First Encounters..

“How did you end up in this college dude?!” my senior asked me. I was not at all surprised at this question because I had mentally prepared myself against a question of this sort. I had spent a couple of weeks thinking about this issue.

“What are you saying?! This is a good college!” I answered.

“I know this is a good college man. But I thought you wanted to do something else. Acting I suppose. There are acting classes here!” he said trying to mock me.

I just smiled and walked past him. Do seniors really not know how to welcome a junior in this college? I searched for my classroom. It was on the first floor. I figured that First Year classrooms were on the first floor, Second Year on the second and so on. I did not want to get ragged on the first day of college itself, so I headed straight to my classroom.

As I entered my classroom I saw a couple of familiar faces. These were the people from my school who had got admission in this college just like me. But they were not really my friends in school so I gave them a hey-there nod and sat away from them on bench that was away from them. I wanted to stay aloof, at least for a couple of days. Away from people, alone!  That’s who I was, a hermit. A person who feared changes in his social life. New college, new friends, a new circle, I feared everything initially. But I would get along eventually.

I started looking around the class. The walls were pale white and the colour looked at least about 5 years old. There was a large green colour board in front of the classroom. Half of the board had vertical and horizontal markings on it, like a graph paper. The roof was higher than the normal roofs. So the fans hanged from a height of about ten feet. The room looked old but was brightly lit and had good ventilation because of the large windows.

The class filled in the next 10 minutes and everyone was expecting the teacher to walk in any minute. I was sitting exactly in the middle of the bench purposely so that no one would sit beside me. Those who dared to ask me to give them a seat got a blunt “No” as an answer. I did not care what people thought of me.

It was the first lecture of our college life. The teacher walked in 5 minutes late. The class went from a fish market to a vacuum. The teacher was a mid 50s guy with a typical look. He had curly grey hair which looked like he had done an ‘Einstein’ hairdo. He wore glasses with a thick black frame and had a moustache that matched his hair colour. He was fat and had a big belly which looked like an untouched ball of fat. He had a pile of books in his hands, a ruler, a box with chalks and a duster in another.

“Good morning class! I am Prof. Venkatesh Swami and I would be teaching you Applied Calculus”.

The professor was continuously talking for the next 15 minutes. I was paying no attention to anything that was going on around me. I was lost in my own thoughts of whether taking up Engineering was a wise decision. It had always been my dream to do theatre. I had read and heard from many people that a theatre artist is a real actor. I wanted to be a theatre artist. But my family did not find it “appropriate” as a full time profession. Apparently it involved a lot of “struggle”. Well, every field needs a bit of a struggle, be it academics, or acting. The definition of ‘struggle’ might vary from one field to another and from one person to another. For an actor, struggle may be giving auditions and waiting to be selected for the part. For a student, struggle might be attending lectures early morning, writing assignments, giving exams and countless other small things. Struggle is present everywhere, it just changes form.

“You are 15 minutes late to your first lecture in this Institute!” said Professor Swami.

I came back to reality with his voice and tried to understand what was happening. The professor looked angry. He was looking at the door. I tried taking efforts to look at the person who was late for his very first lecture even after being warned about Prof. Swami by the seniors. But I could not get a glimpse of him as the door was in the way. After a moment of trying to see that idiot, who had now become a laughing stock in front of the class, I returned to looking at infinity and got lost in my own thoughts again. But just a moment later, I was disturbed by a voice.

“Excuse me! Will you move please? I need a seat right now!”

I looked up to my left. In the bright sunlight I could see just a shadow, but I could definitely tell that it was a girl. It then clicked to me that the person who was late to the class must be this girl because no guy can make an idiotic mistake like this. I smiled to myself.

“Ok great! Keep smiling! But after you let me sit! So move!”

Without saying anything I shifted and she sat beside me. The lecture went on. After some time I put my head on the bench and tried going to sleep. The lecture was all a bouncer. Maybe because I was not happy with this. Suddenly someone kicked me from below.

“Oouch!!” I shouted.

“Yes you?! Do you have any problem?!” Professor Swami pointed at me.

Suddenly I saw everyone was looking at me. The geeky first benchers and the brats on the last benches, all stared at me as if I hindered their concentration in this “interesting” lecture.

Nervously I said, “Ummm no Sir, I actually hit my leg on the bench. I am sorry for interrupting Sir”.

“You better pay attention now” said Prof. Swami.

I looked to my left. I saw her face. It was so fair that her cheeks looked naturally pink. Her eyes were dark brown and so were her hair. She had tied her hair hastily it seemed. They were long and were tied using just a pencil. She was wearing a jeans and a baby pink top that barely covered her arms. Her skin looked very soft like a baby’s. She smelled so fresh, I felt like summer! As I was admiring her beauty, I could see through her glasses that she was fully focussed on the lecture. I did not understand what happened to me and realised I was staring at her for quite a long time. I pulled myself together and looked at the teacher.

I was trying hard to not notice her, but I could still smell her. I couldn’t help but notice all her actions. She was constantly playing with the strands of hair that fell on her cheeks, putting them behind her ears. It was all like a perfect Bollywood movie scene to me. I was not so good with talking to girls like her. She looked high maintenance. After sometime I gathered some courage and wrote on top of my notebook, ‘Did YOU kick me?’ and slowly slid it towards her.

She saw it, gave a quick smile and wrote below it. ‘Yes I did!’ with a smiley.

I gave her a questioned look. Why would she kick me? I was doing nothing, just sitting on the bench with my head down.

Understanding my curiosity she again wrote on the notebook, ‘The professor was looking at you because you were sleeping’.

I smiled at her and gave her thumbs up and wrote down, ‘Thanks for saving my ass today’.

She kicked me again and scribbled the word ‘ass’.

The lecture bell rang. Professor Swami gave us the attendance sheet and left. Some students followed him out. I yawned and stretched myself out. We had a break for 5 minutes. I thought to myself, this was my chance to run and bunk the next lectures. I packed my things and began to leave. As I was about to leave, she held my hand and asked me,

“Hey where are you going? There are still two lectures to go for the break!”

“Yes I know but I am very tired and also not well, so I am going back to my apartment room” I said pulling my hand away awkwardly.

“At least sign for your attendance before you leave”.

“I don’t have time for that, the lecture may start soon and I cannot bear another lecture” I said and ran out of the room quickly.

I just plugged my earphones in and started walking. All I could think about was her. Why on earth did she choose to sit beside me when there were so many benches in the class? Maybe because she liked me? Shut up you! She did not even notice you. She just sat there because there was no other empty bench around. I did this a lot, over think past situations and play various scenarios that would have happened if I behaved in a slightly different manner. There was random music going on in my ears than the song that played through the earphones. I kept thinking about what she must have felt about me, a guy who was almost asleep the entire class and wrote stupidly on the book to converse. Suddenly I realised that I was near the departmental store which was 15 minutes away from my apartment. I had walked past my apartment without realising it. I knew I was screwed; this girl had sneaked into my head on the very first day of college without me even consciously trying to attempt.