Smrity Rekha Kalita

Drama

5.0  

Smrity Rekha Kalita

Drama

Experiences

Experiences

9 mins
9K


“You stink”,the girl sitting by me tells me after a loud sniff. I divert my eyes from the board to her and nod at her. She is the same girl who has been sitting next to me for the last two days, she might have told me her name or not, I guess she is Sita or might be Riya. Yeah, she might be Riya because she oddly resembles the girl who made a scene last semester trying to fight her way for her marks by doing a RTI against the examination department. Well, I realize I don’t really care and curse my mind for getting swirled away in such worthless things as people’s names when I need to focus and remember what those black swirls on the board mean. Focus.

But I really can’t when I am being sniffed away.

“You smell like loo”, the girl Sita or Riya comments.

“At least I don’t need to waste my time looking for a loo if my bladder is full”, I drawl, turning my eyes at her with my head still down and my lefty scribbling on my notebook.

The girl passes me a look of complete disbelief and murmurs something about me being weird and scoots her chair sideways away from me.

I roll my eyes at her as she whispers to the other girl by her side while keeping her eyes glued on me.

I ignore both of them and scribble faster when I realize the Professor is a para faster.

“You pee in your pants as you save time, and of course you are an weirdo”.

Sumer catches up to me when I pass by her. I thought she wouldn’t notice as she gossiped with her friends, but she did and now is trying her best to match my hurried pace.

“What?”, I retort.

“You see the whole chemistry department has a rumor on you going around, There is more of it, I just caught the whiff,” She grabs hold of my arm and halts me, “ Slow down ,will you?”.

“Sumer, I need to go home early. I have to prepare for the coming JNU entrances..

“Which are like four months later”, Sumer interferes ,” And Summer, not sumer.”

I shake my head at her. She had been Sumer till class 12 , and when she graduated school she suddenly started to fancy being called Summer.

“By the way, you really smell bad?”, She says sniffing me.

“I was in the chemistry lab working on potions”, I reply back, continuing with my hurried steps.

I will be late if I start explaining what potion I worked on.

“Well, then don’t work with such awful smelling chemicals”, Sumer...er Summer says, as she walk with me matching my pace,” Or better...” She stops to greet a guy by the library and says after a pause ,” Carry a perfume with you, it’ll cut out the stench of chemicals and people will talk less”.

“I really don’t care,” I shrug ,” I really don’t have time to go around pumping out silvery splutters of scent on me”.

Sumer laughs on that.

“Right, Time, you never get time,” She says ,” Get some time. It’s not school anymore. It’s college. You gotta enjoy your college life.”

I nod at her and mutters a sure with another nod. She makes me halt again holding the crook of my elbow and I sigh at the interruption. I will be late.

“I am your friend, and I understand your ambition to score the highest and build your castle or empire and blah blah,” She moves her hands around to emphasize that there is more blah blah to add but she isn’t adding due to her obvious lack of vocabulary,” But still you should enjoy your college life. You will be regretting later if you let go of your college life running after assignments and scores. Colleges aren’t just for learning to score high, and build steps for a successful career, they are also for learning the real rules of life. The real ones, that will build you, that will nurture you to be a great human being”.

Sumer says all these in a breathe. Once she finishes, she smiles in a odd way , the way your fourth grade teacher might have smiled when he is giving out lessons of how truth finally wins at the end to his bunch of students who pretends they understand because if they don’t their teacher might repeat the lesson again.

“I should enjoy college life, you are right,” I reply to her long enlightenment paragraph and look at my watch,” I will do that from tomorrow, I promise, I have to go prepare for the entrance now. I will be late”

I give her a small pat on her wrist muttering a bye and walk faster almost pacing to a jog and a second later I look back. She isn’t following me anymore. I heave a sigh of relief.


“What are you doing at home?”

My tired eyes find my elder brother who thinks it’s alright to enter my room without knocking.

“Are your knuckles bruised or you are too lazy to utter words?,” I glare at him.

“What?”, His eyebrows twitches. He pads on the floorboard disregarding the fallen pages of my worksheets on the floor and comes to sits on the edge of my favorite couch. I eye him in disbelief.

“Didn’t you study about manners? To knock before entering and to not trod around in someone else’s property.

He laughs at that and eyes me as if I have lost my head.

“Tcch”, He dismisses me with a wave of his hand, making me bristle with rage ,” Why are you so upright?”

“I am just stating the obvious! You should mind..”

“Get ready”

“..your manners, they ..”

“You can’t just sit around in your home during your college week, you are going to college with me.”

“Get out of my room this instant...”

“I will give you five minutes and then we are leaving for my ex college”.

“..or else I will call mom on you. You have always...”

I throw my pillow at him the moment he runs up to the door. I throw the next pillow as he grins at the doorway. The pillow hits the closed door with a thud.

An hour later, I am in my college awkwardly trailing behind my elder brother as he greets his friends, juniors and seniors. I eye him with all the disdain I master to creep into my eyes. If it hadn’t been for him, and his promise of tutoring me to help with my JNU entrance , I would never have stepped in my college corridors when the college week is going on. It’s such a waste of time.

“That’s your sister?”, A pretty and a tall girl glances at me and asks my brother.

My brother pulls me towards him and introduces me.

I greet a polite hello.

The girl smiles back with a nod and a hello.

“ SO are you enjoying well?”, She asks, her voice rises as a song erupts from the auditorium.

I just smile back at her unsure of what she is asking.

“You should enjoy well, this time won’t be returning back”, She says making a way over to the crowd gathering in front of the auditorium dancing and swinging to the beats of the song.

I see her scurry towards the dancing people and then she gets mingled in the crowd shouting and screaming like an over thrilled Banshee.

“She is the CEO of Boogie, She is here as the Guest of honor”, My brother says.

I mouth him a what and then turn to look at her. Did I just meet the CEO of Boogie? I knew her face was somewhat familiar. I try to talk as I try to process the reality of all whilst watching The famous CEO of Boogie, the guest of honor of the meeting do some weird swirl of hands and neck hopping around with the crowd. The world renowned company, Boogie. I breathe out a hush of air.

“How do you know her?”, I ask my brother, my eyes still glued at her.

“I don’t, “I look at him confused and he shrugs,” I knew her from tabloids and magazines, but I approached her today because she was looking hot and I had no idea she is the Boogie one. What’s cool is she actually talked to me and laughed at jokes and cracked a few.”

“Are you kidding me?”, I ask.

He shrugs again,” It’s not like she will be standing alone if anybody recognizes her. She is supposed to be guest of honor and who will even guess a CEO standing and dancing with the students”.

“Then how come you know she is the CEO of Boogie”, I ask, my eyes wide.

“Her last joke on how she ended up naming an important online blog of her after mucus gave her away. Everybody knows that story, and I ended up joining the dots”.

I nod at him and then nod again, my mouth opening and closing out of disbelief.

“That’s why I tell you, you should not only keep your nose buried under books but enjoy your life. Specially college life. You earn the practical rules of life that no books, no epics give away. College teaches you on life through experiences. I know a person who was ridiculed in college for not being serious enough, for being irresponsible, for being the known extrovert who would follow the very aura of gossips that leads to parties and fun, but that person turns out to be one of the famous people you will ever meet in history.

“You see..achievements and success can’t only be traced through the words scribbled in blue and black, you will need, even though a little bit, experience.”

I nod at them. There are exceptions ,always.

“So is the person her?”

“Why you dumb human, how very indifferent of you to talk about a Boogie CEO when the most famous person in history, your brother stands beside you”, He bites down in a whisper.

“Goodness, I was planning to try enjoying my college life with friends and not books, but now I am not sure anymore if you actually meant you were the one in your lecture,” I snicker at him ,” You see I need to go and study if I don’t want to end up like you,”

I pat my brother hand and wave my goodbye.

“Why you...”

“Dr. Goswami,” His accusing words towards me die down when the principal of our college with a few other teachers approaches my brother with a polite smile ,” It’s time for the program to start, so I invite you to occupy your seat as the Chief Guest.”

My brother nods and follows them as the principal leads the path.

I stare at his back as he vanished into the auditorium brimmed with crowd, who are solely here for my brother.


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