Sitting with Subha beside me was the best place in the world.
Data Structures classes was going on. Never mind what the teacher, Mrs. Usha, taught, for she seldom taught. What she spoke was beyond our understanding. Whether she meant herself to be understood or not was a question no one bothered to ponder.
But she was strict and would question us on whatever she taught the previous day. Not a big deal. If you know the answer, say it and sit. Else you get to stand the entire period and the question passes on. Nothing much I dare say. May be imposition once or twice.
The questions were usually targeted at the back-benchers. So Venkat would religiously come and occupy the first bench.
Mostly he would be the only person sitting on the entire bench, but the fun was watching him sleep in the middle of a serious Data Structures session. Usha would be standing there, watching out for students who were not listening (particularly the last bench), and from my place, all you need to do is turn to your left, and there would be one guy, sitting right under the teacher’s nose – sleeping like the happiest man without a worry in the world! Good for him he never snored.
If that just wasn’t funny enough, turn to the right. The first row girls – Kokila, Kutty and Aishwarya are sure to keep you engaged and amused. The seating arrangement is thus:
Kokila – Kutty – Aish.
Kokila and Aishu would be talking to almost always and Kutty Meenu would be seriously taking notes. Oh yeah, she was having a pen in her hand pointed at her notebook. The other hand was against her cheek, covering her eyes. Well, technically you never knew whether she was taking notes or sleeping. You had to take a very close look at her small eyes to recognize the difference.
At my desk, it was a combination of everything. Subha and Shalini were studious. Unfortunately, because of these two bookworms, professors automatically thought I was a scholarly too, well, that was an image I made efforts neither to create, nor to maintain.
When teachers weren’t looking, we would play all kinds of games from Antakshari to Dumb-charades to passing chits from boys’ benches to girls’ benches and vice-versa. The ‘naughty-Subha’ was the one who introduced us to this entire fun, mind it, the topper and the leader of all mischief!
In the middle of the class, some guy from the last bench starts whistling. When Usha turned, the whistling stopped abruptly. Then she continued with her class, and after a considerable pause, the whistling continued. The class then came to a stand-still as she has stopped teaching. She had to find out the felon!
She asked politely at first. No response. Then she tried threatening the class saying she would report the incident to the Chairman (implicating all of us), if we didn’t give up the culprit. Now college life was getting to be fun. The lecturing changes topic from subject matter to respecting teachers and behaving oneself in class. Well the latter topic felt much better to comprehend than the former and we enjoyed it, thanks to that unknown guy who had whistled.
Subha and I started whispering.
“Karthika, read this”
“What’s it?”
“Something in French. You tell me what it is.”
She had seen some French words and the back of some package and she wanted me to translate them for her. As I was doing so, unconsciously tears bathed my cheeks. My voice and hands had begun to shake. I was losing control. She noticed it and started stroking my head with motherly warmth, and I nestled my head on her shoulders, closing my eyes, and forgetting the world for a moment.
“Sorry, I thought you will like it”
“I am not able to”