Chapter -15 (Jishnu Gets Toughened up From Early On! )
Jishnu worked late that night after coming back from Anushka's. He had the projects to be submitted, the model papers to be solved, and the NEET assignments to be completed for the Weekly Test in the coming week at Akash, the most prestigious private Coaching Centre in the city with branches all over.
It was nearly 3 at night when he finally arranged his books on the table and got up from the chair. He lifted his mobile, switched it on and looked for the earphones. Having then switched the night lamp on, he flung himself into his bed. The small room had a single bed, a wardrobe and a book shelf stacked with books and stuff, besides the table, for all its furniture. There were no posters or pictures or anything which is normally found in the room of any youngster these days.
In the dim light of the room coming from the green night lamp on the wall behind his bed, Jishnu yawned and played an old favourite number of his, from the album 20/20 by George Benson:
If I had to live my life without you near me,
The days'd all be empty, the nights'd seem so long,..........
Nothings gonna change my love for you,
You ought to know by now how much I love you
One thing you can be sure of
I'll never ask for more than your love.
Jishnu turned to the side and shut his eyes against the dim light of the room. For some reason, he did not feel sleepy at all. He could have continued studying if it had not been for the fact that he had a to go to Anushka's the next day.
He informed her parents that he could only teach Anushka twice a week. That too in the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, as he was kept busy throughout the weekdays.
Akanksha's parents were okay with that. Their only request to Jishnu was to help Anushka score good marks in Maths as a lot would depend on how she performed in the subject in the Boards. But there was still time for that. Almost three years, they informed Jishnu. But someone like Jishnu could really get Anushka all pumped up to do well in Maths in the ICSE examination, they told Jishnu.
Jishnu, on his part, assured them that he would try his best to help Anushka. But there was no knowing for how long he could teach her. If he ckeard NEET, there was no guarantee that he might be staying back in Kolkata. Besides, he wanted to shift to Delhi for higher studies later on.
While he kept twisting and turning, his mind wavered on the encounter with Anushka at her residence that day. What struck him about the girl was how sharp she was for one so young. It was indeed surprising that her performance in Maths had dipped since she joined CPS. Jishnu found the way she didn't let him teach on the first day, simply amazing. But she would pick up fast and he had no doubt about that.
Thinking about Anushka brought the other sister to his mind. Some of his close friends started teasing him about Akanksha, especially after the Debate Competition. How it happened, he had no idea, but his friends came to know somehow that he had feelings for the ninth-grader, which was surprising really. Higher class students were not supposed to be paired up with the students of the lower classes. As Jishnu was a student of XII, the seniormost standard of the school, he was supposed to select someone from XII or XI, as a girlfriend. There was no way a senior student could have fallen for someone three years his or her, junior! It was just one of those unwritten norms related to Love for the students of a school!
Akanksha was in standard IX, going to be in X next year. She was a bright one and would make her school proud someday. Thinking about that girl, Jishnu heaved a deep sigh. It was unfortunate that he would not be around next year on The Farewell Day for X. Thinking about farewell, Jishnu remembered that there were just a few months left for their Farewell.
Just the last few months of his stay as a student of CPS, a school he had been studying at since he was in Standard - I, for thirteen long years.
How quickly time seemed to have passed… .
The day of his admission, when both his parents came to CPS; the first day, when he was too excited to go to his class, surprising his mother, freeing his hand the way he had done it from the firm grip of his mother! Diya, the girl in Standard-V, who tried to teach him utterly unsuccessfully, a special kind of Hide and Seek; and Ms.Sen, who according to his mom, reminded one of a famous Bengali Diva of yesteryear, with the same title, and who, was his first crush.
Next, the scene concerning the girl in VII, who declared her love for him to the rooftop, flashed through his mind. He came to know from Aditya, his best friend about Moitreyi's infatuation for him, which later turned out to be the talk of CPS!
Moitreyi's madness was nothing in comparison to what was to happen in Standard-X.
There was this cutie pie called Chandra. She was a strikingly beautiful girl, good in studies. Both she and Jishnu used to take tuitions from the same private tutor at Rashbehari Avenue in Central Kolkata. Chandra somehow got the idea that she and Jisnu were made for each other.
The letters she would write to him and the unshakable love they declared for him, would have turned even a saint. But Jishnu neither replied to those letters nor reciprocated her love.
Something happened then that was to change Jishnu from the bookwarm he had been till then into some sort of a Casanova.
The girl met Jishnu outside CPS one afternoon and said, "You know Jishnu, I've been waiting the whole duration of your extra class. 1 hour 15 minutes to be exact! I want to know, once and for all, if you would have me as your girlfriend or not! "
There was something deadly in the way she said it and Jishnu kept quiet while walking back to the Marble Palace from where he was to get into a 24A to get back home. The crazy girl, though she was from the loacalty nearby the school, walked beside him all the way up, blabbering nonstop! All Jishnu could tell her was that he was not prepared for a relationship then, thereby making Chandra acting hysterical, screaming, cursing like crazy!
The next day he was picked up from his residence at Philip's by the Kolkata Police! Chandra, they informed him, had committed suicide by hanging down from the ceiling fan in her room! She was into the sixth week of pregnancy! But the final straw was that she left a chit blaming Jishnu for taking her life!
Jishnu was stupified by the incident. The shock writi large on the faces of his parents, sister made him feel like following into Chandra's footsteps and hiding his face!.But Jishnu, being made of sterner stuff, recovered from the shock in time. As it was the year of the Board Exam, he devoted himself, heart and soul, to doing well in the ICSE once the matter had settled to the dust.
Jishnu secured the All-India-Fourth-Rank in the examination, having also secured the top position from the Eastern Zone!
But life was never going to be the same after Chandra's death. It left an indelible footprint on the impressionable mind of Jishnu.
The boy who emerged from the incident was still friendly and flirtatious, no doubt, but the seeds of negativity in his dealings with the fairer sex were firmly implanted in his mind.