Frionship!
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Please excuse me for the title of my story especially those who have caught the mistake or rather is thinking about whether I have made a typo. No, this isn’t a typo. Rather a new word added to my personal dictionary. But why on Earth did I make a term like that? Well for that you’ve to read my story which elaborates how frionship (again not a typo) was born in between a college teenage boy and a girl. This story abstracts how two unknown souls establish a relation typically termed as frionship by virtue of sequential memories created by life memoirs.
Trrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiii………ng!! The alarm clock sounded to me like a classroom bell disrupting the sleep of an average student during the boring lectures. I woke up to see myself sleeping upside down in my bed amidst a whole lot of books and a guitar. It was 6:30 am. Definitely not a time an engineering student wants to wake up for like anything. But I woke up, the sole reason being placement. Now, placement is an important keyword in an engineering student’s life. People get admitted to engineering colleges only to secure their jobs. This notion is believed by many Indian parents and any kid trying on blasphemy on this notion will be considered simply unsuccessful in their lives. Well, I was not any exception and followed the same notion.
I woke up to see Maa (in Bengal ethnicity we call our mothers by Maa) preparing for my tiffin in the kitchen. I gave her a tight hug and took my brush and toothpaste from the rack to brush my teeth. I switched my place from the sink to the balcony for a lustful view outside. It was still dark outside and the trees in our courtyard seemed to be covered in a blanket of mist. I strolled my eyes towards the road which leads to a playground in our locality to see few people jogging and kids playing cricket. I then turned my eyes towards the mirror to see myself. The hair was messy and my eyes clearly signifying to go for another round of sleep in the bed. I thought it was such a bad idea to attend the placement drive. I had absolutely no preparation this time. Previously, I’ve been rejected at the technical round of a renowned multinational company although I’ve given five out of the six questions asked to me. Henceforth this time I decided to go like a novice to them. I prepared myself to take the bus which will start at 7:35 am from the bus terminus. A few moments later, I saw myself running almost like Usain Bolt to catch the bus only to see it has already left and I’ve to wait for the next bus which will depart at 8 am. I’m used to being late in project presentations and even in exam halls. My peers call me “late lateef”. I am not a perpetually late person but I believe in the proverb “Better late than never”. I managed to grasp a seat and slide myself towards the window side only to open my backpack’s front pocket and take out my earphones, plug it in my phone and closing my eyes until the destination arrives. I dozed off in a while.
Tssss……….. What the? How the? I almost woke up to see the passenger beside me staring like as if I’ve asked for his daughter’s hand. I apologised and sneaked outside to see the bus had just arrived at the Sector V, Saltlake area of Kolkata. I looked at my watch to see it’s five minutes past nine a.m. My interview was scheduled at 9 a.m. My mind said not again. It will take around twenty minutes more to reach the destination. It was almost 9:30 a.m. when I reached the venue for my interview. The security escorted me to the office from where I came to know that I’ve to take stairs to the second floor. Arriving there I discovered almost a bunch of hoomans in a queue to take an online test. From the crowd, I recognized one of my college peers coming towards me. Her name is Koyel. We hardly interacted in these four years. “Hi! I thought you’re not coming here” she said. I changed my mind last night. I asked her about when she arrived and whether she has any preparation for the interview. I shouldn’t have asked the question. I regret. “8:30a.m. The management told me that I’ve to take an online test” she said. Wait. What? I ain’t prepared for an online test. We were supposed to give the interview only. “No, we can’t. We have to follow their protocols” she said. Well. Let’s see what happens.
The labs were almost double the size of our college labs. “How many students can this lab hold?” I asked one of the proctors. Nearly 150 was the answer. Woah! This is one heck of a computer lab. The test started. I gave all the answers keeping some of them to the trust of God. The results declared almost after an hour. The presentee of EYD Technology called off the names one by one and the selected candidates were expressing their joy. I was the last one to get selected because of my last candidate id to enter the hall. After this, we were given a brief introduction about the company accompanied by the most important slide including the remuneration of a regular employee. I raised my hand for asking if we have to sign a bond on contract with the organisation for which I was answered a no.
After the formal introduction of the company, the students were segregated into sub-groups consisting of ten people for a round of group discussion. Our group was an exception consisting of seven people. We were made to seat sequentially in a queue waiting for the round to begin. One of the boys of our group raised a question “Who all are Bangalis in this group?” I firmly answered that I’m a proud Bangali. The boy sitting adjacent to me didn’t answer on a positive note so we realized that he belongs to a non-Bengali ethnicity. Until this time I presumed there were only boys in our group so we have to maintain a bro code. My eyes got stuck when a sweet girl amidst the question raised her hand for declaring her statement that one should not laugh during the discussion if she commits any false statement or make any grammatical errors. Our eyes got locked for a brief period of time. She then slid back to her original position and the boy took the pitch that everyone should get a fair chance to introduce their ideas in the discussion. There were many protocols set in our group all of which were violated by the non-Bengali guy. It was almost 3 p.m. when we got our chance for group discussion. We were so tensed that we chose our seats haphazardly and hence the recruiter got into a bizarre position to relocate our positions. Our movements seemed synonymous to musical chairs we used to play during our childhood days. After the settlement, I realized I was sitting midway to the group. I could catch a perfect glimpse of the unknown girl. First impressions, she is so humble. Her good sense of style statement can be proved by the way she has done her eyelining and the density of her pair of glasses signifies her scholarly attitude. My mind was racing through all these observations when the interviewer threw us the topic of Digital India. We had to pitch for at least a minute and then finally come into a mutual conclusion. At this time I had a strange feeling. The interviewer seemed to me like ACP Pradyuman aka Shivaji Satam of popular Indian tv series CID telecasted in Sony channel.
It was at this time I heard the name of the girl for the first time. Anushmita. I heard her pitch attentively without missing a speckle of what she said. She clarified about what major steps the government should take to digitize the nation further. She clearly made her points legit leaving me almost blank about what to say. I recollected myself and started framing my own points until my turn came. About midway, to my pitch, I was interrupted by the interviewer to terminate my pitch as I have exceeded the time limit. The boy next to me performed quite well followed by other people in the group. Bang on! I personally think the discussion phase of GD is a kind of debate. There will be one such guy who wants to rise above all and make his points clear although if not accepted by the mass population. On the other hand, there are people who will be in a tie situation and will try to support this guy. And finally, there will be someone who will try to prove him wrong by opposing his logic. Same happened in our panel where the guy was of non-Bengali ethnicity trying to impose his logic towards us. But the rest of us are either trying to stop him or making an oppositional point which does not become clearly audible to the interviewer. After our session was over we were literally disgusted by the performance we have delivered and towards the attitude of that guy. It was at this time I got the opportunity to interact with Anushmita. Every one of us accepted the fact that the whole group will be expelled from the GD round.
Well, this was the sweetest part of the day. Almost every one of us from the last group managed to go out from the campus to a nearby stall to have our tiffin because we were both exhausted and famished. Anushmita moved forward to take a seat at one of the long seats of the tea stall. I moved forward to take permission to sit beside her. She acknowledged. I took a deep breath and leaned forward to introduce myself to her for the first time. With a crunch in my stomach and a brain full of ideas, I took out my tiffin box, tucked it open and offered my tiffin to her. I had brought roti (tortillas) and mixed vegetable preparation. She acknowledged my action and informed that she just had her meal a few moments ago. I started to have my own meal while staring at the other people outside. Some people were smoking cigarettes producing a huge dense smoke while some were having Chaa (tea) over a random heated discussion. I strolled my eyes at the shopping complex just opposite to the campus and found a minimal population present. The residential towers also seemed to be pretty deserted. I wondered why people don’t live in the outskirts of the city. maybe the transportation facility is not so good or maybe people don’t get adequate access to their day-to-day desires. The township is certainly improving over the course of time. All of a sudden, I heard someone saying that the results are out and one should check it immediately before the next round starts. I saw Anushmita standing up, leaving the seat and proceed towards the campus. “She didn’t even ask me?” my mind said. “She is definitely not my cup of tea” my heart replied. I got a bit angry. I started gulping my leftover meal and washed my hands before leaving the seat. I swung my backpack around the shoulder and started walking towards the campus. I saw Koyel leaving the campus with her dad. “Hi. Did you see the results?” I asked her. “I’m so excited! I got selected” she said. “Wow. That’s great news. Did you hear my name?” I asked her. “Yes. You made it too. Congratulations!” she said. “Hey, thanks,” I said. I wasn’t expecting that honestly. I held off my anger. I stepped forward to the auditorium hall where people are waiting for their interview round. I saw Anushmita sitting with one of her pals. They seemed to be pretty stressed about the interviews and was discussing the probable questions. I saw people gushing through the notes to clear the technical round. I took a chair by her side. I asked her about what she is preparing. She replied firmly “Datastructures. What’s your favourite subject”. “Core Java” I replied. “Please tell me about the probable questions from that subject,” she said. I explained to her a few topics I thought can be important for the interview round and asked her if she is preparing for anything else. She told me she wants to give the interview earlier as she has to go for her training at a reputed IT firm. A few moments later a proctor escorted her to one of the panels for her interviews. I was unaware when she left the campus after her interview was over. I had to wait till the last moment as unfortunately, my candidate id was the last among everyone. After I was done with my interview I heard the security personnel discuss for leaving the campus as they are done with their duty hours. I was famished. Without wasting any more time I ran to the nearest bus stop to catch a bus. To my ushered excitement I saw an almost vacant bus coming. I boarded the bus only to catch an isolated vacant window seat, plug my earphones to the ears, raise the volume and take a chilled deep breath. The bus sped through the roads smoothly like a boat on the river. That night I remember finishing my dinner and going to bed early.
Next Morning….
I woke up at 8 a.m. The sun rays were coming through the window panels. I heard Maa speaking with someone outside. I sneaked through the window. I saw Sushmita aunty (our neighbour) from the adjacent house discussing how she spent her vacation at Manali. Sushmita aunty and Maa were having gossip from the windows. My mind raced for something similar to her name. “Wait. What was the name of that studious girl?” my mind asked. An…Anu...Anushmita. Yes, Sushmita sounds similar to Anushmita. I finally remembered her name. I turned down my seventh sequential alarm over the phone and checked social media for her profile. “Well I don’t know her last name but I know her college name,” told to myself. Let’s put those keywords together and search! I found a hit. Checked her profile and found her profile to be attractive. I sent a friend request.
Later that day…
One new notification. Let’s check it out. It read like this “Anushmita accepted your friend request”. “Did she recognise me?” my mind asked. I texted her “Hi. :)”. After an hour or so I got a reply which looked like this “Heya. :)”. I was online so texted her instantaneously. We exchanged quite a few messages that day before she bid me a good night. I don’t sleep early often so wondered she could have chatted a bit more. I became busy with my assignments that night.
Next Day…
We were exchanging an impressive number of messages. She wanted to know about my interests. I told her that I love novels, guitar and coffee. On the contrary, she asked me to send a recording. I searched my files only to discover that I’ve hardly any of them with me now. I sent her a recording of a Bangla song that I’ve recorded recently. She got impressed and asked me whether I can teach her some lessons on guitar. I asked her whether she has a guitar or not. She declined. I made an offer to lend my guitar on practice lessons.
I checked my email to discover that our college Training and Placement officer has sent an email regarding a campus drive. I filled up my credentials for the drive.
A few days later…
“Congratulations. You’ve been shortlisted for further rounds of …..” the email read. The email was sent one day prior to the examination. How on earth can a person prepare in one day? Yes, this is the scenario. Maybe this was a trick played by the company to select only the potential students. Anyway, I made an attempt to attend the campus drive.
On the day of campus drive…
I reached the venue thirty minutes prior to the allotted time of examination. I saw a white car approaching near the main gate of the venue where I was waiting with at least hundreds of students. I saw a girl stepping outside the white car. She seems pretty known by face. “Wait. It’s Anushmita.” my mind answered. A couple of girls came towards the car to receive her. She all most seemed like a minister to me. I wondered whether she can recognise me among the crowd. Our eyes got locked. She seemed to be in a conundrum. I stepped forward and raised my hands for saying hello. She seemed to become effervescent by my presence. “What a surprise! I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” I told. “Glad to see you. Are we allotted at the same time?” she said. “4 p.m.” I replied. “Same here” she reciprocated. Maybe this was in our fate. After a few moments, we were told to sit in a classroom waiting in a queue for our rounds to begin. I and Anushmita were allotted at different classrooms. An hour went waiting for the rounds to begin but there was no action taken by the management. Utterly disgusted. “What sort of harassment is this?” I begin to feel. I wondered what she was doing. Maybe she’s doing good with her friends. I opened the message box and texted her “Up for some Chaa??”. A reply came almost instantaneously from her side “Yes, please! Where are you??”. I replied “Second Floor.” Within a few moments, she texted me back to come and meet her at the ground floor. I ditched my pals to meet with her. Obviously. Who wouldn’t have done this?
I came near to the basketball court and discovered her sitting on the pedestals. On my arrival, she jumped out leaving the seat and proposed to go for a casual stroll outside. We went out to see the evening lights by the roadside. We walked along the pedestrian lane as the evening breeze played with her curly hair. I could smell her sweet perfume. The lane appeared to be stark with dry leaves falling with a pattern from the trees. Her face appeared exquisite even in the dark shades of winter. I could see the distant lights blurring out with her presence. Everything seemed so beautiful outside.
