Mathematics was deeply in love with me; it never left me and never let me do the same. Girls & mathematics were similar, I never understood either of them. Fortunately, a girlfriend wasn’t a part of my life till now & I was quite ‘happy’ since I already had mathematics to deal with. It was the first paper of my 10+2 exam & the morons in the education board had found the best way to screw me, by starting up with mathematics!
Having already screwed up the inter first year exams, I wished I could do a bit better. But who can stop the unstoppable? I started walking to my exam center from the hostel with Raviteja aka RT. He was one among the geniuses of my class. This was a solid moral ‘boost’ for me. He seemed as calm and composed as a person who had taken a leak after controlling it for hours! He never associated exams with tensions, unlike me whose scariest nightmares were full of exams. We continued walking out of the small lane of our hostel until someone interrupted our way in a flash.
“Tanmay….I wanna talk to you, now”, the voice demanded. I looked up to a tall, fair girl, who stood right next to me. It was Jia, my classmate, who for the moment didn’t look like one. She was looking into my eyes the same way Arjuna looked into the bird’s eye as I looked for any signs of guns, knives on her. I was gasping for air when RT, who now looked like someone who wanted to take a leak desperately asked me, “Who is she Tany? Where did she come from?” I just looked at him and assuring peace, I spoke to the girl, “Jia, I will talk to you but not now since I have an exam. My center is too far from here, so we need to go. I will talk to you once the exam is over. Is that okay with you?” I spoke as if my life was at stake. “Hmm, Gimme your mobile number”, she said. “9849091250. Call me after 2 PM & I will talk to you”, I said with that a fake smile, continued walking. I felt like asking God, “What made you think appearing for the exam wasn’t enough to scare me? Why the girl?” That look of her was stuck in my mind. It took me time to realize that she looked innocent, the demanding voice didn’t help me see it. What does she wanna talk to me about? Does she love me? Naah…I am not made for this shit. May be she is bugged with my friends, who keep teasing her about me. Yeah, that must be the reason! I stopped thinking about her eventually, as I was getting nearer to my exam center. Obviously, maths was what I needed to think of.
My examination center was on the first floor of a building, whose ground floor had a Bar Restaurant. The mission & vision of the college was perhaps ‘We help you forget your exams with a shot!’ The bar looked so inviting, maybe I’ll need to come in after the exam. I climbed up the staircase and searched for my exam hall. The exam started, I begged for mercy one last time before I looked into the question paper.
I knew the answer to the first question! Yay! I started writing. Once finished, I went to the second, realized I had skipped this chapter…disgusted, frustrated. skipped it. Went to the third, fourth & fifth, continuing to feel disgusted. There were 10 questions. God, let me pass this one please! Somehow, I managed to answer the questions that came in later. Having assured that I will pass, I sat relaxed. Jia will call sharp at 2 PM, I knew it. Strangely, I was waiting for her call, even when I knew it was still 12.50 PM, the exam was to be over by one.
I walked out of the center shortly after the exam was over, RT was now calm and composed again like he was in the morning. I didn’t bother asking him how was his exam since I didn’t want to kill myself. We went to Siddhartha, straightaway, where we had food. 1.59 pm, the mobile rang. Unknown local number. I answered, “Hello”. “Dude, please get a dosa parcel for me. I am not coming to Siddhartha now.” “What? Who is this?” “Arey, main Tanvir bolra re, please leke aana yaar”, he said. I was shouting literally,“kya re Hawle, tera phone kaha gaya? Kidhar se call Ghumara?” I was expecting Jia to call when this stud called me up. “This is the hostel’s number dude, how you don’t have it?” Tanvir said. “Ok buddy, will get one Dosa for you, bye”.
I finished eating & was walking down to the hostel. My mobile rang again, no more surprises now. I knew it was Jia right away. “Hello”. “Hi Tanmay, this is Jia, how was your exam?”…. “Exam? It was good.” What ‘good’ meant, only I knew. “So tell me Jia, what happened? All of a sudden you wanted to talk to me, what’s the matter?” I asked, now sounding pretty confident unlike in the morning. “Tanmay, I wanted to tell you this since so many days but couldn’t gather any courage. But now that I know you will be leaving Hyderabad in a month, I just wanted you to tell you.” I was so sure she wanted to say those 3 ‘magical’ words, but I wished she didn’t say it because I wasn’t ready at all. “Yeah, tell me Jia”, I asked even when I didn’t want to know. “Tanmay, I like you very very much. I don’t think it’s love but I want to share each and every feeling of mine with you……” And she continued. Well, isn’t it what they call attraction? I’d never spoken to her except in the days for preparation of Independence Day celebrations & here she is, telling me all her chronicle. Is it love that she hasn’t realized till now? Whatever it is….it’s complicated! She spoke so much about herself, her family & what not…I sat in a chair listening to the story of her life with no idea why she is telling me everything when she doesn’t know me at all. She continued for like an hour or so. Finally, she gave me a chance to speak, when she said, “I hope you don’t mind being my friend Tanmay, is it okay?” Her innocence was clearly evident from her voice, I didn’t know what to say. Still confused, I replied, “Jia, I don’t mind being your friend at all” “I am happy that you like talking to me Tanmay, I will call you again then so that we know each other better, hope you don’t mind” “Yeah, sure! You can call me whenever you want, I don’t mind.” I answered like I was so sure of what was on her mind. “Ok then, bye Tanmay and have a nice day ahead!” She said that with a smile that I could figure out from the voice. “Bye Jia!”
With no idea of what was in store for me, I hung up. Already having undergone the fury of maths for the day, my mind was too tired to understand her intentions from this call. So I just did what was required, stopped thinking!
