"Just Another Love Story" (Scenes 1,2,3)

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.Any resemblance between the characters in this work and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle. 

Scene 1 : “Rain and The Beautiful”

Rainy season had just started, smell of the wet mud filling the surroundings, all the umbrellas that were on ‘Bench’ were back to work!. You must be really brave to dare the rain without an umbrella, especially in the coastal city of Mangalore.  It was the first day of my college, a new beginning in life. Something that would decide the path of life. I was in a Boys only school till 10^th, was an introvert, moody guy in 11^th and 12^th, so, I had very less friends then, all of them boys.  This time I was going to a co-ed college, and with better confidence level and determined to be different.

I started from home, it’s a walk of 5 minutes till the bus stand and then traveling for 20 minutes till a point and then 5 more minutes walk to college. My umbrella was out and I started walking,enjoying every drop of rain, and sometimes getting wet just for the fun of it.  Got into the bus, reached the alighting point , and again started walking, now towards college. A lot of them, with the same excitement plus nervousness dominated face, new cloths, were walking to the same direction. There were seniors too, I could make that out by the confidence they carried.  As I was walking, I noticed there were many couples too, not sure if they were really ‘Going-Out’, but, I assumed so. Another dimension of college life that every newcomer is excited about!.

All of a sudden, a heavy blow from the wind god, and a lot of them including me struggled to hold on to the umbrella at that moment, but, somehow I managed to hold on. Then I saw, someone who was about 200mts away from me, struggling with the umbrella, and finally the umbrella took of, showing her face and leaving me awestruck!

Those eyes that were worried, those hairs that were getting wet in the rain, and that expression on that face, I didn’t know if she was my senior or who she is but, something I knew, that she had moved me like no one else had before and that if I keep looking at her, I will surely fall in love. I forced myself back to normal, I regained my poise and started walking again, but then, that umbrella came flying near me and this girl came running behind it, I got hold of the umbrella and as I turned towards the girl, she was already standing near me, with a sigh of relief on her face, and waiting for me to return the umbrella so that she can get under it and stop getting wet. I looked directly into her eyes this time. I was gone, there was no coming back.  I couldn’t take my eyes of her, no force worked on my mind (read as heart) this time. She was there telling “hey! ……” (I only heard that). Her blinking eyes were so beautiful; I would die for them any day. After a while she said, “hellloooooo” and the volume and tone of that word got me back, and

I said:  “ ya..ya..”

She:  “Umbrella..My umbrella.” ..

 Me: “what?!”

She:  “can I get my umbrella back, I am getting wet.” And she pointed towards the umbrella.

It’s then I realized I had her umbrella, and I should return it, and gave it to her with a blank face.

She received it with a smile and said “Thank you.”

Me: “no problem”.

But, then she left from there. Come on girl , I was so excited and took so much trouble to stop your umbrella fly ways to the space, and you just give me a Thank you and walk away.? :o

All of sudden, someone gave a tight slap on my back, and when I turned in rage to see who that was, I saw Rithesh, my school mate, and one of my good friends. Before I could tell anything,

Rithesh: “We are late…2 more minutes to 9, we can’t be late for the first class itself: D “

and we started running towards college.

Scene2 :"Professor and His class" :

Running,we reached the college campus. It was 9:05 already and we had to still find out where our classrooms where. Me and Rithesh we were into different streams, mine was Physics and he was into Biology. I found my classroom it was No.602, I hurried towards the class room, 600, 601, .oh here it is...602.

I was standing in front of the room, it was one big room with cream colored walls, around 8 rows of desks on each sides, Capable of holding around 80 students.  There were only around 30 of them in the class, still room for many more guys. The lecturer hadn’t arrived yet. There were two huge windows on the rear end of the room and a lone tree that was in the play ground was visible from there. I was looking around to see if there was anybody who I know. And then someone called,

“Hey, Akash, here…Akash!!”

I turned towards the voice and it was once of my best mates, Vinay, I knew he was admitted in this college, but, didn’t know we will end up in the same class. I was happy. I took the seat next to him. He introduced me to some of the friends he had already made(as he reached the room 15 minutes before time) , and we were talking, sharing jokes, having fun, Still waiting for the lecturer to come.

After some five minutes, a group of guys and girls, around 20-25 of them, walked into the class and started occupying the places available. Behind them, our Lecturer, a middle aged man, dressed in formals, handsome looking, with a smile and a thick mustache walked into the class. Everyone stood up to greet him.  His smile vanished, he stood there staring at us, and he was serious. We didn’t know the reason, and were looking at each other’s face. Some one thought he was just acting and laughed out loud, and this time, the lecturer yelled at the top of his voice,

“How dare you? Do I look like a joker to you? Why the hell are you laughing? Get out of my class! All of you.”

And we were all stunned.

After two minutes, his smile came back, and he said “Welcome to my class! I am Prof.Daniel Serrao, From the Dept of Physics, I will be taking Physics for the Physics batch here, and for the Statistics batch, I will not be taking any class of yours, but, today we all will be here for the introductory class”

Oh! So the guys who came in just now were from the statistics batch.

Prof continued: “Before I ask your introduction, I would like to tell you what behavior I expect from each one of you. This is only about my sessions. OK. I don’t mind anybody coming late to class. I don’t want anyone to ask permissions to enter or leave the classroom. You dare not show me your leave letters or explain me why you were absent for the previous classes. And when I enter the class, never stand up, and If you do, you will have to get out of the class!.”

Everyone was excited, WOW! First time, a lecturer, who has some friendly rules. Someone who doesn’t treat you like school kids.

He asked everyone for intro, and everybody told their name, which school they are from and a little more about self.

When the first row finished,

 Prof: “Listen, It’s good to know your name, and your background. But, I want to know even more, tell me something that you never shared to anyone, but want to share, something about your boyfriend, girlfriends and some interesting incident etc.”

 Everyone laughed.

So, it continued, this time people started to tell about some interesting incidents and moments in their life, the moment someone won an award for something, prize in some sports, first gift they got from someone..etc.  And then, it was my turn,

I said: “Hi Friends, I am Akash, I am from St. Peters, I don’t have any exciting incident to share with you guys.”

Prof: “Come on! That can’t be. Everyone has something or the other. You are just hiding. When I am being so good, you have to be open and talk.”

Everyone in the class too started to cheer me up.

Me: “OK. Let me think. Oh yes! I have a small incident. This happened today morning.”

And then I explained what happened today morning.  I heard some saying, wow! Akash, love at first sight huh.

Prof: “Great, Akash, I think you should have followed that girl. I would have appreciated if you did that. Anyways, I think you will surely meet her soon, and this seems like scripted, I am sure there is some happy ending.”

So, that hour passed with joy, laughter and fun. Got acquainted with some more guys and some kind of bonding had already begun.

And then the bell rang. For the next class, the statistics batch has to move to a different room, and they began to do so. I was shifting my seat to a better one and then I noticed that same Girl, whom I had met in the morning, in the rain,was there in that room till then, she was from the statistics batch, and I hadn’t noticed her. I thought for myself ‘Oh my god! She was here and I told everything to everyone about that incident!’

Scene 3:"ANAMIKA"

It was lunch time, and by then our group had grown a bit, we were six of us, Me, Vinay, Rithesh, Prathap, Arjun and Deepak.  More than the lunch it’s the after lunch ‘Bird Watching’ that we guys enjoy the most. And it was the first day, and we didn’t want to miss the chance of watching the new faces. Usually the area around the stairs are the best places, it’s the place from where mostly every bird flies from. So we “Animals” ( I came to know that girls called Boys “Animals” like we called girls “Birds”, and they too had their “Animal Safari” time.) , chose our spot and waited for the girl traffic to arrive.

I was still not completely out of the incidence in the morning and then in the class. Man, she should have thought ‘What a jerk! ‘ . But then, it was the time to be a man, and go for the hunt. So we started, nothing like commenting etc, but, just looking, and if we get a look back then, step2 a smile, the decent guy smile, and If by any luck a smile is thrown back at you, that’s it, approach like that Bollywood Star in the movie released recently, with the background music, and a cool breeze flowing, and then the dialogue, ‘I am Kash, Akash’.  We were all ready, ready to impress.

Then, the girls one by one started to come, and we were all trying to look the best as possible, and with those Tom Cruise expressions on our face. Think we should have looked silly. But, that was cool then.  There were a lot of pretty girls in the college, and it was very difficult for us to make a decision as to who it should be. So we started to type an xl sheet in our mind of the short listed candidates. After some time, it seemed like Rithesh had made his choice, he looked at her, she looked at him, he smiled at her, she smiled back, and he made the move, he walked towards her and she was still smiling, and when he reached her,

Rithesh: “Hi, I….”

She: “Hey, you are Rithesh na?”

Rithesh:”oh...Yes…I am Rithesh, how do you know my name?”

She:”Hey, I am Pooja, you don’t remember me?”

Rithesh:”Pooja...I don’t remember. ”

Pooja:”Come on, you don’t remember me? I am your Neighbour Ramesh uncles Niece. Last time when we came to Uncles house, I had met you, don’t you remember me still?.”

Rithesh (looked a bit disturbed): oh...yes.yes.Pooja...Glad to meet you. Chalo, now my friends are waiting, will see you later...ha.bye.”  And he came back to us.

We didn’t understand what happened there. With all our curiosity we asked,

‘Dude, what happened? What did she say? Anything worked out?’

Rithesh:”Phew! Just miss man, thank god, she spoke before I did! Or else I would have been in jail for some petty case”

Me: “What are you talking man. What happened?”

Rithesh:”She is my neighbour Ramesh uncles niece!”

Vinay:”So what?”

Rithesh:”Dude, he is the SI of our Police station limits. Surely I would have been killed like a mosquito is I had made any attempt to flirt with her”

Arjun: “haha…I am Thesh, Ri-Thesh! “

 Everyone broke into laughter and it was fun.

We regained our poise and were ready again for the hunt. This time a big group girls where going past us, and all of us were excited about the options we had, the xl sheet was growing. And then, I saw her, there she was, the statistics girl, as beautiful as ever. She didn’t look at me at all; I knew she knew I was there. I couldn’t see anybody except her now, I don’t why I was so mad about her, a girl whose name I don’t yet, don’ t know if she is already going out with someone else, didn’t know if her dad was an SI or Commissioner in police, didn’t know if she will slap me on my left or right cheek if I try to talk to her, but, I was mad, the only thing I knew was that I like her, and I had fallen for her at the first sight.

Every row of the xl sheet that I had some time back, has now been replaced with only one name  ‘ANAMIKA’.

 ..To be Continued