Fighting for 10 marks : part II

Disclaimer: All the events and characters in this stories are real, but they are painted just to make the story a "story". No offence is intended (If any).

Next day, Sometime after lunch she approached me, smiled and said

"Rahul".

I Didn't knew my name sounds so sweet on female lips.

"can you please help me out in BEL. I just want an overview of the topics".

"Sure, I would love to" I wanted to say, "I have few other things to do, but I think I can manage" is what I said.

This girl, I was not even knowing her name by then, was the last girl to join our batch, having a bewitching photogenic appearance. Her voice cannot be stated sweet but rhythmic enough to ring the bells. And actually when you are in an engineering college where your book count is more than the girls in the class, everything related to a girl becomes rhythmic.

"So can we meet in Computer Lab after lunch". She said

"Sure" I said. "I will wait", she should have said, but these also were my words.

She disappeared leaving her presence in the air and I kept wondering how in the world she knew about my teaching skills. She must have heard about me only through my last night classes at hostel. In those days Airtel or some other vendor had started a plan where you can add some phone numbers in the plan and can talk 1 paisa per minute on that phone. This FNF plan was a bridge between girls hostel and out Naini boys hostel. Girls were able to get Live commentary right from boys hostel. "Anshu entered in the room, he switched on the light, he is wearing red shirt with pink stripes, now he is searching for some book" etc. And this live commentary must have aired the stories of my last night classes to her.

Anyways I finished my lunch early and was in Computer Lab well before time. Clock stops ticking when you wait for something. Just for the sake of spending time I had scanned all my mails (maximum 20 at that time), played solitaire (Pushpit was not caught yet for the same by Anurika and we used to play it without any fear), minesweeper and all. Just when I was about to sleep, she entered.

"I am late" in apologetic voice but still mind there was no "Sorry" word in the sentence.

"Well you are too late, I have to leave now, you better be on time now onwards. It was you who wanted the help not me" is what echoed back in my mind.

"No problem, I also just came" is what world and she heard me saying.
(Well let me tell you this was not her fault. Just think of being one of those 8 girls in a class of 128. Even simple math leads to the fact the tens of boys will want to talk to you and you cannot deny everyone. So in essence you are bound to get late. Poor girls !!!)

She sat just next to me. I till then was not very much acquainted with girls. So I for no reason was very happy. She in white suit with orange dots looked lovely. Every act of here was in rhythm. Opening the bag and taking our the notes everything was so in flow.

But seeing black version of my own notes in her hands broke this flow. I smiled and wondered how much my notebook had traveled last day. Here also, before starting I recited the rules I had decided last night to all hostelers. Generally I have seen girls having habit of swirling fingers with well polished nails in their hair, but she on the other hand was having a habbit of chewing those nails evey while. I started and finished everything in few minutes, preventing her from chewing her fingers after nails were off.

Now was the time when I should have extended the talk, if at all the hopes of friendship with her was to be saved. But I was too shy to do that and was out of words. So the story of my first meeting with a girl in IIIT-A ended with no outcome.

But to remind you all this story was not to tell my first encounter with a girl in IIIT-A, rather it was to depict our first encounter with exams in IIIT-A. Next day was the quiz day and at least I was taking is seriously. Everyone was doing the preparation in their own way, but the way of Pankaj Trivedi was different. He was the most studious guy I had seen till then. He wanted to make sure that no topic is unread and to make it even sure he read one para before and one para after every topics which was in course. Though he was a nice guy but study is a sin in IIIT-A and he was victim of this sin. And this was food of thought for Parag and other nitwits in the batch.

Before telling next incident let me tell you all that Parag and Pankaj were good friends for some "Sangh" reason and had played some volleyball game togather in inter-school play which, like other stories of Parag, I had heard for countless times from Parag. Next day while lunch Parag stood just next to Pankaj and said to Uttam

"Have you read Zenitson Formula ? that was really tough man, But I was able to do it with help from Rahul"

"Yeah I read it, to me it looked OK, the Integration part was scary though",

Now Pankaj was having no Idea about this Zenitson formula, and he really wondered how he missed it.
"What is zenitson formula? Where is it in the book ?",

"C'mon Pankaj, you cannot make that mistake This was the most important topic according to VP sir and you don't even know it was not in the book. We read it from Rahul's notes. You missed it in your notes I guess",

"Ohh, Please tell me what it is",

"Sorry man, this is too hard to explain now in this little time. But I am sorry for you as this will be of 4/10 marks in exam.",

And Parag left Pankaj perplexed. Pankaj came to me to ask about this formula, but even I didn't had any idea about this formula, I even never had heard of this name. Well the same day later in evening exam started and ended. That Zenitson formula never came in the exam and later Parag revealed that this was just a prank for Pankaj.

Those were early days in IIIT-A and we all were in same school mode till then. As time passed we matured and came to know the vitality of life and how these exams are little tiny part in that vital experience. Later these exams were just matter of one night stand and still we excelled.

And I came across the fact that When you want the least from life, life gives you the most. And Vice Versa.