Anyone Else But You... (18 page)

SEVENTEEN

Sahana could point out all the flaws in men (the worst half of species, she felt). All of them really! She could make fun of their perversion, their desperation, their pathetic behavior and their freakiness. The last thing that Sahana wanted was to get cozy with one of the freaks as she called them. She looked at couples and felt nauseas instantly. All that sappy and so called conventional stuff didn’t work for her.

Sometimes, she did think about the perfect guy for her but in her immediate veinity, she couldn’t find a guy who even remotely resembled him (not Rishav, her dream man rather).

She was going towards the Accounts section of the school alone when Rishav stopped her in her tracks. “Where are you going?”

“Well, how does it matter to you?” she replied.

“Well it doesn’t matter much …just that if you want some company, I am happy to oblige.”

Poor guy
, she thought.
I shouldn’t make him try so hard.

She shrugged and he followed.

They were walking in silence when Sahana noticed some juniors ahead. She saw a couple with their hands loosely tangled in each other’s and she couldn’t help but gawk. She pointed it out to Rishav. “See that, that’s what I don’t like – holding hands! So cheesy!”

Rishav didn’t reply. All that he could think was that this girl was way too complicated and one hell of a piece of work. Wh
ether he had the energy to untangle the big mess Sahana was, was the big question.

On the other hand, Sahana wished that he’d understand she was not playing hard to get but just that she wanted him to stop trying to want more.

After a few more moments of silence and a few steps ahead, Rishav spoke, “Maybe they like it. Maybe that’s the way to show their love for each other.”

“True. But I am saying that
I
don’t like it. Not that
they
don’t like it.”

“Okay,” he mumbled a faint reply.

“Relationships…” continued Sahana. “…are useless, meaningless and a big waste of time! I don’t like them because in the end, I know that one day or the other, those two are gonna break up and I don’t think I have time or the energy to cope with all of that. Plus, I don’t like relationships because you would have to tell your boyfriend or girlfriend everything about yourself which could be turned against you, if you happen to break up. Hence, the conclusion is that they are
hazardous
.”

“You don’t have to tell anyone anything. You can omit some things, sometimes,” Rishav replied to her long statement.

“That’s the thing
na
. See, if I have a boyfriend, then he would expect me to talk to him on the phone. But I can’t do that because of certain restrictions and stuff. And when I tell him that, he would want to know more…ho
w and why? And I can’t tell him,
because in the event of a fall out, he might just tell It to his friends. And I can’t let that happen, can I?” she finally ended.

“True,” he said.

“Do you know any other word that that?” she asked.

“Anyway,” Sahana continued without waiting for a reply.
“I sincerely hope that you don’t feel too highly of relationships, or else we might have problems getting alon
g
!” she sounded blunt.

“Why, of course…” said Rishav as he made his way
across
the winding corridors of Delhi High School.

*

Bindu
Kalsi
stared into the sheet that she was carrying with her on stage. She had scribbled a few key-notes on what to say and on what not to say on stage. But much to her annoyance, she left that sheet back within the comforts of her cabin. She strained her eyes to scan through the list of names.

She looked up and let out a deep breath of air. She paused and observed the students standing, all so silent, waiting in baited breath to hear something they had been anticipating for over a month now. Almost everything in DHS had revolved around the Council appointments, hence, every single child, teacher and parent alike knew its importance. With the growing silence, grew impatience. Many thought of it to be a dramatic prologue to what
Bindu
would say but few knew that
Bindu
was utilizing that time to make up stuff she would have to say. She was bad with speeches.

“Good morning…” she said in a nasal tone.

“Gooood morniiiing ma’am…!” There was a stretched out
, enthusiastic
reply from the
juniors while the seniors standing near the back found it below their levels of coolness to actually wish the Principal back.

“
As you already know that we have assembled here for a specific purpose. And that is to introduce you all to your new set of leaders,” she paused briefly to see how people were responding. As expected, everyone pretty much had blank expressions.

“We had some really good interviews over the past week or so and we have taken a lot of pain to select the
best
council possible!” she added. “So, these badge bearers will be our representatives in the student community. Respect them and seek help from them whenever required. If they break rules, report them but at no time will you misbehave with them. Is that understood?”

“Yessss maaaaam!” another sing-song reply.

“Good,” she said. “I will read out the names, one by one. Starting from the Head Boy and Head Girl and follow it up with the Vice Head Boy and so on.”

Two people from within those three thousand were barely managing to breathe.

Jai
tried hard appearing cool. It seemed that his calmness had just gone on a vacation. He constantly scratched his head, shifted weight from one leg to the other and rubbed his stubble unnecessarily. He snapped at people who were muttering things like, ‘congrats’ and ‘you’ll be the Head Boy’, around him. He desperately needed some peace of mind; the last few nights had been terrible for him, to say the least. Sleepless nights and then when he finally managed to get some sleep, he was haunted by nightmares of Rishav Sen running around in his father’s dressing gown. It was three years back that
Jai
was identified as a possible candidate to become the Head Boy and ever since, he had succeeded without any competition. He did whatever he could within his control and also stuff beyond his control to ensure that th
e moment he was facing went according to plan.
Nothing can ruin it,
he thought. He’d probably start crying if the results turned out to be unfavourable – such was his desperation for that post.

On the other hand, in a more contrasting scenario – Rishav Sen stood chatting and cracking a few jokes with people around him. All of a sudden it seemed that these posts didn’t matter to him, he was a different person altogether.
I’ve got nothing to lose
, he told himself, the moment negative thoughts started creeping in.

Sahana glanced at Rishav from a little far away, she was afraid that he might just go all emotional if he didn’t get the post. She interrupted Vanya a number of times, just to stand on her toes and keep a check on how Rishav was responding. She was anxious too but she wasn’t too sure on why her heart prayed that Rishav
didn’t
get the post.

Siddhant
Dalvi, stuck to his usual self. He wasn’t even considered for interview. His chances were all gone and he muttered a chant under his breath that wished Rishav, good luck with his application.

The attention shifted back to the stage. “And the names are…” said
Bindu
Kalsi
.

“…for Head Boy, we have,” she began her sentence. “…for Head Boy, it is
Jai
Chauhan
!” she said.

And the response was incomparable to anything that had ever happened in school before. A sea of thunderous claps engulfed the entire school as there was hooting, screaming and cheering for one of the most popular heroes
and figures that stood by the ‘cool’ image of Delhi High School. Students of all shapes and sizes, teachers and assistant teachers alike – all clapped for
Jai
as hard as they could.
Jai
got all pumped up and screamed out a few abuses in the air as he walked briskly towards the stage,
bisecting
the crowd
,
occasionally pushing the
m
to make way for himself. And when he was almost through the crowd and nearly reaching the stair case of the stage and when the noise and euphoria had died down,
Bindu
Kalsi
spoke again. “And by discretion as the Principal of DHS, we will be having a slight change in the system,” she said in one go.

Jai stopped in his tracks; he looked at the Principal with a startled expression.
Bhenchod, what the fuck is she saying?
He thought.

As an answer to all the curious faces looking up at her,
Bindu
Kalsi
clarified. “Using my discretion, I announce that this year in lieu of a Vice Head Boy – we shall be having
two
Head Boys!” she laid enough emphasis on words she had to.

Some kind of bomb seemed to have exploded because right then, the chatter got replaced by a buzz that spread like wildfire. There were a string of whispers that ran through all present there. Teachers looked at each other with surprised expressions, students pro-Jai cursed
Kalsi
while the neutral ones tried hard to come to terms with what was announced.

What’s wrong with this fuckin’ woman!”
scowled Jai. He nonetheless, grumpily, walked ahead and got onto the stage.

“As the second Head Boy, we have an equally deserving candidate – someone who in a short while has done wonders for the school and I am sure he will not let me down. The second Head Boy of DHS, please come up on stage, Rishav Sen!” she announced with great pride. She smiled like never before.

The moment he heard his name, Rishav’s heart burst into an array of emotions. He couldn’t think and feel like a normal human being then. All he wanted had just come true and it would take something more than time to help him come to terms with it. His vision was blurry, there were people patting him, some shook his hands. He could feel people grabbing him and congratulating in their own personal way but Rishav tried hard searching for the face he wanted to see the most. He looked all around frantically to locate her. He needed to catch a glimpse of her before he went on to the stage and there she was.

He finally managed to see Sahana, a little away from where he stood. She was visible, yet concealed from his view in a way.

She was smiling. They looked at each other for a few seconds, Rishav smiled back.
Some kind of unspoken communication took place between them.
He wanted to thank her for being there in his life and
give her a hug to let her know how
special
she was,
but then came the second call for him. With a quick last look, Rishav broke into a jog and tried reaching the stage before his dream ended…