Here, She Finally Entered My Life;
As A Major Character
Lea -
That One Gem Which I Never Deserved …
"So are you joining or not?", I asked her for the final time.
"Yup."
Tuesday,21st November 2023
Practical Submissions Day 1
I was finally done with the math practical book—thanks to Maa, who had written out 30 of them for me. In the last half hour before leaving, I was furiously scratching through my chemistry journal at full speed, my handwriting so terrible it would put even a doctor's scrawl to shame. I knew I'd get scolded for turning it in like this, but at that point, there was no other option.
On the other hand, I was keeping a close eye on the bus schedule, calculating which bus we could catch to reach on time. Yes, it was a "we" this time. Lea, who usually traveled with Sushma, was coming to college with me this time. She had asked the night before about my plan, and when I told her I'd be taking the bus alone, she responded with a simple, commanding, "I am coming."
Her tone caught me off guard, and I wasn't sure if I should go along with it or stick to my usual solo routine. I'd always traveled alone—it was part of my comfort zone. But Lea...and her mother…because of them, I'd had to scrap my plan of taking the local train from Khandpur to Niral and instead figure out a direct bus to Niral, something way outside my usual routine. To top it off, I'd probably miss my usual snack stop at Khandpur station on the way back.
When I mentioned this, Lea, with a self-assured tone, said she'd handle her own arrangements if my comfort zone was getting in the way. She even made it clear that she didn't want me later claiming any sort of favor for traveling with her. Then, when she asked me to find a reliable bus, explaining that she'd seen her fair share of "crazy and scary" people on the route, I quickly realized she was talking about the hawkers—those street vendors who often climb onto buses with all their stuff.
After some back-and-forth, a few small arguments, and a couple of compromises, we finally decided we'd go together. Because of that, my focus on bus timings was sharper than ever.
I didn't manage to finish my chemistry practical book on time, so I figured I'd complete it on the bus. I quickly got up, got ready, and left in a rush, hoping I wouldn't end up being late. I even skipped breakfast—though Maa had made chili fritters, which she packed hurriedly into a container for me to take along.
At the bus stop, when the bus came and as soon as I found a seat, I texted Lea, telling her to leave from her place and meet me at the stop near Azad Chowk. The bus was crowded, but
I managed to get a ticket to Niral and, despite the noise around me, started scribbling in my practical book with my terrible handwriting. I kept one eye on the stop, ready to spot Lea as she boarded at Azad Chowk—just for the reassurance that she'd made it. But I couldn't quite see from the back if she managed to get on the bus or not.
As the crowd thinned, I moved to a seat closer to the front and started looking for Lea. Unable to figure out if she was on the bus, I messaged her, asking if she'd accidentally boarded the wrong one—though the chances of that were slim.
A moment later, she stood up slightly from her seat, turned toward me, and we exchanged a brief smile before she sat back down. That's when I realized that the person whose hair I'd been noticing for a while was Lea all along.
We got off at the highway and walked a bit from there. I booked an auto, but there was an awkward silence between us. I couldn't gather the courage to say anything—after all, I barely knew her. The sun was getting harsher, and all I wanted was for the auto to arrive quickly.
I did call the auto driver, but he canceled the ride. Checking Google Maps, I realized we were still a 20-minute walk away—not much for me, considering I'd walked longer distances before. But then I glanced at Lea.
I'd heard people say she rarely walked much and almost never took local trains, which was why she usually shared a cab with Suniti.
"It's showing a 20-minute walk from here," I told her, adding that it might be tough to walk in this heat.
"No, walking won't work," she replied immediately. We came down the stairs and stood by the bypass road, hoping to find another auto. Thankfully, we got one within five minutes.
She paid the fare, and we headed toward the college gate.Shamelessly, I opened my still-incomplete practical book and started writing, propping it against the wall to finish the last few formalities. Lea had no choice but to wait for me.
As we finally entered the physics lab, I spotted Ramesh and Neil already there. I quickly grabbed a table and started finishing the remaining work in a rush. Just then, the physics ma'am called me over. I already knew my handwriting was so bad that anyone would be shocked looking at it.
"What is this??" she asked, pointing at one of the horribly written pages. It was the question I had fully expected.
I didn't dare say a word. I just stood there quietly, hoping the moment would pass.
She also pointed out some mistakes in the graph and sent me back with the journal to fix it. Meanwhile, the chemistry teacher called me over.
Looking at my work, she said, "Nothing makes sense... Did you write all of this in one night?"
Her second comment made me burst out laughing. I tried to cover my face with my hand, but she noticed and sarcastically remarked that I was laughing at myself. Hearing that, I couldn't hold back and moved further away to laugh behind a corner.
She found a few things incomplete as well. After pointing them out, she refused to sign my book and handed it back to me, asking me to come again the next day. By the time I was done, Atharva and Nikhil had already left. On the other hand, while heading back, Lea surprisingly agreed to take the train without any hesitation. I felt relieved hearing that—it was already past noon, and the thought of standing at the highway, waiting for a bus in the November heat, felt unimaginable. To make it worse, buses often came very late during the afternoon. Without wasting any time, we quickly got an auto and made our way to the station.
As soon as we got into the auto, I opened my tiffin. The mirch ke pakode had turned quite soft by then. I offered them to Lea, but she declined, so I ended up finishing the entire box myself. During the 10-minute ride from college to the station, we chatted about various things—like who regularly missed classes at AOS. She mentioned that Ramesh didn't attend much, and even Sanjana J skipped often, mostly because of Naira being out of town.
I shared that I got along a little with both of them. To that, Lea remarked that out of their whole group, I seemed a bit closer to her.
"I avoid Sanjana J anyway," I said, responding casually to her comment.
Hearing this, she immediately turned toward me with a knowing smile—one that was way too obvious. I quickly caught on to what she was thinking and added,
"No, it's not like that.", I quickly negated her smile and justified.
"I mean...bas meko jamta nahi hai usse baat karna....I feel quite uncomfortable around her...so I mostly stay away..." said as we got out of the auto and started walking toward the station.
As we continued the conversation, the topic shifted to my book. At that time, only Part 1 was complete, which Lea had already read in its entirety. I mentioned that I had also sent it to Sanjana J once, during a moment when it was just the two of us sitting in a classroom—a situation that had felt incredibly awkward for me. Of course, I didn't mention the awkwardness; I only shared that I had sent it to her.
"She didn't read it, though," I added with a light shrug.
"Wo nahi padhegi bhai... woh bhool gayi hogi. Ab usko wapas bhejna padega, phir usko yaad aayega," Lea said casually as we made our way down the stairs to the platform and boarded the local train. The train was crowded, but we managed to find seats.
I opened my drive and resumed writing my book.
"So you're writing your notes?" Lea asked after a moment, her voice laced with curiosity. I had noticed her watching me out of the corner of my right eye. She never referred to it as a "book," always calling it either a "journal" or "notes."
"Yeah," I replied, not looking up.
As Khandpur station approached, we were standing near the door, chatting. I can't recall exactly how, but the topic shifted to Brahmins. She was a Brahmin, and so was I, and one of us mentioned that Arjun was also a Brahmin.
When we got off the train, the mention of Arjun reminded me of the rumors about him and Lea being in a relationship. Everyone seemed to believe they were dating, but I was the type who'd only trust it if either of them confirmed it directly. I had overheard from Rushika—or someone from her group—that they'd broken up, but I didn't have the courage to bring up such a personal topic with Lea.
Finally, though, I asked hesitantly, "Tumhara toh breakup ho gaya na?"
"Ha yaar... we broke up," she said, her tone nonchalant. We talked a little about it, but I didn't press further.
A few steps later, I asked, "Kuch khayegi?"
"Chal," she said with a smile, and we headed to a nearby sugarcane juice stall. For some reason, I decided not to get juice for myself and just bought her a glass instead.
Just as she finished her juice, we realized our bus was about to arrive. Without wasting a second, we sprinted out of the station and reached the bus stop just in time to catch it. After the crowded local and the hustle of the morning, the nearly empty bus felt like a blessing.
We both sank into our seats, catching our breath, and exchanged a small laugh at the chaos of it all.
"So, who was it jisne mere breakup ke baare mein bola?" she asked, her tone laced with curiosity and a hint of mischief.
"Promise you won't tell anyone," I replied cautiously.
"I hardly talk with Syn people," she assured me.
"It was somebody from your group... I actually don't remember whose voice it was," I said, pausing briefly before adding, "Maybe Rushika."
She didn't reply—just stayed quiet, looking away for a moment like she was thinking about something. Her silence felt different, and it made me wonder if I had said something wrong.
I didn't pay much attention to her silence and shifted my focus to my phone.
As the Shiv Mandir passed by, I asked her the date and then got excited, realizing my birthday was less than ten days away. She smiled at my excitement.
We got down at Azad Chowk, the same stop where she had boarded the bus that morning. We said goodbye, and I headed toward the academy for the organic chemistry lecture.
The class had only a handful of students, and Ramesh was one of them. I went over and sat behind him.
He immediately turned to me and asked, " Lea ke saath aya?"
I nodded in response.
"Lea ke saath wapas aya?" he repeated with a curious smile.
"Haaan," I replied again, this time with a small grin.
"Why don't you go with her tomorrow instead? Seems like you're getting too eager to travel with Lea," I teased him in my mind.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, 22nd November 2023
Day 2
There's an empty seat behind me. If you want, you can sit," I texted Lea. It was another day where we had to go to college to submit assignments with corrections. This time, instead of booking an auto after getting off the bus, we walked for about five minutes and found an auto on the way. We hopped in and made our way to college.
While submitting the Maths and Computer Science files, I asked the teacher, "Will there be any marks deducted for bad handwriting?"
She replied, "If the examiner opens the pages beyond the first one, then there might be an issue. But usually, they just open the first page, stamp it, and move on."
For the Computer Science file, she explained the correct order in which the pages should be arranged. This meant I had to remove all the pages from the file, fix the order, and put them back. However, because the holes weren't aligned properly, it took me about 10–12 minutes to fix everything.
"Ho gaya?" Lea asked, pacing around the hall and waiting for me.
"Almost," I replied, still fumbling with the pages.
"Are you done ?" she asked again a few minutes later.
The pages were being difficult, so I had to attach them in smaller batches—three to four pages at a time—since the holes just didn't line up properly.
"Ho gayaaa???" she asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
Frustrated, I said, "If you want to leave, just go ahead!"
But almost immediately, I realized she was waiting for me because she couldn't leave alone. Feeling a bit guilty, I quickly tried to finish up.
When I went to the teacher, I realized that despite carefully organizing the file, I had still managed to miss Experiment 7. Thankfully, the teacher was incredibly kind. She signed my file, handed me the index and certificate pages, and told me to reorganize the pages properly at home.
With the file in hand, I headed back to the hall, where Lea returned after speaking to the chemistry and physics teachers. She was also on a mission to retrieve her misplaced math journal. I had spoken to the teacher about it the previous night on her request, and we were fairly confident that the journal had been left behind somewhere in the lab.
"It's nowhere in the lab. Ab mujhe nayi leni padegi… it will be available at some stationery stores, right?" she said, her voice calm but noticeably low. She seemed down, and I could feel it, though it wasn't long before her mood shifted once we exited the college.
"Bhai, wo chemistry wali na…" she started saying a bunch of things before calling her mom to inform her that she had lost her math journal. She added that she might have to rewrite her entire chemistry and possibly even her physics journals because she had written everything in pencil.
I felt bad for her. Although I couldn't hear the full conversation from where I stood, her gestures and tone told me she was explaining the situation in detail. After the call, she resumed venting to me.
"Bhai, wo CS wali mam -"
"Wo toh chumma hai …", I interrupted her.
"- ha ekdum chumma hai…" she said in her usual confident tone, which even I couldn't help but agree with.
She kept muttering for another minute, clearly frustrated, until she paused to ask, "Paani diyo." After drinking water, she went quiet for a moment, and the silence lingered until I broke it.
"I told Sanjana about all the corrections; we talked yesterday. But she hasn't seen my message since last night," I mentioned casually as we continued walking away from the college.
"Tu na, usko call kar liya kar agar kuch urgent ho toh," she suggested.
"Nah, me and calling her? Nah, I'm fine," I reacted immediately.
"Bro, aisa nahi hota hai. You always think that others… look, you're her good friend," she reasoned.
"Arey, nahi bhai. I'm not her good friend. Nahi," I quickly negated.
"It's not like that, dude," she paused briefly before continuing, "Achha theek hai… you're her friend."
"Maybe," I replied carelessly, completely unbothered by whatever role I played in The SanjanaJ's life.
"Ha, toh you… it's alright," she concluded, letting the conversation trail off.
"You always feel that people will think wrong about you or misinterpret your intentions," she continued as we climbed onto the footpath, ducking under a low-hanging tree branch to move ahead.
"Haan haan... woh... 'don't take it the wrong way' wala na?" I said, suddenly recalling an incident.
It was about when I had replied to one of Lea's stories—a picture of hers—using the same shayari I always used to appreciate a good photo. A line I recycled for any nice picture. and then I had told her not to take the shayari in the wrong way....She had taunted me then, knowing full well about my harmless intentions. "Itni phat kyun jaati teri?"
"Haan, toh you don't trust people. You always think they'll misinterpret your intentions," she said.
"Haha, yes... I don't trust people easily. Mai sabko shak ki nazar se dekhta hu," I admitted with a light laugh, owning up to it.
"Yes... and then they take it on their ego too.
You just overthink a lot, Tanish," she said, as if trying to knock some sense into me.
"She was one of the first to tell me,
Of the flaw that quietly defined me.
My mind could think of miles in seconds,
Overthinking—the flaw, it reckons."
"Wait..." she stopped me mid-step.
"Where the hell are we?" she asked, looking around. I glanced at our surroundings, realizing we had no clue where we were. Lost in conversation, we had wandered far off track. Without wasting time, we hailed an auto, made our way to the station, caught a local train, and eventually arrived at Khandpur station.
Once outside, I thought of grabbing a bite to eat, but Lea quickly interrupted, "Check if the bus is coming."
Her words left no room for argument, and I reluctantly skipped eating. It annoyed me a little, but there was no choice.
We got off at Azad Chowk, where she walked away, looking a bit annoyed herself, heading towards the book store. I, on the other hand, made my way to AOS to attend the day's lectures.