As the tannoy boomed
out boarding gate changes, Sandhya steadied her coffee cup that was rocking
precariously on the unoccupied seat next to her, and looked around with
annoyance for the source of all the chaos. What she
saw made her frown and mumble to herself, “Ah great! Just my luck! Why can’t I
ever be in a public space and not be subjected to the antics of toddlers.” Sandhya loved her peace and quiet and being around
rambunctious children was Sandhya’s pet peeve. She liked to have her meals in
peace in restaurants without little kids running around because they would
rather be in a burger place. She hated that parents dragged their
too-young-to-understand kids to movies and that these kids reduced her viewing
pleasure and most of all she hated that inevitably she was near a kid on
flights. (Nothing pleasant ever came out of that one - she was sure.)
The kid that was currently making his
presence felt was leaning over the shared backrest and swinging his legs wildly
causing the conjoined seating ensemble to tremble. He presumably, had an entire
band playing in his head and was singing some incomprehensible song
rapturously. He found the wherewithal amidst this to send a cheeky grin her way
as if to say “Ain’t I just fabulous?” Sandhya turned slightly so that the kid
was now in her peripheral vision and she had a better chance of ignoring him.
Just then she heard a female voice say,
“Dhruv! Settle down! Don’t be a nuisance or else I will drop you back to
naani’s place.” The boy’s mother presumably, but her threat didn’t seem to have
much of an effect and the singing continued. Sandhya rotated just a tad bit
more. Just then the same female voice exclaimed, “Sandhya ma’am is that you?”
Sandhya turned around and faced the voice, it was familiar, but she had to jog
her memory to recall the name. Having spent 20 plus years in academia, she
often found faces familiar but often had to struggle to recall names. “Ma’am,
don’t you remember me? I am Trisha. Class of 2010” Immediately the memories
came flooding back and Sandhya remembered Trisha, who had been a vivacious girl
in college, and was the leader of almost all the mischief that occurred on
campus for the five years that she had a been a student. At first, she had been
a mere participant, but soon was the undisputed leader. That though, didn’t
interfere with her academic achievements and Trisha had always fought to be at
the top of her class.
Her chief rival had been an amalgamation of
Farooque Shaikh and Amol Palekar.
Sandhya would often get the feeling that he
was about to break in to a Jagjit Singh gazal, he was aptly named Vinay. It was
around the last year of their graduation, that she became aware of a rumour
that Trisha and Vinay were romantically involved. And she remembered thinking,
“What an incongruous pair!” But then it takes all kinds to love all kinds and
love is all that mattered.
After their graduation, both Trisha and
Vinay continued pursuing both their Masters and their now fully blossomed
affair de coeur. It was now known openly that there was a romantic alignment between
the two. Their extra-curricular activities had no apparent effect on their
academic prowess. But at this higher level which needed exemplary analytical
powers it soon became apparent who was the more intelligent of the two. Trisha
applied herself less, but was quick to grasp and understand, whilst Vinay was a
slogger and got his results through adamant determination.
Things were galloping along fine, Sandhya
reminisced, until the big blow-up. The same old story, which forms the basis of
every love story. Trisha’s family found out and were not in favour of her
carrying on with Vinay at all. But love that is thwarted; is love that just
becomes stronger and the two used to sneak out to meet up. Things reached an
impasse when the lovers refused to quit and Trisha’s parents became more and
more rigid. Vinay’s parents weren’t in the mix, maybe because he was an
out-of-towner. But Trisha’s parents reached a point where brethren and their
freely doled out advice was far more important than their daughter’s choice.
Sandhya remembered distinctly, standing in class one day and realizing that
neither Trisha nor Vinay were there. Out of concern, that was heavily laced
with a huge dose of curiosity, she checked the entire month’s attendance and
realized that whilst Trisha’s attendance had stopped abruptly about 3 weeks
prior, Vinay’s had waned to a stop a week back. On talking to one of their
friends, she was told that Trisha would no longer be attending college, and
that Vinay was moping away in his room in the hostel and was seeking oblivion in
the depths of bottles.
The annual examination was looming, and it
was critical that the students do well, as the topper would be gaining a
Research Fellowship in the subject, with an all expenses paid-for bursary.
Sandhya had always assumed that either Trisha or Vinay would secure this being
head and shoulders above the others in their class.
Then it had seemed
that the bursary would probably go to some other less deserving student. Mulling over it, Sandhya had sent one of her younger colleagues to
try and persuade Vinay to appear. At the same time, she had called Trisha’s Dad
in an effort to try and get him to let Trisha appear. She had been unable to
talk to him, but had caught Trisha’s elder brother on the phone who assured
Sandhya that he most certainly would try and convince their father to let
Trisha appear for the exam.
On the day of the exam she had seen with
great relief that both of them appeared, even though Trisha, had been subdued
and was scarcely recognizable and Vinay was unkempt and bedraggled.
The results were a bit surprising to
Sandhya, the topper was no big shocker, as it was Vinay, it was Trisha who
surprised with her near the bottom of the class placement.
A couple of days after the results had been
declared, Sandhya had a visitor in her office. It was a young man who had
introduced himself as Trisha’s brother. He was visibly upset, and told her that
he had convinced his parents with great difficulty to let Trisha give the exam
and the result was a shock to them and him too. The brother said that he was
being blamed for the whole fiasco as it was on his insistence that Trisha had
been sent to give the exam.
He had hoped that Trisha would ace her exam
and thus avoid getting married off to the first semi- suitable boy that crossed
his parent's path. Her result was guaranteed to send the
parents into a tailspin, with the end not being so pleasant for Trisha.
He was hell-bent upon getting Trisha's
papers re-evaluated. He had wanted to know the procedure and Sandhya had guided
him through the necessary formalities.
A few days later, Sandhya had been summoned
by the Principal and tasked with the re-evaluation. It was with great curiosity
that Sandhya, approached her assignment. She had been curious to know just how
badly written were Trisha's papers.
She remembered sitting in the evaluation
room, with a fan whirring lazily above her head and browsing the papers. They
weren't even average. The thing that had stood out the most was a total lack of
thought organization.
And then suddenly, she had been arrested by
one answer in particular.... it had been on a topic that Trisha had submitted
an essay on, it was abysmally written!
Sandhya had immediately suspended her
evaluation and headed back to her cubicle. She had rummaged furiously through
her papers and had located the essay. Going through it she had immediately
understood what had happened.
It caused quite a tussle between her ethics
and her love for procedure. Her biggest dilemma in her academic career had been
that.
Subsequently, after a lot of soul searching,
she had finally submitted her report. Trisha's marks had stayed the same.
Sandhya had never seen her after that...
" Dhruv, say Good afternoon! This is
my teacher." The voice interrupted Sandhya's ruminations.
" Ma'am this is my son Dhruv"-
Trisha was saying.
Sandhya stuck out her hand and shook the
grubby one that had been thrust out to her. She was met with a grin, looking up
she saw the same grin on Trisha's face.
" I see that he is an imp like you
Trisha" she said smiling at her.
Trisha grinned back then pulled forward a
man who was standing patiently to the side.
"Ma'am, meet my husband Ankur
Jain." Sandhya shook hands again.
" We are off to Delhi Ma'am, where are
you going?" Trisha asked.
" Me too" replied Sandhya.
Ankur then said quietly, " I'll take
away this rascal and give you two a chance to catch up before boarding."
He was already gathering up the rascal in question even as he spoke.
After he had left and the ladies had sat
themselves down again, Trisha said with no preamble, " Thank you Ma'am for
not ratting us out."
Sandhya replied, " I just followed
procedure Trisha, I was asked to evaluate the quality of the answers not the
handwriting."
She smiled and said
further, " But it was quite the risk you took, specially when you knew you
two could never be together, writing each other’s roll numbers like that!"
Trisha replied, " Ma'am, I loved with
no expectations, it was an easy decision to make. Vinay had broken down because
of me, it was only me who could stick him together again."
" Ah! The art of Kintsugi"
Sandhya said, " No wonder Vinay's star now shines brightly.
On that flight to Delhi, Sandhya was
inundated with shrieks of glee when clouds were spotted and tiny hands and feet
kept peppering her with puny assaults, but she didn't mind.
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