Dim lights, aromatic candles burning, standing by the window, cool breeze blowing, Suhana was waiting for Siddharth who was coming to meet her after 2 years… It was 7th August 2000 when Suhana and Siddharth had met first time….Suhana was a pretty damsel, curly haired, brown eyes beauty studying in 10th Std of Sacred Heart Convent School whereasSiddharth was an Extrovert, wheatish complexion 5 feet 10 inches, pleasing personality, studying in 10th of Loyola School.School pupil leader, Captain of the school basketball Team and also the drummer of his School Band were few feathers added to his cap.Little did she know the boy whom she hated would one day become the most important part of her life…. :)
So here we go down the memory lane…..Loyola school was a school exclusively for boys…and nearby was Sacred Heart Convent School ,the only school for girls…not like the Rockford story where a boy just slips and drops a letter into a girl’s hand when all the girls are crossing the road with the nuns….but by this I mean, their story was completely different…. :)
Inter School Fest-Rhapsody was one of the events that students looked forward to…It was not only a competition but also the golden chance to meet new people..Have fun and a nice get away from the Board Exams Preparations :)...
Siddharth and Suhana met in the Inter School Fest .They were the participants for the Debate Competition….Topic being “India should spend in Nuclear Wars/Technology or Agriculture-”Suhana was representing “Sacred Heart Convent School” and Siddharth “Loyola School.” Amit was representing St.Mary’s School and Maya from Beldih Church School.5 minutes was given to all the participants and each one presented their ideas…The last 10 minutes was where a participant had to convince his/her view point.
Although Suhana was a very soft spoken girl but she was quite confident, assertive in her tone.Overall she was a person with great intellect. She presented her views in a logical manner that even the judges could not help themselves from giving her the First Prize. And after an entire round of discussions…Suhana was declared as the winner for the competition!!!!
Then was the “Musical Extravaganza” round…All the school teams were performing one by one but not one could lure the crowd to their tunes…the atmosphere was very boring, students were moving in and out of the auditorium ..Some were spending time in the basketball court which was near to the Auditorium…some were chit chatting…Then came ….. Chords from the guitar.. the song and the beats from the Drum and in a moment the entire atmosphere of the auditorium changed into a pleasant one …students were having a gala time and appreciating on the Song “Sayoonee….chain ek pal aur koi gum nahi….sayooonee (Pop Album :Junoon).
As the performance ended came the announcement so here we had Loyola school performing Siddharth on the Drums, Aditya on the Guitar.and Rohit the Singer..
Undoubtedly Loyola school was the Winner for the Competition!!!
Everything went on well …and the day came to an end…There in the parking something was not well, students moving out with their friends on their bikes. Girls waiting for their dad, Confusion caused by continuous honking of the bikes and girls giving them a glare and uttering usual words… Stupid, Duffer…..:
There she was Suhana trying her luck with her Blue Scooty in the evening as it was not starting. She kept on trying but still the scooty was not ready to show any kind of pity on the pretty damsel. All this was enjoyed by Siddhartha as he was the one who had lost in the Debate competition in spite of his strong points (according to him) put up during the debate. He just approached her as if he felt pity for the girl and was going to help her start the scooty….
He started walking towards her slowly and steadily and all of his friends started thinking that he was going to help her. He was standing in front of her and said “Who says India should invest in Agriculture and not technology. India should always spend on Agriculture so that all these pretty looking girls can maintain their physique () Siddharth and his friends had a hearty laugh… and then just leaves the place. Suhana starts gnashing her teeth because of the taunt and keeps on trying her luck so that her scooty is started She is unsuccessful and just starts dragging her scooty to a mechanic. Both of them remember each other while going off to sleep that day because of the way words were exchanged between them and both are thinking only one thing, “The other person is arrogant and hope they never cross each other’s paths…”, they go off to sleep thinking about their wins and the first awful meeting.
Time went on and both of them got very good marks in their Board examination. None of them thought that they would be again meeting each other .Suhana was standing in the line to pay the fees and suddenly wanted to hide her face as she had spotted Siddharth, Siddharth had also spotted her standing in the queue and approached her and said “India should spend on Agriculture and not Technology, hey Rohit do you know the reason, I will tell you, the reason is if we don’t spend then we are required to stand in line and these girls can just by the corner of their eyes stare at smart boys like us.” Little did she remember that he was from the same school and now Junior College and she was the one who had taken an admission there…Poor Girl
Suhana got irritated and said “Hey what is your problem, first of all you are a loafer who roams around in others college, secondly if you want to talk to me directly then talk don’t pass comments”, “These boys cant accept defeat at the hands of girls, you were not able to win the debate you are talking like this, you don’t have the guts to talk directly, you are a afraid of me, you are a loser, loser, loser:P ”
Not even in dreams had Suhana thought that she will be in the same class as that of Siddhartha………………………… :)
They happened to be the tough contenders for the position of Class Leader. Siddhartha was favourite among the class so he was bound to be selected as the Class Leader. The professor just appointed Suhana as the Class Leader since she was the most brilliant student amongst the whole class (this was the reason why she was appointed, these professors doesn’t seem to understand that brilliant student cannot be good captain, this was the thought that was going on in the minds of Siddharth.) Siddharth was going to revolt but couldn’t as he had to maintain his iconic status in the class. Poor chap :(
Then started the competition in the class for securing the highest marks and there used to stiff competition only between these 2 since they just wanted to be superior to each other. There also used to be opposition for deciding something or the class. But every time Siddhartha was one who could never got the credits for the wins he achieved in spite of a great fan following..
Now came the time for final examination and the result was that Siddhartha was the first rank holder of the class and Suhana the second. In spite of this Siddhartha was not happy he wanted to just show thumbs down to Suhana but something stopped him from doing that.In standard 12 the same scenario was repeated but he was able to sustain the hatred that he had for Suhana.
There was something that was getting mysterious to him, slowly and steadily the revulsion was getting overshadowed may be they understood that it was not possible to remain in so much of hatred for each other since they were in same class and this made difficult for others to remain in the same group as they had common friends.
Time went on….2 years of Junior college passed away very quickly and then 12th Std Farewell evening came…Boys in formals Light blue shirts, and Black Blazers and Girls in Sarees…There was fun ,frolic ,dance games and staff and juniors bidding farewell to the seniors as they enter into a new world altogether…Everyone was excited for the evening that was organized for them. Everyone was seemed chatting with their teachers, junior classmates.
Everyone had dreams to achieve in life and most of them were ready with the plans. But an irony filled the atmosphere because of the mixed emotions of contentment for the years and the friends that they were in company of along with the dejection and that all fun was coming to an end. Some where only concerned about the new world they were going to enter and some were just thinking of the junior college days and school days gone by. But there were 2 people who were really bothered of something which was not going on in the minds of others, Suhana and Siddharth.
Siddhartha was behaving as if he was in need to of time and space to say something, but was not getting the same. The juniors were quite busy entertaining the seniors with their creations of dance, drama etc. Suhana was constantly looking here and there as I searching for someone as no one was talking to her on that day. Now came when the Class Captain was supposed to say thank you to the whole lot of teachers and professors. But what happened to her she just wanted the junior Class Captain to thank all of them on behalf of the whole class as she had a bad throat. Any guesses who the junior Class Captain…?, Siddhartha
Siddhartha just went on the stage and started thanking everyone present around there. After the greeting he wanted to talk on something more and he was given the permission.He started speaking“Friends it was fantastic time that I spent along with you, in this time period I was able to learn many good things and was also able to find out the short coming in me which will help me in the future. I would just like to say that one should always learn to new things and try to implement new things. I want to become an army officer but then that is not what I want only from life, I also want that India should spend on technology so that we become self sufficient and don’t have to go with hands spread out like a beggar in front of the developed countries. It is so shameful to stand out like that. But only technology can’t help India in becoming developed nation.”Everybody was confused as to what happened to Siddhartha and why was he talking on this topic, no one could understand the rationale behind his speech. There were only few who were able to guess what he is talking.
He was further saying “India should not compete with anyone but develop there own relations with the developed countries and try collaborating with them for further advancement of our own country. I would like to that the world changes their outlook towards India and also the Indian people change their outlook towards their own country. Along with these it also important that India should also spend on the Agriculture so that our people don’t die because of starvation, I just want to say I would love to stay with the pleasant, nice agriculture supporting people as they are the ones who can really make India achieve the technological advancement too.”
Suhana completely dumbstruck at the speech given by Siddhartha was blushing to see into the eyes of Siddhartha after he mentioned “I would love to stay with the pleasant, nice agriculture supporting people as they are the ones who can really make India achieve the technological advancement too”She could make out from the face of Siddhartha it was she with whom he was talking. She ran towards the stage and said that she would like to add one point in what Siddhartha mentioned. She said “It’s not only Agriculture which can facilitate the advancement of the country. She would like to stay in India where Agriculture and Technology both can make their presence felt and both can forward India in the advancements to achieve the dream of India as a developed nation.”
