We were just classmates.......

We were just classmates

The story of Chotu. Part 1

By Prakash Subbarao (Prakash@3xus.com)

Introduction

This is a true story. It was told to me by a friend about ten years ago. The story begins in a college in New Delhi.

Picture a girl around 5 ft. 5 ins. tall. She has a warm and friendly look. She is good looking but in a homely sort of way. She isn’t one of those ‘fast’ girls. She loves Daler Mehndi’s music, cooking and sewing and darning and being with family. Outwardly she appears a carefree type. Inside there is a secret longing to find the perfect mate, get married and raise children. She fantasizes about her future husband. He will be tall and handsome. He will live in a far away land. He will come and sweep me off my feet and ask for my hand in marriage. My parents will readily agree and I will start a new life with him……….These are the thoughts that run through her head when she is alone.

In this tale, her name is “Chottu”. She is one of those ‘Kaurs’ – Baljeet, Simranjeet,….it really doesn’t matter. “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare wrote “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”. Her nickname at home is “Pinky”, because of her pink complexion. We will call her “Chotu” for reasons that you will find out later in this story. Not in Part 1. Not even in part 2. But much much later.

The story begins……………

Chotu was a very sweet girl. The apple of her father’s eye, she had been brought up in a warm and friendly atmosphere in which nothing was denied her. Her father worked for an international airline. By virtue of this, she was an inveterate traveller and had been to most of the places on the airline network. She had been to the US several times, and while she liked the country, it held no special fascination for her. She was a ‘desi’ girl. She loved her homeland.

Chotu tended to be mischievous and full of pranks which she regularly played on her classmates. It was all in good vein.

There were a large number of people in her class but her ‘gang’ consisted of just a few people. Amongst them was a Punjabi boy, Rohit, whom she secretly liked. She sensed that Rohit was attracted to her but for all practical purposes they remained good friends.

The seasons melted into one another and very soon they were in the final year of college.

All good things must come to an end, and soon the time to leave college approached. The classmates decided to have a last picnic together that weekend. There were just a few days of college left.

Rohit was strangely subdued during the picnic. She frequently caught him looking at her with a strange look in his eye, but she was so engrossed with her classmates and didn’t gave it much thought.

As the picnic was coming to an end, she was laughing and joking was her classmates. They had formed a closed ring. Rohit, who had been standing in the outer periphery, suddenly caught her eye, and beckoned to her, with a nod of his head.

“Kya bath hein?” (What is it?) She laughingly asked as she came to him.

“Pinky, I need to tell you something” Rohit said. He was very serious.

“What is it?” she said. She wanted to get back to her circle of friends where there was laughter and gaiety. The mirth in her hadn’t died down. Its embers glowed strong. She could be hooting with laughter any second. All it would need would be a spark; a spark that wasn’t at that moment with Rohit but with the friends standing nearby.

“Pinky, I love you” Rohit said, after a pause. “I want to marry you. Will you marry me?”

“Kya, shaadi? Aur tumse? Never!” she impulsively replied, laughing, and ran back to her friends. She thought that he was joking. She didn’t even stop to see the effect her words had had on Rohit.

Rohit’s face went beetroot red. He felt as though he had been slapped. He suddenly felt like an outsider looking in. Time seemed to stand still for him. The world went silent. All he could hear were the taunting words “Kya, shaadi? Aur tumse? Never!” echoing in his mind repetitively. He abruptly left the group. Flagging down a passing taxi he went home.

A little while later Chotu looked around for him but couldn’t see him anywhere. The picnic came to an end and he was still nowhere to be found. That’s when it occurred to her that she may have hurt him with her blunt reply; that he may have been very sincere in his request. “I will call him as soon as I reach home” she promised herself. When she reached home, she found the house full of visiting cousins from Ludhiana and her promise to call Rohit receded to the back of her mind.

The next day she found that Rohit was not in class. During the break she called his house but the servant simply said “Rohit baba ghar pe nahin hein” (Rohit is not at home) and put down the phone.

There was no sign of Rohit during the next few days. Soon college ended.

That weekend she decided to visit his house to find out first hand why he had been absent from college. She found the house empty except for the servant. “Sab log Chandigarh chale gayen hein” (Everyone has gone to Chandigarh) he told her. She returned home with a sense of unease. This was very strange.

That night she had a dream. She was on a picnic with her dream lover. They were laughing and joking and hugging each other. In the ethereal dream, she was having a great time. This is the man I want to marry, she thought to herself. Let me get a good look at his face. When she turned to see his face it was blurred; out of focus. She kept attempting to see his face but all she could clearly see were his eyes; there was a strange expression in them. Why that’s the same expression that Rohit had the day of the party, she thought to herself. And in that instant her dream lover’s face came into sharp focus. It was Rohit!

She came awake, startled. Rohit! Suddenly it fell into place. She hadn’t known it, the feelings had never surfaced but lain dormant. Suddenly she knew deep in her heart that she loved him. That he was the one for her. They were mentally on the same wavelength. He would make an excellent father to her children. “I’ll track him down!” she promised herself. “If need be I will go to Chandigarh!”

The next day she waited for an opportune moment to talk to her mother. She wanted to talk privately to her. Finally the moment came. “Maaji, there is something I want to ask you” she said to her mother. “I have fallen in love with a Punjabi boy and want to marry him. He feels the same way about me and has even asked for my hand. What do you think?”

“Who is the boy?” her mother asked.

“It’s Rohit, maaji! He has come here several times; the tall one! Last time he came he talked to Papa about golf and how to improve his handicap. You know him…….” She trailed off.

“Oh! That well behaved boy!” her mother exclaimed. “Ask him to come over for dinner. Let us talk to him”. She waited for Chotu to respond. When there was none she looked at her sharply. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

Chotu broke down and sobbing, told her mother everything that had happened; how Rohit had proposed and how she had laughingly dismissed him. She told her mother that Rohit had stopped coming to college and had gone with his family to Chandigarh.

“Do you really love this boy?” her mother asked. “Are you very sure?”

Chotu nodded.

That evening, when they were sitting at the table for dinner, Chotu’s mother told her father “Chandigarh jaana hai, ji! Ticket shicket ka bandobusth karo”. (We have to go to Chandigarh! Arrange for the tickets).

“Kab?” (When) her father asked, surprised.

“Kal!” (Tomorrow) her mother replied. “Pinky wants to visit a friend there and I too wish to see my aunt, Mrs. Chadda, who lives there. It’s been a long time!”

“Theek hai!” (OK!) her father responded. “Tomorrow may not be possible but we can go on Friday evening and return on Sunday night I will ask Indian Airlines for some complimentary tickets”.

Friday was a good two days away. Chotu decided to spend that time finding out where Rohit stayed in Chandigarh. Through tremendous persistence, she was finally able to get it. His house was in sector 14. She smiled to herself as she wrote down the address on a piece of paper and put it in her purse. “I wonder what the expression in his eyes will be when he sees me” she thought to herself as she lay awake in bed that night. She was so excited that she couldn’t sleep.

The next evening, when her father came home, her first question to him was “Papa, have you got the tickets for Chandigarh?”

“Haan beti” (Yes, daughter) he smiled. “The flight is at 8 p.m. I have also arranged for our stay there at a friend’s place”.

Friday night saw them comfortably settled in at Chandigarh. Chotu was so excited, she couldn’t sleep tonight either.

The next day mother and daughter woke early. Papa was still sleeping. They left a note for him that they had gone out for some shopping and would be back by lunchtime. They flagged down an autorickshaw in front of the guest house.” Sector 14 chalo!” they ordered the driver.

They found the house quite easily. With mounting excitement Chotu rang the bell. Rohit’s mother opened the door. “Arre, Pinky, thu!” (Pinky, it’s you!) she exclaimed in surprise. “Aao! Come in!”.

Chotu introduced her mother to Rohit’s mother. They explained that they had suddenly arrived in Chandigarh to see the Chadda’s and knowing that Rohit was also in Chandigarh, had decided to come and see him.

Rohit’s mother frowned. “Who told you that Rohit is here?” she asked. “Woh tho yahaan nahin hein” (He isn’t here).

Mother and daughter looked at each other. “Where is he, aunty?” Chotu asked. She hoped the trembling in her voice wouldn’t give away her seething emotions.

“Who tho America chalaa gaya” (He left for the US) his mother replied.

“This is unbelievable” Chotu told herself mentally. “How come? It is very strange!” she said aloud, as casually as she could.

“It’s a long story” Rohit’s mother said. “Rohit told me that there is a girl in Delhi that he loved and who he wanted to marry. He didn’t tell me her name or who she was. “I will bring her home and show her to you, mama” was all he said”. I laughed at his enthusiasm. “Marriages are made in heaven” I told him “but you can certainly bring her home. Let me meet this wonderful girl whom you love”. One day recently, he came home looking very dejected. He didn’t eat dinner that night, nor did he have breakfast the next day. I asked him what was the problem and after a lot of cajoling he told me that he had proposed to this girl and she just laughed at him and walked away. He said that he was so upset that he could not eat or sleep. “Let’s leave Delhi and go to Chandigarh” he said, so we came here. He wasn’t at peace here too and would sit staring at the wall all day. I realized that he was extremely upset. I told Chinky, his sister in USA, about this. “Send him here. Maybe he will forget her once he is away from India” she said. Anyway he had a ten year multiple-entry US visa, so we made arrangements and he is now in the US”.

“When will he return, aunty” Chotu asked.

“Not for a few years” Rohit’s mother said. He has enrolled in a college there to do his MS.”

“Can I have his number, aunty, so that I can talk to him?” Chotu asked, on the verge of crying.

“I am sorry, beti, he made us promise not to divulge his whereabouts to anybody. He doesn’t want any of his old friends contacting him. By the way, who is this girl that he loved so much? Do you have any idea? Was he close to any girl in his class?”

“I don’t know, aunty” Chotu lied. “We were just classmates”.

.........To be continued.............