Chapter 4

Now continuing further..

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All the freshers were about to enter the college in the next two days. The seniors were ready with their ragging plans. Prof Vardaan informed the peon to bring the resumes of the freshers, as he wanted to know the majority background of the students. He believed it will help him in molding his teaching ways in tandem with the students. The peon got all the resumes to his desk. He went through them one by one. All the resumes were almost the same. Most of them were either from science or commerce background. Some of them had excellent academics, some good, few of them average. None of them any distinct extra-curricular activities. This resume, which Vardaan was now holding...this student was from an Arts background. She had limited academic achievements but an exhaustive list of extra curricular activities, in fact her resume was filled with these extra curricular achievements. He read words like swimming, tennis, martial arts and he also read some awards and accolades in kathak, that this girl had. He then read the words, "Professional Kathak dancer". He then looked at her name written at the start of her resume, "Sanyukta Agarwal". "Hmm...interesting, very interesting !!" "I have to meet her."

Sanyukta was ready with her bag packed. She was sad, she was never away from her family, for such a long duration. She had never stayed in a hostel. But her father assured to come and meet her every two weeks. With that she bid good bye to her family and set out to new life. It took her approximately five to six hours to reach the campus. Once inside, she read the notice board, that had the directions towards the hostel. She went to the hostel. She took her room keys, and also an instruction sheet of do's and dont's which the warden was giving to all the freshers. She entered her room and sighed, "Itna chota kamra, shuru hone se pehle hi khatam ho gaya! Aur yaha do log rahenge! Main toh yaha apna riyaas bhi nahi sakti, jagah hi nahi hai!". While she was thinking all this, her room mate kaustuki, a girl from Mizoram entered her room.

Kaustuki: Hi, I am Kaustuki.

She put her hand forward for a handshake. Sanyukta accepted it and both of them shook hands. Kaustuki asked her to come to the canteen and also for exploring the campus, which Sanyukta thought was not a bad idea. Both of them bonded really well.

It was night and the friends said Good night to each other and slept. But sleep just evaded Sanyukta. She had a strong gut feeling, that something terrible was going to happen. Next day, both of them went to their classroom. She once again looked at the first lecture. "Financial Management by Prof Vardaan". She thought, "Yuck, such a boring subject!!" All of a sudden, her classmates stood up. She realized the professor had come in. She could not see his face as people taller than her were in front of her. The prof made an action with his hands signifying students to sit down. Just then her bag fell down and most of her belongings came out.

Prof Vardaan: "Please don;t consider me to be a jolly good professor. You can ask your seniors about my way of handling you all. It's simple I am the boss here. I will be giving you some assignments at any time of the day or any time of the night. There will be a time limit as well...and tests, be ready to face them anytime. So, in short, it's either my way or the highway!"

Sanyukta was down her desk while this lecture was going on..but she thought, "I've heard this voice before...somewhere...but where??" She came up back to her seat, and she was shell-shocked to see the person in front of her. She was still. It was as if the world stood still. Her breathing stopped. Her throat had gone dry. Her eyes were wide open to grasp the view in front of her. She swallowed the remaining saliva in her throat. And she was scared.She tried to cover her face with her dupatta.

Prof Vardaan: "Ok Guys, before starting the subject, I would like to hear your introductions. It will help me in molding my explanations for you all." He started thinking, "Who is Sanyukta Agarwal??"

One by one, people from the fist row started with their introductions. Now Sanyukta was damn scared. She thought of running away from here. But it was not possible. It was Kaustuki's turn next, and Sanyukta immediately got an idea. She hid under the table. She thought that this will give him an impression that nobody's there on the seat. After Kaustuki, Jignesh who was sitting on the other side of Sanyukta stood up and started with his intro. Sanyukta thought she was saved. But Vardaan was smart enough, he could see that someone was hiding beneath the desk.He stopped Jignesh midway and told the person hiding beneath the desk, to stand up.

Prof Vardaan: Listen, you...hiding beneath...let me inform you that I can see that you are hiding. This is not a games class. Now stand up!" he said raising his voice a bit. Sanyukta was now shivering with fear. This was the first time in her life, that she was so scared. Just then the peon entered the classroom and told Prof Vardaan that Dean is calling him and it's important. He left the class, but while leaving he could see somebody get back to the seat from underneath, he could only see her dupatta. He left.

Sanyukta, rushed to the washroom...

"Nightmare, nightmare...itna bura co-incidence." She said cupping her face with her hands. She could recollect the words that she had abused him with, "lecherous, eve-teaser, criminal and even bas***d!!" This person is her professor..."Mujhe yaha aana hi nahi chahiye tha. Sanyukta, tu toh gayi, aaj nahi toh kal use pata chalega hi, ki tu bhi isi college mein hai. Kya karu, kya karu??

Thinking this she went towards her classroom for the next lecture. She sent a silent prayer to God hoping that the Vardaan would not see her ever. But, even she knew that it was impossible. The day passed by and Sanyukta could not sleep after today's incident. Next morning, she woke up early and moved towards the canteen as she was hungry. There was some renovation work going on the college and everywhere there were bamboo sticks, glass sheets and pieces,wall paints, brushes etc. It was a nuisance to everybody.

Sanyukta ate her breakfast and was heading towards her classroom. She was busy chatting with kaustuki while walking. From the opposite side, Vardaan was walking, talking on the phone to somebody. He hadn't seen Sanyukta by then. A boy was running on the corridor, and in the process he pushed Sanyukta ahead. Sanyukta lost her balance and in no time collided with Vardaan and both of them fell on the floor. Sanyukta was on top of Vardaan. She closed her eyes to absorb the shock of the push and the fall as well. Here, Vardaan could not beleive his eyes. His eyebrows were now narrowed as if questioning something. "That same girl...is she following me??", he thought. Just then he looked above Sanyukta, the glass sheet which the workers had been trying to adjust to put it up to the cieling, was now going to fall...on Sanyukta. The glass sheet fell from the workers' hands. It was just seconds remaining for the impact. Sanyukta would have been seriously injured. Vardaan immediately, held her waist with both his hands encircling it completely and rolled her to the other side. He came on top of her. The glass sheet fell on his hand. Their faces was just an inch apart from each other. Though, their bodies were sticking to each other, not even letting air to pass through it. Sanyukta got scared when the glass fell and held Vardaan's arms, closing her eyes. A tear escaped her eyes. Vardaan felt like wiping them off.

"She's actually beautiful, so fragile.", he thought. Just then he could hear voices of people surrounding them. he quickly came back to his senses and stood up. He offered his hand to Sanyukta to stand up, but she stood up without his help. Kaustuki came running to her, "Sanyukta, are you alright?" Vardaan was shocked hearing her name. "So she is Sanyukta Agarwal", he thought. Meanwhile, the dean came there hearing the noise of the glass sheet falling. Vardaan was too shocked seeing Sanyukta in the campus, and was glaring at her constantly.

Dean: "Vardaan your hand, it is bleeding...come with me...I'll band aid it."

Vardaan left with the dean. Sanyukta came back to her senses, to absorb what just happened. She could hear some girls saying, "Kitni lucky hai yeh, college mein aaye do din bhi nahi hue aur seedhe yeh Vardaan sir ke upar and Vardaan sir iske upar." "Kaash, hamare saath bhi aisa kabhi ho!"

Sanyukta felt disgusted hearing their comments and left to her room crying!

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Happy to recieve any suggestion on this part also. How was it?