"Why are you so obsessed with this whole literary event thingy anyway?" Lavanya asked Khushi lying down on her bed with her head drooping down over the edge and looked at Khushi upside down who was sitting awkwardly on Lavanya's bright red bean bag reading one of her old MillsNBoons. Khushi didn't reply back, obviously too engrossed in the novel.
Lavanya threw a small cushion towards her which hit Khushi smack on her face. She looked up startled as if suddenly realising that she was in Lavanya's room. "Are you doing this for the badge of Literary Captain? Coz I swear to God, if they don't give it to you after all this trouble, I'll kill someone." Lavanya vented determinedly. She had seen how Khushi had been slaving over the past few months.
Khushi sighed and walked to sit next to Lavanya so that she could look at her without having blood rush to her head. "I'm doing this so that people get to know each other. I mean, it's nice to get letters from cousins and relatives, but think how exciting it would be to get a letter from an unknown person. And moreover, it never hurts to make friends with someone new." Khushi explained patiently. Lavanya frowned.
"But you already have so many friends! The whole frikkin school is friends with you! You want more?" Lavanya asked surprised as she propped up her weight on her folded elbows. Khushi looked faintly embarrassed as stole a glance at the MillsNBoons book she had been reading. Lavanya's eyes followed Khushi's gaze and like a bulb lighting up, she suddenly understood it.
"Oh.My.God."Lavanya exclaimed. "Khushi Kumari Gupta, you don't need a friend. You are hoping that the person who writes to you turns out to be your Prince Charming!!" Lavanya squealed excitedly. Khushi's eyes widened at hearing Lavanya's words and her cheeks started reddening immediately.
"No! It's nothing like that," Khushi retorted defensively, but Lavanya was now rolling on her bed, laughing really hard.
"Khushi, the romantic! Who knew?" Lavanya gasped still laughing and Khushi covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. Lavanya noticed and she immediately hugged her best friend. "I'm so glad my books are being your source of inspiration, my darling," Lavanya teased mirthfully to which Khushi finally snapped out of her embarrassment and started hitting her with the cushions on her bed. After an exhausted bout of pillow fight that followed, the two girls fell down on the bed panting.
Lavanya looked at Khushi and whispered affectionately. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."
*
The students were jam packed in the huge prayer ground of the school. There were huge speakers arranged all around them spaced at regular intervals and marking an invisible enclosure. A huge marquee sheltered them from the blazing rays of the afternoon sun. Sweat trickled down the side of Arnav's face and he wiped it off for the countless time. He was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. What had seemed like a good idea a week ago didn't seem so anymore. Bal Vidya Mandir conducting the closing ceremony of the week long Literary Week Celebrations out in the open as opposed to a auditorium (preferably air conditioned one at that) was standing testament that the school was not as affluent a school as CMS. Hell, even the girls hadn't interested Arnav.
As he had expected, a number of wrinkled old fellows had bored them with speeches followed by prize distribution ceremony. Arnav had clapped hard when anyone from CMS won a prize and sank into his seat in a stupor for the rest of the times. Finally, after the Principal conveyed the vote of thanks, did he feel relieved that the nightmare of the event was finally drawing to an end. The School Literary captain walked on to the stage and addressed the gathering.
"Welcome to the last day of Bal Vidya Mandir's Annual Literary Week Celebrations. As your hosts, we feel privileged to have had your esteemed presence with us all through the week's events. We saw budding rivalries between participating schools which we hope to see again next year. We also saw the advent of some amazing talent in the participants from across the schools of Lucknow. Hopefully, you all managed to make some friends in the process too." Arnav yawned widely at hearing the girl's enthusiastic words and started flapping his fingers to show a mouth talking. The girls sitting closeby all started giggling watching him.
The Literary Captain continued exuberantly. "And so, in order for you to further these ties between each other, Bal Vidya Mandir is proud to present the "Let's be friends" initiative. We know that there are a fixed number of students representing each school here today. And so, we have allotted a secret code to each of your identities. These codes will be randomly distributed amongst all the students by the lottery system. Whoever gets the code of another student must write to him/her. It would be a stroke of luck if you and partner get each other's codes. However, there is also the possibility that the person whose code you pick receives the code of someone else. In either case, the main purpose of this initiative is for you to reach out to the other person and build a friendly relationship with them."
The older guys from CMS looked at each other gleefully, and started speculating how cool it would be getting hold of a girl's code. "Building a friendly relationship with a girl" had different connotations altogether in their jargon.
"We as the initiators realise that this may be difficult to achieve for so many students and so, we are seeking the cooperation from the participating schools. The first month of correspondence will be handled of by a special team selected within each participating school which has already been decided by your respective school authorities. This should provide each one of you the requisite time to interact with your pen pal and get to know them better. Afterwards, you may exchange proper postal addresses with each other to communicate as you deem fit."
Arnav stared at his watch, fidgeting and restlessly hoping for the event to wrap up quickly. He wasn't paying any attention to what the bossy looking girl was saying on the stage. He had lost interest the moment she started getting into the technicalities of the initiative she was harping about. PenPal? Really? Jeez! We have phones woman! He had thought sarcastically. But then, he was the only one in all sections of his class who possessed one. Anyway, the reason he was phasing out was more to do with the upcoming events of that evening. It was Anjali's sangeet that night. And his sister had warned him that she won't allow the function to start unless he was present there by her side.
"Your School Captains have already picked a set of chits for each of you and they'll now distribute it to you. Happy befriending!" The Literary Captain ended her long speech with a smile and the entire gathering erupted into appreciative applause. Arnav joined in too, although his applause was in his relief that the event had finally ended and he could now go home.
A little later the School Captain of CMS handed over a piece of paper to Arnav with his code on it. "There you go champ." He smiled back charmingly at the School Captain and pocketed it in his school summer blazer pocket. The moment the Captain progressed on to the next boy, Arnav retrieved the piece of paper from his pocket and stared down to see an incomprehensible mix of alphabets and numbers written on it. Who cares to have a pen pal when everyone at school calls you their buddy? Thinking smugly to himself, Arnav tore the chit into small pieces and threw it up. A gust of the afternoon loo swallowed up the remnants and drifted it away into oblivion.
*
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