Through Lemons & Peaches

by Shivangi Ruperee

  During the entire briefing session, the head of the departments gave us an idea about the subjects, the career roadmap and learning takeaways. Of all the streams, Electrical & Electronics stood out for me as it had the maximum number of subjects and was popularly being said to be the toughest. I being someone who had reached that stage because of my love for challenges, wanted one again. After the interaction, we went outside for a few minutes to discuss our choice with our families, I told my parents what I wanted to do. “Take what your gut tells you when your turn comes! See the screen there are only 50 left in Electrical & Electronics and 10 in Computer Science. If both of them gets over, take whatever they are left with”, my father was scared as it was a tough situation. The room was packed with students. My mom gave me my documents and I hugged them both as I went inside. While my parents kept their eyes glued on the screen as the next round of rapid allocation had started.

  Forty-five mins later, I came out to see my parents frantically searching for me. It had become extremely chaotic as the hall was now filled with 100’s of fresh candidates who had just arrived with the same hopes and the seats were all full. I waved at my dad and he signaled me to come outside. I somehow made my way through the agitated crowd, and observed many students crying while their parents felt helpless. The trance continued. I finally saw the door and ran outside to my parents.

  “Did you get an admission!”, my mom & dad asked. I handed them the envelope I had received. My father quickly opened it and said “7 lakh students had appeared for this exam, and you can say at least 2 lakh of them were well prepared. Years ago, to be honest, I had never expected you to come so far, you were lost and notorious. I never wanted to force you as I knew that only self-motivation changes a person’s life. I just wanted to widen your horizons and make you have your own dreams. I was shocked to see you working so hard and was scared for you as well because 30 years ago I studied the same way to get an engineering seat but then went on to pursue architecture as I fell two ranks short and it was painful. But today I can say that I lived that dream as well. Ironically! you chose what I wanted to pursue! Electrical & Electronics. You have outperformed my expectations and now I don’t know what you will do next! “. We hugged each other and I finally found tranquility. The day he was trying to convince Father Principal at St. Stephens, I knew he was struggling because of my grades. That day I had seen helplessness on his face, he was not being able to uplift his daughter’s candidature by stating his own achievements as it was something I had to do for myself & I did all I did because I wanted to make sure that he never has to frantically convince anyone about his daughter’s caliber ever again. My mom was overjoyed & I knew I had fulfilled the very purpose I began my transformation journey with. As Mr. Vishnu took us to the airport, the drive was strikingly different than the one I had experienced in the morning, it was filled with peace & certainty.

  3

  Yet again one early morning we were driving through the two-lane picturesque roads but this time we were following a lorry with eight suitcases and a newly bought mattress wrapped along with a pillowcase & a teddy bear. In our car, we had adjusted more important things like buckets! Basically, we had shifted each and everything which belonged to my room in Jaipur to Chennai but this time I had to share my space with someone. We reached CVIT University and were directly routed to the girl’s hostel, I had been randomly assigned a room & a roommate - Nisha Srivastava, she was yet to arrive. Shortly, I was handed a key but now we had a bigger challenge in front of us, the lift wasn’t working that day! An hour and two soft drinks later, we managed to place all the luggage in the room and locked it. “Let’s go to the nearest mall, have lunch and buy the remaining stuff”, my mom said.

  Three weeks ago, my mom had started the most ambitious - project runway! Before coming from Jaipur this time, she got me a new hair cut from her favorite salon, tried & tested all kinds of grooming products & makeup styles to finalize my look and all my bags were filled with a whole new collection of clothes & shoes. My mom was a born fashionista, a lecturer by profession, who had looked perfect all her life and even today looked like my elder sister. She always wanted to experiment all her vivid ideas on me which I hadn’t permitted until now, which made her even more exhilarated.

  At the mall, my mom bought me a makeup box to keep all the stuff she had given me with tutorials as I was a newbie. “You should now learn to enjoy as well! have a dynamic personality “she said. It was the first time I was about to live on my own and as my parents dropped me back at the hostel, I felt a rush of emotions - a mixture of gratitude, fear & excitement altogether. There were many other students & families who had arrived by now and we interacted with almost everyone we saw, with some girls I clicked instantly. Hours later it was time for my parents to head back. I started to cry as I hugged my mom and my father wasn’t speaking much since morning. I looked at him and he turned around. “You keep your cellphone safely and have this, you’ll need it. It’s a gift from us”, she handed me a laptop bag. “Here is the warranty & the installation CD’s”, she added as she tried to control her tears. I was overwhelmed, my tears didn’t stop & I couldn’t speak. “We’ll come whenever you’ll need us! Don’t worry and enjoy with your friends”, she said while waving back at me as she sat in the taxi with my dad trying hard to look away as my newly found mates gathered around me “We are here for each other, Auntie!”. As their taxi left our hostel premises, we all started sobbing together empathetically.

  We then went to the hostel mess and consoled each other over tea. The overall campus rules were stringent and the curfew time was 6 pm, after which all the girls were expected to be inside the girl’s hostel premises & the same rule applied to the boys. We had a meticulously planned dress code to follow which ended up meaning only business casuals. The anti-ragging rules were unbelievably strict on our campus because of which no one was scared on that front. After a while, I took a leave and proceeded to my room, started to unpack and added the little details which could make this new space close to home. An hour later I heard a knock, I opened the door to find a tall, sleek girl with silky long hair in front of me. “Hi! I am Nisha! You must be Shivangi?”. We bonded the moment we saw each other, I found out that she was not only my batchmate but my course mate as well. I helped her unpack her luggage and we both went out for dinner together later that night as the B. Tech program kick started the very next day. For an 8 am class, we needed to wake up really early as we had shared bathrooms for each wing and then the long queues for breakfast downstairs at the mess. On top of this, the walk between the girl’s hostel and the academic block would itself take a good fifteen minutes.

  The next morning, we all reached for our orientation day and met the rest of our peers for this four-year journey. The one person who stood out for me was an animated buttoned eye boy as reflective as a mirror from Computer Science, Pankaj Gupta. He had come from Rajasthan as well and we became friends in a split second as he spoke less and it allowed me all the speaking time. Moments later it was announced that there was a welcome gathering happening on our other campus in Vellore tomorrow for which three buses from here would be leaving at 5 am on first come first serve basis. Nisha came running to me, “Isn’t that awesome? Thank god I had bought a few dresses despite the rules shared. What will you wear?”. The Vellore campus was way liberal in their approach than ours and hence this trip was being seen as an escape to heaven by many. “I don’t think I’ll make it, still a lot to unpack “. I was scared of distractions. Many of my previous faculties had discussed how easy it gets to be swayed once we reach college and the impact which it can have. I wanted to be cautious. “Come on! Think again, I have heard that some of our cool seniors would also be there and the Vellore guys are unmissable! the grapevine has it”. This made me say a firm no instantly, while she had my blessings as she went on.

  Everything went as planned for me as well until the party busses returned. It was 2 am and I opened the door with squishy eyes. “Shivangi, Wak
e up! “. Along with Nisha, nine more girls were screaming in front of me. I asked them all to keep it low and come inside. “You missed it, girl! but no worries, till we are here we’ll help you catch up “. I took a deep breath as I knew that I won’t get any sleep that night. “When we went to board the bus, all of them were almost full of guys already and they weren’t giving us seats together, but then came the charmer who asked all the guys to leave the three rows empty! Man, his voice … Girls, you wanna tell her his name together as I open up his social media account for our bliss?”, Nisha exclaimed. “Aman Raghuvanshi!!!”, ten of them started screaming his name as they all stalked him on Nisha’s laptop. “Okay, it says he is a second-year senior, which stream though? if we could ask him for advice, umm… Computer Science, Huh! Heads many other clubs but… let us all join any one “. Meanwhile, I was desperately trying to get people off my bed so that I could act asleep, but, how could I? A few seconds later, romantic songs were on with one of them enacting as Aman Raghuvanshi, dancing the waltz crazily with each girl. To be honest, at this stage it had got hilarious. We laughed the night away.

  Soon after this the studies resumed and the entire first semester went in a flash, examinations went by and the second semester began after a two days gap. This time along with the official course, we were given an option to pick a subject of our interest from a list of 20 without disclosing the stream it belonged to, all we knew was that they weren’t from the one we were studying. It was an experiment to promote creativity. I and Pankaj chose machine design. As I went around the academic block happily to buy myself an ice tea, I felt a strong pinch. I turned back angrily, “See that’s Aman! Don’t make it obvious”, whispered Nisha but that ship had already sailed as he had noticed her pinching me while walking past us. He looked at me for a second before I stole my eyes away, as I wondered how difficult it must be to deal with such admiration from so many. “He is really arrogant! He at times insults those who try to hit on him, responds well to a few but moves over a girl to another very quickly. He is almost a womanizer. I found out from my sources, but still, I can’t stop thinking of him especially since all of us joined his debating society “. I wasn’t surprised, in fact, she explained him to be exactly what I had expected, I knew that attention inevitably does that to a person. “Have your focus Nisha! Go upstairs, choose a subject & please don’t pinch me ever again”, I said as I took my ice tea and left.

  A few days later one sunny afternoon, I was climbing the stairs in a frenzy to make it to the first Machine Design class, I was running five minutes late already. Finally, I reached the classroom 405, “May I come in, sir? “. The professor stared at me with an astonished expression. I wondered what was wrong? But then my eyes went around the room and it was full, but with no female representation. The guys were equally startled and looked at me as if I had barged into their locker room. “Ah! come in, have you enrolled for Machine Design?”, said the professor. “Yes, Sir “. “Okay! Please make yourself seated “. I was intimidated. “Sshh!”, said Pankaj to grasp my attention as I had frozen. I hastily picked the empty first bench in front of Pankaj’s desk and in a quick glance I saw that the rest three rows were full of tall well-built guys, I had never seen before.

  “I am Prof. Ramesh and I along with all the other guys here belong to the School of Mechanical Engineering. These three rows are the second years & the ones behind you are your batchmates. God knows why they can’t mingle? Anyways, I thought we just had one absentee, Shivang? I called the name thrice as well”. “Sir, it was me, but I am Shivangi “. “We took it as a typo!”, sir said and immediately the class had burst in laughter, so did I. “Jokes apart! glad times are changing. Let’s continue”. I was definitely feeling out of place initially but as the studies started, I felt sure of my choice as I did like the content. In my head I was thinking about all the male dominated board rooms that I had read about & no matter how weird it did feel at that time, how overcoming this was necessary to boost my confidence.

  I slowly looked around the class to feel more comfortable with the idea, although unexpectedly my eyes got stuck on a face, it was almost unnaturally perfect, he looked like a prince who we can only find in our imagination. Time froze and I guess even my teenage hormones had finally kicked in, he officially became my first real crush. “Stop making it so evident! Look away”, Pankaj whispered with a grin. I felt embarrassed as my face flushed. “Next week, all of you, come to the Mech Lab on the ground floor instead of the class, okay? Thanks”. The lecture ended but my curiosity began as I saw my dream guy leave with all his second-year friends. I stood at my desk, looking at his back like a love-struck kitten, he turned around just before getting out of the door and gently smiled. I was blown away.

  All I did for the next few days was bridging the wait for the Mech Lab session, listening to the famous songs of love and gushing at his thought. As the day finally arrived, I tried on the makeup my mom had gifted me over the mandatory attire for lab sessions - A blue coat, jeans & white lab shoes. “Hey! You look nice”, said Pankaj. “I know why you have dolled up!” we both laughed. There he was! Looking like a royal but I was in much more control of my expressions this time, all thanks to the number of times I had practiced. “Students! Today we will learn a bit of basic welding, First I’ll show you how it’s done and then you repeat it individually during this session. Mr. Ajay is the Lab In charge for today, he will guide you”. We followed the 30-minute procedure being demonstrated by the professor after which we started out individually.

  I didn’t struggle much with the soldering and got my circuit approved in one attempt but it was the fire game which I had my doubts on, welding! I was next in the line and I prepared my mind as I wore the enormous mask. Seconds later, I was handed over the welding iron, which was so much heavier than it looked, I looked to my side but the lab in charge had gone missing and I felt scared to make my first attempt without a professional. As many students who went before me finished without his help, I decided to give it a shot thinking how hard could it be? But by that time the rod was overheated and sparks flew. I was frightened and out of nervousness, the iron started slipping from my hands when suddenly I felt it become drastically lighter, a person came beside me. He held a mask in front of his face with his left hand and the iron with his right, as he gently took it away from me. He then went on to reduce the heat of the rod by tapping the iron on a board. “Hold it from here and press this lever gently. Don’t panic”. I did what he said, while he held onto the welding iron to make it stable for me, it was flawless. “What the hell is happening here?” said Mr. Ajay. I took off my mask out of shock! I turned around to see it was my knight in the shining armor. “Sir, she could have got hurt. Apologies “. All the second-year students started cheering for him and I realized my crush wasn’t ordinary. What could Mr. Ajay say? “The next one come quickly”, he screamed. “Hey! Give me your shield, I’ll take care of it, I am Aarav!”, and this was the foundation pearl of our countless conversations.

  My life was now much more blissful as my phone shimmered with his texts all day. We kept it low key to avoid the rumor mills and were getting to know each other. At times the messages continued till late night until we could no longer stretch our eyes, along with assignments & daily classes, it too became a part of my routine. Whenever we saw each other in college, we tried to act like strangers but ended up blushing each time. When it comes to matters of the heart, it’s almost impossible to conceal the real feelings for long & the look gives it away. His friends were the first ones to tap it, as they all saw us gazing at each other. We were both helping the organizers, coordinate the backstage operations as we represented the Student Council which had only one member from a specialization, for every batch. That one student had to be the highest scorer and it changed every semester. Yes, my first semester results were a huge success! which made me feel in control of this new phase of my life. Pankaj made it too! and we were both bickering in a low voice, while ticking off the checklist toget
her. But in every five minutes, my eyes were again searching for Aarav just to see him looking out for me as well. I felt my life was complete now that I had him.

  “Okay! so he is the one you have been texting all night? Lucky you! He is really attractive”, said Nisha as she was heading backstage all decked up to walk the ramp for the most awaited fashion show. I smiled. “All the best! Nisha. I am sure you’ll win. Here, I bought you my earrings! This will really take your look to the next level”, I helped her wear them & motivated her to not just to perform well but to go for the title of Ms. CVIT which was to be announced at the end.

  The event started and it was going well. “So, the mechanical senior is finally your boyfriend?”, asked Pankaj. I really wanted to say yes but Aarav hadn’t asked me that officially yet. “I don’t know!”, I blushed. “Don’t do anything stupid. I know he is your first & I just don’t want to see you lose yourself. You are really innocent and most boys aren’t. Please be careful”, Pankaj added as he looked at me with his big concerned eyes. “I won’t! only you and Nisha knows about him till now and I am taking my time”, I assured as I took him to the newly opened hangout place at our campus to buy him a milkshake where he introduced me to his other course mates, Preeti & Anushka. The event went on and we were in our own world. *Where are you? * Aarav texted. *I am at the Gazebo with some of my friends, it’s too loud & crowded there* I replied. *Enjoy Little girl!:) Will text you around 10* and I felt a kick of happiness! I chirped energetically for hours with these people and on top of it got a major sugar rush as they forced me to eat so much! just like a family. It felt warm, I knew I had found my people just as we heard the entire crowd cheering for Rishi. * This year’s title for Mr. & Ms. CVIT goes to… Rishi Arora and Nisha Srivastav!! * the mob went crazy as the music started playing.