Pluton's Pyre

by Gyandeep Kaushal

  ‘PG, umm! You like the place?’

  ‘Yeah, I do.’

  ‘The facilities must be good then, I guess.’

  ‘Facilities? No, it’s not those lodge-types they call a PG. I stay with a family.’

  ‘Oh, that’s good.’

  ‘Yeah, they are good people. I call them Nana and Naani. Naani is a retired teacher and Nanajee was in the army. They have three children, all married, and settled in three different cities. So they live alone. I was actually lucky to get that place.They live on the ground floor and have given me a room on the first floor at six thousand a month.’

  ‘Sounds fun,’ I commented on the details.

  ‘Absolutely. I can do whatever I want to.’

  ‘What area of Bangalore is it in?’

  ‘BTM stage 1.’

  ‘Oh, that’s pretty far from here.’

  ‘Yeah! That’s the reason I guess I should be leaving now,’ she said, looking at her watch.

  ‘Why don’t we both take a little walk? I can’t sit here any longer. My legs kind of get cramped if I sit for too long in places like these. Besides, I have some studying to do.We can leave together.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said.

  We wished Anik happy birthday again and said goodbye to the rest, who stayed on to gossip some more. I walked her down the alley and helped her find an auto, like a gentleman.

  ***

  Eat Hyderabadi biryani at your own peril, is what they say. I’d enjoyed the food very much, but I had an upset stomach the next day. I wouldn’t have gone to college, had it not been for the assignment submission. I even had a few classes to attend before I could actually take a breath. I was walking slowly towards the canteen, when Geetika saw me.

  ‘Suraj,’ she called me, waving from the other end of the road in the campus that led straight to the college gate, ‘Hi.’

  ‘Hi, Geetika,’ I said and smiled. She crossed her way over. We’d been a couple hours in the same classroom studying operation research. Then she had to go attend network management, her elective subject class, while I had to move on to a class on web programming.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. ‘You look pretty exhausted.’

  ‘I am, actually. I guess network management is not my thing. I wish I had taken web programming. If nothing else, I would’ve at least had you to help me out at times.’

  ‘I think I can help you out with all your subjects anyway. That is, well, if you want me to.’

  ‘I know you can and I am going to bother you in the near future, mister,’ she said, smiling archly. ‘Where are you headed to, by the way?’

  ‘To the canteen,’ I said.

  ‘Oh, then I guess I’ll keep you company. I’m famished myself.’

  We walked to the canteen. In those hours, it used to be quite crowded. After having undergone rigorous tutoring, many students would come there to unwind over the food. Not that the canteen food was all that good, but it definitely wasn’t expensive. We were lucky enough to get a table in one of the corners.

  ‘What will you have?’ I asked her.

  ‘A plate of curd-rice,’ she said, offering me a twenty-rupee note.

  ‘The treat’s on me. I’ll order paneer biryani the next time and I’ll make sure I make you pay for the both of us,’ I said in a bantering voice. I went over to the counter, got two tokens of curd-rice, and handed it over to the guy at the food counter. Curd is always a pleasant treat to an upset stomach.Within no time, he got me two plates of curd-rice. I picked up two spoons from the container and carried the plates to the table.

  ‘Hey, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even offer you a hand with the plates.’

  ‘It’s not a big deal. Relax. I suggest you start eating before the flies decide to give you competition.’

  ‘Yes! I think I should really eat.’ She picked up her spoon, mixed some of the curd with the rice, and swallowed a mouthful. I hadn’t noticed her before like that. She was beautiful. And there she was, sitting right in front of me. Even though she was hungry, she ate sparingly, scooping up only a little at a time.

  She was dressed in a bright yellow salwaar-kameez with a matching dupatta. When I think of it, I guess I’d never seen her wearing jeans except on her friend Natasha’s birthday. Salwaar-kameez was her usual get-up. I couldn’t trace any makeup on her face, except for the kajal in her eyes that drew my attention. Her long hair was in a typically Indian braid.

  If I had to compare her with Malvika, I’d say Malvika had a more magnetic personality, while Geetika was rather a simple girl. But both of them had their own flavours. Malvika was juicy and fleshy—like a strawberry. Geetika more closely resembled a sweet cherry, and I’m not sure which tastes better.

  Geetika was like a diamond ring in a tin-box. She was never seen provocatively dressed or made up, but she possessed a quiet and rare beauty. If she did herself up a little, she could become a Miss India. She had big black eyes, with neatly shaped eyebrows and thick eyelashes. Perhaps, she was only conscious of her pretty eyes. She didn’t look skinny, in fact, her tight-fitting clothes revealed a curvaceous figure. I didn’t know how guilty I should feel about staring at her generous breasts.

  ‘What happened?’ she broke the silence between us. ‘Why are you not eating, Suraj?’

  ‘I was saying my prayers, I’m sorry.’

  ‘Oh, did I interrupt?’

  ‘No, I just finished. I’ll eat now,’ I said and started eating like a hungry animal, finishing my food long before she did.

  A teenager, who worked in the canteen, got rid of our plates, before Geetika requested him to bring her a glass of jaljeera for herself, with a promise to pay as we checked out. I sat and watched her. It was a while before we walked out of the canteen together.

  ‘Does everything really taste good when one’s famished or was it really that good?’ she said.

  ‘It was the same as usual, I think,’ I said. ‘So, you’re leaving for your PG now?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll leave in a while.’

  ‘Okay, I guess I’ll walk you up to the gate?’ I spoke, smiling.

  ‘No, I’m fine, thank you. I don’t want you to trouble yourself.’

  ‘No trouble. Unlike you, who has miles to go, I stay in the hostel.You see that building?’ I said, pointing a finger towards our hostel.

  ‘Okay, let’s walk,’ she said. I’d read somewhere that when you walk with a lady, you walk slowly and you let her begin the talking.

  ‘It’s strange, isn’t it?’ she asked.

  ‘What is?’

  ‘That we’ve been going places in the same group for years and yet we never even had a conversation.’

  ‘Well, that is strange, yes.’

  ‘We don’t even have each other’s contact numbers.’

  ‘How about we deal with that right now?’

  ‘Okay, give me yours...’

  ‘Nine, two, seven, six...’ I dictated while she recorded it in her phonebook. In no time, I received a message saying ‘Hi’ on my phone.

  ‘That’s me,’ she said and made a puppy face, hunching her shoulders.

  ‘Oh, that’s smart,’ I said playfully. ‘Shall I save it?’

  ‘Yes, please,’ she said. ‘But do send me a message before calling me.’

  ‘What am I supposed to write?’

  ‘‘‘Can I call?” ... something like that?’

  ‘Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,’ I said. We’d reached the gate. I said, in a louder voice to combat the noise of the vehicles, ‘Now shall we find a ride home for you?’

  ‘You don’t need to do that,’ she said, as I’d expected. ‘You make me feel like a child. I can hire an auto by myself and I will. It’s my birthright,’ she added in a lighter tone. ‘I’ll be off, then.’

  ‘Okay, bye,’ I said.

  ‘Bye,’ she replied and started walking towards a bakery, where a few autos were parked. A second later, she turned back, looked at me, and waved a second goodbye, mouthing ‘Go now,’ as I stood there
and watched her drive away.

  Chapter 4.0

  In the twenty-one years of my life, it was the first time that I had the cell number of a girl. And the big thing was, it was she who wanted to have my number and gave me hers just like that.Was that a joke or what? Guess I had actually found a girl who enjoyed being in my company. Romance was knocking at my door once again—or should I put it this way—‘for the first time in my life’.

  ***

  At 8:30 in the evening, when I had absolutely nothing to do, I picked up my phone. I won’t hide my feelings—it wasn’t as though I had nothing in the world to do—I was anxious to text her.

  So it began…

  Me: Hey. [8:31 pm]

  She: Hi.Wat r u doin? [8:32 pm]

  Me: Nothing, was getting bored. Thot I wud txt u. [8:32 pm]

  She:Well thot :) [8:32 pm]

  Me: So wat r u doing? [8:33 pm]

  She: Nothing yar... was goin thru the Unix Prg book n most of d thngs r bouncing off my head. Can u help? [8:35 pm]

  Me:Wat is bothering u? Just name it! [8:35 pm]

  She: Unix pipes... :-( [8:36 pm]

  Me: Dnt wrry, I’l gv u my notes. Else I’ll help u out myself. [8:37 pm]

  She: :-) :-) :-) [8:37 pm]

  She: So u’re goin on dat trip or nt? [8:44 pm]

  Me:Wat trip? [8:45 pm]

  She: Mumbai wala trip...Ajanta Ellora...you dnt knw?? [8:46 pm]

  Me: :-( i dnt...who told u abt it? Wen is it happning? [8:48 pm]

  She: nobody did silly. it hs bn dere on d notice brd for more than a week...u nvr saw? [8:49 pm]

  Me: nopes... nobdy sed a wrd abt it. anyone frm our grup goin? [8:50 pm]

  She: I heard Anik, Harsh, Nishant, Nivedita, Anusha n Deepika r goin... dunno abt rest [8:51 pm]

  Me: how many days? [8:53 pm]

  She: Uff, u making me write d whole notice brd 4 u... [8:54 pm]

  Me: Srry :-P dnt wry I’ll find out... [8:54 pm]

  She: relax... if u can find an auto 4 me, I guess I can do dis much – it’s a 5-day trip...Mumbai n Ajanta Ellora... [8:55 pm]

  She:Three thou is d amt... food n odr xpens ours. tmrw is d last day 2 regstr...its 3 days frm nw [8:56 pm]

  Me:Wat abt u? [8:57 pm]

  She:Wat abt me? [8:57 pm]

  Me: I mean r u going? [8:58 pm]

  She: Hvnt decided yet... [8:58 pm]

  Me: U jst said tmrw is d last day 2 register, rite? [8:59 pm]

  She: yeahh, bt m confused :- [9:00 pm]

  Me: Confused abt wat? Parents? [9:01 pm]

  She: no, not parents silly...Dad said he’ll pay if m willing to go... [9:01 pm]

  Me:Then, wat else?? [9:02 pm]

  She: wedr its worth it...wedr its safe n all...i mn most of d tyms I wnt even hv gud company...those 6 ppl going frm our grup r only cpls...wl b bsy with one andr only...wat’ll I do alone [9:03 pm]

  Me: Dnt worry, same wl b my case if I go...bt if u go, v can be each odrs company... [9:04 pm]

  She: R u sure :-( [9:04 pm]

  Me: Haha...dnt wry, I’ll take gd care of u... [9:05 pm]

  She: that’s sweet of u...bt hv u alrdy decided abt going yet? So quickly?? [9:06 pm]

  Me: yeah, wats d big deal in that...i mean I dnt hv nythng spl to do this weekend...n plus its jst a mattr of 5 days...i cn go if u r going... [9:07 pm]

  She: Oh, really? M I dat spl? :-P :-P [9:08 pm]

  Me: come on :-P [9:09 pm]

  She: just joking silly... [9:10 pm]

  Me: so u in? [9:11 pm]

  She: think so...aftr all I jst found my company rite :-) [9:12 pm]

  Me: yeah, me 2 :) [9:12 pm]

  She: ok...i’ll see u tmrw den...gotta go now... [9:13 pm]

  Me: sleepy already? [9:14 pm]

  She: yeah, bit tired too [9:15 pm]

  Me: okay, gud nite then... [9:16 pm]

  She: gud nite :) [9:17 pm]

  After the conversation, I had to invest a few minutes in thinking about how to arrange or manage the money required. I didn’t want to ask Dad. Even though he would’ve sanctioned the money without asking a single question, I simply didn’t want to bring any of my extracurricular activities to his or Daadu’s notice. I had around 2,000 bucks left from the monthly quota, out of which I could easily reserve 1,500 for the tour. Luckily, Dad had deposited the 8,000 for the next month already.That would suffice.After all, I could make little sacrifices like eating less outside food—or try to find inner peace in the mess food—over the next month, if it earned me company like Geetika’s.

  ***

  Without thinking twice, I filled up the registration form for the trip and submitted it at the registrar’s office. It was a bit of a pinch handing over the cash, but what the hell.

  That was it then! Three days later, I packed a few t-shirts and trousers in the carry bag and boarded the bus for Bangalore City Junction. Two two-seater buses, one for the men and one for the women, left the campus with about sixty or seventy students and a few college staff members at 1:00 in the afternoon.

  Owing to the traffic, we arrived at the station at around 2:50.We had to hurry to collect our tickets for the Lokmanya Tilak Express that would leave at 4:00 pm, sharp.The college administration had reserved about a hundred tickets, about a month ago.The idea was to cancel the unused ones and adjust the penalties from the funds.

  Even though it’s a known fact that trains in India do not leave before their official departure time, Nirmal Sir and Preeti Ma’am, along with the other three staff members, were bent upon shoving every single one of us into the coach ten minutes before 4:00 pm, as though we were kindergarteners. We were instructed that in the day, we could sit anywhere we wanted, but in the night, girls and boys were supposed to sleep separately. (What else did you think?) Then, like ninety-five out of hundred people in our country, we chained our bags and satchels to safety-locks before we settled down.

  A few people had even purchased novels and magazines from the railway bookshop, for God knows what reason. It was only a twenty-four-hour journey and besides, we were supposed to be having fun.

  Anyway, in an exemplary act by the railway ministry, the train left the station at 4:00 pm, sharp. People shuffled around, swinging with the train, singly or in groups. Ours was a rather large one. The eight of us sat together and nattered for a while in one of the compartments. Anik sat beside Anusha, Nishant with Deepika, and Nivedita with Harsh.With the lovebirds flocking together, it made Geetika and me too look like a couple.

  ‘So, tell me something about yourself?’ she tried to initiate some sort of dialogue.

  ‘What do you want to know?’ I replied, forgetting how to be witty.

  ‘Come on, I don’t even know your second name. And after all, if we’re going to be on this trip together, it’ll be good to know a little about each other first, right?’

  ‘Okay, I get it. Hi, I’m Suraj and my last name is Deoria. I hail from Kanpur. I did my preliminary education from Don Bosco’s Boys Boarding School, Bareilly, and St Joseph’s, Kanpur. I scored eighty-two per cent in SSC and sixty-three per cent in HSC, and right now, I’m in the third year of my B.Tech from SCE, Bangalore. Happy now?’ I said in a single breath, trying hard not to put on display my rotten sense of humour.

  ‘Hey, easy, easy, little boy,’ she said, widening her eyes and mouth. She could make some funny faces sometimes. ‘You took me way too literally when I asked for an introduction. Now that you’ve given me your bio-data, tell me how come a geek like yourself is doing engineering college?’ Boy I loved it when she would call me a geek. ‘You must be doing some weird hacking stuff, right?’

  ‘First, stop calling me a geek, which I’m not. Secondly, if you will allow me to humbly admit, I am a little good at computers and stuff, but not as much as you exaggeratedly put. I’ll tell you something. Fact is, I was never into these things.Actually, I was never into anything.After I passed my intermediates, I had to do something, right? But I wasn’t one of those overachievers that you meet in school. CO
MEDK was the only exam I could clear and I’m pretty glad about it. Dad asked me to choose computer science, so I did.’

  ‘So you mean you weren’t interested in technology and stuff before you joined college? How come, then, you’re better than all of us?’ she said, with a nudge.

  ‘Not actually. I don’t know who invented this “geek” persona for me. In my initial months at SCE, I used to have nothing to do. So to pass the time and all, I’d spend my days in the cyber café and, gradually, I started to enjoy my explorations. Soon, I was able to solve simple issues in people’s systems and they thought I was some Mahatma. That’s my story, ma’am, in honest detail.’ For whatever reason, Geetika seemed to be enjoying my description of myself and my company.

  ‘Woah, that’s a pretty interesting story. The evolution of the great Suraj Deoria,’ she used her hands to describe a billboard in the air, and spoke in an adman’s voice, and laughed.

  ‘Yeah, okay,’ I said, trying to couch my shyness, ‘Enough said about me.What’s your story? How does a girl like you, among all the people in the world, end up in an engineering college?’

  ‘A girl like me?’

  ‘I mean, a girl as smart as you,’ I wish I had the balls to say, ‘as beautiful as you’.

  ‘My story is not as interesting as yours. Trust me, you don’t wanna know.’

  ‘Oh, you have no idea,’ I said.

  ‘Promise me you won’t laugh when I tell you.’

  ‘I promise,’ I said, pinching the skin of my throat in typical Indian emphasis of a vow.

  She giggled. For some reason, I felt as though she was only a cute little girl and not an engineering student in her bright twenties. Her simplicity and playfulness, her ability to laugh at little things, the music in her aura, everything added to her charm. And I don’t even know if ‘charm’ is the best word to describe what she had. She was dressed as simply as I was, but there was a difference: she looked too perfect to be in my humble company.

  Every time she did something funny I would very casually, in my mind, compare her with Malvika. At that, having found nothing in common, I’d happily return from my daydreaming into the real world and join her in her little wonderland affairs.