They returned, speaking and discussing about similarity and differences between Tanvi and Anjali. Discussing Guru’s plans – his engagement ceremony – soon to be held…
‘Chaits still seems to be obsessed with Anjali’ Guru thought even as they said ‘Bye’ when Chaits dropped him home and watched Chaits drive off. He wowed that once his engagement ceremony was done with – he along with Tanvi would find Anjali – and if, she was still single – will try and bring them together. He remembered that every friend used to tease Chaits over Anjali. He was sure that even Anjali was equally obsessed with Chaits.
Chaits was tired after all the driving he had done. He was happy for Guru and knew that Tanvi was the right girl for him. He couldn’t shake the feeling of similarity between Tanvi’s looks with Anjali. Finally – he dozed off – dreaming again about Anjali…
Couple of weeks passed. Chaits couldn’t shake off Anjali’s memories. He tried burying himself in loads of extra work, extra planning, spending more time with his colleagues and other friends. Whenever he had a moment to himself – her memories captured him. He found his obsession returning.
Whenever this happened – he couldn’t stop smiling away to himself.
He recollected his first interaction with her…
He was in the final year of his graduation. He was immensely popular in the college because of his outgoing nature. He was a sports person and captain of Cricket and Volley Ball teams of the college. He was artistic as well and used to participate in various cultural and social activities in the college. He had a lot of female fan following and rarely bothered about girls who were not bold enough to approach him to engage him in any kind of chat. He was happy about his popularity.
It was the start of the academic year and new entrants to junior college had started to enter the campus. He, Guru and his group of close friends were whiling away their free time, sitting on the steps of the main college office building which faced the main entrance. They watched every new entrant keenly and tried reading their personality, their likes and their dislikes, whether the girl was single or had a boyfriend, etc.
They suddenly were quiet when they saw a beautiful girl enter. She was amazingly beautiful. She sported long, thick jet black fall of hair that fell over her shoulders flowing toward her lower back. She wore an off white orange knee length dress that fit her to a tee. It obviously was her first day to enter the college. Nervousness was written large over her face. She managed to ask directions to a girl and vanished into the structure that housed her classroom. They had extended lectures that day and he wasn’t able to see her go home.
Chaits was attending the inter-collegiate volley ball competition with his team which was being held in campus of a distant rival college. He was away from his college campus for couple of days. He returned with his team carrying the winner’s trophy on his head and the entire campus cheered their victorious team.
He was waiving at the cheering crowd when his sight got arrested by the window on the first floor. The breathtakingly beautiful girl was at that window, keenly watching the victory procession. Their eyes met and held for a moment. Her face went red as she blushed and shied away from the window away from his sight. Guru was quick to notice this.
As usual, he and his friends occupied the steps they regularly used to. Guru had already decided the romance between Chaits and that new girl and announced it to the group. They all started to tease him.
“Hold on …” he pleaded, “I don’t even know her name. I don’t know if she’s single. I don’t know anything about her.”
“So … Why don’t you find that out for yourself?” Guru had challenged.
Chaits had been accustomed to girls introducing themselves. He never had to bother about approaching girls and introducing himself and he knew he wasn’t comfortable about it. He nudged Guru – the hard way – expressing his feelings ‘Do not showcase my inabilities to the group.’ while Guru had laughed at his fear of doing so.
“You got to do that” he teased him, “I have seen exactly similar expression on her face whenever she looks at you. You both seem to be attracted to each other. If you don’t do it – someone else will – you’ll lose the chance of winning her hand – forever.”
Rest of the group had followed up the cue and had started to pester him.
“It’s almost their lunch time.” one of them informed, “I have noticed that she takes a stroll in the campus exploring it during this time. I’m sure they will be exploring the campus near our faculty today. The best place to intercept her will be the lawn at the back of the structure. Go on – do it – all the best…”
The entire group had prodded and pepped him up to go for it. In the heat of the moment, he had finally agreed to introduce himself to that beautiful girl and overcome this inability of his personality.
His heart was beating fast – had it been some other girl – he wouldn’t be so nervous. She seemed special…
“Here they come …” Guru pointed at a group of girls, “They will first circumvent their own department building and then walk toward the back of ours.” … sure enough, they did, Guru pushed Chaits toward the opposite side of their path, “Now is your chance … go … go … go …”
Chaits, in a dream-like state of mind – almost hypnotized moved and started to walk circumventing the structure from the opposite side. His heart beat faster with every step he took. He reached the corner of the structure and peeped out – he couldn’t see them.
‘Perhaps – they have decided to postpone their exploration of this side.’ He thought hopefully. Before turning around, he peeped out again. His heart missed a beat. Sure enough, he saw her walking along with her new classmate toward the place where he stood.
He gulped at the saliva that had formed in the representation of his nervousness. He took a deep breath and started walking toward the pair of girls. They were about to cross each other when he cleared his throat.
“Excuse me …” he blurted out in haste and the girls stopped – surprised by this sudden intervention in their exploration of the campus, “Hi … I’m Chaits … sorry that’s my short name … I’m Chaitanya.”
The pair of girls had been taken in by this sudden surprise interruption and looked at him – blank, without uttering anything.
“I hope you like our college campus.” he said not understanding their stupid reaction and how to continue.
“YYyess…” her friend managed to mumble out.
“Good.” he said looking at her, “I introduced myself – I believe it’s etiquette to introduce you back.” He was now confused looking at the confused pair of girls.
“Oh! Yes…” her friend finally managed to speak, “My name is Trupti. You seem to be popular in the college. We heard about you.”
“Oh! That’s nothing – just friends with everyone around.” he said smiling and directly looked at her, “Trupti – that’s a nice name. Does your friend have a name too?”
“My name is Anjali.” The special girl said and quickly moved so that Trupti was between him and her.
“Anajli? That’s one of my favourite names.” he couldn’t think of anything else to add on, “I guess, we should be seeing more of each other since we study in the same campus. Enjoy these days. You’ll never get time to live these again… Bye …” he smiled and abruptly turned around and walked away as fast as he could toward his group of friends.
They lauded his courage and then turned on to their regular chat.
“Chaits …” Guru called him in a cautious voice, “I think you better move on to our library. It’s good for your health…” saying this, he pointed to a corner of the building opposite to them. They saw Anjali and Trupti pointing him out. Within a moment a dozen more girls peeped at him from behind them…
On say of Guru and his friends, he had made a dash to the library not sure of the intention of the group of the girls who peeped at him…