Part 4

9.

‘Oye Adi, khaane mein kya laya hai.’ Vinayak shouted from the corner seat.

‘Bread laya hu’.

‘Dikha Adi, tere pe kya hai.’ Nishant asked, as he reached out for my tiffin. But before he could grab anything to eat, Vinayak clutched it and ran away.

‘Abe o bhayankar ki, Pant mujhe bhi de maa ke lodhe.’ Nishant ran after Vinayak screaming at him. Everyone in their group used to call Vinayak ‘Pant’ due to his surname being so. I saw Vinayak and Nishant scratch each other over the tiffin like two hungry – since – birth wolves.

‘Aur Adi Sabinah to aajkal Krishna ke sath ghumnei lag gayi hai.’ Sarth said as I looked at him with gaping eyes.

‘Tujhe kaise pata main uske piche tha?’ I asked really surprised.

‘Tujhe kai baar dekha tha uske saath.’ He replied, adjusting his lenses.

‘Adi saale tu bhi uske piche hai?’ Atul asked, shaking his head.

‘Pada tha yaar, aur BHI ka kya matlab hai? Aur kitne hai uske piche?’ I asked him.

‘Beta pura sector chaar hai. Aur bhai wo khatarnaak ladki hai.’ Atul said, cupping his mouth with his hands.

‘Kya khatarnaak I was curious.

‘Bas hain bhai.’ Atul said.

‘Haan Adi, Atul sahi bol raha hai. Aur waise bhi tujhe aur bhi achchi bandi milegi. Wo to mujhe namuni lagti hai.’ Sarth said in a serious tone.

Lately I had been getting complements for my looks. I had lost ten kilograms (thanks to Kartikey who showed me the way), had started shaving and had been applying those fairness creams(Hey, those work, specially the Garnier one). All this to woo Sabinah, but all in vein.  Guess girls can change you a lot.

But that wasn’t the main problem. The main problem was that I had scored a mere sixty percent in the second term. Though I had cleared all the subjects. I had decided against letting uncle know my scores.’Low scores are my problems to deal with, ALONE’. I had procured the ‘guardians  signature’ in the report card by my aunt, who didn’t bother reading the grades.

Later that evening, I walked towards the playground where I found Atul, Sarth and Monu sitting on a bench.

‘Oho, Kartikey ka boyfriend agya.’ Atul shouted.

‘Bhen ke land ke bol raha hai?’I said agitated.

‘Ye aisa bolta hai.’ Atul said pointing towards towards Monu. Monu was a commerce student in our school.

‘Sale choo. Ye kyun bol raha hai?’ I asked Monu angrily.

‘Bas Adi lambi kahaani hai.’ He replied.

‘Monu to ye bhi bol raha tha ki sector chaar ke gumbad mein tu Kartikey ko lejakar uske dabaata hai.’ Atul said, laughing aloud.

‘Maa chuda bhosdi ke.’ I said smiling as well. Somehow he had cracked me up. By the way Kartikey did have big male boobs. Those two upper balls are complimentary vouchers with little fat.

In a distance we saw ABIG trampling his way towards the playground (BTW, he had a bigger pair).

‘Agya DK square ka boyfriend.’ Atul said.

‘Ye DK square kya hai?’I asked Sarth.

‘Teen ladkiyan hai. Unko hum DK square bolte hai.’

‘Oh. Kaisi hai? Faad hai?’ I asked.

‘Sahi hai.’ Sarth replied.

‘Okay. Kabhi dikha diyo.’

Later after the game, me and Atul walked down the block.

‘Abe tu kuch Sabinah ki baat kar raha tha aaj school mein.’ I asked him seeing that it was an appropriate moment to do so.

‘Haan. Bhai. Par bas maine bhi suni hai baatein.’ He added a disclaimer before starting.

‘Yaar uske saath kuch hua tha. Tu samajh jaa ab bas. Munirka waale subway mein. Aur maine ye bhi suna hai ki uski video bani thi.’ He said, sounding serious.

‘Chal CHUTIYE! Kuch bhi mat bol.’ I retorted.              

‘Mujhe pata tha tu nahi maanega. Mat maan. Mera kya hai. Maine jo bhi suna bata diya. Aur bhai ye to pakka hai ki koi scene zaroor hua tha.’

I spoke no more as we walked. I didn’t want to believe him. Sometimes there are all sorts of rumours floating around. 

We went our separate ways round a corner. I was still thinking about what Atul claimed as I approached my home.

To hell with her, I thought.  Moreover she is with another person so I don’t need to bang my head over it.

The Sabinah scene distracted me even more from studies. In institute, my presence was barely felt, while in school the condition was no better. Moreover now since I was with Atul and co, studies weren’t even on priority list.

STUDIES? Where is the dictionary?

10.

It was mid January when Kartikey came with a good news.

‘Hey, Sabinah is single.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes bitch. I have the first hand info.’

‘From whom?’

‘Sandhya and Krishna himself.’ He replied excitedly.

Sandhya was one of Sabinah’s fast friend, and Kartikey’s friend too.

‘Krishna?? What did that slumdog say?’ I asked.

‘He claimed that her, I mean Sabinah’s elder sister came to know about their relationship. So she had to break up.’

‘Oh. That means she still might have feelings for him.’ I sank back in my chair.

‘Oh come on. You can at least talk to her now.’

‘I don’t think so. I will think about it.’ I said. I didn’t want more trouble from that Krishna bitch. I have already had enough. Just can’t stand more humiliation.

Brother’s marriage drew nearer, so did my final term exam and I was now hanging around Atul and Sarth more than ever. Though my orkuting had decreased exponentially, which was actually overtaken by facebooking. Text books were alien kingdom’s ancient manuscripts.

The next few days weren’t much happening. Though one thing worth noticing was that Sabinah was rarely speaking to labra Krishna which wasn’t like what he claimed to be. Good news indeed. Somehow I couldn’t get over her.

Soon after the exam commenced. Though the atmosphere at home would barely let me studied. Bro’s marriage, man I gotta enjoy.

The exams soon passed away. But the danger wasn’t over yet. The last thing I wanted was a red mark in my report card, which was the most probable probability. I barely slept the night before the result.

It was the day when the results were to be given. I was ready as soon as I left the bed and ran upto the school. There was a good crowd at the school gate. I quickly made my through and as I was about to enter the main building, I ran straight into Charulata.

‘Why are you running?’ She asked in an annoying voice.

‘Ma’am, result.’ I huffed and puffed as I spoke.

She rummaged through her polybag and drew out a green card.

‘Tum paas hogye ho.’ She said in an even more annoying voice. But it wasn’t annoying anymore as I assimilated her words.

‘Wow, thank you, you hoe’, I thought.

I grabbed my report card and scanned quickly. No red marks. GREAT! I didn’t bother calculating my percentage. I knew it would be somewhere in forties. But I don’t care, as long as I had a good excuse. Bro’s marriage, and still I passed all subjects. I AM A FUCKING GENIUS.

It was time to enquire others scores. Kartikey had passed all subjects. He had been slogging out lately. Mahima, Sanya and Raveena had scored quite well. NAYAN, that guy stood second in the class. I guess he was a bigger FUCKING GENIUS.

Atul had scored the same as I did. Brothers, aint we. Though Sarth had a retest in chemistry. He will clear it anyway, everyone does.

So now I was officially a twelth grader. ‘I WILL STUDY MY ASS OFF THIS YEAR’ I thought. 11^th is much tougher than 12^th, they had said. I thought the bad times were over. But life would have been lot easier if everything pans out the way we want. Aint it?

11.

It was March. School was to begin in April. But the institute was about to begin.

‘Okay now, funny games over. I better get down to my studies. Its twelfth and I better make it count.’ I instructed myself as I walked down to my institute’s gate for the first class of the new session.

The batches had been reshuffled so there were many new faces in the class. I made my way to the middle row and sat there for a while.

‘Oh bhenchod humein maths Safdar padhaega.’ A boy with specs spoke as he made his way into the front row. His name was Sumit and he was one of the toppers.

‘To kya hua?’ A boy next to me replied.

‘Saale bhot bada maadarchod teacher hai wo.’ Sumit replied in a serious note.

I had heard those types of statements before, but you know its time to get your panties up in a bunch when you got the topper saying. I had heard about Safdar insulting students in front of the whole class. But the worst part was he used to call parents to report their child’s position. If he calls up my uncle, I bet I won’t live to tell people about it.

The first two classes were chemistry and physics, and their teachers were not pricky. The anus was still to appear. The class had settled down before the start of the third class.  Wow, that guy must be some menace, I thought. I braced myself for a fireball to whizz past any moment and a man with two horns and a pointy red tail to jump off it and claim to be Safdar. My imagination can run really wild sometimes.

Soon after, all the students stood up as a short and fat stocky man entered the class. He had a round face with French cut and looked in his early thirties. And you can feel the evilness by his smile itself. A demonic smile, which literally said ‘You will be fucked your guts out you morons.’ I could sense a dread fill the room.

‘Baith jao’. He spoke at last after taking a good look of the class.

‘Sabne 11^th paas karli na.’ He asked in a mocking tone. He had a typical bihari accent.

‘Mujhe to sab jaante hi hoge. Aisa koi hai jo nahi janta mujhe?’ He asked proudly. His smile hadn’t faded yet.

‘Main pehele hi sab ko bata deta hu. Main kabhi bhi kisi se kuch bhi puch sakta hun. Aur agar nahi bata pae to tumhari mummy papa ke saath main chaye piyunga.’

Though there were about sixty students in the class, I had a pretty bad feeling about this guy that he would pick on me. I felt as I was already screwed.

‘Sab log apna homework puri imandari se karenge aur main usko check karunga.’

‘Really, I will have a tough time sticking around with this fag.’ I thought, hiding behind a boy sitting in the front row.

Later that week, I was with Sarth and gang playing cricket. My classes were held in weekends and school hadn’t started yet, which left me with a lot of time during the weekdays to play and goof around. All study I entangled myself with was Maths. You would have guessed that anyway. Most of my studies time coincided with the time my uncle was at the house. Time and again I used to bombard my uncle with a few explosive questions solve as a doubt which made him think I was really slogging it out. My strategy was working absolutely fine for the time being.

So there I was, playing cricket with them. I was one of the better players of cricket, and loved the game. I once longed to be a cricketer. But man proposes and god disposes. All my dreams were thwarted with the passing away of my father and my uncle dreams became my destiny.

Sarth was handed the bat as I got ready to keep the wickets. Atul was to bowl while ABIG and Monu fielded. I took a look around that’s when something, or someone caught my gaze.

‘Hey Sarth, wo kaun hai?’ I called out, pointing at three girls entering the playground.

‘Oh wo? Wo hi to hai DK square! Jinke piche ABIG hai.’

‘Abe hai kya Dk square?’

‘Abe unke naam hain. Sabse lambi wali ka naam Khushi, uske badi behen jo uske saath chal rahi hai uska naam Komila, aur sabse chhoti wali Deepa, jo Tomar ki padosan hai.’

‘Ohkk. To kya ABIG tino ke piche pada hai.’

‘Abe nahi. Waise wo bolta to hai ki wo kisi ke piche nahi hai par humein pata hai ki uska Deepa par crush hai. Waise bhi baaki dono hum sab se age mein badi hai.’

‘Achcha. Ye baat hai. ABIG to chutiya hai. Wo kabhi na accept karega ye. Kaunsi class mein hai Deepa?’

‘10^th mein hai.’

‘Oye kutto khel lo ab.’ Atul shouted from other end of the pitch.

Our game continued for a while as the three girls walked around the park. I was eying Deepa from the corner of my eye, as the other two were out of the picture of my mind, them being older than me. Deepa was a cute girl, a bit short in height and still looked somewhat immature. More of a kid still.

‘Maybe I could hook up with her. I aint that bad looking now.’ I thought.

‘I’ll talk to her someday.’ I decided.

Later when our game got over we were all sitting under the shed in the same playground.

‘Aur ABIG aaj to wo tino tujhe dikh gayi. Maze aagye honge tujhe to.’ Atul started.

‘Saale tum sab mere piche hi kyun pade rehete ho?’ He sounded agitated.

‘Saale hum sabko pata hai tu apni khidki ke bahaar jhakta reheta hai, Deepa ke ghar mein.’ Monu replied.

Atul, Sarth, and Monu always pulled ABIG’s leg. I strongly felt like joining the humiliation round on their behalf.

‘Par jo bhi ho ABIG teri pasand sahi hai.’ I said.

‘Yeah Yeah Adi tu bhi?’ Sarth asked.

‘Bandi to sahi lagi.’

‘To Sabinah ka kya hua?’ Atul asked.

‘Pata nahi. Meri usse kaafi time se baat nahi hui. Usse puch mera kya hua?’ I replied.

‘Oye Adi, Kal CS khelne aayga?’ Sarth asked.

‘Dekhta hun bhai. Bata dunga.’

‘Chal fir, ab ghar chalte hai.’ Atul said.

We all departed home. I was really mixing up with those guys. Like I told you, I had planned to study, but how easy it would have been if everything turns out the way we want.

Two weeks later, the school resumed. The institute went on smoothly as I studied a bit out of fear of demonic Maths teacher Safdar. He hadn’t hadn’t yet bothered me (maybe calm before another storm), though he did ask some other students to answer a few questions and humiliated a couple of boys in front of the whole class. If he continued this, he might end up being flogged publicly with bricks or sticks in the streets of Kalu Sarai itself.

‘Hey bro. Wassup? And Congrats . Lagta hai tune bhot padha tha.’ I greeted Nayan as he entered the class.

‘Chal be, maine kuch na padha tha.’ He replied back

‘Oh saale sahi hai fir to. Bina padhe second agya. FAAD!’ We both laughed.

Soon more kids flowed in. Atul walked in as we greeted each other. Soon, the EX-Smackers too walked in. We all greated each other except Nayan and Kartikey. You don’t need to be a graduate to guess they weren’t on good terms.

Charulata walked in with carrying her irritated looking face, as usual.

‘Dekho bachcho ab mujhe B section ko bhi padhaana hoga. So please co operate aur mujhe zyada pareshaan mat karna. Waise bhi main bohot pareshaan hun. Mujhe gurgaon se drive karke aane padta hai. You should know how tiring it is.’ She started on a not-so-enthusiastic note.

‘Madam ji, hum kahan aapko pareshaan karte hai.’ Harsh called out in his hoarse voice. Apparantly he was one of those few kids who kept messing up with teachers, especially Charu who ignored him and continued with her work. She dictated us the time table and the schedule of the exams to come. To be honest we weren’t attending school to study, its just that the best time was spent at school. Who cared about studying when even teachers didn’t knew shit about their subjects.