"We have just ten minutes break." moaned Sheena.
"And so, we better hurry if we want to grab atleast a cup of coffee." Picking up her small money purse, Devyanshi dragged her friend out of the classroom.
Unfortunately, the lift was overfull by the time they reached there. And knowing that it would be a sheer wastage of time to wait for the lift, Devyanshi left her grumbling roommate in front of the closed door of the lift and turned towards the stairs.
She noticed a girl descending the stairs with a steaming paper cup of beverage in her hand.
"Excuse me, can you tell me on which floor is the canteen?" she queried.
The girl looked at her for a second before asking, "First year?"
"Yes." Devyanshi nodded.
Surprising her, the girl smiled. "Third floor... go up the stairs and take a right turn. The coffee shop is on the right with the fast food stall just next to it."
"Thanks." With a sweet smile, Devyanshi took the stairs, two at a time oblivious to the pair of eyes watching her with a thoughtful look.
*@*@*@*
"One coffee, please. And make that fast." She panted having rushed up the stairs at a breakneck speed.
"Yes ma'm." The shopkeeper nodded.
Within seconds, she had a cup of strong coffee in front of her. She sipped the beverage gingerly and found it passable.
"New Batch, Ma'm?" The stall wallah enquired and she nodded her head in affirmative.
"How come you reached here so fast? This is the first time I have seen a new student make it so fast to the canteen."
"One of the senior girls guided me here." She smiled.
"Senior girl???" The stall wallah was visibly surprised. "Then it must have been Neeshi Ma'm. No other senior would do that."
"Why so??" She queried.
"Actually it's an unwritten rule of this institute. The first day of their class, the juniors fall prey to their seniors' pranks. Almost nobody can make it to the canteen in the first break. Either the seniors stall the lift or direct the juniors in the wrong direction, or they leave clues for the new students." The shopkeeper was laughing.
"And the administration allows it??"
"It's not as if they are ragging you, are they? It's just a prank, harmless... Meant for fun. After all, they provide breakfast in the hostel and nobody can be hungry that fast."
Devyanshi pursued her lips and kept quiet. Truth be told, it was true. Considering the way the students were ragged in the colleges, this was nothing compared to that.
"So, this has never turned into ragging?" she asked.
"The institution has strict anti-ragging rules in place. A few years back there was a complaint of ragging. The college investigated it and nailed down the group of seniors who had done it. They were almost expelled." The shopkeeper replied sagely.
"But they weren't..." she wanted to know.
"No, the victim's parents did not want them to suffer. They were allowed to complete the year but were not allowed to sit for the campus recruitment."
"Oh my...!!!"
"So you see, nobody here would dare to cross the limits." The stall keeper smiled and Devyanshi smiled back.
Her coffee cup was empty. She dropped it in the nearby dustbin and paid the stall keeper.
"Thanks for the coffee and the story bhaiya."
"Any time ma'm."
*@*@*@*@*
"What the hell, Neeshi... Why did you direct the girl towards the proper stall? You know it's a custom to misdirect the juniors on their first day, first break. Even we faced it."
"Just because we faced it Ishaan does not mean we should do the same." Neeshi, the second year Finance student was firm.
"Oh come on Neeshi...don't be a spoil sport." Whined Ishaan.
"It's not as if you didn't get your share of fun Ishaan. You had your fun, I had mine. So stop cribbing."
With that she turned and walked out of the classroom without a backward glance.
"Arey Neeshi...wait..wait...!!! Arghh...now I have to make it up to her."
"Serves you right for fighting with her Ishaan." Umang laughed and the rest of the gang followed.
Patting his distraught friend on his back, Umang, Arjun and Kanika left the room.
*@*@*@*@*
"How in the name of seven hells did you manage to get coffee?? We were stuck in the lift." Sheena wailed.
Devyanshi took one look at her friend and burst out laughing.
"Oh Sheena... That's why I took the stairs."
"As if you knew this would happen." Her friend grumbled.
"Honestly...no...!!! But then I found out that the entire first year fell for the customary prank of their seniors."
And as a laughing Devyanshi recounted the entire story to Sheena and her dumb founded class, the reactions which went around were too funny.
And there, unseen by everyone, a pair of eyes were watching her as she gaily narrated the story to her friends.
Whatever had happened, one thing was sure... The juniors were now on their watch. And had a favourable impression on the senior called Neeshi.
*@*@*@*
The canteen turned out to be the gossip centre of the first year students. Devyanshi remembered Sheena dragging her up to the third floor for a much needed cup of coffee and some snacks. The gruelling 8 hours of Preparatory classes had drained her both physically and mentally. She was almost half asleep in her seat when Sheena placed a steaming cup of strong, black coffee in front of her. Still struggling with her drooping eye lids, she picked up the cup.
Thankfully her friend had not noticed her distraction and need for sleep. She took a sip and tried to fortify herself. But it was only after she had finished almost half cup of the coffee that she was alert enough to pay attention to her surroundings.
Sheena was deep in conversation with a guy on her right whom she remembered from the class as Ayush Khurana. The boy was an electrical engineer and hailed from Punjab. Next to Ayush sat the chirpy and bubbly Mridula Verma. She faintly remembered this girl was from Uttar Pradesh but born and brought up in Kolkata. Her face was quite expressive and Devyanshi had a sudden haunch.
She waited for the girl to look at her and when Mridula turned and smiled at her, she couldn't stop herself from blurting out... "You are a trained classical dancer, aren't you?"
To say that Mridula was surprised would have been an understatement. She was thoroughly shocked.
"I... how did you know???"
To this, Devyanshi burst out laughing. However, it was Ayush with his remark of "Brilliant Holmes" which made the entire table erupt in laughter. They caught a few stares from batch mates and seniors alike, but who cared.
"Elementary, my dear Watson." Devyanshi smirked.
"Care to explain? I am sure it is no such thing. All of us were completely confused."
"I ought to make you sign a bond paper to that effect." She smirked.
"Why so?" Sheena queried.
"Because the moment I explain the train of my thoughts, you all are going to say it is so absurdly simple."
"I am sure we would do no such thing." This was Shipra Mehta, the last girl in their group and Devyanshi started explaining.
"Well, I noticed her mannerisms. The moment "Dil Ye Bechain Ve" started on Ayush's phone, she started swaying with the beats... it was very subtle but graceful. Besides, her face and her eyes are expressive... extremely so. And the way her hands moved, drummed and danced on the table top told me that she was a dancer. A trained one at that because there was nothing amateurish in her movements."
The whole table stayed mum, but only for a minute, for Ayush soon quipped... "It was so simple."
And once again all of them burst into laughter, except Devyanshi who glared at Ayush in mock annoyance before picking her cup and bringing it to her lips.
Almost immediately, her eyes fell on the table just in front of her, where a lone boy was sitting, listening to their conversation and sipping a cup of some beverage. Their eyes met and he smiled. She thought she had seen him before, in the class... but which section??? She couldn't place him but returned the smile.
The boy raised his cup in a mock cheer, conceding her deductions and Devyanshi finally smiled with all her heart. Raising her cup in his direction, she returned the gesture with a slight incline of her head. Nobody noticed this silent interaction across the canteen. He turned back to his plate of snacks and Devyanshi paid attention to her group trying to catch the name of the two other boys sitting with her.
Soon she knew that Rohit was from Delhi with a Masters in economics under his belt while Peter Sheen was from Goa, an engineer with two years of work experience to his credit. When finally the group called it quits, Devyanshi was glad to be free.
Together, she and Sheena traced their steps back towards the hostel.
*@*@*
A few days later, Sheena broached the subject of their new friends.
"You know Dev... Ayush is a good singer as well."
Devyanshi looked at the earnest expression on her roommate's face with some amount of amusement. In the last one week, all Sheena would ever talk was about Ayush. It was evident that she was smitten by Ayush, but Devyanshi had her reservations about the boy. He was too friendly by half and although he was well behaved, Dev knew that he had noticed Sheena's interest in him... Noticed it and was playing with it. She thought of cautioning her friend, but knew it was futile. She had tried twice and was rebuffed. She was not going to try a third time.
"Really... how did you know?" she kept her voice light, as she concentrated on the text in front of her.
"He told me, off course." Sheena replied.
Devyanshi took one look at her friend and decided to keep quiet. She would reserve judgement till she heard Ayush singing with her own ears. However, it was evident from her friend's face that that she had accepted the statement at face value.
And though she liked her roommate quite well, she also knew how different they were from each other.
Sheena Oberoi was the youngest daughter of her parents. Her father was the Head of the Human Resource Department of Raymonds in Mumbai. Her eldest brother was a Captain in the army while her elder sister worked in TCS.
As the youngest and the pampered darling of the house, Sheena was far removed from reality. She was sometimes childlike in her innocence while at times was extremely annoying in her haughtiness. She believed people easily and never questioned the why's and who's of an incident. However, in spite of being brought up in the lap of luxury, she had taken to the hostel life quite well and Devyanshi admired her for that. What also worked in her favour was that she was not proud and would never hurt others intentionally.
Devyanshi accepted her friend for what she was - but she was cautious as well. So she had reserved her opinion about Sheena till she got to know more about the other girl.
Her phone buzzed and seeing that it was her Dad calling her, she picked up the cell and went out of the room needing some privacy to talk with her family.
*@*@*@*
Next Day:
Canteen:
She was sitting there alone, her eyes taking in her surroundings as her mind churned out various possibilities of dealing with her Mother.
The Canteen was spacious with circular tables made up of stone and fixed to the floor. A circular bench, made up of same type of black stone circled a few tables while some other tables had plastic chairs around them. She preferred this stone bench to the plastic chair... they were more comfortable.
The place where they were provided lunch was different from the one where they went to have their snacks. Situated in the basement of the college building, it was a lot cooler that the third floor. Probably that was the reason they had built the kitchen here. It also had a few shops - like a stationery shop, a photocopy and lamination centre, a fruit juice stall and a small tea and coffee stall. She liked it a lot here because this place was relatively empty than the noisy third floor. The only time this place teemed with activity was during the lunch hour and there was still time for that.
She noticed a group of seniors coming and taking a seat on the other side of the room and spotted the girl who had helped her on her first day. Neeshi...!!! Oh yes. As if on cue, the girl raised her eyes and spotted her sitting alone there. Their eyes met and Davyanshi flashed a smile. Neeshi looked at her for some time and then ditching her space walked across the canteen towards her.
*@*@*@*@*@*
"Hey... what's your name?"
She gracefully swung her feet around the bench and sank on it.
"Devyanshi Mukharjee. And if I am not wrong, your name is Neeshi...right?"
The girl was visibly surprised but hid it quickly.
"How did you know?"
"The tea stall owner on the third floor told me the very first day."
This time her eyes did pop out. "My goodness... I didn't know I was this popular."
Devyanshi smiled at that and said. "Thanks for your help that day."
The girl waved it off. "Don't even mention. I have been a first year myself. I know how taxing it can be on the first day of the class. So, tell me, you are a bengali, right?"
"Yes ma'm."
"Ohhh hooo... none of that ma'm business. My name is Neeshi Sharma and I suggest you address me by my first name."
Devyanshi smiled. "All right, Neeshi it is."
"And don't mind if I shorten your name to Dev, okay. It is too big for me. You have captured the imagination of our professors quite successfully, you know."
It was now Devyanshi's turn to be surprised. "What? Why? I mean... how?"
"I guess it had something to do with your introduction in the Finance class. The other day I went to the Senior Faculty lounge and heard a full-fledged discussion about some Devyanshi Mukharjee. I had no idea it was you."
Devyanshi blushed slightly at that and tried to wave it off and understanding that the younger girl was a bit uncomfortable and also worried about something, Neeshi made a few small talks and
left from there. She had all the time in the world to grill the girl later. For now, she wanted her lunch which had been delayed all thanks to their Investment Banking class.
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