The Cold War- Part II

Back! .. after a rather lonnnnngg wait, Arps, I’m back with Part Two of the Cold War (Click here to refresh your memory :D – The Cold War- Part I ) ..

PS. Avina, if you are reading this … (you and arps have mortally offended me with your dig at Medical Sociology :( *heartbroken/ wiping tears rolling down her embeeay-ed face*.. and maybe I will put up some stuff on that soon here on this blog.. to counter your negative publicity of the discipline :D :D ..although, I was kidding about the ‘katttttttttteee’ … “I said that coz I was mad at you, not becoz I stopped loving you” :P hehe…does that ring any F.R.I.E.N.D-ly bells :D ?

Anywho……

The story…the story!! …

Yeah … soo …. The Cold war between me and Arps had been declared … with a non-verbal equivalent of a bugle...

Now, I don’t remember exactly what happened that evening at Brills … I’m sure something must have transpired, but dun recall the exact sequence of events.

But, over the next few days, the (side)effects of the Cold War began to show. And I guess people around us started getting uncomfortable with the fact that the two-in-one package at RKK had started splitting at the sides.

And people nagged us- both of us… (“kya hua hai yaar, please batao!! … problem kya hai”) … I dun think either of us said anything .. (at least we had this level of maturity that we did not go “pata hai .. usne naa..” *finger pointing* before the junta)

But yeah… things changed. And not for the better!

One great disadvantage that we suffered from was the fact that we now could not unite for common (non)causes against our teachers (Any mean comment from Hafiz Sir , intended to provoke an acid reply from the Lowly-minority-of-Bio-Students, would be met with rebellious glances from each of us, struggling to meet their counterparts )

Some demerits of a Cold War- you have to resist the urge to exchange that knowing glance, the urge to share spontaneous inside jokes (that only u two can fully appreciate), and like I said, your enemies/opponents (read: for immature children of our age, that would mean our ‘teachers’) could walk all over you, capitalizing on the “Divide and Rule” principle :(

Apart from that, it means, no more discussions/updates of the latest episodes from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, the recent interview by J. K Rowling, reading a news item on President Kalam, getting this sudden brainwave of writing mails to him regarding xyz issue, almost subconsciously dialing 9$%^56#8%9 to “discuss” it with someone, only to realize with a painful twinge in your heart, that “You are not on talking terms anymore”, and disengaging the line at once!

It also means sitting through a horrendous Physics lecture at Brills, trying to grasp the concept of Angular Velocity explained in the most unconventional methods of sarcastic, dictated abstracted instructions, bordering on personal vendetta (“Kalakariyaan badi seekh gayi hain aajkal, $@%^ Jee..Jey Angular Momentum ka maan nikaal ke dikhaaye”)… And wondering helplessly(all by yourself) whether CBSE lets you clear the Boards, with a negative score in Physics (hehe.. okay m exaggerating about our knowledge of Physics, but gotto say, there was a WORLD of a difference between what we later studied with Anubhav Sir and some of the nightmarish lessons elsewhere! *I still fondly recall his brilliant explanation of the Doppler Effect of Frequency, wherein he wove this story of two people, one desperate to tell something to the other, and the other, determined not to listen, and derived all equations based on it!… ” :P*)

Well, when the period of the Cold War is on, you can’t share your inane and not-all-inane grievances/concerns with each other … and well, when that has become your staple diet, feeding your system with psychological fuel, life ain’t exactly the best you could have asked for.

And sooo… days passed… it became weeks, and then it crossed a month.. :)

All this while, things looked okay from a distance… I mean, the world doesn’t come to a standstill when you stop talking to someone, but yeah, keep running into that person 24*7, keep hearing (well meaning)jibes from your common circle of friends about “the other” , intended to break the ice, coupled with raised eyebrows even from the teachers … and errmm.... you do have a problem there!...

I recall this one day when Arps was on leave, and Moonface Sir approached me about this Competition that was going to be held in the town … something to do with Informatics..

He wanted us to participate, and asked me to convey this information at the earliest to Arpita, and now, Arpita had come for the classes at Brills that evening. There we sat, in the same large group … and here I was, with this URGENT message with me, which had to be passed on to her. Now, ideally I could have asked any of the gang members to pass it on to her. But of course, none of them would have been kind enough to oblige … coz they were anyway hell bent upon getting a dialogue initiated between the two of us.

Amidst the chattering group, me and Arps sitting a safe distance apart, I toyed with the HOW TO’s of opening my mouth to speak to her after nearly one month, for an unavoidable purpose. All kinds of mean thoughts against dear old Moonface cropping up in my mind for having put me in this Catch-22 situation, I fumbled with to-do-or-not-to-do, and then, suddenly I decided that it was now-or-never! Grabbing at the opportunity when the group had burst into a loud chatter over something (assuming that this was the best moment I cud get away with this potentially-‘breaking-news’ act), I turned to speak to her … (“Quick”, I told myself “ Blurt it out and be done with it” ) .. with a grave, blankest-possible-look “Chand Sir asked me to tell you that …” and ohmyygawwddd… I was not half way through the sentence, that Mudrika kapoor’s voice rang throughout the basement-lobby area “OOOOoooooh look at them, they are talking!” .. and the world’s eyes set upon us… coupled with the oooooohs and aaaaaaahs .. hones’ly, one would have thought that I had just thrown my mink-coat over a puddle, for my old friend. I think I tried to maintain a dispassionate look, and managed to complete that sentence somehow, and performed my karma .... (greatly helped by the fact that obviously, arps who herself had been caught off-guard by my approach, and then equally embarrassed coz of the resulting scene which put us under spotlight, wanted to get over with it, as much as I did.)

So, that was the first time we “talked” (rather, I did) after over a month.

And a few more days passed, with the same pace and lack-of-interaction/dialogue/amity.

Until, one day, when it was 9 at night, and our physics class had gotten over.

(Maybe it was thanks to me, that we were let off few minutes early. You see, unlike the other grown-up, self-reliant kids, who were BIG ENUFF to drive around, I had to be escorted everywhere safely by an Auto-Wale-Bhaiya ji who made BIG blucks per month, by booking his auto for this service of keeping the “will-get-kidnapped-if-we-don’t-cushion-her” kid that I had always been. Now, this auto wale bhaiya ji had time constraints- and would throw a pity-and guilt-inspiring fit, if I kept him waiting for more than a minute. So, here the clock would strike THE HOUR, and if the instructor went on and on, my heart would start skipping beats, and I would shift uneasily in my seat for a few minutes, before finally squeaking (yeah, not SPEAKING!) .. “ errrm…Sir my errr auto-wale bhaiya must be waiting for me” … hey, do u remember, that after some time, in fact, whenever the time was up, and I mumbled restlessly to all the neighbours “mere bhaiya jee wait kar rahe honge :( ” the batch had made it a custom of declaring to the teacher, “Sir bas, Shruti ke bhaiya ji is waiting outside … please call it a day!” *Come to think of it, I have nevvver known a life of dignity, have I.. :D*

Oh gawwd… how I digress from the main topic! …

Yeah, so …. One day, when it was 9 at night, and our physics class had gotten over.

Bhaiya jee had not shown up! … people were all leaving, while I stood there, chewing nails in anticipation and anxiety (it was DARK .. and yeah.. I am a pretty easily kidnap-able thing, although, it’s not worth the effort:D, I suspect my family wont put a high premium on me, and cant blame them for it! )

So, Mudrika, Ritz and Ankita hung around to wait for my Bhaiya Jee (soo uncharacteristically sweet of them )… I was grateful. But, oops, the minute arps pulled out her kinetic, to take off , something got into these people; They blocked her way! … and they demanded that it was enough, and that we “sort” things out (maybe they thought it being nighttime and me being particularly vulnerable and vehicle-less/ defenseless, they could corner us easily) …

And then you had this proper gherao… we were made to face each other (each annoyed, and mad at the rest for this sudden burt of embarrassing DOSTI).. and they all went, “today u must sort it out… talk to each other… what is your problem.. we cant take this anymore” blah blah blah … while each one of us tried to break free/ pleading mercy ..and even anger … but nopes.. they would not relent!

And thennnnnn, icing on the cake! … You had Sachin Sir (one of the office people there) and HKJ Sir (errmm.. the Physics teacher mentioned above ) walking out towards the scene of Action…

(“OHhhh noooo”…. I screamed inwardly- and I can imagine that so must have Arpita ….this was the last thing I wanted … the last thing we wanted was for the Enemy to pry into our private lives, and relish the split-in-the-army... okay,,, maybe I was attributing fictitious intentions to this person.. but … u can imagine what it’s like .. to have led emotional crusades against someone, with someone and then have that opponent walk into your private life, and ADVISE you on how to fix things with your accomplice-in-crime :D… aaaaaaarrrrgghh! ) …. And unfortunately, after gathering some good, juicy update on The Cold War (Was it my imagination, or was there actually a smug smirk on HKJ’s face, all this time…? I dunno…) .. the pair of them merrily walked away, I’m sure with enough food for office-gossip :( :( …

The Rest, I shall relate in the next post :D …..

OOooh do check out this video of Dr. Kumar Vishwas (click here to watch his performance!) ... he is a Hasya Kavi .. and I love his style of delivery !! ... he is goooood...

I'm sure you will like it.. oooh plss do check it out .. I feel so stupid being the only one around here who likes him ... hopefully, u will join the club too ... :)

BTW, Arps, you will love to hear this …. Heena had called me again, the other day anddd when I asked her by the by ;) … “I hope u remember that there is something special about this month” .. pat came the reply:

“Ohhh yeah… it’s Arpita’s Birthday, isn’t it?”

*rolls eyes* …. SEE! …

Happy! … go ahead and have a good laugh … :)

While I cello tape my broken heart … :(

:D more later… cheers ! …. And God Bless…

@ Ashish, U gotto work harder.. *shakes head in utter disappointment* .. I don’t see your marketing gimmicks bearing any fruit … comeon, u can do better…. Work harder to achieve that “moment of glory” on my blog :D :D ..Good Luck !

PS. Leaving comments as a token of your “loyalty” would be a good place to start with …. Lolz ..

Peace :)

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 :)