LESSON 6

“Wow!!! She is looking great.” , I whispered to myself. And then I thought she heard it because as soon as I whispered to myself she looked at me. I was embarrassed thinking that she heard what I said and out of fear was looking down. She was coming straight towards me. I thought my bad luck has started. I was saying all the kind abusive words available in the Hindi dictionary as she was approaching me.

She screamed, “PAAAAARTH” and pushed me to the side. I was like “ Oh! Come on. I only said you are looking great. What the hell you hitting me for? ”

But thankfully I didn’t have courage to say this to her. Lying down I saw Sneha howling on the person who would have been the reason for end of my life. Not actually end, but yes at least I would have been injured. A truck was backing up and the driver didn’t know that I was just behind his truck. I stood up and went straight to Sneha. I was standing and just looking at the driver. She looked at me for a moment and continued howling on the truck driver.

“Agar uspar chadha dete to? Dikhta nahi hai kya?(if you would have killed him….Can’t you see?)” screamed Sneha. Wow she was fighting for me!

“arey woh khud bhi to pata nahi kidhar khoya hua tha….back horan isiliye to lagaya hua hai.(he himself was also not paying attention. I got the back horn for this purpose. But he ain’t listening.)” ,responded the driver.

He was right. I wasn’t paying attention to the back horn of his truck. I was paying attention to Sneha. She continued for sometime. And my father came. I just don’t know why he is always there when I didn’t want him to. “You are OK, son?”, he asked showing some concern. “Ya. I am OK.” I answered. My mother was standing behind him. My shirt was a little bit torn at the elbows. She held my hand and inspected the wound.

“I don’t know what you keep thinking when you are walking.” , taunted my mother as always. I got this same taunt number of times and yes from my mother.

“Aunty . Let me take him inside and apply antiseptic.” Asked Sneha. “OK beta. So sweet of you.” , replied my mother. It was like dream come true. At least I could talk to her somehow, if my brain permits.

She took me to her room and asked me to sit. I chose her comfortable bed. I have been to her room when we were in school. But it had been quiet a time after that. I haven’t been to her home for a long time. I was shy and because of this I didn’t go to any girl’s house without a reason. School gave me many reason’s to go to her house. But school was over now. But I wished I could make more reasons which most of my friends did sooo easily.

But I was one hell of a shy boy.

Finally she came back with a bottle of antiseptic and some cotton and a cream. I just stared at her until she looked back at me. My head dropped down quickly. I wished she didn’t get it wrong. She didn’t.

“Kya soch raha tha ?( what were you thinking?)” , finally she started the conversation.

“Main…kya???...kab?? (Me….what….when??)”, I fumbled as usual.

“Truck se takarake marne ka irada hai kya?( you want to die under the truck?)”, another question. But this time I had an answer for it. “Nahi(No)”

“Achha chhodo . Yeh batao how are studies going on? (Never mind. How are studies going on?)”

“hmmmmm. Thik chal rahi hain.( going good) “. This time I wasn’t shy replying because this question came up to me several times since the start of my classes. I always faked that I went to classes. And thankfully no one cared.

I was about to ask about her just when her mother came. Mrs. Gupta was a housewife. She was a caring lady or at least she showed it.

“Sneha and Parth come out now. What you people doing?”, she said. I thought 'What was she thinking?' But then I understood that she talked about the function.

Sneha replied quickly and was going out just when I took a deep breath and said ‘thank you’. And she smiled. Wow!! She looked even more beautiful.