Ankur smiled to himself. He wondered how it would look if Vyas were to ride a cycle with Ankur balancing his stocky frame on the slender rod just below the handle bars. Ankur sure had one fertile imagination. In fact, so did Sonali. Just that she was imagining an entirely different thing.
‘They say the human aura can be photographed with a Krebian Camera. I’ve been practicing a certain technique…
now I can feel people’s auras,’ Sonali said and as an afterthought added, ‘Rohit had a slightly diseased aura.’ Ankur had parted with Rohit on a rather friendly note, but hearing Sonali mention Rohit somehow made Ankur’s healing heart hurt again.
Sonali also realised this and she hastily changed the topic. ‘Ankur I was just wondering, if the two of us could have sugar cane juice from the stall just outside campus?’ Ankur hesitated for a second but then he smiled. He had just been asked out. That too, by Sonali Shah. Of course he would go. If nothing else, at least for the breezy stroll.
The humble sugar cane vendor with his single cane threshing machine did brisk business, with the unemployed law students ensuring him steady employment. Sipping the chilled sugar cane juice Ankur was glad he was still in college. And alive! He had his whole life ahead of him. And Sonali was now by his side. Life was beautiful!
Thirty-Two
Sponsors. Sponsors. Sponsors. The word buzzed around Ankur’s perfectly round head. The AIU College was one of the best law colleges in the country and a brand in itself. Yet the whole task of calling up companies and endlessly keeping his cell phone pressed to his ears made the fledging lawyer want to file a law suit against anything that remotely resembled a phone.
Besides, the college was abuzz with activity. Dance rehearsals, inviting outstation colleges and arranging for different celebrities to sing, dance or lecture accordingly and alternately ensured that nobody had time to even pretend to be of any help.
Ankur decided that he suddenly liked the exam season better, but Vyas had no such doubts. On the pretext of negotiating with the prospective sponsors he would sneak out of the campus to meet Caroline, with whom he would hold negotiations of a different kind!
As final year students now, this was their last chance to participate in a college festival. Hence the otherwise absconding elements in class also decided to chip in. Pavan Nair, normally, would rather slink back home and munch tangy banana chips. Yet now he was actively involved in organising of all things, a Salsa dance workshop. Souvik and Jaishree also managed to synchronise their lives through dance rehearsals and quite naturally, he was more keen on showing his hospitality to Jaishree than to the outstation colleges, of which he was in charge.
Sonali meanwhile was busy sending to the printer corrected copies of the ‘Daily Schedule’ that would be distributed as pamphlets. Just as she was coordinating her own wardrobe for the four day fest with as much if not more precision!
There was of course a ‘Control Room’ wherein things were mostly out of control! Ankur and a couple of other guys would literally camp out in the rather cramped room that was cluttered with paraphernalia that could only be found during a college festival. Erecting a make shift stage at the centre of the stadium, arranging flood lights, and carting along a video camera to record the insanity were some of the things the juniors were in charge of. Dozing off on chairs within the control room, playing referee in potential yelling matches, and sharing hot pizza, a clipping of which was shown on the giant screen during the fest, were some of the other things that kept the lawyers deeply engaged.
A frenzied tizzy that kept everybody busy had swept over the college and a mood of anticipation filled the air. Mad, bad and sad, however the preparations were, one thing was clear, everyone could hardly wait for the fest to begin!
Thirty-Three
‘Caroline is getting engaged,’ Vyas announced with a deadpan expression the next evening when they were sitting in Ankur’s room. Ankur who was busy copying an assignment stopped for a second. It was a reaction similar to the one two years ago, when he had heard some rattling from the cupboard.
‘She is getting engaged to her cousin and moving to Dubai,’ Vyas said in a monotone, as if reading the news bulletin. Ankur closed his book and got up from his desk to come and sit next to Vyas. Ankur knew he ought to console his friend, but he had a strong urge to congratulate him instead. Knowing Caroline, she would already be on her way to terrorising the underworld in Dubai. Frankly, Ankur was happy for his friend, though he had the good sense of not airing his views then.
Vyas, meanwhile, got up from the edge of the bed where he had been sitting, and began pacing the floor. Ankur wanted to say something but somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew that the heaviest moments need the lightest touch. Vyas slowly came and sat onAnkur’s desk, and then, without a trigger, started laughing uncontrollably.
It had begun as a slow sad laugh, but half a minute later it went full throttle. Ankur was scared. But Vyas kept laughing like the members of the early morning laughter clubs.
Ankur got up quickly and sat next to Vyas patting his arm. It was more to reassure himself than Vyas in the face of such an obvious display of hysteria. But Vyas continued to laugh until even Ankur felt like joining in. Perhaps the comic situation of informing others about his girlfriend’s impending engagement is what amused Vyas most. Or perhaps, as Ankur was beginning to believe, Vyas’s laughter was one out of sheer relief!
‘So Caroline is going to Dubai huh?! I’m sure she’ll miss her graveyard,’ said Ankur, attempting to be funny to join in the laughter. Vyas kept laughing. Encouraged, Ankur continued, ‘She honestly was scary. Caroline ought to wear a Halloween costume for her wedding?’ Ankur said laughing even louder.
Vyas went quiet at the mention of ‘wedding’. Then it started again. But this time, even as he laughed, two fat drops rolled down simultaneously from the corner of each eye.
Just watching his best friend like that, Ankur almost felt a stab of physical pain. As he put his arm around Vyas in a masculine embrace, Ankur suddenly realised how much easier was it to accompany Vyas to graveyards, than to see him like this.
Asmile is priceless. And Ankur would do anything to bring back the smile on Vyas’s face.
Thirty-Four
‘If all was left to women, there would be no civilisation; only candle light dinners,’ The elocution topic was announced amid much hooting from the primarily male audience. Debates and JAM sessions at AIU College had to be seen to be believed. Every year a hall full of students managed to create new records in perversion!
The college festival was officially for four days only, though a day prior to the inauguration, Ankur had to stand at the crowded railway station with a placard in hand. Like a displaced Statue of Liberty. Outstation colleges had to be escorted to the campus in the rickety buses hired for the occasion. Then arrangements for their stay within the hostel had to be made. But finally, that part of the ordeal was over. The college festival had officially begun!
‘IT’S LEGAL’ kick started with a lengthy formal speech by the Dean, which everyone in the audience wanted kick-stopped! The opening ceremony was an excuse for the Dean not to close his mouth. The old Dean went on and on about the history and geography of the college and the fidgety audience could hardly wait for a change in subject.
The students of the college had perfected the art of giving a consistent glassy stare, but those from outstation colleges felt a little differently. The engineers in the hall seemed more interested in engineering a device that could air lift the bald Dean and deposit him outside the institute gates. The lawyers from other colleges pretended not to look too bored as the Dean made full use of his freedom of speech. The ceremony was taking place in the plush air-conditioned auditorium whose padded seats were designed to absorb the steady monologue of the Dean and other chief guests on stage.
Those outside the auditorium followed their single point agenda of living it up!
There were crowds surging between the wide semicircle of food and game st
alls with a juke box playing blaring music to a dancing crowd going berserk!
Songs were being requested for, remixed songs were being played, and several unwanted elements who ought to have been requested to stay out of a college festival found a chance to rub shoulders with the students. Aseedy looking character approached Jaishree and persistently asked if she wanted to star in a ‘pitcher’. Souvik counter questioned the shady ‘filuum’ producer if he wanted to be carted out of the campus. If need be, neatly arranged in an earthen pitcher. This could technically be very well possible given that there were pottery workshops which Jaishree and her dainty hands were to participate in shortly.
Jaishree was also a part of perfume making workshop along with Pavan, who spent the rest of the day explaining why he was smelling like ‘jasmine-rose’!
Sonali took part in a street play where she essayed the role of a sweeper so convincingly that Ankur was actually embarrassed! Sonali’s play was one of the few events that Ankur could watch given the duties that had been assigned to him. One of which was to conducting these very intellectual games, the kind, Ankur concluded, that only people of his caliber could hope to participate in.
‘Hit the pot with one shot!’ was a game that had participants being blindfolded and given a long stick. Ankur would have preferred wielding the long stick on the person whose ingenious idea it was to conduct the event!
Ankur’s annoyance was justified. His job was to remain perched on a tree and keep lifting the low hanging earthen pot deftly each time a participant attempted to hit it. After spending close to three hours atop the branch, Ankur’s bottom had finally got immune to the pokey bark of the tree. And therefore, finally at sun down, Ankur preferred nesting there to having to climb down, which seemed too much of an effort. Yet, for the college revellers that Ankur had watched from above, the party had just begun!
Thirty-Five
‘IT’S LEGAL’, Ankur felt, had everything illegal about it— right down to the high decibel music and the management’s tact at extracting unpaid manual labour from the brightest brains in the country. And to think that the college spent five years teaching students how to file law suits, thought Ankur with a wry smile. Yet, preparing for the festival did have its odd advantage too—like losing weight from all the extra running around!
Ankur was sitting at the Help Desk sweating profusely. Hardly the picture of a pretty receptionist. The Help Desk was one in a line of many tents erected almost manually by the able bodied male students of AIU College. The college authorities probably thought that it would help if the lawyers tone their otherwise flabby muscles before stepping into the real world. If not the brain, at least the brawn, the college was determined to develop something.
‘Where can I find…?’ a female voice was asking when Ankur looked up. A tall slim girl in a short blue top and jeans stood before him. Two other guys who sat like wax models melting in the heat, suddenly perked up. Keeping in mind the skewed gender ratio at the law college, anyone in possession of anything that remotely resembled the female anatomy received instant attention and admiration.
‘Where can I find the main building?’ asked the girl with her mascara-laden eyes fixed on a map.
‘I’ll show you,’ Ankur found himself saying as he got up promptly.
‘I’m Bhoomika Shetty from Sri Sathya Sai Engineering College,’ the girl introduced herself, as they walked some distance. ‘Hi I’m Ankur Palekar from…this college,’ said Ankur suddenly feeling a little foolish.
‘So you’ve come here to take part in the fest?’ asked Ankur confirming his impression as an idiot.
‘Yeah…obviously!’ said the girl breaking into a smile. There was a gust of wind and the young engineer’s hair flew about. Ankur felt distracted. And fascinated.
Bhoomika had huge black curls that cascaded from the banana clip she carelessly wore. Banana clip! Ankur was surprised he knew the term.
As he stood trying to strike up a conversation with the pretty stranger, a stray thought of Sonali flashed across his mind. The girl with a cherry shaped mouth and a tiny push button of a nose right in the centre of her face whom he knew so well. It was afternoon, and Sonali would be at the food stalls by now. Ankur was amused that he was thinking of everything in terms of edible products. Maybe he was hungry. Or maybe, he was plain going bananas.
Thirty-Six
Since in the end, it hardly matters,
What route one chose to learn,
That from dust arose this mortal frame,
And unto dust we’ll all return!
Souvik finished his poem and was met with a thunderous applause. The poetry reading session usually had only funny poems and limericks being recited, but Souvik’s heart-felt poem was being appreciated. Or rather, the fact that the poem was selected by the International Journal of Poetry, was being appreciated. Either way the half a minute long applause felt good to hear. Jaishree was in the crowd. Applauding and broadly smiling.
For those around her, seeing the otherwise shy Jaishree do this in itself deserved applause. Vyas meanwhile, was doing the unthinkable. He was spending every minute in the library during a college festival.
While ‘IT’S LEGAL ’ raged and the college partied, Vyas would visit the library at least thrice each day. It hurt Ankur to see Vyas like that, but he knew that Vyas needed time alone. Of course, Ankur felt that logically, anyone ought to be happy to have someone like Caroline off his back. But with Vyas, logic never applied.
That’s probably why he carried on a relationship for half a decade with a girl who gave him only pain. And others a headache. Vyas had met Caroline when he was an immature idiot of seventeen. Ankur was against relationships that began when one had just tumbled out of kindergarten. It was as if Vyas had jumped into it too soon, and lost in love. On the other hand Souvik, Ankur felt, did just the opposite. Slow, steady and therefore his lady and he were together.
Even with the re-entry of the talkative Sonali into his lopsided world, Ankur’s life seemed to be standing still. At that precise moment on the second day of the festival, life seemed to be crawling past Ankur. Luckily he spotted Pavan and the others and went over for a chat.
‘The Mughal Emperor Akbar was a Libran; his father Humayun was a Piscean,’ Sonali was saying as she, Ankur and Jasihree sat eating hot cheese frankies. The trio were on duty that day as they issued tickets for a pop idol’s concert that evening. The counter which was nothing more than a rusted iron table with a couple of plastic chairs and a beach umbrella, was closed for a lunch break.
Jaishree almost blushed. She knew why Sonali was specifically mentioning ‘Libran’ and ‘Piscean’.
Signs together. Ankur’s male brain didn’t quite catch on as he was more interested in the factual details.
‘Wow! You’ve actually looked up some history texts, so what are the star signs of the other Emperors?’ Ankur asked intrigued.
Sonali smiled. ‘See when you are in my company your general knowledge automatically improves!’ Sonali said with a regal condescending shake of her hand and Ankur tried not to look amused. Sonali laughed.
‘Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, was an Aquarian. He actually had the foresight to know that he could create an empire, unlike the other invaders who simply plundered and left.
‘Shah Jahan, the creator of the Taj Mahal was a Capricorn. The Capricorn male, it is said, is not very vocal, but shows his love through gestures. Besides, a Capricorn, belonging to an earth sign, likes everything in concrete form. Probably that’s why during Shah Jahan’s reign, maximum number of Mughal monuments were built.
‘Jahangir, his father was a Virgo and Aurangzeb was a Scorpio,’ said Sonali as she dipped her cheese frankie in sauce. Ankur was smiling and Jaishree was attentive. The depth of her attention was seen in her query. ‘So the Libra and Piscean signs get along, don’t they?’
This time Ankur smiled even more broadly. Of course the Libra and Pisces signs got along. He knew a certain Bengali who would stand testimony
to this. Sonali also smiled. ‘In the case of this air and water association, it’s more like a gentle breeze over the placid waters,’ Sonali completed, wriggling her fingers in air. Just then Bhoomika was seen approaching the stall. Ankur sat up straight. Noticing this, Sonali turned to look at Bhoomika, who was quite a head turner. Especially with her cascading hair and high platform heels.
‘Hi there!’ she said flashing a friendly smile at Ankur. ‘I’d like a ticket for the concert.’ A couple of guys suddenly collected around her, including Pavan, who looked eager for an introduction.
Ankur enthusiastically stamped a ticket with the college seal and handed it over to Bhoomika. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘By the way,’ Bhoomika continued casually, ‘would you be interested in coming to the dance workshop with me?’ Surprising himself, Ankur accepted as a stunned Sonali stared at him with big eyes.
It was probably the first time she had seen Ankur openly give another girl attention while she was around. And Sonali suddenly realised that she didn’t like it one bit!
When a Lawyer Falls in Love Page 12
