Anyone Else But You... (21 page)

“Your decision? How? You weren’t even in the Selection Committee,” he said.

“But you do know how things are when it comes to me,” Muskaan looked into the eyes of the Chairman.

“Yes, but what’s the idea behind this then?”

“You see…”
Kalsi
began, only to be interrupted by Muskaan.

“It is about how we want our school to be seen to the outside world,” said Muskaan. “
Jai
is a symbol of the aristocracy in our school; he represents the rich and the influential. DHS is proud to have the elite of the society within its walls. On the other hand, Rishav Sen is the symbol of hard work and determination. He’s a dedicated young idealist who wants to change the world; he has made a name for himself despite not having an equivalent backup system like that of Jai. And that’s what makes these two contrasting people so interesting. Their cases will be a talking point in years to come and this decision was a part of the agenda to make DHS a more viable brand.”

A.Chandrashekhar changed his posture
slightly
and carried on
to listen with intent.

Muskaan
paused briefly
and continued, “Representatives of two different sides makes the scenario far more interesting than what it already is. The meritorious will see Rishav to be a symbol of hope, someone who can stand out despite all the odds. While, the rich and powerful will see what a little bit of support did to Jai and the same could happen with their sons and daughters too. You see, this makes the parents want to die to put their children into Delhi High School. All this hoopla and hype, it benefits us immensely. Increase the fees, demand donations, do whatever you want to – the brand goes on. And by ensuring that both sides are equally happy, we have actually taken the first step towards ensuring that we meet a long term goal –
dominance
.”

“You mean to say, all of this was discussed before you all selected the Head Boy, boys in this case?” he asked.

“
This information was restricted to just Muskaan and I. And now that you know, I hope that you do realize that it’s in the best interests of the school that it doesn’t go out,”
Bindu
Kalsi
sounded guarded in the way she spoke. “This was an idea of sheer brilliance, wasn’t it Sir?”

“Yes indeed. It was a great idea,” the Chairman exclaimed. “Muskaan, sharp mind you’ve got here. Eh?”

Muskaan Kaur took a superficial bow which was far from displaying humility.

After a few moments of silence, the Chairman spoke again.
“What do you say
Bindu
, we need a Vice Principal for DHS International, what about Muskaan?” he looked at
Kalsi
while he spoke.

Kalsi
let the sentence register before she
replied
, “Why not? I think it is a
great
idea!”

Muskaan grinned, “It’
s going to be an honour, truly grateful!”

“But…?” said
Kalsi
.

“But what?” the Chairman asked.

“Wouldn’t it be an issue that Muskaan has held absolutely no position of administrative authority till now? How will you convince the board?”
Kalsi
seemed concerned.

“Hmmm….” The chairman went into deep thought. “Unless, we provide her with some experience, for the sake of showing it on her bio-data. What say?”

“That is an interesting idea. I have been wanting to replace Veenu for a long time now, her jokes and self-applauses have become annoying now,”
Kalsi
said with a sigh.

“We cannot replace Veenu, she is the safest, most gullible and clean people around. She does no harm to others, we won’t get much by replacing her,” Muskaan butted in.

“She is right,” A.Chandrashekhar said out loud. “Don’t we have Madhuri’s position empty?”

“Yes, we do. So should we put her there?”
Kalsi
asked.

“Yes, yes, go ahead. It’s an internal decision and we’ll call it a stop-gap arrangement so that it is away from probing eyes. Once the session is over, we can immediately shift Muskaan to DHS International as its Vice Principal. What do you think?”

“Brilliant idea!” said
Kalsi
.

“And I second her,” said Muskaan.

The Chairman took out his cell phone and dialed a number. “I am going to send you an email
from my mobile,
within ten minutes. Forward it to all members of the board, get me?” he waited for the person’s reply before hanging up.

TWENTY

Siddhant was unsure about what he had just done. Taking on one of the most influential faces in the school wasn’t the best thing to do. But he did what he felt was right and that was something that kept him content.

He crossed the road in front of DHS, took a right and started walking towards his house that was a few hundred meters away. The stress of approaching exams, constant jibes from his peers and added workload had made his life terrible. Add to that, the annoying heat – life was difficult.

As he made his way, barely a few yards away from his house, a car stopped by. The window panes rolled down, Chintan
flashed a wry smile. “
Abbe o kutte
,” he shouted out.

“Motherfucker, do you even know what you say these days?
And to whom?”

Siddhant ignored and started walking again.

The car caught up with him again, in no time.

“Running away loser?” Chintan asked.

Chintan threw an empty Diet Coke can at him. “Next time motherfucker, it’ll be something harder. Beware.” The window panes rolled up again and the car sped past.

Siddhant turned around to spot a few juniors cracking jokes on him. They stopped immediately on seeing him. He shook his head in disgust and chose to ignore them.

On reaching home, he flung his bag across the dining room and stormed into his room. He shut the door behind him and punched the wall hard.
Why me?
He asked in frustration.

In the meanwhile, his mom knocked on the door, “Lunch
beta
?” she asked.

“Not now!” he replied.

“What happened?” she knocked again.

He didn’t reply.

“Reply
beta
, anything in school? You didn’t complete your assignments? Teachers scolded you
kya
?” she asked unknowing of how complex life in schools had become. It was no longer about just not completing your assignments on time.

“Leave me alone!” he said in a croaky tone.

She got a little paranoid, “Open the door!”

“I said not
now!
Why don’t you understand?”

“Have your lunch, it will get cold, I will help you complete your assignment today,” his mom said, still quite presumptuous.

“For the last time…” said Siddhant as he removed the latch of his door. He faced his mom, “…it is
not
about stupid assignments!” he shouted out.

“Why are you shouting?” she asked. “Lunch?” she held the plate right under his nose.

He lost all control of himself and in a momentary fit of rage; he took hold of the plate and flung it across the room. The food spilled all over the place and the plate landed quite near the TV. His mother retracted and looked in horror at what had just become of her son.

“Siddhant!” she shouted out. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing…can’t you understand? Just
leave me alone!
” tears started rolling down his cheeks. He controlled them with a lot of difficulty.

“I WANT TO BE ALONE!” he screamed at her. “Get lost mom!”

“But Siddhant?” she was about to reply. But, he turned around and shut the door on her face. He dug his head inside his pillow and started crying about what had become of him.

All these years, he had spent trying to gain acceptance – but what he managed was the tag of a pushover. The
aam-chutiya
as people called him. For once, he stood up for a friend. Took on a character, he had detested for a long period of time and he is chucked cans at in front of his juniors. He is abused publically.
He is humiliated, day in and day out.

It was because he couldn’t speak the cool lingo, he couldn’t play a guitar or have nice pick up lines for chicks. He was a loser because despite all the certificates he had, he wasn’t even considered for a single competition, a single respectable post in the Council. His dreams meant nothing to the world and so was the same for him.

He walked up to his drawer and opened it. He took out the pile of certificates that his parents had meticulously collected over the years. He scanned through them. They dated back to as old as his Montessori Merit Cards. He tore them all, he chucked the medals into the dustbin and tore every certificate that he could find. He broke the plastic trophies that he had got, things that were of no value to the world. Once he was done, he repeatedly hit his head on the wall and kept on cursing himself.

His mother who was by now in a state of shock was
silently
sobbing away in the adjacent room. Siddhant’s quest for acceptance had ended even before it had begun.

*

“Muskaan will be taking over as the Vice Principal, soon,” Rishav said as Sahana and he, waited for the next train to arrive.

“What?”

“I said that Muskaan will be taking over as the Vice Principal, soon!” Rishav reiterated.

“Of course I heard that! Why did you repeat?” Sahana snapped.

“You just said
what?
That’s why I repeated!”

“Don’t you understand? My ‘
what’
was like
what the fuck?
More of an exclamatory statement than a question,” she replied.