Anyone Else But You... (11 page)

“You celebrate your dog’s birthday?”

Rishav nodded.

“What do I tell my aunt? Why was I late?” she inquired.

“Tell her you had some stay-back shit. She’ll believe you.”

“What if I get caught?” C
ame another question.

“Seriously dudette, we spent twenty-five minutes together at a place barely five hundred meters away from your place. What else can be riskier than this?” Rishav tried analyzing the thing logically.

“That’s true, but isn’t the risk too much?”

“Ask your friend Vanya, it’s a basic principle – risk involves probability of huge profits. So shall I count you in my guest list?”

“You have a guest list too?” she was intrigued.

“Yes, as of now the list just has the names of two people
,
you know. And I doubt it whether they’ll be further additions.”

“And the two people being?”

“Rishav Sen and Sahana Vajpai,
” he stopped to notice her reaction to this carefully. She had a straight face initially, as though she hadn’t got what he had said completely. And then the expression changed to that of amusement. “Aren’t the two enough?” Rishav added,

“Of course they are
,” Sahana concurred.

“So would you be there with me tomorrow, after school?” he was persistent.

“Why do we ask when we already know what the answer is?” said Sahana.

“Why do we not tell when we know how much our answer means to the person?” Rishav replied.

“Because my friend, some
things in life are better left to be understood,” a smile lit up Sahana’s face.

Rishav reciprocated. “I will see you in school tomorrow and then after school too,” he said.

“You know my decision?”

Rishav nodded.

“
Then y
ou know right,” she looked at him for a second or so and then started walking again.

While Sahana headed back home
, she briefly went through the first few texts she had exchanged with Rishav. One of them read:

‘I am allergic to animals. Dogs in specific. Can’t stand one. Never ever had a pet and neither will have one. – sent by Rishav.’

There was a certain experience of buoyancy at that point of time for Sahana.
He tries
too hard
…she thought
.

TEN

“We call him
Aam-chutiya
!” Hardik whispered into Jai’s ear, who started chuckling the moment he heard the name. “He likes nibbling on Mangoes and
chut
and he is ordinary, hence,
aam-chutiya!
” Hardik explained on a louder note, much to the annoyance of the Accountancy teacher.

A better part of
Siddhant
’s school days were spent having people poke fun at him. Be it his shabby Hindi pronunciation or his diet or his diction – the ‘popular’ ones would ensure that
Siddhant
was at the receiving end of all their taunts. And his fault?

He just didn’t cede to their superficiality. He didn’t lick their asses like other
wannabes
did.

“He knows you guys call him this?” Jai asked.

“Yeah man, he does,” Hardik replied. “Despite that, he’s such a loser man, he doesn’t protest!”

“Ha ha ha..!” Jai laughed. He looked at
Siddhant
who was taking down notes with a lot of intent. It was as though his whole life depended on those twenty minutes spent inside class
,
taking notes. Jai felt a tad sad for him.
Two years and no recognition would have been terrible, he thought. Personally,
Jai
had started mixing with the right kinds and laying the right foundation for becoming the Head Boy, ever since he was in Class IX. Networking and diplomacy was something Jai’s dad had taught him ever since birth.

“Sleep with the maid if needed, but ensure that at the end of it you have gained something considerable!” Jai’s dad had told him this when Jai had gone to find out
whether
being manipulative was
un
ethical.

“Ethics, young man…” Jai’s dad had broken into a burst of laughter when he heard Jai’s question. “…ethics and success don’t walk on the same road Son, you will realize that. You are meant for big things, so don’t let tiny people come your way.” Jai had taken these words with considerable amounts of seriousness and it was visible in the way he dealt with people in school.
He wasn’t the types to go out of the way to help someone in need, he would just appear to be helping that person or maybe he would first try to find out how his act would benefit his reputation and after all these considerations would he extend his helping hand. Jai’s principles seldom worked beyond the definitions of a ledger, trial balance and a balance sheet…everything had a direct bearing on his goodwill. And his job was to keep it enhanced as much as he could.

“Let’s go and heckle him,” Hardik suggested.

“
Nahi yaar
, leave it. He is a
chut
anyway, why bother?” Jai replied with his usual calmness that accompanied his stupid logic.

“You wait and watch, let me do it…” Hardik got up to move closer to
Siddhant
. A whack on the head with his notebook would be enough. And the Accountancy teacher wouldn’t really do anything to His Highness
Jai
’s friend. And this in fact gave Hardik a lot of encouragement to do silly stuff which he would not have done otherwise.

“I told you,
sit
!” Jai raised his voice. The bark was enough to remind the class of the royalty’s presence within their walls. Despite it being a clear cut disturbance, the teacher just looked at Jai with
I-know-you-did-it-again
expression and carried on with her teaching.

“Bitch, I told you not to!” Jai scowled.

“Sorry maaaan! I didn’t know you’d get so peeved so quickly?”

“Then know so! I am not in my best of mood these days, so understand!”
Jai
spoke with authority.

“What happened man? Something serious?” Hardik replied.

“You know it,” Jai said. “It’s that Sen-guy! He’s making me jittery.”

“What about him?” Hardik was inquisitive.

“They way he ass-licks people around, his fuckin’ charm and his sugar-coated comments. It’s making all the teachers go gaga over him. Asshole he is man, I’ll bloody fuck him if he pips me to the Head Boy’s post!”

“Head Boy? That pimp is applying for Head Boy?” Hardik’s jaw dropped, metaphorically, not literally.

“Yeah he is and I am pretty sure that he will end up getting it despite my candidature
.”

“No
re,
that’s not possible dude! You are
Jai
Chauhan
,
the poster boy of DHS, how can
anyone
replace you overnight?” there came a spontaneous response.

“But there must be some way of getting that bitch down? Find dirt man, go find dirt on him!”
Jai
ordered.

“Dirt? What kind of dirt do you want on him?”

“Any will do. His weakness, it can be a person or a trait or anything for that matter. Something that’ll make him cut a sorry figure. You find that out and then we can nail his not
so
holy image in front of Veenu.”
Jai
spoke as Hardik nodded.

His Highness had just put one of his subjects on a daunting mission. A lot was at stake for
Jai
and this mission was perhaps very crucial to ensure that if there was one winner
at the end of it all
, it would be Jai
!

*

“Don’t you dare talk to me now!” Sahana snapped as she pushed the chair back in the library with a lot of noise. Some heads turned to see the commotion; the Library in-charge sent a frosty glare from behind the layers of books c
rowdin
g her table.

Sahana got up to vacate the seat she was occupying; a taken aback Rishav Sen, mustered a lot of courage and mumbled, “What now?”

“You know
shit
about me!” Sahana hissed. “And right now, you are just being a presumptuous dickhead,”
s
he said.

Rishav scratched the back of his head before meekly submitting his response, “Mind the language woman…” “…how on Earth am I supposed to know that calling you by the name of an Indian revolutionary might just piss you off?”

“It just did and
seriously
now, don’t talk to me!” She turned her back on him and stormed towards another seat across the gigantic Library of Delhi High School.

Rishav sat there for a few seconds, trying to come to terms with the intensity of what just struck him. After all the drama of creating a non-existent dog’s birthday, fixing up a date, making Sahana make excuses – he calls her by the name of a weird Indian freedom fighter and BAM! There she goes, all mad at him. By the time Rishav had steadied his nerves, Sahana was at the far corner of the hall checking out the magazine section.
I got this date after a lot of effort
, Rishav thought.
And I won’t screw it up
, he added. So he gathered the balls to walk up and tried not to sport a puppy dog face. He knew how repulsed Sahana would get had he tried the fake antics of making cute-innocent-puppy dog apologetic expressions. Trying to be normal, he approached Sahana; who on seeing him turned around and walked straight back to her seat. Rishav tailed her as he felt the gaze of a number of eyeballs following his actions.

He sat down right next to Sahana, much to her annoyance. “I am sorry?” he said.

“Was that a question?” She asked.

“Not really. Just that I didn’t intend any harm and besides I wasn’t aware that that
name would affect you so badly,” he spoke in a lowered voice.

Sahana looked at him, visibly pissed as she formed her reply. “Whatever,” she said.

Whatever?
Rishav said to himself.
Damn these women,
he thought.