The Cold War

I had promised some stuff from our good old’ BRILLS days to Arps and Ritz.

Well, I have a particularly interesting episode to relate. And this one is very close to my heart (err..before you raise your eye-brows or clear your throats, I was referring to the semblance-of-a-heart that I do have :D ).

The story itself is not funny or really amusing. But of course, there is subtle humour in many places. Things that still manage to make me smile in wonder: Sometimes I cringe to think that I could have been that immature almost five years ago.

Note: no reference to my current ‘maturity’ levels, but back then, it seemed to have taken a record dip!

I dedicate this post to Arps, Ritz and Ankita C (I know she wouldn’t be reading this though) and yes Mudrika (the one who’s ‘born to party and forced to study’ :P ) – roughly, the inner gang at BRILLS, our tuition center for Science subjects in class XI (which eventually kinda dramatically shuttered down- but that’s another story altogether, maybe later..)

Let me introduce the first protagonist of my story by borrowing a few lines I can recall, from the amateurish ‘farewell’ verse I had written for her (among many others) before leaving Jodhpur nearly four years ago.

(I HOPE you guyz have it preserved – You just better had!! )

Arpita Lakhotia.

Four years ago, we met, we smiled …. Courteously.

Three years ago, we met, we smiled…. Genuinely.

Two years ago, we couldn’t stop talking to think about smiling!

And then, the saga began…

This silly ego problem we had.

And things changed to worse from bad.

[I donot recall the lines that follow..]

But thank heavens, we smiled again,

Coz when we didn’t, ‘twas such a pain!

[cant recall]

Every time I’d slam the phone down,

You’d call back and reason, n would never frown.

Every time I’d make a fuss,

You’d talk about Rachel, Ross or (Russ!!)

[sorry, cant recall again!]

And now the thought of drifting apart,

Believe me, tears a hole in my heart,

I really hope, and I truly pray,

May you get success, and failure- nay!

Whichever field you may walk,

Of course, preferably, as a doc ;)

I really hope to see you rise and shine,

And to tell the world, “that’s a friend of mine” :D

[some more lines]

And anytime you’re feelin’ low..

Or things just out-of-proportion blow,

To share your sorrow,

Or in times of fun,

Go four-six-eight-

Six-eight-five-one**D

I promise…

“I’ll be there for you ….”

** that was my then phone no. and has been changed for obvious reasons.

The other protagonist was me of course.

So… I’ll sincerely try not to get diverted too much to the sub-threads in the story and stick to the central, MAIN one.

Let’s call it : The Cold War @ RKK/BRILLS

Let’s begin at the beginning.

Act I

Scene I

[ Informatics Practices Class in the Computer Lab. Decibel levels as high as was comfortably wont to be in Moonface sir’s class. He had just distributed the test papers for a test he had taken in the previous week.]

Arps had not taken the test- was on leave perhaps. The test papers were met with varying responses : religious indifference from Priyanka- one of the likeable outlaws of the class :D, who did not bother to budge from her ‘head-down nap’ despite moonface sir’s humbly loud and enthusiastic pleas( “wake up betey, and apply your logic”), literally thrusting her test paper in her face, and eventually, perhaps giving up as usual. Most probably, she had responded with her characteristic “Sir please, bore mat karo” *shocked?? .. cant blame you..*

(boy!.. he had the tolerance levels of a saint, didn’t he Arps?!)

On other side of the table, the Airy Fairies sat comparing test papers and scores. For the uninitiated, “Airy Fairy” is a term in Shruti-lexicon .. and refers to that breed of female species who epitomize the stereotypically giirrly girls. (rem. Poo and her sidekicks in K3G ? Airy Fairies approximate a realistic, less-exaggerated version of them. )

In the centre of the semi –elliptical seating arrangement sat Arps and I. And Khushboo, but she was totally engrossed in her own paper, hunting for points to present her case for “more marks” before our good ol’ Moonface.

I had err.. scored 18.5 on 20, to be precise :D … that was the highest.

I repeat though, Arps hadn’t written the test :D

Soo,, arps was scrutinizing my test paper, and she concluded that the 1.5 marks that I had lost had not been fairly deducted. There was no problem with my solution.

Personally, I agreed with her. But I did not care much.

“Go, ask sir why he has done this.”, she prodded me.

“Naah..forget it.” I shrugged lazily.

“But why?!You should ask him and find out!” She repeated with her characteristically annoying rolling eyes.

“But I don’t wish to. What’s the big deal! Doesn’t matter to me.” I repeated defensively.

And followed a brief argument on the rights and wrongs of this question.

Arps was arguing for the principle (‘You always tend to have this attitude. I don’t like it’). I was ..well, not bothered about the principle at that point in time (‘I couldn’t care less, as long as I do know the right solution’.). Though, I knew back then and even now, that she had a point. She was not in the wrong. But then, nor was I. Just that I did not attach much weightage to the issue.

Errrm… I dunno how to analyze this, except, we are all attuned to think, behave in certain ways. It all boils down to different natures and propensities I guess. Not right or wrong.

Just different.

I’m not too sure, Arpita, perhaps you have your own take on this?

Comments welcome :)

Clearly, we were both miffed for our own reasons. But to my credit (ahem .. YEAH! .. I had actually taken the high moral ground initially) after a while, I casually enquired about the F.R.I.E.N.D.S CDs we were both desperately waiting for.

No Response. Rather: Pointedly Pressed lips with a look that screamed *I’m not speaking until you break this silly tradition of yours today*

oops! Attitude huh!! ..

Nonetheless, I took another shot at it. *calming down self*

In fact, the persuasion went on for about 2 whole minutes.

But she wouldn’t relent!

Ouch! .. The Ego had been hurt. Pricked and mocked at.

:D noo, actually, jokes apart.

I was indignant. I’ll be honest: Here was someone dictating to me as to what to do with my life. And not suggesting, but DICTATING!

I usually don’t take very kindly to that. (hey, no one really does!!)

I would do what I wished to. Not coz A, B or C had asked me to.

(:( I realize that I A,B, C-ed you ! )

So basically, that was my mental math at that moment.

Newton’s Third Law: To every action, there is equal and opposite reaction.

Of course, the folding of arms and rudely pursed lips will be met with equally folded arms and pursed lips. (hehe.. silly as this sounds, the spoilt-brattishnes is not being exaggerated at all!)

Class over.

Chemistry with our beloved Professor Snape followed. No Pun intended with the ‘beloved’ bit.

Our love and respect for Praveen Sir (or PRP Sir to be precise) magically grew by leaps and bounds in those two years. Even though our batch and sir had started with daggers pointed at each other.

We rushed to the second floor as fast as we could, as usual, only to be unfairly and sarcastically ridiculed for being LATE. (‘Arreyyy betaaaa… itni jaldi kyun aa gaye. There is still some time for my class to get over ’ ;) .. one of the PRP-isms )

Well anyway, getting back to the story…

Even this strongly passionate we-hate-PRP moment did not unite us this time around.

Both of us walked icily to our individual seats.

I don’t think we got time to dwell too much on what had transpired a while ago,

Break followed.

As we walked down the stairs to line up for breakfast in the Great Dining Hall (*wink wink, our school was no less than Hogwarts, people*), the junta merrily chatting away, Arpita walked up to me (apparently, she was over that fit) excitedly, with some bit of news. (was it the same F.R.I.E.N.D.S CDs? I don’t quite recall..)

And heh heh… What did I do? I was still mad, remember? – The Ego?? :D

As she began to relate her tale, I pointedly turned away (after a verry brief initial period of BLANK look. )

Bam!!

*Drumrolllllllllllllllll*

*bugles/ Trumpeting*

At that historic moment , the Cold War had been formally announced and declared.

The War that had no specific, substantial reason/ cause/ grounds.

The War that was so abrupt, so little understood and intriguing and annoying (and amusing ?? ) for everyone else. And finally, The War that was to last for almost two months! **

** I notice that I AM good at spicing things up :D

Note: The only good thing that came out of this was perhaps that my phone bill that month dramatically plummeted down to an extremely reasonable figure :D

This was the introductory chapter of the story. To be continued later …

Feeback welcome.

PS. I hope The Healer’s Helpmate too will read this soon.

Until we meet next, cheers and JLU :)