She seemed to be studying the
swing, which later became her favorite place in my house, 'Interested in coming
to school, dumbo?'
I stared at her in disbelief,
having stunned into happiness.
She smiled at my discomfiture,
and said, 'You definitely need nice shades.'
Here comes the first ever girl
who liberally uses the words stupid, idiot and dumbo on me.
‘Just a minute’
I went to the cycle and putting a
show of examining the tyre I actually pierced it and made it flat, so my
parents would not ask me why I’m walking and thus abandoning the cycle and we
started walking.
Another reason for leaving it at
home was to make sure it won’t play any tricks on me, since I didn’t yet
comprehend how it came to be back at my home.
----O----
It had been a little difficult to
keep calm in spite of the mirth of the situation, a part of my mind was
wondering whether I really took the cycle to the school the previous day.
Once or twice I touched her
cheek, to make sure she is real, on the pretext of dusting off some odd
sticking particle.
She is real.
I, usually a garrulous person,
found it difficult to strike a conversation.
She was just walking with a pleasant,
happy smile.
After walking for some distance,
to say something, I said, ‘Can we walk a little faster?’
‘Why?’
‘Otherwise, we will be late to
school’
‘Does that affect you?’
I didn’t know what to say, lest
she should think of me as a nerd, what are we to do if not going to school
anyway?
She continued, ‘Besides, who’ll
scold you?’
‘No one will scold you, because
you’re new, but what stops me them from scolding me?’
‘Trust me they wouldn’t’
‘Why?’
‘Sindhu, our classmate lives near
my house, she accompanied me till your house today morning, and she is all
praise about you. I came to know from her, that you’re the class topper.’
‘So, people don’t scold the class
toppers huh?’
‘It’s not just that. Earlier I
didn’t realize that it was you, but when we came for admission here, the
headmistress and the teachers were talking very highly of the class topper Ravi,
which I came to know today that it was you. Ravi is this; Ravi is that; trust
me, all the teachers love you too much to scold you. They were saying I should
give stiff competition to you, I was a district topper in Rajasthan, you know.
Hey by the way I can help you with your Hindi, if you like, because I’m a north
Indian and it’s my native language.’ She said, putting an obvious Accent into
her speech.
‘Thanks, but I don’t need that,
I’m a tad too good at Hindi, I’m afraid I’d beat even any native in that.’
She laughed, ‘Clearly, you don’t embrace modesty much, do you? Let us see. Is there anything you’re not good
at?’
I thought for a while and said,
‘yes, I guess I’m not so good at talking to pretty girls.’
‘That, I very much doubt,’ said
she with a soft giggle.
I never realized when we held our
hands; somewhere and at some point we held our hands and were walking with our
hands laced, which we pulled back as Rakesh came towards us.
He got down from his cycle and
said, ‘Why are you walking? What happened to your cycle?’
‘It has got a flat tyre.’
‘It was okay, when I brought it
to your house yesterday.’
I let a huge sigh of relief, it
relieved me of the minor frustration that clouded a part of my mind since
morning. So that was how it got back, thank goodness, I’m not imagining any
things.
For once the news felt like a
final chapter in a Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot mystery where that
inexplicable tiny trivial detail is given its due explanation.
‘It got punctured today morning
when I went out for a workout,’
Mahi asked, ‘Wait a minute, you
had your cycle yesterday, but walked all the way?’
‘Hmmm! Guess I forgot.’
She laughed gently while
struggling to stop the unleashed laugh.
‘Rakesh this is Mah — er — Sonia,
Sonia this is Rakesh, my best friend.’
----O----
We walked
to school, along with Rakesh, never for once suspecting the drama that was
about to unfold at the school.
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