The bell rang like a cacophony in my ears, simulating a last bell people ring for the most honored in funerals. ‘Oh god! itz microwave hour now’, I wailed a little louder.All of us knew it was time for Shiv to eat our brains, spitting his half micro waved ideas on the subject in his grilled english. ‘Did u finish the assignment that he gave us yesterday? ’, I asked Saran. She looked absolutely not bothered for anything in life. And gave me a ‘No’ sign with her slightly curved lips but stayed fiddling with the Reynolds pen, trying to fit it in the slit on our wooded bench.
I was little agitated with my ineffective time management in life, unable to strike a balance between my college assignments & the short term IIT course that we girls enrolled us in.All of us belonged to 3rd ECE department.We were ten out of fifteen girls who zestfully enrolled us in the course but found hard to manage things since the IIT Campus was 45 km from our college.Commuting that far and to reach back home everyday was truely tiresome & Poornima added fuel to the fire by not giving us enough attention in the course hours.Can’t blame her blindly like that. She was a single and there were boys from Anna University in our batch just a couple of years younger to her, distracting her with their ‘out of the box’ questions.Otherwise her destiny was destined to be with all white haired, 65 + IIT professors. It was uncivilized on our part to have expected it from her ,in the little time available for her to #@*&^$!.And to add salt to our injury she believed herself to be the queen of DSP lab, where she worked as a lab assistant, which was our destination too inside the IIT campus.I felt she deserved one tight slap from me before our course ended for all the mental agony that she caused us.
Shiv walked hands free in to the lecture hall. Looked like he was lost else where thought wise unlike the other days when one can find him fasting outside the door from ten minutes prior to his session,with handful of lecture notes, chalk pieces and microwave bibliographies. He entered , marked attendance, clicked his pen on to his shirt pocket and declared us free.Unexpectedly he was not in the mood to transmit his microwaves on us that day. Neither did he talk about the assignments. Strange yet surprising, it was.Never had it happened in two years of his lecture profession in our college. Not even a single minute had gone waste by either speaking a torelable English or leaving us feel serious about him and his lecture classes.'Thanks Shiv. I wanted this break',I told myself.Being a back bencher,sat quietly in my place for once staring the black and white print of my microwave text, focusing the picture of microwave producing instrument drawn as modern art. A crinkled paper ball fell on my shoulders from the left side. Unwrapped it & there was a message
And threw the paper ball back at her and found her excited discussing with others on what was everybody going to wear for the wedding reception that evening. Soon every body got to see my scribbling and pulled me to the chat zone to convince me.But I was desperate in having my break for the day. My folks felt I was tough on my decision and wanted me to join them badly. After few long unconvinced thoughts, I finally gave up and agreed to join them.Ambal’s face was gleaming with joy when I said ‘yes’ and Preethi felt succeeded in making me agree to them finally.We looked at our watches. We still had 45 minutes to go. As ever, we had our hot topics to discuss and Shiv watched us from the other corner of the lecture hall. May be trying to tune his ears to our exciting topics.Since girls struggled hard to make me agree, I became the target of bullying session for the day. In those 3 years time, almost everybody in the college knew Surya was my heart throb .Vani started slowly ‘So what is your Joe chéchi telling you ehh?’(Joe was Jyothika’s pet name that we gave her and media was telling us that they were seeing each other for some time then).So to simply make me fume, Preethi added ‘U know Devi , they have signed a couple of movies together now’. Bhavani added ‘Unga alluku vera velayae illiya ?’ (does ur man have no other job or what).I know I had explained to them for the nth ime about what I felt for him’. It is very true that I like him , but it was just his on screen chemistry that am in love with. Joe is his private life. I had never felt jealous of her. In fact once I had felt none can match well with my man other than Joe in his real life.But my Eceian folks hardly believe me. They all pitch in at once, when I finish my statements on my man( in their slang). ’Don’t lie babe. We know u must be fuming to the core watching them together on the screen. But honey, itz reality. Don’t let that affect you much. Itz all part of life ’ as if I poured out to them,expecting such crazy condolence . Crazy these girls were, once they decide to bully someone. Finally our microwave hour ended. Shiv walked out clouded in some intro<->retro<->spection.
It was a customary practice that we gathered at my house, preened & primmed ourselves before stepping out to attend any common wedding reception. It had happened many times in those 3 years of our college life.Nothing unusual , girls unpacked all their make up kits, lip sticks, glosses, mascaras, eye liners, lip liners, rulers, eye shadows, base foundations and what not, turning the bedroom in to a mini Health & Glow outlet.In fact I get to see most of the latest cosmetic inventions in the market only during times likes these. And all of us fight to get the mirror focus and end up spoiling our natural beauty.Sahaya forcible applies modern art bindhis with the eye liner brush on most of our foreheads just to spoil the ‘not so bad’ looking girls.On this occasion, mom reached home with a bunch of bright yellow roses to place them in the newly bought porcelain vase. But she ended up planting one on each of our hair locks.Unable to deny my mom’s so loving gesture girls had nothing to say but to leave for the wedding reception with yellow roses planted on their top floors. It was 6.30 pm & was getting little dark outside.So mom suggested that we all leave early and in turn reach home early. So we all stepped out together to catch a rick with the huge bouquet that we bought for Sharmi mam.
Once on the road,I realized that vani had almost painted her face pink with her base make up solution looking really awful and little scary to my eyes for a moment when she smiled. I turned around to Preethi and she looked like another cute looking devil in the holly wood movies with her heavy beaded pearls lined up on the neck with her hair left open just not liking the idea of having a rose planted like us.Ambal chose to wear suki’s salwar since she came unprepared for the immediate party plans. Looked like we could clone Ambal twice and accommodate all in the same attire. Sahaya portrayed like an exhibition model displaying all her huge antique jewellery pieces from home. Anu was looking good but her lip stick was so dark and thick that looked as if some one plastered her mouth with a red glossy band.And it was difficult for a moment to decide in which gender should I be classifying Suki now, looking at the way she had preened herself. I realized that I must have looked equally funny in some way but was more conscious with my dark pink straw berry flavored lipstick and the yellow rose planted on my head.
The moment we stepped in to the wedding hall, our eyes by default focused on Sharmi Mam’s groom. Mmm … not very impressive at the first look. But then we had nothing to hype about it since he wasn’t handsome to any of our eyes. We found our college dudes in a corner having a huge round table conference at the wedding hall. The moment we walked past that side, there were huge laughter peels quacking the floor. I could make out y it was so loud. May be our comical appearances. I folded my lips tightly inside and licked the densely applied strawberry flavor. Also felt like plucking the planted rose. But mom's so loving gesture stopped me.Soon we settled in our own corner to calculate the Net Asset Value in gold of every 40 + aunty who passed us.Suddenly I found Vani staring near the entrance. Then Preethi and then Anu, Ambal, Bavani. I too turned around but nothing caught my eyes. Vani pressed my shoulder in excitement and said ‘Heyyyyy….. ur Man’. ’My man ?’.I knew they were kidding here too. So I chose not to turn. But then Preethi stressed the same thing. ‘Dev , ur Man’. I thought they all have decided to fool me for the cross face I had that morning.But then when Bavani stressed the same thing, I had to believe it and look for my man in the crowd. For the next five minutes I couldn’t spot him in the huge crowded hall. But then after some time I did.
Yes it was my man for sure. He was quite simple in a faded blue jean & a white T-Shirt appeared dipped in robbin blue and forgotten for days to rinse.‘Devi ur Surya is here with us today to make ur evening. Can u believe it ? ‘ Suki bashed. I was really over whelmed with joy that everning. Felt like talking to him. But then I knew it was really impossible,may be even to near him in this huge crowd. He never had that filmy air around him. In some time he followed us to the dining hall for the dinner. He happened to be seated in the next row. But definitely from an angle where I could focus him :-). My friends really felt happy for me. I was little thrilled ,when I realized that slowly the crowd was dwindling in the hall and he was still around. Preethi gave me a pilot pen and a blank business card when she left. Looked like she had it ready with her, just for me.I found him being a part of a 15 member circle formed near the wedding hall entrance. He was not part of any conversation that was happening in that big circle. He stood tying his hands tight around his abdomen and appeared choice less listening to that conversation. With little excitement, I approached the big circle tangentially,targeting the point where Surya stood. I stopped at a length of 50 centimeters from him. Sensing my presence, it was almost spontaneous during that late evening hour when he put his mobile in his shirt pocket and picked the pen & card from my hand to spread his choice of ink pattern on it. It was during those 10 silent seconds that I observed him from such a close proximity which I never expected would happen in my life.
When he was busy making his ink pattern, I realized that he was at least two inches shorter than me. Heart sank a little for reasons unknown. I asked my self in silence, ‘Does it mean that Joe chéchi is also shorter than me? ‘.He handed over the card and pen back to me looking in to my eyes. I felt elated. I thanked him. Like an automated reply he said ‘Ur welcome’. I turned away from him examining the ink pattern that he chose to spread for me. It read
With Love
- Surya
These were the words that took him 10 seconds to return me the card. He filled the card that I gave him by writing these three words big and bold. I liked the way he had stylishly stroked ‘S’ in his name. But I felt there was no trace of my virtual Surya in the man who filled my card seconds back. I found myself caught in the world of virtual reality for some time.I came home asking myself 101 useless questions. When I rang the bell, Mom opened the door and at once enquired ‘So how was the wedding. Did u girls enjoy it ? ‘. I said ‘yes’, showing her the card signed by Surya.She curiously looked at it and raised her brows in surprise. ’Siva Kumar payan thane ? ‘ ( Shiva Kumar’s son, right ?) she asked me. ‘Hmm’ came the reply from me. Dad also took a look at it when mom was holding it.He asked me if he was related to the bride or the groom in any way. But none of us had any clue about it. All were excited seeing him there.Thatz it.
It was 10.30 pm. Soon I changed quickly and finally got a chance to pluck the yellow rose from my top floor and lied on my bed in dark & silence – rewinding the whole day’s events in sequence, assimilating slowly the fact that I met my man that evening, pondering deeply over the virtual reality manifestation that I encountered. At around 11 pm, the phone beeped and I hurried to pick up the receiver. It was Rijo.’Hi da ,met ur man finally today. Very glad to know. So what did he tell you ?’.’Nothing’ I replied.‘ Whoz that ma? ‘ investigated mom. ‘Surya ma’. oops !! I hit myself on the forehead little harder re replying ‘Rijo ma’. Her investigation stopped at once she heard my re-reply.‘Haan Rijo bolo‘ I continued on the receiver. ’What da still in ur man’s thoughts ahh ‘ he made fun of me.Next day in the college bus, on the campus corridors, in the staff room, library, canteen, laboratory, anywhere and everywhere folks spotted me, they enquired curiously about how I felt when I met my man .I just smiled away at most of them. Even Loganathan sir was curious to know how I felt. When I entered the lecture hall, my gangsters were waiting to see the love note that my man gave me.I disclosed the note to Preethi first carefully pulling it out from a palm sized Milo – Book of Facts in which I decided to preserve it for my life time. She passed it on after a short examination to vani.But Anu was having it for a long time after everybody had a look at it in the class. When I went to collect it from her in the evening, she handed it over with a big sighing look at the card,muttering ‘Hmm...don't know when am I going to be lucky like u to meet my maddy, one day ‘.
I was little agitated with my ineffective time management in life, unable to strike a balance between my college assignments & the short term IIT course that we girls enrolled us in.All of us belonged to 3rd ECE department.We were ten out of fifteen girls who zestfully enrolled us in the course but found hard to manage things since the IIT Campus was 45 km from our college.Commuting that far and to reach back home everyday was truely tiresome & Poornima added fuel to the fire by not giving us enough attention in the course hours.Can’t blame her blindly like that. She was a single and there were boys from Anna University in our batch just a couple of years younger to her, distracting her with their ‘out of the box’ questions.Otherwise her destiny was destined to be with all white haired, 65 + IIT professors. It was uncivilized on our part to have expected it from her ,in the little time available for her to #@*&^$!.And to add salt to our injury she believed herself to be the queen of DSP lab, where she worked as a lab assistant, which was our destination too inside the IIT campus.I felt she deserved one tight slap from me before our course ended for all the mental agony that she caused us.
Shiv walked hands free in to the lecture hall. Looked like he was lost else where thought wise unlike the other days when one can find him fasting outside the door from ten minutes prior to his session,with handful of lecture notes, chalk pieces and microwave bibliographies. He entered , marked attendance, clicked his pen on to his shirt pocket and declared us free.Unexpectedly he was not in the mood to transmit his microwaves on us that day. Neither did he talk about the assignments. Strange yet surprising, it was.Never had it happened in two years of his lecture profession in our college. Not even a single minute had gone waste by either speaking a torelable English or leaving us feel serious about him and his lecture classes.'Thanks Shiv. I wanted this break',I told myself.Being a back bencher,sat quietly in my place for once staring the black and white print of my microwave text, focusing the picture of microwave producing instrument drawn as modern art. A crinkled paper ball fell on my shoulders from the left side. Unwrapped it & there was a message
'Can we bunk IIT class today &
attend the wedding reception?
What say ? '
- Anu
Oh, I realized it was Sharmi Mam’s wedding reception the same evening.She bothered to invite us all amidst little time left to get prepared for her own wedding in India. Her’s was a little interesting story.She was desperate to do her MS in the U.S. She had a not-too-bad GRE score. She was two years elder to us, just like Shiv. She worked in our college as a lecturer for less than a year teaching us insignificant subjects until she got her student visa. She went to the U.S one fine day, following her dreams just to come back in less than 3 months carrying her wedding cards printed, to invite us for the occasion of beginning her new life with a stranger in her new strange land.She was dynamic & full of life. She was just like one among us, more like a friend than a lecturer, unlike Shiv. She was rich but down to earth,made her dream come true in front of our eyes.Very social and out going. Though she never impressed the girls greatly, all the boys in our college had a corner reserved for her in their hearts. The curiosity of seeing, whom she chose to live with popped in all our minds. But then I was too tired and really wanted a break from Shiv’s assignments and poorni’s lectures.I scribbled back to Anuattend the wedding reception?
What say ? '
- Anu
' Will bunk IIT class today.
But not joining for the wedding dear'.
But not joining for the wedding dear'.
And threw the paper ball back at her and found her excited discussing with others on what was everybody going to wear for the wedding reception that evening. Soon every body got to see my scribbling and pulled me to the chat zone to convince me.But I was desperate in having my break for the day. My folks felt I was tough on my decision and wanted me to join them badly. After few long unconvinced thoughts, I finally gave up and agreed to join them.Ambal’s face was gleaming with joy when I said ‘yes’ and Preethi felt succeeded in making me agree to them finally.We looked at our watches. We still had 45 minutes to go. As ever, we had our hot topics to discuss and Shiv watched us from the other corner of the lecture hall. May be trying to tune his ears to our exciting topics.Since girls struggled hard to make me agree, I became the target of bullying session for the day. In those 3 years time, almost everybody in the college knew Surya was my heart throb .Vani started slowly ‘So what is your Joe chéchi telling you ehh?’(Joe was Jyothika’s pet name that we gave her and media was telling us that they were seeing each other for some time then).So to simply make me fume, Preethi added ‘U know Devi , they have signed a couple of movies together now’. Bhavani added ‘Unga alluku vera velayae illiya ?’ (does ur man have no other job or what).I know I had explained to them for the nth ime about what I felt for him’. It is very true that I like him , but it was just his on screen chemistry that am in love with. Joe is his private life. I had never felt jealous of her. In fact once I had felt none can match well with my man other than Joe in his real life.But my Eceian folks hardly believe me. They all pitch in at once, when I finish my statements on my man( in their slang). ’Don’t lie babe. We know u must be fuming to the core watching them together on the screen. But honey, itz reality. Don’t let that affect you much. Itz all part of life ’ as if I poured out to them,expecting such crazy condolence . Crazy these girls were, once they decide to bully someone. Finally our microwave hour ended. Shiv walked out clouded in some intro<->retro<->spection.
It was a customary practice that we gathered at my house, preened & primmed ourselves before stepping out to attend any common wedding reception. It had happened many times in those 3 years of our college life.Nothing unusual , girls unpacked all their make up kits, lip sticks, glosses, mascaras, eye liners, lip liners, rulers, eye shadows, base foundations and what not, turning the bedroom in to a mini Health & Glow outlet.In fact I get to see most of the latest cosmetic inventions in the market only during times likes these. And all of us fight to get the mirror focus and end up spoiling our natural beauty.Sahaya forcible applies modern art bindhis with the eye liner brush on most of our foreheads just to spoil the ‘not so bad’ looking girls.On this occasion, mom reached home with a bunch of bright yellow roses to place them in the newly bought porcelain vase. But she ended up planting one on each of our hair locks.Unable to deny my mom’s so loving gesture girls had nothing to say but to leave for the wedding reception with yellow roses planted on their top floors. It was 6.30 pm & was getting little dark outside.So mom suggested that we all leave early and in turn reach home early. So we all stepped out together to catch a rick with the huge bouquet that we bought for Sharmi mam.
Once on the road,I realized that vani had almost painted her face pink with her base make up solution looking really awful and little scary to my eyes for a moment when she smiled. I turned around to Preethi and she looked like another cute looking devil in the holly wood movies with her heavy beaded pearls lined up on the neck with her hair left open just not liking the idea of having a rose planted like us.Ambal chose to wear suki’s salwar since she came unprepared for the immediate party plans. Looked like we could clone Ambal twice and accommodate all in the same attire. Sahaya portrayed like an exhibition model displaying all her huge antique jewellery pieces from home. Anu was looking good but her lip stick was so dark and thick that looked as if some one plastered her mouth with a red glossy band.And it was difficult for a moment to decide in which gender should I be classifying Suki now, looking at the way she had preened herself. I realized that I must have looked equally funny in some way but was more conscious with my dark pink straw berry flavored lipstick and the yellow rose planted on my head.
The moment we stepped in to the wedding hall, our eyes by default focused on Sharmi Mam’s groom. Mmm … not very impressive at the first look. But then we had nothing to hype about it since he wasn’t handsome to any of our eyes. We found our college dudes in a corner having a huge round table conference at the wedding hall. The moment we walked past that side, there were huge laughter peels quacking the floor. I could make out y it was so loud. May be our comical appearances. I folded my lips tightly inside and licked the densely applied strawberry flavor. Also felt like plucking the planted rose. But mom's so loving gesture stopped me.Soon we settled in our own corner to calculate the Net Asset Value in gold of every 40 + aunty who passed us.Suddenly I found Vani staring near the entrance. Then Preethi and then Anu, Ambal, Bavani. I too turned around but nothing caught my eyes. Vani pressed my shoulder in excitement and said ‘Heyyyyy….. ur Man’. ’My man ?’.I knew they were kidding here too. So I chose not to turn. But then Preethi stressed the same thing. ‘Dev , ur Man’. I thought they all have decided to fool me for the cross face I had that morning.But then when Bavani stressed the same thing, I had to believe it and look for my man in the crowd. For the next five minutes I couldn’t spot him in the huge crowded hall. But then after some time I did.
Yes it was my man for sure. He was quite simple in a faded blue jean & a white T-Shirt appeared dipped in robbin blue and forgotten for days to rinse.‘Devi ur Surya is here with us today to make ur evening. Can u believe it ? ‘ Suki bashed. I was really over whelmed with joy that everning. Felt like talking to him. But then I knew it was really impossible,may be even to near him in this huge crowd. He never had that filmy air around him. In some time he followed us to the dining hall for the dinner. He happened to be seated in the next row. But definitely from an angle where I could focus him :-). My friends really felt happy for me. I was little thrilled ,when I realized that slowly the crowd was dwindling in the hall and he was still around. Preethi gave me a pilot pen and a blank business card when she left. Looked like she had it ready with her, just for me.I found him being a part of a 15 member circle formed near the wedding hall entrance. He was not part of any conversation that was happening in that big circle. He stood tying his hands tight around his abdomen and appeared choice less listening to that conversation. With little excitement, I approached the big circle tangentially,targeting the point where Surya stood. I stopped at a length of 50 centimeters from him. Sensing my presence, it was almost spontaneous during that late evening hour when he put his mobile in his shirt pocket and picked the pen & card from my hand to spread his choice of ink pattern on it. It was during those 10 silent seconds that I observed him from such a close proximity which I never expected would happen in my life.
When he was busy making his ink pattern, I realized that he was at least two inches shorter than me. Heart sank a little for reasons unknown. I asked my self in silence, ‘Does it mean that Joe chéchi is also shorter than me? ‘.He handed over the card and pen back to me looking in to my eyes. I felt elated. I thanked him. Like an automated reply he said ‘Ur welcome’. I turned away from him examining the ink pattern that he chose to spread for me. It read
With Love
- Surya
It was 10.30 pm. Soon I changed quickly and finally got a chance to pluck the yellow rose from my top floor and lied on my bed in dark & silence – rewinding the whole day’s events in sequence, assimilating slowly the fact that I met my man that evening, pondering deeply over the virtual reality manifestation that I encountered. At around 11 pm, the phone beeped and I hurried to pick up the receiver. It was Rijo.’Hi da ,met ur man finally today. Very glad to know. So what did he tell you ?’.’Nothing’ I replied.‘ Whoz that ma? ‘ investigated mom. ‘Surya ma’. oops !! I hit myself on the forehead little harder re replying ‘Rijo ma’. Her investigation stopped at once she heard my re-reply.‘Haan Rijo bolo‘ I continued on the receiver. ’What da still in ur man’s thoughts ahh ‘ he made fun of me.Next day in the college bus, on the campus corridors, in the staff room, library, canteen, laboratory, anywhere and everywhere folks spotted me, they enquired curiously about how I felt when I met my man .I just smiled away at most of them. Even Loganathan sir was curious to know how I felt. When I entered the lecture hall, my gangsters were waiting to see the love note that my man gave me.I disclosed the note to Preethi first carefully pulling it out from a palm sized Milo – Book of Facts in which I decided to preserve it for my life time. She passed it on after a short examination to vani.But Anu was having it for a long time after everybody had a look at it in the class. When I went to collect it from her in the evening, she handed it over with a big sighing look at the card,muttering ‘Hmm...don't know when am I going to be lucky like u to meet my maddy, one day ‘.
