65 Confession - Part 2

Same Evening, Gurukul's Library

With a month to go for the examinations, the air had turned serious at the Gurukul. Students had started preparing detailed reports on their experience and learnings during the internship which had been a significant part of their daily lives during the past couple of months. Along with this dissertation, they also had to study for their usual written and oral exams which took place at the end of every semester.

Mriga had been a bright student all throughout her student life but due to her varied interests in many fields, she was never one of the top three in the class. Much to her surprise, her parents preferred her report card displaying a healthy balance across all areas rather than excelling in just one. As a result, she paid enough attention to her studies but not to the extent of going through a nervous breakdown as was happening with Ishani, currently.

Mriga accompanied her best friend to the library to study. She had managed to escape a scolding from Prithvi this afternoon because everyone had been preoccupied with some spy who had been caught by the team. In fact, she only ended up meeting Saraswati in the Admin building when had she reported back this afternoon.

By the time Shaurya had dropped her off at the Gurukul gate, her ears had started to bleed after the barrage of reprimands from him.

After explaining the chain of events from the previous day, she was surprised that all Saraswati had done was comment quietly that the fault was as much Shaurya's as hers. She even went ahead to say that the department should be thanking her for her efforts, so anything negative got cancelled against it.

Mriga couldn't understand the last statement of hers but dared not quiz her on it. She was simply glad to have gone scot free. To top it, she was given the evening free since Prithvi was not in the Gurukul.

Little did she know that Saraswati was referring to her effort in helping them catch the spy and that Shaurya had put in a good word for her the previous night when he had brought in the guy to be kept under Ramanujam's care.

So it seemed that she would not be subjected to any further scolding or punishment from Guruji. Thanking her stars, she thought about the next problem. She needed to bring herself back into Yash's good graces and didn't have the first clue as to how to go about it.

Sitting in the crowded library, Mriga was having a tough time focusing on her book. It was because Ishani kept biting her nails and fidgeting next to her.

"Can you stop it? You are not preparing to go to war. Why do you get so nervous every time? You are such a bright student, you should be the last one to worry," she tried to calm her down.

"Haa… what do you know about the pressure of holding onto one's position? My ambitious parents who probably never came first in any competition, have a mile-long list of expectations from me. You should see the look on their faces incase my grades dip even slightly in a semester. It feels like someone has died in the house at that time," she shuddered at the memory.

Mriga patted her back in sympathy. She had seen her friend under stress during the exams enough number of times to believe her words. Parents! Sighing she didn't argue any further and went back to solving the problem:-

"An archer is standing 600 metres away from a straight tree. There is a nest perched right at the top of that tree. The archer raises her bow and shoots an arrow at the nest at the speed of 500metres/second. It takes the arrow one and a half seconds to reach the nest. What is the height of the tree?"*

Geometry was her favourite topic out of all. She had always enjoyed solving the mathematical problems but ever since she started her training with Prithvi in the evenings, her logical reasoning had strengthened further. As a result, she was happy to prepare for the maths exam that evening.

After a while, Mriga had a prickling sensation at the back of her neck. Turning, she looked around but found no one there.

An hour passed and Ishani had finished chewing the nails off her hands and started on the cuticles now. Keeping in mind the 4am schedule, Mriga shut her books and told her friend that she was headed back. Her friend gave her a nod and resumed working on her scary looking equations.

It was quite a walk from the library to the girls' dorm but the path was littered with many students who were going back and forth. An enterprising tea vendor had stationed himself on the Gurukul premises anticipating the increased demand during this time. By the time she reached the hostel, there were hardly any people around. At this hour, there weren't many lamps lit in the area as well.

Engaged in her thoughts, Mriga didn't realise that there was something amiss until it was too late. A hand covered her mouth from behind and dragged her next to the tree adjacent to her dorm. Her first impression was that the person was taller and stronger than her.

She struggled for a second and then let her body go lax, throwing her weight on the perpetrator. She placed her own hand on top of the hand on her mouth and twisted the person's fingers with all her might, simultaneously digging her teeth in the soft flesh of his palm.

*The question can be solved by using Pythagoras Theorem. In a right angled triangle, Square of Base + Square of Height = Square of Hypotenuse.