A Nasty Blow It Was

She was clad in an off green salwar kameez when he first saw her entering the exam hall. An eventful day it was, marred by a forgettable chemistry-II paper & unforgettable memory of hers is strongly etched in his memory even today. Her lively face masked torrent of emotions & an aura of confidence was eminently visible as she found her way to the allotted seat. She sat on the 3rd chair of the immediate row from the entrance while he occupied the 4th chair of the 5th row from the entrance, from where he could distinguish the traces of mane falling across her face & further kissing the blessed answer sheet lying haplessly on the desk. Perhaps she wasn't aware of the events unfolding in the room because of her profound presence. Although both of them sat across the width of examination hall, he sensed a storm brewing up, a storm that cast shadow over his chemistry paper but drew a silver lining on his further stay at the college for next 3 years. Yes! that unplanned meet gave him more than enough to cherish for a better part of his college days. She emerged out of canvas like a beautiful painting and swept him off his feet. Meanwhile, he negotiated her body hugging suit which provided him the luxury of having a clearer picture of her contours, she looked like a distinguished marvel crafted by almighty.

The university examination was underway & he was all set to nail the nasty chemistry. But alas! He couldn't keep his piercing gaze away from her which kept relishing every nook & corner of her partly visible face. Her eyes resembled the one of a fawn, beautiful and large with an aperture big enough to gape across the entire length and width of the paper. Her cheeks were sleek and smooth like well-churned butter, nose were sharp and pointed adorned with beads of sweat (Chennai was certainly a hot place). To top it all, she was blessed with a pair of bee-stung lips of apt size, which were as pink as one could be. She looked simple yet sober without wearing a makeup or an ornament which was enough to mesmerize him. He praised and cursed lord at the same time, the reason for his former act was very much evident as god gave him the luxury to peek at one of his vintage creation and for the later one nothing was much serious about it. His senses were prompt to apprise him about the blow of a backlog which he was going to inflict. Disarrayed & dazed he kept doing what he was best at, gazing at her thoroughly blank. Though a subconscious part of his cerebellum prompted him about the purpose he was there for but that was too light of a call to buzz his senses.

For quite some time, he made few unsuccessful attempts of getting into the examination mould, but things went a bit more awry as presumed. Even the biggest of his virtues gave up on him as he looked completely out of sorts. And there she was unaware of the damage her presence triggered. While the name of paper read chemistry, he had his mind weaving phrases of blissful poetry. And given the way thoughts procreated in his brain, it seemed the shadow of Wordsworth himself dawned upon him. The gloom of her eyes and sleek composure held him prisoner for the entire length of the exam. They kept obliging and he accepted everything with gratitude, it felt so heavenly. In the meantime, he crawled past half way mark through the set of questions. Interestingly, he was completely clueless of her whereabouts but the overwhelmed him didn’t want to miss out on a moment to capture those few auspicious times which were bargained at the price of chemistry paper.  And in a showcase of goodwill gesture he and chem-II signed a MoU that they will see each other next semester.

Back in exam hall she kept switching sides and continued amassing paper after paper as if her life was liable to those wood pulps. But he thrived by making most of the chance thrown at him until time ran out and he lost her in the crowd. She wrote mercilessly, and the haste on her face exposed worries which was very much evident from a distance and that is when he mumbled to himself, “Kitna Likhegi”. He noticed some other silly things that took place at the exam hall like she had no time to take a sip of water, on the contrary, he kept gulping glasses of water fancying his chances to explore more of her.

 By the time exam was completed, her beautifully crafted spell did its trick and left him prostate. Some of the evident consequences like he failing in the paper of chemistry and falling for her at the same time got accomplished. In both cases he was at the receiving end. But amidst all these chaos of mind and soul a silver lining showed up which fetched him a glorious memory to cherish and first real love of his life. He started believing love at first sight and harboured every moment gazing at her. Who knew that such a frivolous incident would lead to a lifelong bonding of love and bliss. Yes!! Those 3 hours unlocked new gateway to life and even today he concedes that it was worth.