Hrimay Ganguly:
Wednesday, 3rd July:
This was definitely not my day. Being a college going seventeen year old is not as easy as some might think. I already found regular college boring and on top of that, today was even worse.
There was this college professor, Mr. D'Cruz who taught Chemistry, which happened to be the most boring subject I could think of. D'Cruz was the personification of that Virus guy from the '3 Idiots' film. Full sleeve white shirt, grey trousers, red tie, he dressed up like a republican who just landed in from America.
He called me in his office today and said, "Mr. Hrimay Ganguly, you are the biggest failure in the history of biggest failures the chemistry department of this college has seen in years".
He wasn't wrong. My chemistry grade sheet used to drop my parents mood from hundred to zero very quick. In fact, I was so bad in chemistry, that I had to take help from my fifteen year old sister.
"If you don't turn in your assignments tomorrow, you will fail this whole year. Is this clear!" he snapped.
"Crystal" I replied.
Now that the college was over, I headed towards the nearest metro station, which was in Saket. The warm Delhi afternoon combined with the big metro crowd was enough to give me a headache.
The April summer was really setting in. I had no particular friends in college. Maybe, because I didn't bother to talk to anyone there.
I entered the metro station, took my token and boarded the air conditioned metro to Malviya Nagar, where my home was. The Malviya Nagar station wasn't that far from here, so the metro reached there in about five minutes.
I got off the metro, out of the station and walked for some more time before I reached the building where I lived. I used to live on the third floor with my family.
Around this time in the afternoon, my parents used to be away at work and my sister Jhanvi, used to be at school. In summary, this part of the day was for my 'me time'.
I unlocked the door of my home and threw my bag on the living room sofa, the minute I entered. I took out my earphones, plugged them to the mobile and turned on my tunes as I lied down on my bed.
After sometime, I started feeling bored. I looked outside the window to see if something grabbed my attention. It was about four in the evening now. The Sun was going in the direction of the horizon, the sky had a hint of orange in the blue without any clouds to block the heat. The ground opposite the building seemed strangely empty.
Then came a knock on the door. I plugged out my earphones and opened it.I saw Hanesh standing in front of me.
Hanesh was an eight year old, who was in a way, the only legitimate friend I had. He used to live on the floor below with his parents.
I was surprised to see him here at this hour. "Why aren't you playing outside on the ground there?" I asked.
Then, he replied, "Some people have driven me and my friends off the ground bhaiya. I was wondering if you could tell them to-"
"Get off the ground to let you play?"
"Oh yes! They are not letting us near our football spot"
"Okay then, I'll talk some sense into them", saying this, I locked my home and left with Hanesh. This was a one off thing. I could have had a grown up conversation with a grown up person and then come back home, easy peasy. Or so I thought….
We reached the entry gate of the ground, which was walled around its perimeter. Hanesh's friends who were all somewhat older than him were waiting for us. They all looked at me and started complaining about how some "gang" of "bike riders" drove them off their regular spot and how they were threatening them with knives and all. I told them to wait at the gate while I sorted this matter like an adult.
I entered the ground and saw a group with bikes near the football goalpost there. They were four people talking amongst themselves. As I walked towards them, I saw their attention diverted on me. I saw them exchanging packets and money before they saw me coming. I had a bad feeling about this.
One of them came towards me. He looked like the leader of their gang. His face gave me the impression of a monkey with his hair and all.
Anyways, he came upto me and said, "Do know who I am?".
I became a little sarcastic, "Who exactly are you sir?".
He got frustrated. His friends were trembling behind him. "That is not how you talk to Sahil Ranawat you little piece of trash!"
Now, he was getting my temper dialling. "Get off this spot, please. This is where my friends want to play" saying this, I pointed to Hanesh and the others who were standing near the entrance.
Sahil smirked and said that if I didn't turn and go back to my "Children" as he teased Hanesh and his friends, then he will do something really bad to me. The guy was barely intimidating.
I noticed a small packet of pills leaning out of his pocket. Sahil was going on and on about how he would hurt me, when I swiftly grabbed the packet and backed off him.
This made him really mad at me. He took out a knife and charged at me. I dodged the swings of his knife initially. He was red with anger and his angry face really resembled a monkey now. But then, his friends grabbed my arms and legs from behind. Sahil came at me slowly now.
He began, "You thought you could mess with me and just walk out?".
"Pretty much", I replied.
He swung his knife at my stomach. I screamed in pain as the blood stained my white t-shirt, red. I was running out of breath and ideas now. He was about to take another swipe at me, when suddenly, his head was hit by a rock.
His head started bleeding and he fell on the ground out of pain. Turns out, Hanesh was the one who threw the rock at him and he had brought a whole mob of his friends and their parents living in the neighborhood when he saw Sahil attacking me. The people holding me let me go after seeing them.
"Attack!" yelled Hanesh, and the mob started hurling any stone they could find at Sahil and his gang. When they tried to escape on their bikes, they found that they were damaged by the stones thrown at them. Apparently, someone had also called the police at the scene. Police jeeps blocked the only exit of the ground.
Among all the chaos around me, I passed out.
The next thing I remember was that it was morning and I woke up on my bed in my home with my sister Jhanvi sitting besides me with a camera in her hand.
"I hope you enjoyed your snore time Hrimay" she quipped when I woke up.
"I don't snore"
Then she showed me a recording of me snoring loudly on her camera. I felt a rush of awkwardness. Then I suddenly remembered what happened last evening. I asked Jhanvi about what happened after I fell unconcious. She showed me the copy of that day's newspaper and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it.
The headline read, 'Substance Dealer caught by heroic local boy in Malviya Nagar' with a picture of Sahil being captured by the police. Reading that made me feel lucky to be even sitting alive next to the most mischievous person I know.
The doorbell rang and my mother went to see it. I could hear my father greeting the person who came in rather enthusiastically. When the guest actually came in, it was the last person who I even remotely expected to meet this morning : Professor D'Cruz.
He began, "Ganguly, I am here on the behalf of the college to inform that you will be felicitated by the police for your role in catching that criminal yesterday or as I call it, your tendency of heroics. Since you are in no condition of giving me the assignments right now, you will do extra assignments to compensate for the days of college you will miss".
It was outrageous, it was unfair. How could he do this to me! I tried to reason with him. "B-but the assignments-"
"Do you wish for more?"
"No sir"
D'Cruz took his leave as I was left astonished with his apathy. I mean, give me a break!
My parents were absolutely elated by the news of me being felicitated and Jhanvi got a new thing to tease me about after she saw D'Cruz. Things couldn't get better. But then, a gunshot was heard outside the open door of my home…