‘Chaits seems to be popular… he, it seems knows everyone, well, at least everybody here in the college knows him’ thus thought Priti, ‘and most important he knows me! – I don’t know anything about him. I should know everything possible about him – after all, he is one of the core members of my group, right?’
“Payal – I just realized,” Priti abruptly started, “The fact is, everybody here knows Chaits, but I know nothing apart from his name…”
Payal laughed and said “You’ll soon come to know him, anyways, I got to go have some family function at Chap’s place and as a would-be-bahu,” she stressed the later part of her sentence, “I need to be on my feet there – CU later, bye” and off she went where Chaps impatiently was raising the noise of his bike.
Priti saw Natasha walking toward the gate where she used to take her bus home. “Hey! Natasha… Wait!” shouted Priti, “I have a mood for a long drive – let’s go and I’ll drop you home on the way back” Natasha had nothing much to do and they zoomed of the campus for a merry evening.
Priti was a good driver and soon they were about 50 kms off the campus on the highway. “Where are we going Priti?” asked Natasha confused.
“We are going to the Jungle Homes” said Priti and pressed down on the accelerator
“What is Jungle Homes?”
“Well – just like a paradise where we study, that is a home away from busy life, in the jungles – Eden on Earth is what you can call it” Priti laughed.
About an hour after they touched the highway, they were sitting in the trendy food corner of Jungle Homes. Natasha was awed at the glamour, the serenity, the romance and the nature of this place.
“We have roamed farther than this, how come nobody discovered this place and how do you know this place, Priti?”
“Well, this is a private membership and my dad is a member of Jungle Homes… Normal people are not allowed unless they are guests escorted by the members. So this place is not known to all…”
“Wow! Priti, I’m in love with this place. Thanks to you for showing me this. Hmmm… One more target added to my wish list”
“What?”
“Membership of Jungle Homes” she dreamily expressed her desire.
Though they were sitting there, Priti’s mind was still occupied about not knowing a thing about Chaits.
“Natasha! – I just realized…” Priti unconsciously repeated her question to Natasha
With the mention of Chaits’ name Priti saw a twinkle in Natasha’s eyes. She was ready to swear that Natasha’s cornea changed its shape and looked like little hearts placed in Natasha’s eyes.
“I’ll tell you everything I know about Chaits” Priti had her ears wide open now. She wanted to know more about the guy who didn’t fall for her looks at the first glance… “Ummm – where should I start?”
“Well – start anywhere – but start.”
Natasha paused for a moment then took a long breath and said, “Chaits is darling of entire campus – right from every girl to peons, to boys to professors up to the Dean”
‘That’s something I’ve observed’ thought Priti and let Natasha continue…
“Thanks to Chaits, we have a lot of trophies, cups and medals that are on a proud display in the Dean’s office… due to Chaits we have a good standing in the University as well”
Natasha talked non-stop about Chaits for over 2 hours and Priti kept on listening to her. That gave her a better idea as to where she was what kind of people were around her in the campus.
“Chaits is a fantastic sportsman. He plays almost every game – be it football, volleyball, cricket or badminton – he is an ace of all. Chaits loves riding bikes and often takes part in those mud track races as well those long ride rallies where a group of people with National Slogans travel about thousands of kilometres.
When Lucky joined college, he didn’t know anyone. Since Chaits was in the same class he moved over to share the rented flat with Chaits…
Chaits was away on some Ekata Rally when we had college elections. Lucky won those… He got a lot of votes as he was Chaits’ friend and those who would have voted against him, he bought them off with parties in canteen or with late evening drinks at the flat.”
For a moment, Priti’s thoughts wandered again, back to school days and remembered Lucky’s words ‘Money Power’…
“The day Chaits returned, the results were declared in Lucky’s favour. He had won it opposite Vicky” continued Natasha.
“And Vicky accepted that?”
“No! We had a big fight outside the Campus… Vicky and his friends were thrashing all those who had been close to Lucky during elections.”
Priti was in no mood to cut Natasha’s flow of her experience in the campus.
“We were new admissions and had only heard of what was going on. Suddenly we heard a commotion and looked toward the main gate Lucky with half torn shirt was running for his life with Vicky and his friends following him, hatred filled in their eyes”
‘From what I experienced few days… back this information is contradictory’ thought Priti
“I swear, on that day, Vicky and his friends would have killed Lucky and would now be in jail – I wish that could have happened…” said Natasha ruefully.
“What happened then?”
“Chaits came on time. He beat few of Vicky’s friends before reaching Vicky who was strangling Lucky”
When Chaits reached Vicky he found it difficult releasing his grip on Lucky. He slapped Vicky hard which brought Vicky to his senses and he released a half dead, Lucky who fainted…”
“So Chaits does get involved in fights” Priti commented, “and knows how to use his strength, but – he doesn’t seem to be in the likes of Vicky or Lucky – He seems to be different. Did Vicky take it I mean Chaits’ slap just timidly like that or were there more fights?”
“You bet! Chaits is of course much, much different. He is a man of higher character. The Chaits’ slap on Vicky’s face was the last sound of any fight in the campus. And Vicky had to obey Chaits.”
Priti looked at Natasha quizzed but didn’t say anything.
“You see – Chaits was coaching Vicky for his District Level Boxing Bout and Vicky couldn’t afford Chaits’ displeasure. Vicky was strong headed tough boy out of school at that time and had aspirations to make it big in this world. The last two years have seen him to be more different since he met his Godfather who is a Kingpin around in this area. He was a hard headed boy at that time – now – he’s with hard core criminals.”
Priti gulped at her juice she was sipping nervously…
“You have had an encounter with Vicky and supposedly known as his left hand ‘Munna’ who comes from a family with criminal background and his right hand ‘Pakya’ who manages his show in his absence. In fact, it’s Pakya who you can call his chief advisor who calls the shots in the campus. He’s a bit sentimental type of a person, has very strong vocabulary and knows to use it effectively. He’s not as hard core as Munna.”
“Whew!” said Priti to herself.
“Well, his other friends Raj, Chunu, Kaliya, Ravi and Suraj – these are his fingers that come together to act as his punching fist.”
“I haven’t seen them” said Priti.
“I know. They are currently failures and have to pass to get a re-admission for next year – further what I heard is right now they are in police lockup for a street fight they had last weekend and both Vicky and Lucky are trying their best to get them out of there.”
‘Hmmm! Paradise? – No a typical village college, yes it is a typical college’ said Priti to herself.
Natasha was drifting away from the topic that Priti was more interested in ‘Chaits’ – so she gently nudged Natasha back, “So what about boxing? What happened then?”
“Well, nothing much… Chaits brought all of them on one platform and they divided the posts. UR and GS have since then been with Lucky and Cultural and Sports with Vicky – No more fights – you see” continued Natasha, “Vicky did go up to the distinct level finals where he got a very bad bounce and came back with District level silver medal – God only knows how many days he kept on flashing that to everybody – proud of his achievement” Natasha chuckled, “Just like a child who has medals on him…”
“Well, didn’t Chaits get hurt when he entered the ring of Vicky’s friends to save Lucky?”
“No – as I told you Chaits is a pro in Boxing – he also has gone through some basics of Martial Arts and knows how to keep people – armed or unarmed away from his body.”
“If Chaits was a boxing pro, why didn’t he go for the medal that Vicky lost?”
“He already had won the District Gold a year ago… He was not allowed for that tournament as he was in the league for State level.”
“Oh!” said Priti” so what happened then?”
“As usual Chaits won the State level Gold and Vicky stopped displaying his District Silver…” They both laughed heartily.
“Soon, after this incident, Lucky’s rich father purchased a small bungalow for him and he shifted out of Chaits’ place. He invited Chaits to share it with him but Chaits refused. Saying he was comfortable in the rented flat he had been staying.”
Perhaps he would have been bored of Lucky’s pompousness thought Priti.
“Chaps and Amit had just joined the college then and were looking for accommodation; they shifted in with him…”
“With Lucky?” asked Priti
“No… with Chaits… Chap’s family was shifting in from Jaipur and their house was under construction. Amit also had shifted from Mumbai and had applied for a room in the campus. But management said he could have a room only next year.”
“Payal and Chaps families knew each other and when they found that they were friends at college worked at their wedding proposal and soon they got engaged”
“At this early age?” asked Priti
“They come from those traditional families who believe in early marriage. Anyways Chaps’ father is an established handicraft businessman and Chaps is going to join him after he finishes his studies – so grades really don’t matter to him.”
“Payal that year grabbed the honour of College Rose Queen and Vicky was desperately interested in her when he heard of her engagement with Chaps he was mad, however, Chaits explained the family factor and Chaits avoided another fight.”
“What happened after that? I mean did Chaits stop at State Gold?”
Natasha looked at her and smiled, “So you want me to talk about Chaits – is it?” and Priti clenched her fists in dismay Natasha had understood what she was trying to find – information about Chaits.
“Not exactly” said Priti sheepishly trying desperately to hide her discomfiture…
“It is okay “said Natasha, “everyone who comes to contact with Chaits wants to know more about him” and winked at Priti
There was a brief silence as sandwiches and fruit punch was re-served…
“Well, Chaits was automatically named for National Level entry which could have paved his way into Indian Olympic team. But he bowed out of it voluntarily. When we asked him why he told us how politics has seeped into sports. Some politicians wanted him to team up with guys they wanted to promote. According to Chaits, they were not qualified enough to play for district level… But Chaits didn’t stop there. Sports, is an integral part of his life. He changed over from boxing to football and pistol shooting. Year next, college got another Gold for pistol shooting from Chaits as well for football. He plays in some strategic position – to be frank I don’t know much about football but they say that he has one of the most powerful kicks. When he kicks the ball the ball stays kicked – nobody dares to put any part of their body to stop that travelling ball.”
“So Chaits is a fantastic sports person – I can understand guys going crazy about his Sports ventures” said Priti, “but how come girls flip over him so much you included” Priti had Natasha clasping her fists (See even I catch you between lines).
“Chaits is darling of entire campus – so nothing’s different with me and especially he’s a very close friend of mine” Natasha managed to brush away Priti’s allegation “Chaits has been topping University scores from day one and has been the blue eyed boy of the management – despite his sports. Do you know? Chaits is an ardent lover of music and listens to every type of music. He has a golden voice. You should hear him sing those love songs…”
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