I am Sorry... Episode #10

Final Days in College...

It was our final year in college. Days were getting dull, mostly without Ashwin. It’s nearly a year and we don’t have a person between us, Aasha and me, to disturb us. We miss him. Initially, we used to wonder about Ashwin that when would he leave us alone, to have a romantic chat; But now we have a lot of time for romance but we don't talk much about our personal interests. It’s really painful for both of us because we were also responsible for Ashwin’s suspension. Meanwhile, Jessica moved to another college due to that incident, out of her own interest. Nothing much was known about her, in the aftermath. Ashwin visits the college only during the exams; but he never talks to us. Even though Aasha tried her best to convince him, he never gave up on his vow of silence. For us, with sadness filled in the air, the days were moving like a sloth.

One fine day, in the classroom, we were eagerly listening to a very boring lecture, with notes spontaneously being written by the front-benchers. All of a sudden, there was a voice from the classroom doorstep. It was Kumar Anna, who came with a notice in his hand. It almost happens daily with him that he has a notice in his hand and appears at our classroom's doorstep. But this time it was some special news. It was about an inter college cultural meet. And our college correspondent had recommended all of us to take part in it. This was because the college which was hosting this mega event is a medical college and the chairman of that college was a close friend of our correspondent. Also, this was the first time they had extended the invitations to engineering colleges. Everyone started discussing about taking part in it. Aasha turned towards me and asked me ”Are we going to take part?!” With some uneasy reaction I scratched my head and said “No.” and I started to move out of the class. She followed me swiftly and asked, “Why? Normally, we do the ’Adzap’, but why not this time?” I told her that there really was no use in doing it without Ashwin.  But she wanted us to take part in it to overcome the past. But I moved silently away from that place without responding. After I moved a few steps she called out to me and asked “Can I take that as an yes?”  I gave a half-hearted smile and said “as you wish”. She threw a happy smile at me, which was missing from her face for a long time. On seeing that smile I took a decision to propose to her during the eve of the cultural meet. Even though we know each other’s intention, we have never expressed it and I thought that she would be happy if I put this love of ours on the record, at least before the end of our college life.

We were on our way to the cultural meet at the Vellore CCM Medical College. Since it was also the last working day for our academic year, we had all planned to leave for our respective home-towns after the event. She was preparing sincerely for the program, in which we were to participate, whereas I was sincerely rehearsing on how to make the "proposal", finally. Our college bus was just about 2 hours drive away from Vellore. It was a 3 hour journey. Every one of us was dancing, singing and chit-chatting all over the bus. Usually, Ashwin was the one who took charge of whatever competition it may be and we used to go about it accordingly. But, this time Aasha took the responsibility and she was more or less able to fill-in for Ashwin. With the bus packed with entertainers, what else could we expect? The air was filled with art. Aakash composed a new song of his own and he was in the process of giving lyrics for it. It started something like “Magudi… Magudi…”, it truly sounded like a peppy Tamil rock song. Was really funny though and we enjoyed the song, every one of us was singing it aloud all along the journey. In the back seat, was Vishok, practicing for the ‘variety performance’ category; he was going to do a fusion dance. He used to dance pretty well. Also he would take part in our ‘Adzap’ as well. With all these preparations and some junior students we entered the CCM Medical College, Vellore.

After we entered the college one word that came out of my mouth was “Wow!!!” I had never seen such wonderful, beautiful and gorgeous girls in sarees before. I thought it was just me who felt that way; but when I turned towards my left, I saw Vishok, Aakash, Bibu and the rest of the bus with the very same reaction. After that I turned to my right and saw Aasha’s reaction. She was having her palm on her forehead and gave me a pathetic look, as I shrugged my shoulders. She shouted “Enough everyone, now get down from the bus and follow me!” What to do? It’s a man's thing. Even Darwin had proved it, decades back.

After a long walk inside the college campus, we entered the reception of the cultural meet centre. They named it as ‘PEGASUS’, I just thought "Whatever!” Aasha was filling the forms for all of us and she was discussing about the program timing with those reception girls. I and the other boys were keenly admiring those beautiful girls and were trying to find out their names from their ID tags. One was “Shivani” and the other one was “Roopa…” Just then Aasha stopped me with a raging look. If I understood one thing from this, it was that never give room for your inner urges especially when your girl friend is around. After filling the form they were asking for the team name. Before Aasha even began her reply, I cut her short and said, “Agni! Team Agni”. Everyone's reaction was "Not again!" I don’t know where or when I started using this name or about how it came into my mind, but what I know is, whenever someone asked for a team name I use to spontaneously name it as ‘Team Agni’. 

Everyone started to move to their event spots. Vishok, Bibu, Aakash and I went to the Gaming Zone. Aasha was preparing others for their respective events and she was less interested in games, so I was sure that she wouldn't come to the gaming zone, So I got ready for the "admiring beauty" event, you definitely know what I mean. Our Admad program was scheduled to start at 12:00 pm that afternoon and Vishok's dance program was scheduled at 2:00pm. But here we were, eagerly playing games at the gaming zone. And there we saw a girl. She was the one who conducted the event. And she had draped herself in a stunning blue saree. Vishok, Aakash and I were exclaiming as if we were looking at 'VTV Jessi’. Meanwhile, Bibu was seriously into the game, so the three of us started to follow her and were laughing behind her for no reason. Vishok took my mobile and planned to take a pic of Aakash and me by keeping her inside the frame.  So we were tailing her and were giving poses near her to bring her inside the frame. After a few snaps she found out what we were trying to do and we saw that she was picking up her phone to inform someone about this. So, we felt it was necessary to move away from that place, but Bibu was desperate to play one more game, he had no idea of what was happening around him. Eventually, we convinced him and rushed out from that zone. On seeing us move out, the girl was furious and started barking at the person on the other end of the phone, urging him/her to come sooner to the games lab. We were literally running down the stairs and out of nowhere Vishok bumped into a guy's shoulder, due to which the other guy's ID card flew and landed down. I was just able to get a glimpse of the name in card as 'George' and wasting little time, Vishok picked it up and handed it back to him, with the quickest apology possible and then we vanished from that zone. 

It was really a strange experience. Getting into trouble in another college. But somehow we escaped from that place. We went to meet Aasha, it looked like she was eagerly waiting for our arrival as our Adzap program was about to begin in minutes. As we had forgotten all the things, we started to make last minute preparations, as usual, for the performance. Aasha borrowed my phone to make a call since her mobile's battery was down.

The event began and our program was the first on the stage. It was a 5 minute skit, we did our best. After the performance, Vishok ran to the cafeteria along with Bibu, as he was very hungry and he had to perform his dance in a little while. Meanwhile, Aakash was seriously watching the other Adzap performances. And again it was just Aasha and me, who are left in each other's company, as usual. I had a bulb sparkling above my head, I felt like this was the best chance I'd get to make the proposal. So, I started with quizzing her like "Shall we talk?" She responded with a "What about?"

 “About the things we were left to talk on similar occasions?” I replied. She got it and said, “Not here. Let’s move to some other quiet place to talk about it.” I was a bit surprised by her understanding skills. After reaching an empty lecture hall, she turned to the wall and said, “Now you can tell”. After hearing those words I was shivering and I uttered, “I.. Lo..”. Suddenly my phone rang. Oh God not again! "Who the F!@# is calling now?", I cried in my  mind, pulling out my phone. It was Vishok. I tried to disconnect but Aasha asked me to pick it up and she said “you can tell me after talking with him. No problem, I will wait”. With a sense of rage I answered the call. “Come quickly. I am waiting near dining hall” he said and disconnected the call in a jiffy. I really don’t know why he talked like this. I asked Aasha to wait and promised her that I will be back in under a minute, as I rushed to the cafeteria.

As I reached there, I started searching for him, suddenly I felt a hand on my back. It was Bibu. He was standing alone. I was confused and I asked him that "Why did Vishok ask me to come here and where is he now?"

 ”I will tell you everything. First you take out your mobile.” he said. I didn't understand what was happening, so I silently took my mobile out and handed it over to Bibu. Suddenly a person plucked my mobile from his hand and by that time, nearly some 8 people were surrounding us. I knew that it was some big problem, but what? Then I looked at the guy who took my mobile. It was George, the one we ran into, while we were running away from the game zone. And my senses already figured out the cause ‘Hand clicking, Girl problem’. George asked me for the photo we took. Bibu slightly turned towards me and gave me an angry look and asked “What have you done?”  I replied with a silence. George gave the phone to the other short guy who was one among the eight and then he turned towards me. “How dare you took a snap of ‘Monisha’?!” asked George me. Actually he was trying to threaten me but I was actually excited upon hearing her name. Then I replied, "We didn’t take any snap of your girl. In fact she was not that much of a pretty girl to get inside my mobile phone". George was angered by this and came closer to pull my collar but Bibu came in-between us and he pushed George away from me. And suddenly all the other students from the surroundings came and stopped George from fighting with us. He was still shouting at us; a person from the opposite gang took us aside and he said, "Sorry guys, that’s his girlfriend and that's why he is behaving like this. For instance, if we do the same in your college, will you leave us just like that?”  I was speechless, after hearing those words and a bit afraid, on thinking about what they would do to me after finding her photo in my mobile.

 A guy was searching that photo in my mobile and George was eagerly waiting for the moment to break my nose, I mean physically, with evidence. After a long search that guy told George, “There is nothing in it”. More than George I was surprised a lot on hearing that. George was confused and he ordered him to check it again but he wasn't able to find anything because there wasn't any photo of that girl. George got frustrated and he shouted at his friend and he sat on a chair with his brain thinking. Suddenly, I asked him, "Where is Vishok?"

 "He is with us safely and we won’t leave him unless we get the photos", he replied. It was really bad to see our friend being held as a hostage in another college, for a silly reason. I don’t know how he feels right now. "Is he being tortured by these over reacting schmucks?" That was the thought going on my mind. George stood up and said that he would be taking the phone with him and will confirm it with her girlfriend and only then he will let Vishok go. Bibu tried a lot to convince them but they were purely idiotic. They started their bikes which were parked outside the cafeteria and left. It was quite a big campus and it was definitely difficult to follow them. We were cornered and were helpless. But the only hope that we had was, that there would be no photo in the mobile and if they don't find anything, then they will surely have to let him go.

Bibu and I started to walk slowly towards the Auditorium. Aasha and Aakash came in search of Vishok. We narrated the entire episode to them. And I promised them that he will be back for sure. Aasha replied,”OH MY GOD! What the hell have you done? Is he safe?” I nodded my head. Then Aakash interrupted “Okay, time is running and they are going to call our team soon. Who is going to perform now?” We were tensed, angered, silenced and were in completed frustration. At one point, Aasha broke the silence and came out with an idea. She turned towards Aakash and said "This is the right time to show everyone what you got." Bibu and I understood her and we wore a grin and looked at Aakash and said “Come on Aakash! Let us have the ‘Magudi’ song, right now.” Aakash was taken aback by surprise and asked us that do we really have to perform that right now for God's sake. We gave a big nod. Then Aakash went back a few steps and looked at us with the same grin and said, "Come on guys let's change the game!"

I knew that it was going to be an exciting experience for us now. We were on stage and now we had Aakash on the microphone. Bibu handled the keyboard. Aasha and I were about to do the chorus part. Akash clapped his hands a couple of times to get everyone's attention. And as the auditorium became silent, he said "One, two, three" and the song began. Aakash started the song “Maghudi…. Maghudi” with his peppy voice and the song was electrifying with the rap done by Bibu in between, I was echoing the word ‘Maghudi' and Aasha made hiccup sounds which was placed in between the two consecutive "Maghudi", as like the Beatles. And this is how we started the song. It was a 4 minute song and on hearing the catchy words “Maghudi… Maghudi…” all the audience in the front row laughed out loud. I guess they were the judges and all others were enjoying it. Two minutes into the song, the guys from the last row stood up and clapped in rhythm. The lyrics “Maghudi… Maghudi…” came 20 times in the 4 minute song but whenever those words came everyone got excited and they all joined in the chorus with me, the sound level kept increasing on each chorus. Probably, for the final “Maghudi… Maghudi…” everyone joined the chorus including the CMC College principal and his daughter. It became an electrifying performance. After the song we took a bow and on the way down the backstage everyone came near Aakash and asked “Which movie is this song from? Is this from an upcoming Dhanush movie?” He replied with a proud smile “This is my own composition.” He pointed me to the guy who asked him about the song and said "He will be a director one day, on that day this song will be in his movie.”  I really had goosebumps on hearing that. He gave me a wink, a smile and left. It was the most exciting moment (But this song has somehow travelled and has found its place in a Maniratanam movie, with a different tune though).

We came out of the auditorium. We were jumping in the air and were enjoying our moment of fame and suddenly we saw a person in front of us. It was Vishok. Amidst this joy, we really forgot the person who was held as a hostage, due to our deeds. He frowned and was sweating heavily. We were speechless and afraid that he would kill us. When we moved closer we heard him muttering something which sounded something like ”Maghudi… Maghudi…” He smiled and all of us smiled and he ran towards us and hugged Aakash real tight in great joy. We had tears in our eyes. After that moment of explanations, Vishok passed me my mobile and Bibu apologized to Vishok for allowing them to take him away in the cafeteria. But Vishok just smiled and replied “All is well!!!”

Then on, everything was smooth that day. We were waiting for the final act of the day, results. Our team participated in two programmes and we were waiting for the final words from the stage. Most of the prizes went to the home side as usual and many were shouting catcalls for anyone who was receiving the prize. I was searching for Aasha all over the area. At that instance, my mobile beeped. It was a message from Aasha, "Charged my mobile. Come here, I am waiting back stage. It’s the right moment to say this- a surprise is waiting for you. You need to come here within two minutes”. This is f$&*ing awesome, I went crazy in my mind. I reached the place in exactly 50 seconds. She was there, standing, literally, leaning against a pillar. She threw a smile and said, “Come here soon. It’s already time”. So I ran close to her and I was breathing heavily. She said, “Lend me your ears”. So I bent to lend my ears and she said, “The surprise is...... we got the first prize and I got the news from Shivani”.  I was totally blank at that moment and I asked her "That's great! But is this the only reason you called me". ”Yes, what else did you think?” she replied. I told nothing and started to walk back slowly to the stage. But I suddenly asked her for which event we got first prize? Before she even replied me, I heard the loud announcement and a happy growl from Aakash on stage, along with Bibu. At that very moment Aasha and I ran fast and joined them on the stage with great joy. It was the most memorable moment for us and we kept jumping and smiling on stage. We left the college campus with much joy than we had expected.

We reached the railway station to send Aasha off to her home town for study holidays. She was going to leave straight from Vellore. Aakash and Vishok went to buy food and water bottle for her. I was talking with her. I know that I am going to miss her in these holidays and I was thinking philosophically that nothing happened as per plan. We planned to prepare for Adzap but we didn’t get a prize for that but we never expected us to sing a song, we not only sang but got the first prize with great response. Vishok prepared for the dance for many days but he wasn't even able to perform on the day. Everything that happened was unexpected and the most evident failure was the proposal plan. It was an utter failure, but I made up my mind to give it a try now. But it was time and the train honked out loud to signal departure. Aakash and Vishok were running from the tail of the train, with the food and water bottle. I asked them, “Didn’t you find any shop nearer? Why did you go that much far?”. “Only then we can reach late”, they replied with a laugh, Suddenly Vishok's phone rang, so he took it out, the caller's name displayed as "MONISHA", We were all in shock. He said "I can explain that". Actually the great George had left the hostage with his girl friend Monisha, in order to threaten us and get the photo, but meanwhile our guy had a moment of romance and has got into the good books of his girl friend. I know that George and Company was a bunch of idiots but I never thought that he will make them look more idiotic. We all burst out with laughter. The train started to move and she got into the train waving her hand at us. I bid her adieu and turned.

Instantly, my phone beeped in seconds. It was from Aasha. I turned to look at the train, as well as I opened the text simultaneously, Vishok handed a chalk piece and said that it was a freebie for buying the water bottle. He moved away quickly. I said “What? Free for water bottle!?!” I just forgot what I was thinking. Then it just struck me. I opened the text and it said, ”Do you think that was the only surprise that I have?”. After seeing that I looked at the train. The last carriage was about to cross me. Aasha grabbed the handle and peeped out of the door with a smile and shouted, " Don't look at me now, look behind the last carraige, Idiot!". As soon as she said, the last carriage crossed me.

At the back of the last carriage, down to the letter ‘X’ I saw the words that I would never forget, “I Love You!”. She winked at me with a smile and went back in. Finally this also happened....as I told you all "Not according to plan". "I too Love you Aasha".