Chapter - 26 (Anushka On The Way To Stardom)
Anushka shut the door behind her quietly as she came out of her father's.
On having entered the room sometime ago, she found Mr. Rajan looking up listlessly at the framed picture of Govindadeva (another name of Lord Vishnu) on the wall in front of the bed. He turned his head as his younger daughter came in.
"How are you, Baba? Can you sit up for a while? It's medicine time," she told her father.
Mr. Rajan was made to sit popped up against the pillow with Anushka's help. She then walked across to the small tool containing the jar of water. She poured some water into the glass, headed to the wardrobe close by, opened the door to get the tablet from the envelope tucked inside the drawer, and was back to her father in a minute. She handed the glass to him along with the tablet.
Anushka looked at the frail man that her father had become in the last one month or so. She also noticed how his hand was shaking as he couldn't drink more than a few sips of water from the glass. Anushka took the glass from him and cupping his chin with her hand, poured some more into his mouth for the tablet to gulp in. Her father looked tired and weak. She took a mental note of his condition and decided to talk to Bro Jishnu about it later.
"Baba, are you better now? Do you need anything?" She blurted out as what might have been the outline of a smile hovered around her father's mouth.
"Put off the light as you go out, Anu," he said in a feeble voice after Anushka had helped him lie down again. She made sure that her father had his head in the middle of the pillow, bid him a quick 'good night, Baba', and walked back to the switchboard beside the door. She put the light off, looked back to figure out her father in bed in the dim light of the room and stepped out.
Bright sunlight was streaming into the room through the creme-colored, transparent window curtains as the Alarm rang on Anushka's mobile the next morning.
Anushka turned on her side and shielded her eyes with her hands in bed. She looked at the empty space where Akanksha had crept into on the night before. She must have been to the toilet, she presumed. She removed her hands from her eyes to look at the table clock. It was 11.35 in the morning! She rubbed her eyes.
"God! Is it that late? " She asked herself and sprang out of bed the next moment remembering The MACFEST. She was represting her college in two events on that day in the fest.
Out of some 16 students, she was selected finally for the Ramp Walk and Western Music. She had to be in college by 2 O'clock in the afternoon. She stepped down on the floor and moved ahead near the mirror on the wall. She tucked the streaks of hair on her face behind her ear and looked more closely at herself in the mirror. In that light pink negligee of hers, she looked ravishing. With her long hair, dark, doe-like eyes, pointed nose and petal lips, she was turning out to be a very desirable, young lady.
She had opted to study for Honors in English at MAC (Maulana Azad College), one of the top grade colleges in Central Calcutta. She had cleared the admission test at JU as well. But by the time her name appeared in the third list with the names of others successful candidates, she was already admitted at MAC, mainly at her father's insistence. He was almost adanant that Anushka mustn't waste any more time for admission in the college, especially after the harrowing experience Akanksha had regarding hers in any college for graduation.
Anushka became the cynosure of all eyes in the very fast year of college. MAC was so very different from the institutions she had studied in earlier. For the fast time, she learnt about off periods, bunking classes, singing and having fun with the close friends in the small room on the second floor, to the right of the concrete stairway.
One Friday, after lunch, as Prof. DKD declared himself unavailable for his class on Shaw's "The Arms and The Man", Anuskha headed straight upto the room with some of her friends. She wasn't that close with Aheli when she was studying at Techno, Survey Park. But once they found themselves sitting on the same bench, attending the introductory class of Dr. BG, the HoD of English, they hit it up like it happens in stories. Protyasha was another friend she had studied with at CPS though she was in the other section at that time.
Anushka was sitting on the teacher's table, her legs folded; while Aheli was acting crazy nearby. Protyasha, along with Divya and Sriji, was sitting on the front chair in front of the teacher's desk. It was Aheli who started humming a popular Bollywood song. Soon Anushka and Aditya joined her as Divya started drumming the table near her bench.
"Anu, why don't you sing the title song of " Titanic"? I simply couldn't stop talking to my sis about your voice when you sang it the other day." It was Aheli requesting Anushka.
As Anushka started singing it in a low voice ( she was doing so not to disturb the Common English Class of the three streams of XI going on in the Gallery), the others joined her as well.
Till the period got over, they continued singing a number of Hindi and English songs. It was Divya finally who got up from her seat and said :
"Sorry, guys. I've to attend the Pol. Science class with Prof. KC, " then putting her head in through the door ajar, she exclaimed again,
"You should sing oftener, Anu. You've a magical voice."
That was how it all started and Anushka got noticed. Her friends were not surprised when she was selected for the Ramp Walk. She was after all, a strikingly beautiful girl. But her selection for the contest on Western Music even surprised Anushka herself. She told the overall coordinator of the event, Mr. RC, that she had no formal training whatsoever. Besides, there might be some talented singers in the second or third year. Mr. RC replied that all interested students were notified and Anushka got selected for both the events after the thorough screening test. Four of the seventeen students who had entered their names for the Contest on Western Music initially, withdrew their names at the last moment.
At the screening, Anushka who sang a popular Madonna number, sang very soulfully. There was no question about her selection after that.
By the time Anushka got back up to her room after lunch, it was nearly 1.30 in the big wall clock hanging on the wall at the entrance to the kitchen
"Ma! How can I get to college by 2?" She cried aloud from the steps. But she managed to get dressed up for the occasion quickly. In navy blue jeans with an orange embroidered churidar and a short chain with a nail-shaped golden locket prominent at the V of her neck, she looked just out of the world.
Having said a hasty "Bye" to both her parents in the bed room, Anushka raced out of her house, got into a taxi and sighed heavily, once the taxi got stuck in a jam near the masjid at Moulali. Luckily for her, it got cleared in no time and dropped her near, what happened to be the Lotus Cinema earlier.
As she hurried through the gate and walked straight along the gravelly path with flowers gardens all around, to the auditorium, she met Mr. RC at one of the side doors of the Hall.
"Thank God, Anushka for making it here on time. Go, get ready for the Ramp Walk starts in the next fifteen minutes!" He said excitedly.