“It is the same story everywhere”

Tejasvi was furious, quite expectedly he removed the slide of human eye, which we had planned to explain in detail and instead gave a leisured pause on the slide of surgery which we had initially planned to give brief attention. He grinned and winked to my baffled looks.

I do not precisely remember all the stories that we cooked up to the questions of the judges but we managed to make a mark, though we were not sure whether it was a good one or a bad one; but new it must have been terrible either way.

4:30, and we were out of the hall and roaming around the college garden this time. The garden was landscaped and well maintained. There was a large lotus pool in the centre, we could see a school of gold fish swimming in the clear water, and there were a couple of catfish lazily grazing at the bottom of the pool. Lush green Hyacinths with their violet flowers occupied a far corner beyond a group of water lettuces. A lone frog sat on a large lotus leaf beside a beautiful blue water lily.  The pool was lined with granite and in the middle, an arch bridge rose. From where we stood we could not see the origins of the bridge which had a thick bamboo groove at one end while the other end vanished behind a bower of Jasmine. We followed the cobbled path to the bridge which had wreaths of periwinkle and laburnum growing on either sides. The brigde as we could see was most tastefully built with a voluptuous, sandstone Yakshi on either side under large fully blossomed temple trees. A lantana creeper clung to the railing which ascended with the ascent of the bridge and curved over granite benches placed under the shade of the bamboo groove to arch over the lake.  I felt the expected singe of a furious glare from Tejasvi, when we discovered some of the stone benches occupied by people of either sex chirruping away excitedly. To avoid a confrontation I squealed at the nth Kingfisher perched upon a reed. Though I could not achieve my goal but the squeal managed to frighten the Kingfisher, which flew off and turn a few startled heads on the stone bench.

As we neared the other end of the lake, suddenly Tejasvi grew cheerful. Evidently the stroll over the beautiful lake had a therapeutic effect upon him or perhaps it was the cheerful banter of the children which was growing louder by each step. Beyond the Jasmine bower was a large hall, there were children all over. Some screamed, some ran about, some were arranging balloons while other struggled with streamers and glue. They were not alone; there was a flock of girls, evidently from the college, helping them. We stood on the thresh hold, I was amused at the patience of the girls and was annoyed at the noise, Tejasvi was quite cheerful evident from his thunderous laughter. All of a sudden a small boy darted from amidst a pile of chairs to behind a heavy curtain screaming; “I won’t ! I won’t !”

From the same pile of chairs came a disgruntled figure, almost sprinting, with knickers in her hands, “kannA! Please! Please wear this……” she was pleading.

Upon seeing us she stopped. Tejasvi was grinning, I was disgusted, and she hid her timidity behind a startled laughter.

“Are you omnipresent!!!”, I remarked, having found Tejasvi’s source of happiness.

“Ohh! The presentations are almost over and these orphans would be performing next and as you can see they are not yet ready.”, Puri replied, while hiding the knickers behind her.

I opened my mouth to say something when my cursed phone rang. I excused myself and headed towards a vacant stone bench next to a thick bush of reeds, behind the Jasmine bower.

15 minutes later I, having tucked my hot cellphone in my trouser pocket went to the hall. They were not there. I searched the stone benches with no luck. Annoyed I went back to the hall. By now the children who resembled overgrown bugs were moving in a file with a couple of girls leading them. I went to a pretty girl in a half saree and asked for the whereabouts of Puri. She was perplexed for she never knew any girl with the name “Puri”.

“Obviously”, I thought to myself “she must have kept her pet name a secret”.

I then took her ‘Official Name’ and posed the same question.

“She went to the auditorium along with the boy.” The girl replied.

“I did not see them pass the bridge.” I protested.

“There is a shorter way through the cloister” she smiled.

“Could you please direct me.” I asked

“Why don’t you come along, we are going there” she said.

More than being pleased I readily accepted the offer.

“So you guys call her ‘Puri’ !” she smiled.

“just do not get me into trouble” I added.

We walked all around the hall. We passed what looked like the green room and then a few other rooms. Just when I thought we had reached a dead end, the girl took a right into a small, almost hidden alley. It led to a cloister which was well concealed behind a Casurina groove. The cloister led us to the doorstep of the main building where we had got ourselves registered in the morning; though now there was no trace any of the morning’s apparatus.

“Puri! He was looking for you guys”, The girl next to me shouted upon reaching the auditorium.

I was aghast.

“Did you tell her that?”

“It was an accident.”

“I will come to that later, first clarify this. Which of the following is correct?” Puri rattled out.

“XYZ is on the phone attending a call.”

“or”

“XYZ is at the phone attending a call.”

“It is the same story everywhere.” I thought to myself.

Obviously they were talking of me when this particular sentence might have sprung up. But the source of the sentence was least of my worries. I just did not want to end up with a grammar lesson and that too with a friend’s girlfriend. Thus I shrugged my shoulders, knowing well that when one answers such questions one always ends up being wrong.

Luckily for us, Puri was called before she could comment upon my naivety and an evidently annoyed Tejasvi helped me find seats in an already full auditorium.

* The words from Indian languages with the exception of proper nouns are spelled according to the Harvard Kyoto convention for romanisation.