It was a fortnight before exams. I was buried in work. Just a few weeks back, I was buried in masti. Likewise. That day was the deadline for my laboratory record submission. I skipped my lunch, downed a juice and went to work along with my friend P. We had to miss our post-lunch lectures to finally complete it. Oh! At last! I grabbed my record and ran along a flight of stairs to my lab in the second floor with P beside me. Only after I entered the lab and gave my record to sir, did I realize that we were, at that time, supposed to be in the middle of a lecture. We bunked! *Bunking is, supposedly, a great offence to every Tom, Dick & Harry of the faculty.* Blow! I glanced at P in horror. Her face was a mirror image of mine. Presently, sir looked at me and then at his watch.
“Don’t you have any classes now?” he asked.
-Silence-
Lab in-charges, just to look at, are draculas. That, without us being guilty. And now?!!
“You heard me.”
“I have sir, yes.” Oh! trouble!
“So, you have bunked your class?”
I just nodded. Trust your voice to explain yourself at such times and you will invent a new dialect. Quite unintelligible to yourself. I didn’t want to take the risk.
“Is the attendance finalized yet?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
He gave me a sharp look. That was the time when I couldn’t speak even if I had anything to say. He started off. “Of course! The attendance is finalized. We don’t need to attend classes anymore. What good there is in listening to a boring lecture now? That’s what you think, right?”
He paused for a second. P was throwing scared glances at me. She was anxious that I would get upset. I stood with my head bent.
“You think you are a gem, don’t you? You think you are a miss-know-it-all. After all, you got placed in a company. *gosh! the sarcasm!* You have grown horns. Now the lectures have become silly and stupid for you.”
He flipped through my record and snapped at me for not labeling a figure well.
“I’ll show you. Lab externals are not far away. They are not going to be easy for you. I’ll see how clever you are. Let’s see how well you’ll answer your viva. One mistake and alas! You’ll regret. I’ll teach you a lesson or two, you silly girl!”
P was almost staring at me. She was now sure that I was weeping. She must have noticed my jaw trembling. She tried hard to console me with a comforting glance. But I wouldn’t look at her.
Sir gave my record back and scribbled something beside my name in the register, grunting “Too good to attend classes. Thinks she is a gem.” He soon corrected P’s record.
As soon as we were out of the lab, I ran into the waiting room. Just when P took my hand in hers to comfort me, did I burst out laughing. All she could exclaim was,
“Are you crazy?!”
“God, P! Look at you! You are woe-begone!” I cried.
P looked astonished.
“You surprise me! You heard all those nasty things! How could you possibly laugh?!
But wait, I saw your jaws trembling and your fists clenched. I was pained to see that you were trying hard to hold back your tears, and all this time you were trying hard not to laugh?!!”
“Oh dear! Cheer up P! I was frightened at first but the thing he said sarcastically about me being a gem tickled me crazy. I almost said ‘yes, sir’ but I bit my lip.”
“ Heavens! Go to gokul chat! *P said that thing about gokul chat ever since there had been an explosion there. It means – ‘go, die!’* You could have got us into a nice big trouble with cream-and-a-cherry-on-top if u said that!”
“You are right P. But you know, I always thought I was a gem. Unpolished. Being polished. We all are. Every person is a gem. There is something worthwhile in everyone. Let’s discover our worth and let’s shine!” I said solemnly.
P nodded. She looked at me and grinned.
Later, I confided to P that I was a little anxious about my internal lab marks. *Lab marks are awarded based on a single priority. In-charge’s impression upon you.* She kept telling me that they would not be very bad. Well, I hoped.
Next day, as soon as I reached college, P ran towards me and announced that I got 24 marks out of 25 for the lab internal.
I gaped at her.
“Are you sure?!” I asked.
“Indeed! The list of marks is put up in the notice board.”
“Magnificent!” I exclaimed, and hugged her.
Life sure has lots of surprises. Big and small. Pleasant and not. Doesn’t it?
