent nights hanging out in graveyards. All the popcorn in the theatre meanwhile hung out in Pavan Nair’s mouth who chewed noisily all through the movie with his pace becoming slower for emotional scenes. The movie was a typical Hindi potboiler which meant there were dialogues, drama, songs, dances, fights, songs and foreign locations, extras and more songs.
The lead pair just needed an excuse to break into a choreographed number with dancers in coordinated costumes making their appearance from nowhere. By the end of the movie, Ankur was yawning uncontrollably. That was one disadvantage of sitting next to Vyas. Vyas was fast asleep and had actually begun to snore lightly, adding to the sound effects of the movie. Apparently Vyas had stayed up all night studying for the last paper. Hence the matinee show was more of an excuse for him to catch up on some shut-eye.
When the fidgety Ankur finally tumbled out of the dark theatre, he had to shield his eyes from the glare of the afternoon sun. Ankur had assaulted his poor head a lot that day. First it was the exam that had tested his brain, then it was the movie that had tried his will power.
Now as compensation for the damages done, the chubby Ankur was going to indulge himself wholeheartedly. A nearby restaurant faced the brunt of an avalanche of lawyers. Then there was the bumpy bus ride back to the hostel.
Ankur quite enjoyed travelling by public transport. But then again, anything was better than Pavan’s Ambassador! Standing upright in a bus even if it was on one foot, was a blessing compared to bending at a forty-five degree angle at the rear end of the old car. And unlike the Ambassador, the bus at least moved!
Twenty-One
With the exams over and the vacation just around the corner, hostel rooms had to be cleared out. Around the same time, Rohit decided to clear the air of misunderstanding, by inviting some of the hostellers to his farmhouse.
Vyas jumped at the offer. Ankur wasn’t keen, for obvious reasons. But Souvik, Jaishree, Pavan and of course, Sonali were going, so Ankur didn’t want to play spoilsport, and played along. After all, knowing Rohit Randhwah, his invitation could have been only for Sonali. Yet, he was forced to invite a half a dozen others as sh
e would have refused to visit his farmhouse alone. Ankur was glad Sonali had managed to ensure that the others would also be around. If for nothing else, Ankur decided to go along just to applaud the girl’s ingenuity. Besides he would at least get some really good food.
Ankur’s sixth sense with regard to all things edible never went wrong. After a heavy dinner of roasted mushrooms, thick cheese pizza and spicy baby corn masala, the group settled down next to what was built to be a fire place. Four mattresses placed closely together and facing each other with tiny multi-coloured cushions added to the relaxed and comfortable mood.
Pavan Nair was also satiated, but apparently his mind was not. ‘Let’s play spin the bottle,’ he said and was met with an eager response. Post dinner talks can be very tedious and a game was a far more pleasant option. Rohit who as usual, didn’t believe in smiling too much, much to the dismay of the girls, produced an old darkened beer bottle. The kind that have ‘Old Tavern’ written on their label. Considering Rohit had bottles of every conceivable liquor, the future lawyer could well switch streams to become a bartender.
When a Lawyer Falls in Love Page 7