Anyone Else But You... (15 page)

“You did? Then how come we never banged into each other then?” she asked for the sake of it. As though it in an afterthought, she added, “I was five years old then. I don’t think we’d even remember even if we did bang into each other.”

“I would’ve,” he said innocently.

They reached the Reception and she put on her –
I’m a little troubled girl, help me
face.

The receptionist, seeing her face, melted and let her make the phone call. After long, drawn out explanations and persuasive statements, Sahana hung up. With a long face, she walked towards Rishav.

“So?” he asked. “What did she say?” he added.

“Well, I told her that I had a stay-back and that I had forgotten to inform her,” she felt silent.

“And…?”

“And, she is kinda cross at me but I think I might manage it, if my uncle doesn’t get all aggressive and stuff. I told her I’d be back in an hour, just to be convincing.”

“Hmmm…” Rishav nodded. “You must be hungry,” he said. “So am I…!” he followed it up, not giving Sahana, a moment to reply.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, there’s a McD outlet close by, want to go and grab a bite?” for the first time what he said wasn’t aimed at creating situations for a lunch. Things just happened and they had reached a situation where a lunch was the most apparent thing.

“Umm…I don’t know really. I honestly don’t want be spotted; I’ll be in deep shit if I do. You go ahead,” she said.

“Sahana, trust me. It’ll be fine, we can take an auto. You know? The ones with covered sides, it’ll conceal you.”

She stood there for a while, thinking
.
Oh what the hell! I am going,
she said to herself.

*

Fifteen minutes later, they were looking up at the menu at the back of the counter, in the restaurant of McDonald’s.

“I’ll go with a McAloo
,
” she said with childlike enthusiasm.

Rishav looked at her and smiled, “And I thought you weren’t interested in lunch.”

“Well, it’s Mcd’s. Eve
ry child’s dream land, you know,
” she said.

Rishav smiled again, “And you are a child. I get it.
 
McAloo for me too, then
,
” he said.

“Veg
etarian
? Seriously? Aren’t you like a crazy non-vegetarian?” she asked.

“Well, I feel like Mc
A
loo. So why can’t I? I have never tried it before. Today, my intuit
ion tells me is the perfect day,
” Rishav said.

“As you wish, order a small fries and a regular
Coke
that we’ll share okay?” she said.

“Why not separate?” he countered.

“I can’t drink the whole thing. I’ll waste it. Do as I say. I am gonna wait outside.”

“Here you go,
” he said, five minutes later,
as he handed Sahana her McAloo burger.

“Coke
?” she asked.

“Here you go,” he handed her the
Coke
.

She took a sip and handed it back to him.

“So how are you gonna eat w
ith both your hands occupied?”
she laughed.

“I guess you’ll have to
hold the Coke while I eat my burger,”
he thrust the
Coke
in her hand.

“Don’t push it. I am cl
umsy. I might just drop it,”
she said jokingly.

Rishav finished his burger in three bites.

“Talk about animalistic,”
she commented as she stared at him crushing the b
u
rger’s wrapper into a ball and putting it back into the brown paper bag.

“What?”
Rishav
asked
after he had swallowed everything.

“Three bites and it’s finished,”
Sahana said while slowly eating her burger.

“Hello! I was hungry okay? And that’s how guy
s eat. They have big appetites,” h
e said defensively.

“Yeah.
You’re right. That’s how they eat. Like primeval animals.
True,” S
ahana said as she started walking towards their auto.

“Oh please,”
Rishav said, afraid if he became too offensive she would get even more offensive.

“Now finish the
Coke. I will finish the fries,
”
Sahana ordered as they stood next to the auto.

“I want t
he fries too. I am still hungry,”
Rishav said.

“No. I wan
t the fries. You eat my burger,”
Sahana said.

“Oh God, fine. Give it to me,”
Rishav snatched the burger out of Sahana’s hands before she could take another bite.

“Bitch!”
Sahana said as she snatched the fries out of his hand.

“Let’s go,
”
he ordered
ordered.

 
“
Okay. I have to get back anyway,”
Sahana agreed.

They sat in the auto. A silence
crept up
between them. Rishav was not restless to say something for the first time. He was content.

Sahana stopped the auto before the main gate of 34.

“Bye
,”
she said as she got off from the auto.

Rishav smiled and waved as the auto sped off towards
his home
.

FIFTEEN

“Rishav Sen, right?”
Kalsi
asked with
half smile
lighting up her
oblate
spheroid face.

“Yes ma’am,” Rishav replied with all sincerity.

“Take a seat,” she pointed towards the chair in front of her.

Rishav took the support of the armrests to sit down comfortably; he didn’t want a situation where he would miss the chair and land on the floor with a thud. He looked up and saw the faces that surrounded
Bindu
Kalsi
, apprehensively.

There was Veenu Sharma, glowing more than what the moon would on any given night. There was Neeti Chopra who wore a sari that was gloomier than her expression. There was the Eco teacher who gave Rishav, nightmares of his first interview and megalomaniac Physics H.O.D. who seemed to be interested in almost everything that happened in the school.

“Nice recommendations Rishav, hehehee…!” Veenu broke the silence.

Her closing laughter killed all the nervous tension present inside the room. Rishav nodded, slightly more confident than what he was when he first entered the room. He could feel the beads of sweat that were trickling down his neck and back.

“You have applied for?” Neeti Chopra questioned, also adjusting her dull sari while she did so.

“Head Boy ma’am!”

“What have you done for the school?”
Bindu
sounded sepulchral.

“Since, I am a new student, my contributions have been limited but besides that in my limited opportunity and time, I have done the following…” Rishav listed down all his contributions and achievements over the brief period he had spent in DHS.

“I see, I see…”
Kalsi
acknowledged. “Why do you think we should give you this post?”

Rishav waited for a few seconds to answer that, “Ma’am, I feel that I…”

“You feel?” the Eco person intervened.

“Uh, sorry, I
know
that I
am the best person for this job. My man management skills and my leadership abilities will back me to complete any task given,” he answered her query.

“Will you find time?”
Kalsi
followed.

“Definitely ma’am. I always have managed to do so.”

“Do you have any girlfriend?” Veenu asked.

Rishav tittered on hearing this, “Ma’am?”

“You heard me right, go on. Tell us.” Veenu added.

“No ma’am. I don’t have a girlfriend,” Rishav thought of Sahana almost instantly.

“How is it relevant Veenu?”
Kalsi
cut Ms. Sharma when she was preparing herself for another go at Rishav.

Now why is she doing this to me?
Rishav thought. Veenu Sharma knew Rishav well enough to not be asking these questions.

“How would you see your
juniors?” The Physics teacher decided to pop in  now.

Rishav was frustrated as none of his reforms were being asked about,
from girlfriend to juniors…what next? The name of my unborn child?

“Sir, I will try and inspire a new group of leaders rather than create a new set of followers,” Rishav said.

The guy who was the next closest thing to Chulbul Pandey of Dabangg fame, didn’t get head to tail of what Rishav just said and instead muttered something that sounded like E=MC^2.

“Do you like fast food?” Veenu asked.

Kalsi
on hearing this didn’t even gather the energy to butt in. She dropped her pen and placed her hand on her forehead and looked at Veenu skeptically.

“Junk food? Yes ma’am definitely!” Rishav kind of had started liking the direction in which the interview was going. No serious questions, just a whole lot of crap. So much for wanting to be Head Boy, he atleast got to know what
really
happens in these so called
high profile
interviews.