If I Had A Love Story - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The light from the projector illuminated the dust in front of it as the computer screen evaporated onto the white screen. Detailed illustrated pictures filled the screen (There were plenty of circles and several coloured lines drawn through them. "Y type printing unit (KBA)" the text below the picture read). I scribbled the diagram onto my notebook. The circles looked ragged and the lines looked lot more like waves. I strangely developed feelings for the fillings in the sandwiches. That's because I was apparently sandwiched in between two giant sized breads. I often struggled to ease myself and would rather take the monkey route of jumping over tables whenever I needed to get out.

That day was different. The bench behind was empty and I occupied the whole of it. Easing myself well below now, my legs one over another and I spread out my hands on both sides of the bench taking it all to myself. I wasn't claustrophobic but it felt good to have the whole bench to myself. It was till Diya came and sat near me. My posture reacted instantly and I was sitting erect now with my hands over the table. She whispered a hi and I returned it back. Plenty of whispers followed it. Adorned in a black chudi, she looked so resplendent as always. Her yellow earrings glowed only lesser than her radiant face. I would have just kept gazing at her all day but right now we were in the middle of a class. We scribbled in each other's notes, wrote our names in different styles, scribbled lyrics and the time just flew as the staff seemingly didn't notice us.

By the end of a tiring two hour session, our Sir had already diverted from the subject and was now narrating the story of "Who moved my Cheese" and the people in the last bench were already fast asleep. Are we all there pa? His right hand drew circles in the air. I could barely contain my laughter as he narrated the story with amusive garnishings. When it was over, I looked at the only awful diagram related to the subject that I had drawn during the whole class. Beside it were the rest of random scribbled stuffs that Diya and I did during the class. I glanced upon her note where she had a better version of the same diagram. There were people in the class who take note of everything the staff utters, even if the staff laughs or sneezes, they jot it down. Lucky I was, having one of them as my roommate and so never really bothered about taking notes.

Then came the noises of national IV. Organising them can be exhausting but gives you a privilege of getting away from classes as an excuse. Ajith was officially appointed as the tour organiser. Countless xerox copies, printouts, hours wasted waiting for signatures, scheduling compensation classes (that classes never happened), forgotten papers and writing reports were all a part and parcel of the whole tiresome process. I actually once threw Ajith’s ID card from the first floor of the Dean’s office to my friend below for taking Xerox as we were running late on time (Thankfully none of the officials saw it).

Later, it was decided that we would be journeying through Karnataka for our IV. The names of the companies that we seldom bothered to visit were also revealed. Dates were fixed and there was a ruckus to get the list of people who would be coming for the IV. With an already planned trip home at hand, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go. One of the terrific stuffs that happen during IV preps was during the procedure of getting tetanus shots. You could either enjoy your friend's feeble cries and whines or panic with fear that you're going to be next.

Fortunately and unfortunately (Don't know what to use here, the event was a mix of both) there were heavy rains and the Karnataka floods forced us to look for other alternative dates. There was another census for the people who would be making the tour on the changed dates. I had made up my mind and agreed for the tour the moment I saw Diya’s name in the list of people who would be coming for the tour. Finally everything was confirmed and we were scheduled to depart by 19th of September.

The preps for the tour actually started a week before the actual departure date. Plenty of plans were schemed over sleepless nights. Girls went out for “The girls’ day out” for shopping. Some even packed their stuff and kept track of days remaining till the take off. Items from the check list were crossed out one by one as they were taken care of. Thanks to the unlimited data – courtesy of RCC, movies and music of choices were downloaded and kept ready for entertainment during the trip. Everyone was excited and was looking forward to the trip meanwhile I was super excited because I would have plenty of quality time to spend with her.