Shala (27 page)

‘Let me try now,’ Sarwate volunteered.

‘Shut up!’ the girls jumped on her. ‘Let her write. We need to win with a huge margin today.’

Shirodkar consulted her notebook and returned to write. My chest was pounding now. This was unexpected.It was one thing to sit back and not participate despite knowing the answer and another not to know. I was at a loss!

She wrote,

‘
Aa….ya
.’

The room was silent again. It was clear she had managed to get hold of some book. I had not given my book to her. Her book seemed to have names of movies we had never heard of.

The boys were silent and the girls realized we were stumped. They normally don’t need a reason to celebrate and now we had handed them one on a platter. They teased us to death. We had no choice but to listen to their taunts.

Teredesai looked at me, then Bibikar and finally, Ghasu Gokhale. They could not tolerate the insults. I continued with my act of looking out of the door. Fatso Shembekar caught my eye and said, ‘Joshi, why don’t you play? Stop acting pricey.’

‘Ichibhana, Joshi! Enough! Speak up now!’ Surya added.

They thought I was trying to avoid playing not knowing that I was stumped. My mind raced hard. I had a feeling I knew the name, but it was eluding me at the moment.

‘What, Joshi sahib?’ Sir asked, smiling. ‘Looks like your brain is not working today.’

No one responded to his comment but Bibikar said, in a voice loud and clear, ‘We know why Joshi is not playing.’

It created ripples across the classroom. The boys gave a knowing smile and the birdies giggled, ‘Aiyaa, really?’ I wished the earth would swallow me up and that I would disappear. My body had hot flushes. I glanced at the board to see Shirodkar pursing her lips. Her face was flushed red. But she did not seem angry. There was a twinkle in her eyes. She stood for a while and then walked back to her place.

I was angry at Bibikar. I glared at him and made a face indicating, ‘Wait, I will take care of you!’ But he was least bothered. He laughed, looking at other boys. They too joined in the laughter.

‘We will hammer Bibikar once the class is over,’ I told Surya.

‘Why? Just because he pointed out the truth?’ Surya retorted. ‘Saale, you are not playing because she’s your sweetheart. Don’t we know?’

‘Sir, they have lost. Put a point against them,’ Sarwate shouted.

Sir looked at us. The boys were dejected knowing they would lose a point. My mind continued to race. It was imperative that I find the answer. That was the only way to silence the boys.

‘Hey, Shirodkar. Go and write and answer on the board,’Dongre urged.

‘That’s it! Loser! Loser!’ the birdies chorused.

She seemed reluctant to get up, but the girls urged her. My mind was whirling now. She glanced at the boys’ side for a brief moment and our eyes met. She seemed to be saying, ‘Idiot! Say the answer. Do it now!’ My chest was pounding wildly now. A million light bulbs flickered in my mind.

‘
Aapki Parchaiyan
,’ I blurted out loudly.

Shirodkar stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at me and smiled, as if it was her own victory. She then dropped the chalk piece on the desk and walked back to her seat.

‘Yes!’ the boys chorused. I knew what I had to do now. We were two points down. I stood up brushing Misal aside. That idiot Teredesai was planning to attempt the next round, but the boys pulled him back. I picked up the chalk piece. I had selected an English movie. I had never tried this before. It was a weapon I had saved for a special occasion—for the final battle.

‘
La…s
,’ I wrote.

I knew there was no way the girls would be able to decipher this; even their fathers wouldn’t know! I then wrote another one. I was about to write a third one and then a fourth one. I wanted to rout the enemy completely.

‘Only one at a time, Sir!’ Mirikar complained.

‘Yes, Sir,’ Dongre added.

Sir did not interrupt. I completed my task and returned to sit on my bench. I was proud of my job.

The girls racked their brains, but in vain. Shirodkar was silent. She did not know and, even if she did, she would not have volunteered. We won that point without any resistance.

‘Joshi, tell the answer,’ Teredesai said.

‘
Lighthouse
,’ I said. Then I stood up to write another one. But before I could reach the board, the bell rang. The girls couldn’t keep quiet. They started shouting, ‘Two points down, two points down.’

‘Girls! Don’t shout, please. You are creating a racket,’ Sir said, getting up from the chair. But the birdies continued to make noise.

The next class was Redkar sir’s. He had given some difficult problems on logarithms to solve. But Bibikar’s words rankled in my mind. I was sure the other boys in class would surmise what he meant and if I did not take immediate action the word would spread. I was wild at Bibikar. It was evident he had deliberately made that remark.

‘We have to hammer Bibikar after school,’ I told Surya, turning back.

‘Ichibhana, let us solve this problem first,’ he said, looking at his notebook. ‘I am unable to understand anything.’

The problem at hand was a difficult one. Chitre solved it quickly and Surya copied it from him. I glanced at Shirodkar, but she was busy working the logarithms.

S
chool got over and the children started streaming out. We came out through the back door—Chitre, Surya, Phawdya and I.

‘We have to teach Bibikar a lesson, okay?’ I reminded them.

‘Leave it, yaar,’Chitre said. ‘Don’t take it to heart.’

‘No! He has deliberately provoked us. We need to teach him a lesson.’

‘Go ahead,’ Surya suggested.

‘Why don’t you come along, saale?’ I asked. ‘Don’t try to act pricey.’

‘You go ahead. We will follow you,’ Phawdya said.

Bibikar came out and walked through the ground with other children. He tried avoiding us.

‘Hey, Bibya. Wait!’ I shouted.

He stopped.

‘So trying to act smart, eh?’ I said, grabbing his collar. I knew the rule: hold the collar first.

He was a strong guy and probably aware of the technique, and immediately brushed my hand off.

‘What? What do you mean smart?’ he said. He glanced behind me to check whether anyone else followed me. But he did not seem scared.

‘You really want to know?’

‘What can you do?’ he challenged with a straight face.

‘Tell me whether you want to know,’ I said, glancing back. Surya and Phawdya were closing in.

He did not reply.

‘Don’t try to mess with me, okay,’ I warned him. ‘I will break your teeth.’

‘You? What can you do?’ he challenged.

‘You want to see?’ I said, trying to punch him. He ducked at the last moment and the punch was wasted.

‘What’s going on?’ Surya asked, coming near us.

Bibikar was a little worried seeing Surya but held his ground.

‘What do you want?’ he said.

Surya may have, in some other circumstances, not got into a fight. But seeing his attitude, he shifted his books from his right hand to left and said, ‘You want to know that, huh?’ and before Bibikar could reply, punched him in his stomach. Bibikar buckled down in pain. He stood up, challenging Surya.

‘He is our friend, understood?’ Surya said. ‘If you try crossing his path, I will break your jaw.’

Bibikar was silent. A few boys had gathered around us. There was no point in hanging out there any more.

‘Go. Go home now,’ I said and we started walking towards the gate. ‘Else you will get hammered unnecessarily.’

‘Come alone, if you have the guts,’ he said. ‘Why are you hiding behind him?’

‘Go.Go now,’ I said.

I took the route through the paddy fields. I had to go home and then leave for tuition, but I stopped when I reached the woods. The fields were barren. A few stubs were all that were left of the harvested rice. There were no children playing there today. I stood near the trees. Bibikar’s comment rang in my ears. The other boys and girls would easily surmise the meaning.

He must have suspected this for long. No doubt he spoke the moment he got an opportunity. It was likely that the others would tease us as well. But there was no point in getting angry. Shirodkar had not got angry. I realized I should not have got into a fight with Bibikar. He was not a bad guy after all. He may try to act smart, but he had been nice to me. Chitre was right—I should have ignored him. I had picked up a fight for no reason. The boys would know I get upset when teased.

It was getting late, but I stood there lost in my thoughts. I realized that deep down I wasn’t really angry with Bibikar. In fact, I had felt good. It was a great relief in some sense. He would not tease me any more and I was feeling relieved. It felt like a spring erupting forth, after being stuck under the rocks for a long time. I felt free—bindaas!

I
had to find a way of bunking tuition now. There was no point in meeting after the classes. It got dark soon. And no girl would have liked to stand and chat in a dark lane. We could not even see each other well so the whole point was lost. But luck was on my side that day. On the blackboard was written in large letters—‘There will be no classes today and tomorrow due to unforeseen circumstances’. The earlier batch was expectedly not around, but a few students from our batch had come. No one knew the reason till someone found out that Sir’s mother had been admitted to the hospital.

I whiled away some time talking to the guys from Subhash. Pingle had not come. He may have probably seen the notice earlier and left. I glanced at the girls. Shirodkar stood chatting with Mande and Juvekar. It was a golden opportunity. We had an entire hour to ourselves. But the question was—how to let her know. She looked at me once. The next time she glanced at me, I looked at the watch. I was keen to somehow let her know. Mande saw me looking at her. I was getting restless.

I decided to go and wait near the peepal tree. I was hoping she would come that way. I decided I would wait there for a while and then head back home. Had the girls not been there, I would have told her to meet me. But I could not do that. Lucky that Pingle was absent! I said, a tad loudly, addressing to no one in particular, ‘Hey, guys. Bye,’ and then moved on. There was no need to shout, but I was hoping Shirodkar would hear me. She would have seen me walk in the direction of her house.

I was prepared to wait for long, but I was lucky. I glanced at the watch. It had taken her thirteen minutes. The street lamps were on. There was enough light and yet adequate shadow under the peepal tree. The lane seemed desolate as usual. A few municipality workers hurried past, followed by a man on a bicycle, a young boy returning from tuition and then a couple of college girls. I looked at them carefully; one of them could be Shirodkar’s Akka. If we were spotted together we could land in trouble.

‘Lucky that Juvekar let you off early,’ I said, the moment she arrived.

‘Yes,’ she said, smiling as usual. ‘But Mande was not willing to leave me. She, in fact, wanted to come along to my house.’

‘Then?’

‘I managed to wriggle out somehow,’ she said, glancing in both the directions.

I was silent for a while. We didn’t have to worry about the topic of discussion. The events of the earlier class were fresh in my mind.

‘Where did you get the names of all those movies from?’ I asked.

She did not reply but smiled. I waited.

‘Tell me, please!’

‘My Pappa got me a book.’

‘Which one? The one with songs?’

‘No. Not a book of songs,’ she clarified. ‘I had asked Pappa to get me a list of movie names and he borrowed this book from someone in his office. It is called
History of Hindi Cinema.
. It has a list of all the movies at the end.’

‘Really?’ I asked, surprised. ‘
All
the names?’

‘Yes. The complete list, right till date,’ she said. ‘Till last year that is—so it does not have Sholay, but the rest are there.’

So that’s that, I thought. I had a few names in my book, but here she had the entire list. And it covered the history of cinema, so it would have names which I had never heard of. No wonder she won.

‘Then… the movie which I wrote—you must have guessed their names,’ I said.

‘Yes!’ she said. ‘I was planning to use the same in my turn. I had copied the name into my notebook actually.’

‘Then?’

‘Then what? I kept quiet!’

‘Why?’ I asked. Like an idiot!

She glanced at me once and then looked away, smiling mysteriously.

Her smile was lovely. There was no need to speak. It was like the time when we sat in the Ganesh temple. I felt the same invisible connection between us. We could not see it but it was there. And the darkness around added to its allure. I felt I could stand there forever, without saying a word. The invisible connection would keep us there. We would stand there, fixed, like statues. We would just move our eyelids once in a while. The time would stand still.

‘I gave that Bibikar a solid warning,’ I said.

‘Don’t get into fights,’ she said.

‘You know, the boys in the class now know.’

‘What?’ she asked. She laughed in her sweet way.

I was about to explain, but seeing her laugh I too joined in.

An old man came our way, interrupting our laughter. I was hoping he would walk by without saying anything, but he stared at her as he crossed by. Luckily he left without saying a word.

‘It is good that we got a break from tuition,’ I said.

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘but we can’t miss our studies now. Maths is so difficult.’

‘Redkar sir is a pain,’ I said. ‘Lucky that Bendre ma’am does not teach us Maths. Else, we would have been dead by now.’

‘You bet!’

I discussed the teachers, but that was not what I wanted to talk to her about. I wanted to say something else, something sweet.

‘What shall we do going forward?’ I blurted.

‘Meaning?’ she asked. I could clearly see her eyes twinkling despite the darkness around.

How do I explain! She may not have got the drift of my question.

‘Going forward means…ahead, you know!’ I tried explaining.