Batch of 1999

by Anurakt Srivastava

  Reunion 2

  Money wasn’t the purpose. All the remaining passes had been distributed between friends and relatives. Which included some of the students of his own batch. Fee wasn’t so high. Only 25 rupee per head. And it includes snacks and tea. Clearly his parents were doing this for the encouragement of their bright son. It was going to start at 10 P.M.. and people started showing around 9:30. Vinay was talking to someone in the backroom. He was clearly not interested in the crowd. For him, it was only like playing the piano another time. He was playing it here because someone else requested him to. Someone who was close to him and couldn’t be seen. Perhaps because of the dark or its nature. There were total of 110 seats in the ground where it was happening but guests were not going to be more than 80. No one looked excited because majority of the people bought the tickets for they knew the parents somehow professionally and personally. But it was a new thing so why not. It was Saturday evening so they didn’t have much to do this time anyway. There were many familiar faces among the crowd. There was principal, Jagdeesh in the second row. There was Sanjay and Sudhir who were sitting on the farthest seat they could found. They were looking at the back instead of stage because there were chances to encounter some old friends from school. Many juniors were there too in the front rows with their mothers and fathers wondering if there could be any more interesting place to waste time. Tanak was attracting the attention of the girls and women sitting there. Coming here was worth it now. And the strange thing was that Tanak wasn’t doing anything. He was only sitting there in the simplest shirt of the universe without a perfume and bath, without proper comb and matching clothes. Vinay’s mom-dad saw him and mother come in front of him quickly recognizing him as friend of Vinay. And did she? He was the most recognizable person she had ever seen. Mother was extra charming with him and asking him to stay for dinner which was after the show. He quietly, firmly and even disrespectfully told her, no thanks. That wasn’t taken as offensive by Vinay’s mother but she acted as if she had heard a flattering remark. She blushed and touched him on the collar of the shirt in an inappropriate way. Her husband was jealous and wondering if he had known her wife all these years. Why she was showing as if she was drunk in front of an average looking person. He held her hand strongly and pushed her to the side. She was acting like a sleep-walker now. Tanak got up from seat and passing between the female awes and sighs, he went to the back benches two seats far from Sudhir and Sanjay intentionally. They pretended that they didn’t see each other. But they were not on that place to watch the show but to reunite. Sudhir could feel the tension on this place due to Tanak and he remembered that Tanak was only a normal shy student in the class. Thought of a girl could make him sweat and erect. And now half of the girls here were finding reasons to go to the back of the ground. There was a fan at the back and suddenly everyone of those feeling a temperature rise. Tanak wasn’t looking glad. He was rolling his eyes to avoid looking directly inside someone else cornea because he knew its effect. That was enough to make anyone fall in love with him. There was no love and still it was. It was like god. You could believe it or not. And it was not under power or reasonability. Neither was it about faith or trust. It was just it. And it was just that. It was there and it was not. And it moved to make the world move around it. Some were in joy others are not. But that was secondary. Faith and love were between the happenings, technology, progress and alcohol consumption. It was it. Nothing else. One second you were all right and the next second you were gone. No complaints from destiny and fortune. Then you could see your face in the mirror and think about the person who had been there. He wasn’t too bad. Fun of a viewer was lost. This is nice to see things as it is even when you can only see the ground. But ninety percent of world respires in thoughts and there is a loss of control and knowledge. There are losses and rules. It defines itself. It is it.

  There were posters outside the stage. Posters with strange drawings of piano, shadows and animals. Posters which were saying incomplete poems of twinkle-twinkle little star. People liked the innovative idea of these. Though Vinay’s father couldn’t guess when he arranged such kind of publicity. Lights were dim outside the patio and cars were standing in random order wherever people could find the space to park. There were no official parking place. People used to stand their cars outside their homes or sometimes inside (if there was enough space). It was a residential area in which all this was happening. There was Deep talking to a child who was sitting with his mother. Deep liked piano voice even if he hadn’t got the invitation. Parents didn’t know his name and face. He hadn’t been a regular in Vinay’s home during school. There was only one occasion in which he had been there before and that was when he wanted a T-shirt for cricket match on foundation day of school. Things were different now. He got a non-bailable warrant issued against him and cold blooded murder of more than 50 children on his head. There was an excitement in coming out in open with such a flashy profile. It wasn’t any less than eating the heart out of five year old. Good old days. He was missing those and not much too. He could practice this hobby anywhere. Kids understand him more than anyone and respond more than adults. Response is the juice of life. There is no fun in action without an equal and opposite reaction. Like they calmed down right before being disfigured and crushed. He was so in love with them. Right now he was playing with this child and squeezing his little hand. Child would cry if deep would squeeze harder than that. So he was treating him as soft as he could. Mother was proud that her child was liked by strangers. These parents never understand their children. They are so selfish and only think about themselves. He used to meet so many parents on parents-teacher meetings and all of them were imposing their desires on kids by anyway in the world possible. That wasn’t fair like everything else. So what? Deep was waiting for the piano show here. He had no other plans today. Except that he was expecting to meet some of old fellas. It was awesome for him how the things turned out. Small kids, they become big and bad so quickly. It is inevitable. There is no way to stop them being bad grown up but one. If they wouldn’t grow up they wouldn’t be bad. Parents should have been more relaxed though as Deep was taking the responsibility of their children. Children were in right hands. Deep looked at the back seats. Those were filled by three familiar faces. What the heck? These guy were here and he was so eager to meet them. Sudhir, the business tycoon. Sanjay, the spoiled. And the third one was that nobody Tanak in cheap shirt. He wasn’t looking much different except…. Except…. Mmm… He was trying to avoid everyone. But why? He wasn’t a killer like Deep. Wait… Because… More than half of audience was staring at him… few boys and almost all the ladies of the front benches. Cheap ladies…. But that wasn’t possible. Why were they doing so? Had he become a movie star or something that Deep didn’t know of? It wasn’t a good omen to see unbelievable things. He saw that a two or three year old girl run to the back and climb nearby seat of Tanak and then on his lap itself. Tanak put her down and stood up. She was crying and touching his legs as if scared that he would go away. He picked her up so she would stop crying and sat down again.

  Sanjay and Sudhir were startled after watching such a captivating seduction. This guy could make a Casanova shy without much effort. Tanak got an aura that was making the air thicker. Little girl’s elder sister came in few seconds and sat near Tanak. She told him sorry that her sister was a nuisance. Then she asked for Tanak’s number without a tingle of hesitation. He told her some shuffled numbers. There was no need to tell the real one. She gave him her’s. To which Tanak nodded without bothering to note it down. She asked him if he wanted some cold-drink or coffee. He told her okay. Girl’s eyes widened like she had just lived a dream. She kissed quickly on Tanak’s cheek before running to get a cold-drink glass. Sudhir gave his hand to Tanak to shake it ‘hello, I am Sudhir. We know each other’.

  ‘I am afraid, yes’ Tanak received hand-shake.

  ‘And there is Sanjay. He had been closer to you than me’ Sudhir gestured.
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  ‘Yes, I know him too.. So, what can I do for you two gentlemen? I heard you have become so successful. I am glad that you were my classmate once’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, can you provide me any job? I can type so well and good in English’

  ‘Well, I could. But not after what I have seen here. There are girls in my office’ Sudhir smiled, Which meant that it was only a joke.

  ‘Ow.. Come on.. That’s not my fault’ Tanak laughed.

  ‘I can’t believe it. What are you doing to them?’

  ‘Nothing much. Only making them fall in love’

  ‘This is not fair’ Sudhir told him.

  ‘Please, sit here and keep talking to me before she would come again’

  ‘It bothers you? Yeah, I can guess. Man, I remember how shy you were during the school. You were even shy of pornographic magazine’.

  ‘This environment is stopping my breath. Please don’t talk about girls. Anything else. Anything you want. Tell me the price of shares and about the climate condition of three past years in Delhi but not this’ Tanak swallowed.

  ‘Okay… okay… relax. I was only reminding you some old memories’.

  ‘I want to forget everything and all. I am happy on my own and I would go to some mountain or something. Where there would be no one around to talk and see me’.

  ‘To tell you the truth. I want something similar like that too’.

  ‘You… you are perfect and rich. What’s wrong?’

  ‘Well that is not the problem. That is the fruit. I am talking about the seed’.

  ‘I didn’t know that after school that you turned out to be this. A deep talking millionaire’ Tanak looked at Sudhir directly and Sudhir felt a stir in moods.

  ‘Ooo.. You are something. Don’t show me your eyes’

  ‘Sanjay was waiting for you’. Sudhir called Sanjay and he joined them both.

  ‘So three are here. Where are the rest?’ Tanak asked.

  ‘I have seen Deep sitting in front’ Sanjay said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘yeah. He is here’

  ‘Is he mad or what? He is on the top of the most wanted of this city. This is the limit of daring’

  ‘Maybe that is why he arrives here, to challenge the system. He is talking to that child. He is a fearless stupid. You remember how he hit Mrs. Kamla with a chalk once. He isn’t transformed a bit’, Sanjay told and Deep saw them all after turning his head. He winked to them. They winked back. No hard feelings. Good old buddies.

  As this all was happening, another one of them entered the whole scene. He was a lone poet and they were not in touch with him.

  ‘Hey, look who is coming’ Tanak told.

  ‘I know about Spandan. He does nothing all day accept writing on his walls’ Sudhir chuckled.

  ‘Writing on walls’, Sanjay asked, ‘what does he write?’

  ‘Poems and essays and one-liners. I don’t know much. His room remains lock from inside and he keep doing things which doesn’t fit in ordinary mind’.

  ‘I want to write on my walls too’, Tanak moved his fingers on ear.

  ‘Poor… Hey Tapish. Come sit here man. Remember us?’ Sanjay shouted.