BACK WITH A BANG

It is 9:30pm. It has been a hectic day. Days are going to be worse from now as the deadlines of various assignments are drawing closer. So here I am, sitting with half hearted efforts to study Plant Biotechnology. I am just leafing through the pages of the book and getting disgusted………..RNA directed methylations, gene silencing, expression cassettes……..all bouncers………for my already exhausted mind. I closed my book in irritation and a mixture of despair and fear as if the ghost of Grudge was about to come out of it (as she comes out from the television making that horrifying sound). I took a deep breath and leaned back on my chair. And now suddenly I am in a different world…

It is still raining. She is standing in the corridor looking gloomily at the falling drops. Occasionally she is stretching her hands to feel the drops. The light curls of her hair and their aroma have always made me go crazy for her. But today the curls are a little extra curly and their aroma is travelling all through the corridor to my nostrils. It seems she is a little depressed. And by the way her hopes are being dashed every time someone is walking into the corridor, it is clear that she is waiting for someone who has not turned up yet. Maybe she is expecting her group. Yeah! Today I don’t see her gang, which has mixed properties of The Plastics of Mean girls and the Dracula samaj (which my friend Surojit speaks about often). But she is different from them. She is gorgeous with perfectly aquiline features and light brown eyes that sparkle. She is fun-loving, possessing an exuberance which is more like child- like (with integral elements of innocence and transparency). But today the energy is missing and she is appearing like the girl in the song Numb---lost and gloomy.

Hey wait a minute! She is not wearing her usual canvas shoes. Today she is wearing sandals. It’s the first I am seeing her feet. Her feet…O my god! Just like her…beautiful! Her sandals are beautifully striped with silver and black giving a crystal appearance, like Cinderella’s shoes. But the color of her nail polish is a little odd (a little dhinchak). But the overall effect is… elegance redefined.

As I am looking at her, I feel my heart throbbing, faster and faster…And my breath pacing up…, and shallowing synchronously … I think today I must go and tell her that I like her. That, it is she, in the whole planet, who sets up a complete chaos in the physiology and biochemistry inside me. I am standing at the other end of the corridor, behind her. She has not seen me… My impulsive heart is telling me to go. But something is holding me back. Fear maybe, nervousness definitely! But I have to go today because her Dracula gang is not with her (waqt ka kya bharosa, banke pani behjaye! Kal agar na mil paye……rehnajaye baat baki). So after assembling all my courage, I am walking towards her…with heavy steps… The steps are becoming heavier as I am approaching her…closer and closer… (I am feeling as if I am walking in wet sand or water). Mysteriously, the gravity seems to keep on increasing, by and by. But there is some help too, her fragrance…totally bewitching! This is the only force helping me defy all the resistance. And its magnitude too is increasing as I am feeling pulled by this. Finally, I am standing just behind her. She is still playing with the raindrops. And taking a gulp down my dry throat I heard myself saying, “Suno………………….”

And then a sudden, annoying and exasperatingly loud sound shocked me. It was the hostel warden with his theatrical style of flapping up the handles of closed doors with huge force making a loud bang to alert for the attendance. He is more of a theatrical fellow and if you hear him say “zaaaaaldi” (It is jaldi in Hindi) in his hilarious south Indian accent, for the first time, you may die laughing. So the next moment I aggregated back myself together and opened the door. Even though I felt like killing him, while giving the attendance I looked at him and smiled gently.