One day, in the
tiffin break, Neha walked up to Manu sheepishly. She called him
aside and speaking in an apologetic tone, requested him to hear her
out. Manu assured her anything she said couldn’t make him angry.
But his mind raced over a gamut of possibilities in a moment. He
couldn’t think of anything, unless it was some new love missive
sent by one of her friends. Anisha or anything to do with her never
crossed his mind.
“Anisha,” started
Neha to Manu’s surprise, “wants to tie you a rakhi”.
“What!”
“Don’t get angry,
please, she’s truly sorry for what happened,” Neha pleaded. “I told
her to talk to you directly but she was afraid.”
“Why afraid? Am I
some beast?” Secretly, Manu was pleased. It always made him happy
to know that he exercised a power over his peers.
And he agreed to
meet Anisha after school that day. She had a dance class and
wouldn’t be leaving with her mother in the bus. It sounded like a
rendezvous he would have wished for when he “loved” her, but now he
only wanted to be done with whatever silly business she had in
mind.
It was raining
when school got over. Manu told his friend Sharad he would be a
little late, and Sharad agreed to wait for him. When all the
students had shuffled out of the building, Manu went back to it.
Anisha was standing in the dark corridor outside the library, and
seeing him she came forward. They faced each other in the wide
opening between the staircase and the double door of the
building.
Once again, Manu
surprised himself. Putting aside past grudges, he smiled and
extended his hand. “Hi, no hard feelings,” he said.
She was a big girl
but her hand felt very small because it was very thin, soft and
supple. Afraid to hurt her, he relaxed his grip immediately. She
seemed at ease after that.
“So, tell me what
you want,” he said with a shrug, although he knew the answer
already.
She drew a rakhi
out of her pocket, then paused and said, “Only if you want to”.
“Of course,” he
said, and thought, “drama queen”.
He saw her
beautiful, translucent pink nails, but only as one sees a flower or
a butterfly, without any longing. The knot was tied. He accepted a
chocolate and apologized for not having a gift to give her.
“Goodbye,” he said
and ran to the cycle stand where Sharad was watching over his cycle
and bag. Flushed with this encounter, he forgot about the mossy
ground and skidded. He almost fell over backwards but managed to
balance with a jerk. He had strained his back, but his first
thought was that Anisha might have seen him lose balance and
laughed. That thought was more painful than any injury. But he
didn’t turn to look immediately, for that would have confirmed he
had slipped and made him more ordinary in her eyes.
That day, the cold
war between these two giant egos ceased. They smiled at each other
whenever their paths crossed and said loud hellos. And they
discussed assignments and school matters civilly.
A year of peace
lay ahead of them. And after that? It’s too long and tumultuous a
story to be told here, but told it will be in good time.
***~~~***
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