Okay guys, I am early. I was happy as I am going home today. Ya I have that homesickness. No matter I have stayed away for 5 and half years but still it really doesn't seem anything infront of the warmth that our home showers. Haina! And there is one more person whose comment made me update early that is my di... Ankita di. She has really motivated me to write.
But I am here to make a short announcement:
Actually I have almost written 10 parts but on pages of notebook. Yes I was a bit nervous so. And since a month, I have worked on this concept. I had done research too on how nandu's ailment is and a lot more. I am NOT DISHEARTENED with the response and I am NOT HERE FOR PRAISES coz I know I don't deserve them. But I have understood that this concept is really not for this forum. But I won't discontinue I will PM the chapters to the one who really wants to read.
And ya once again Thanks to Preeti di for this concept
Chapter 3
The Descent
We had a test on Monday morning. Professor, R.S.V. Murthy who taught the course was not one of my favourites. I hated his sarcasm and his know-it-all attitude. Almost everybody disliked him and he was nicknamed MM, which our seniors proudly clarified, stood for Moorkh Murthy' and not marketing management' which was the subject he taught. MM quoted extensively and almost verbatim from a management book by Philip Kotler. Most of the people in my class had perfected the art of sleeping with their eyes open, thanks to this Professor. His nasal drone set the right mood for a snooze and many a time I had to nudge Uday, as he would slump on his desk and doze off. There was nothing of value in whatever the professor said. He might as well have been playing a taped version of someone reading out passages from Kotler's book. I could almost predict what the questions for the test would be.
I had borrowed Kotler from the Institute library. I had already gone through the book and made extensive notes, using the same colour coded technique that I had used earlier for preparing notes. When I closed the book, I visualised it and just as it had been earlier, I could recall every single word, like a photograph, inside my mind. I was very pleased. Then I decided to go one step further. I wrote out the QUESTION PAPER, anticipating the questions that MM would set. I went ahead and wrote out the answers without looking into the book. When I compared the text book to the answers I had written, I was even more pleased. They were almost exactly alike and nobody would have believed that they had not been copied, but written out from memory. To top it, I had written not only definitions and jargon from the book but had also added my own detailed analysis as well. When I read the paper, I knew it would be graded a straight A.
Suddenly I was overcome with an overwhelming urge to share this with everybody in my class. I decided to photocopy it and distribute it. (She the craziness has increased and this are the steps to Descent) I hurried towards the nearest photocopying centre. When I reached there, I told the guy who operated the machine that I wanted about seventy copies. He was a little surprised.
"Madam seventy or seventeen?" he asked.
I clarified it was indeed seventy. I felt that I could distribute it to various professors too as well as the Dean. I felt it was a wonderful idea as they would see that was happening in MM's course. I felt it would be an eye-opener. I wanted to share my colour coded' way of remembering things with everybody, so they too could benefit. I felt like I had stumbled upon a great secret and my discovery would be hailed. I pictured it being used in schools, colleges and everywhere else as a new memory technique. I wondered why nobody else had thought of such a simple but brilliant technique earlier. As I was waiting for him to finish making the photocopies, my eyes chanced upon small glittering stickers of cartoon characters like Tweety bird, Fairies and Garfield and some Disney characters, which children use to decorate their books and other objects. I thought the stickers would make a nice finishing touch and I bought twenty sheets. I also came across some very beautiful printed stationery and could not resist buying about eight packets of writing sheets. They looked very beautiful and I decided I would surprise Suvi and Vaibhav with letters. I also looked around the shop and discovered some water colours. I had last painted with water colours only in school. I bought a set of water colours and a set of brushes as well. It was like an urgent impulse inside my head that was driving me to buy all this stuff. They seemed absolutely essential.
I reached home armed with my large bag of purchases and unpacked them carefully and arranged them all on my desk. Then I sat down and decorated the corners of each set of notes with tiny stickers of cartoon characters. I used highlighter pens and highlighted each set of the notes in my colour coded way with green, purple and orange. There were seventy sets to finish and I was like a woman possessed. I stayed up the whole night doing just this. I was a reservoir of energy. I just couldn't stop. Strangely I did not feel even a little tired. By the time I finished it was already 7.00.a.m and it was time to leave for college. I made myself a strong cup of black coffee and two scrambled eggs, and rushed out hurriedly. I did not even realise that I had not slept the whole night.
When I reached college, I began distributing the notes I had painstakingly photocopied and colour coded and also decorated with stickers. Everyone gathered around me like bees around a honeycomb, as I began giving out the notes. It caused a stir in the campus.
"Oh my God"look at this!" said one.
"Did you do all of them?" asked another
"But why?!" said a third shaking his head in amazement.
"Oh! Look at those stickers! So cute!" screeched a female voice.
I could see they were very pleased and very surprised too.
Joseph was amazed and astonished. But he caught hold of me by my elbow and took me aside. I still clutched a few copies of my notes in my hand which I intended giving to the Dean and MM.
"Nandini, Are you ok? You have that same look in your eyes which you had earlier."(In case you don't remember he is talking about that party where she danced on the terrace)
"What look Jo? I am fine! I wrote it all myself, that too without consulting the book," I said proudly, a bit exasperated and annoyed that he did not appreciate my action instantly.
"I am going to give a copy to the Dean and to MM too. Let them know how predictable a paper he sets. It is time someone opened their eyes," I said.
He shook his head, clearly displeased. "And are you going to be their eye opener? Come on Nandu. Have some sense."
"What is wrong, Jo? I want the Dean to know what is going on."
"No, I won't let you. This thing you have done, distributing notes like this, is crazy enough. Come now, let us go and give the test," he said firmly, walking me away from the crowd and in the direction of the classrooms.
Manik's pov
Who the hell was that? B**tard! How dare he drag my nandu like this? She is still the same hard working and helping in nature. How caringly she was distributing that notes. But that jerk didn't let her do. I am going to keep a check on that fellow.
"Hello" said Aman my assistant as I called him.
"I am sending you a picture, get every details of him by tomorrow on my desk, and I don't want any excuse. Do it by hook or by crook" I didn't wait for his reply and hanged up.
I went to hospital. Oh I forgot to tell you how I came here. Well on day that I couldn't come back but as now I came to know that my nandu studies in this college I just came to see her.
I was checking my reports of few patients in my cabin and my dear cabiraa came in.
I know he is here to TALK
"What the hell is going in your head"He barked and I was surprised.
"What" I asked completely baffled with his outburst.
"You gave aman work to find information about a guy! He is here for his god damn internship not for doing any detective work" He again shouted. Oh! Like that. He is right but...
"Ha to!! I have seen his work and he is excellent so I gave him a short break" I said sheepishly
"Break? Like seriously! Since when you have started to be so lenient with your interns?"He paused thoughtfully and I know what is coming.
"Alright let me guess! Is it something to do with nandini?" I averted his gaze and he caught me.
"Bang on! Caught you. Now will do the honors to elaborate your great change in act" He said sarcastically and I face palmed. God why did you gave him brain!
I narrated every single detail to him from starting, where I saw her, how I followed and all. All the while I was noticing his expression firstly shock, confused, questioning then finally when I narrated the morning incident he flashed his 32 pearls. I furrowed my brows at him for giving me such an unexplainable reaction.
"you love her. Right!" Great out of all what I said he only has to pick this topic. great!
"Cabir yar you know everything" I said him irritated as whenever I used to talk about her with him, we would always end up with this line. Its like it has become a tagline. huh!
"fine! But why don't you go in front of her and meet her, she might remember you"He suggested. Oh! Well how I am dying for that moment but...
"I can't cabir. What if she is happy in her life and I might create a trouble in her life?"the thought itself horrified me to the core and I prepared my mind to not go infront of her yeah! I won't
Nandini's pov
When I reached home I felt very pleased with myself. Suddenly the garden in the residential complex I lived in looked so vibrant and so green. Each plant looked vivid. Each fern, each blade of grass, each flower had suddenly assumed amazing clarity and depth of colour. The whole complex had a nicely landscaped garden filled with cobbled curving paths, a wooden bridge, manicured tended lawns and the focal point was a waterfall which looked so natural that it was almost impossible to make out that it was man-made and had not existed there for centuries. The more I gazed at it, the more alluring it felt. I realised that I had been truly blind all this while and was filled with a deep sense of regret. Then I wanted to capture its beauty forever on paper. Armed with my newly bought Art supplies, paints and brushes, I made my way towards the waterfall.
My mother called out to me and asked me where I was going and I told her that I was just going for a walk. A strange sense of peace and calmness enveloped me as I sat in front of the water fall and painted it. It had been years since I had held a paint brush. A group of children were playing in the garden and when they saw me painting they gathered around me. I did not mind the intrusion.
I stared at my work and stared at the waterfall. The more I looked at it the angrier I became, the earlier sense of peace that had surrounded me, quickly evaporating like water droplets on a sizzling hot griddle. I became angry that it was man-made and not real. "At first they cut down trees to construct buildings and then they try and emulate nature," I thought angrily.
Then I took out my paint brush and wrote at the bottom of my picture "SHAMMING "MOTHER NATURE". I signed my name underneath and now was quite pleased with the end result. Again I was filled with a sense of loss, a terrible sadness and I began crying softly. I was a vortex of emotions. I felt HE would have understood perfectly what I had just realized and witnessed. It had been months since I had thought about HIM, since that fateful day. Now I just could not stop. I yearned to talk to HIM. I wanted to hear HIS voice. I wanted to hold HIS hand. I wanted to see HIM smile and I wanted just once to press my lips against his. I remembered HIS words that day when I had last seen HIM, imploring me to keep in touch. I wished I had told HIM I would. I wished I had told HIM that Mumbai wasn't far away and we could meet in the holidays and I could even do my summer project in Cochin. I wished I had assured HIM. But I had been too practical and too besotted with my own dreams back then.
The pain I was now feeling was almost physical. It felt like there was somebody inside my heart digging out little bits of it with a scalpel and throwing it away, a sense of emptiness quickly filling up the dugout bits. I was aching for HIM. It was a longing which I had not allowed myself to feel. I did not know what to do, as I made my way home.
Then I felt that writing to Suvi would help. I took out the new stationary I had bought. I began writing. Words poured out like a flood. I wrote about meeting HIM that last day, I wrote about the time during the youth festival when HE and I had first kissed, I wrote about the waterfall that I had just painted. I wrote about every little detail that I could remember about HIM. I searched my mind, going down the annals of memory, digging out every little thing he had said, every place we had gone to, the things he had done, the expressions he had used, the way he had said them, the plans we had made. It all seemed terribly important that I write it to Suvi. I wrote and wrote and poured out my twenty one year old heart into those pages. When I finished I was shocked to look at the clock and see that it was nearly 5.00 A.M. I had once again stayed up the whole night without even realising it. I was even more shocked to see the length of my letter. It ran to FORTY TWO PAGES. I read it twice. Then I put it in an envelope and carefully wrote out her address so that I could mail it on the way to college.
It was the first step that she had taken into descent. The irony was that she had thought it would soothe her, when she wrote it. She had no idea it would snake around her neck and form a noose which would almost take her life.
And the descent had just begun.
To be continued...
Guys all this are important part her writing, painting, reading, memory power everything. That's why it is necessary to mention. Now guess who could HE be?
