Chapter - 6 (Anushka, The Sister Smarter)
Akanksha climbed down the stairs of her house and hit the street briskly. She walked up to the other side of the bylane with the dead end and turned left. Sana lived in the two storied, painted light green house on the left in Dehi Entally Road. She reached up to the calling bell on the right of the door. Next minute, she heard Sana rushing down the stairs across the small court yard to open the door.
"Akku, Glad to see you. " Sana pulled Akanksha in,and standing aside she let her best friend in.
Sana was the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chatterjee. She became Akanksha's best friend from the day Akanksha joined CPS. That morning, Sana was loitering during the break in the corridor outside her class on the second floor, when she noticed this stranger heading towards her class. She looked all lost and so miserable. The girl sauntered up to her and stopped.
"Excuse me, can you direct me to IX, please?" She pleaded.
In the third period, Mrs. Chakroborty, their Computer as well as Class Teacher, asked the girl to come in front of the class for a self-intro. The girl looked even more miserable at that time. She shakily got up from her chair in the last row and proceeded to the front. In fact, she apologized to Mayank, the class topper, on the way for supposedly stepping on to his foot, carelessly. Mayank must have muttered an expletive or something that made the girl turn beetroot red. Sana could hear the boys, mostly Mayank's friends, sitting nearby him, break out into a laugh.
Sana presaged a disaster for the girl and looked at her more closely for a proper assessment..
She was not fair-complexioned really. Of medium height, she had straight, black hair hanging down to her shoulders. But it was not combed properly! She was dressed in a yellow collared shirt tucked into black skirts. She,most probably, wore lenses, thought Sana to herself, from the way she lifted her face from looking down at the floor, and fixed them on the wall opposite before speaking.
"Hi, Friends. I am Akanksha." She smiled for the first time. Sana noticed that the girl when smiling, looked a different being altogether.
"I studied abriad till last December. I've joined this school as my father has been transferred to Kolkata recently." She paused for a whiff in.
"I've heard a lot about Calcutta Public School. As I am new to CPS and don't know much about its culture, I dread being a misfit in this school initially. I'd appreciate it therefore, if you help me ease myself into the system. On my part, I promise to ba a friend and not to do anything wrong. Thanks for listening."
She again smiled amicably as Sana was the first to put her hands together. "That was quite a speech," She remembered having told Akanksha afterwards.
There was something in the girl's fluent speech that made Sana want to befriend her from then on. During the lunch break, it was Sana, who helped Akanksha find the school canteen. It was Sana again, who introduced her to Anurima, the best girl in Standard -IX.
In due course of time, Akanksha, Sana and Anurima were to be "The Three Musketeers of CPS". They were not only the best friends but also inseparables for most of the rest of their lives.
Sana, by the way, was not the only child of The Chatterjees. She had a brother, Aryan, whom she considered to be the greatest menace to her earthly existence. He was only 15 but already 5'8" - tall for a boy of his age. He was strikingly attractive. There were times when Akanksha wished to be a match-maker just to pair Anu up with Aryan. Would they not make the best looking couple in the world?Akanksha pondered. Like all of them, Aryan too studied at CPS.
Akanksha ran after Sana up the stairs, across the spacious drawing room. She met Aryan coming out of his room, looking very handsome and athlet-like.
"Hi, Sis Akanksha. Congrats on your commendable performance." From the way he said it, it was clear that he liked his sister's best friend.
"Thanks, Aryan. How's the world treating you, bro?" Akanksha asked him lovingly.
"Everything is good." He was retreating back to his room, when making a U-turn, he confronted Akansha again as if remembering something.
"Vishal, you know him, right?" As Akanksha nodded her head, he went on. "As our Class Topper, he featured in some incredible photos he sent me last night. You're there in all of them. Would you want me to send them to you? "
"That will be nice, bro. Thanks in advance. "
Akanksha smiled as Sana pushed her to her room on the other side. The next hour or so, they spent their time chitchatting while watching "Friends" on the large screen. Both friends were crazy fans of Mondler and had watched this proposal episode several times together. The whole room was lit up with candles and Chandler was on his knees with Monika sitting on the couch.
As Monica was heard saying that she never thought that she would be lucky to have her best friend as her life partner, and came into her lover's arms next, Sana sighed :
"How I adore this pair and wish that I could sort out my misunderstanding with Anik magically, in a similar manner! "
Akanksha smiled and leaning over, put her hands around her best friend's shoulder.
By the time, Akanksha was back, both Anu and her mother were waiting at the dining table for her. Dinner was not the usual noisy affair as both of them were glued all through to the lad TV on the wall in front. The newscaster of the 9 O'Clock News, was reading something about the German Chancellor being inflicted with the virus of the dreaded disease. Akanksha got up from her chair, put her hands round Anu's face from behind and planted a quick smooch on her head. She bade her mom "good night" and ran up the stairs to her room.
She was still working at her study table when her sister slammed the door open from outside. Anu could be very noisy and messy at times, Akanksha thought, turning her head back at her sister. Anu cupped her mouth with her hand, got out and threw what she had on on the bed in a ball and flung the night gown around her. She gave a queer look to her sister as if she remembered her sister's presence in the room right then before yawning all the way to the bathroom. Surprisingly, Akanksha could hear her brushing at the sink the next moment. She came out sometime later looking worn out. She plunged into her bed and seemed sound asleep when Akanksha finally put the study lamp off.
Looking down at her sister, Akanksha went back to the rack over the study table hesitatingly. She put her fingers in the gap behind the dictionary and brought the shiny, black diary out. She had so much to write about that night.
She had hardly put the diary back into the gap when the eye lashes of Anu fluttered blinkingly like the wings of a butterfly, at her back. Then, having cast a furtive glance at her sister's direction and turned over to the other side, Anu finally fell asleep.