83. Who's better?

"Wow! Brother Arko is as awesome as always!"

"How do you think Bikram will perform now?"

"Who knows? He was quite good then, maybe they'll have a tie?"

"Heh! No chance. He's nowhere as good as our Brother Arko."

"Geez, would you guys stop talking amongst yourselves and let me listen? Bikram's already heading towards the piano. Shh!"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry. Let's listen."

The whispers died down as Bikram stepped towards the piano. Before taking a seat he looked at Ritutandra, who was leaning against the chair with one leg above the other in a bossy manner and was spinning the flute in one hand. Their eyes met. Ritutandra's expectant eyes were facing Bikram's determined gaze.

'This is my chance to share a stage with her. I need to win this to prove myself .'

His fingers landed on the keys and glided slowly and softly; smoothly across the piano. The tune sounded very simple but if someone were to look at his fingers, they would understand the complexity of playing the piece. The slow melody was soothing. After Arko's upbeat performance, it was a complete reversal of the atmosphere.

Listening to the melody took the audience to a dreamland where they were present in a ball room listening to a prince playing the piano on his brother's coronation day. The lights were dimmed to focus everyone's attention on him enveloped by the moonlight as he played on the balcony, completely immersed in the gift he had so meticulously prepared for his sibling's big day.

The room was quiet even after Bikram had finished. Only when he got up and thanked everyone for listening that the audience was brought back from their imagination. One by one claps went off, then they merged into a thunderous echo and lasted for a long time. Bikram bowed to them again and looked at Ritutandra, who was quietly sitting in her place.

Only when the clapping sounds came to an end did she speak, "Now it's time for the results."

Everyone silently waited. Bikram narrowed his eyes on her face, trying to get a hint about what she would say but it was futile.

Ritutandra noticed their tensed expression and did not prolong the suspence, announcing, "It's Bikram Sen,"

Bikram's eyes widened in disbelief. He won? He really won!

He pinched himself to check if he was dreaming and feeling the pain he bowed with excitement, "Thank you Vice Captain."

Ritutandra nodded with a smile, "You did well."

Arko did not like that. For so long he was the only one worthy to stand next to her on stage and he wanted it to stay like that. But now he was met with a tough contender. Even he could not refute that Bikram was the winner of today's competition but he would make sure to change that the next time they met.

No one else could counter the results either. They had seen it for themselves. Ritutandra and Arko had started school together and had been the top two musicians of the school ever since. However, there was such a huge disparity that if they were to be differentiated by a hundred points, there would be a gap of eighty points between them. But now Bikram surpassed him, albeit by a few points and broke the record.

Everyone congratulated him as well as warned him to expect tough competition from them for his newly earned spot. Bikram was happy and eager to engage with these talented students and develop more. He had already seen them play and knew how crazily skilled they were.

Just then, Arko came over with a dark face and whispered while passing him, "This time you may have won and snatched Ritutandra from me but there won't be a next time. I'll soon take that place back from you."

Bikram frowned slightly and looked at him with a puzzled gaze.

'Whay is he talking about? Where is this snatching thing coming from? Is he crazy?' he wondered but soon the others' voice drew him out of his thoughts.

"Now, the singers," said Ritutandra and opened the list.

The selection was over quickly because there were not many candidates for the vocal. Koushik was chosen for the solo and Rishi and two others were chosen for the folk song. After that, the practice began. The singers went to that little room to learn the songs whereas the instrumentalists sat with the respective instruments they will be playing. Ritutandra gave a basic outline of how the music will proceed with the vocal. A screen appeared on one of the walls displaying the rough arrangement as she explained.

It was about lunchtime when everyone finally managed to get a hang of the outline of their performance. The newcomers were ready to hug Ritu's feet to get a break. It was their first time with such a strict perfectionist mentor who would not let go unless a certain mistake properly rectified. And each of the mistakes she pointed out was valid so no one could say anything against that. At first, some students tried to argue that she was talking nonsense but they never imagined that from the beginning, whatever they played was being recorded. Ritutandra played the recording on the screen and specifically highlighted the portions with mistakes. She also made all those arguers record their pieces individually along with those who did it correctly, then, let them see the computerized comparison.

The veterans who were already experienced with her method only looked at the new students with pity, especially those who argued. They were shocked to see that whatever mistake Ritutandra had pointed out was also written on the screen but the most amazing thing was that she did it after hearing them only once!

One student even spoke her thoughts aloud from shock, "Do you have some device set in your ear?"

"No. Do you want to check? I can comply" Ritutandra said.

She indeed never had anything in her ears while practicing, performing or rehearsing. It was to train her ears to pick up the slightest mistake without using any technology.

Her seriousness and sincerity dissolved any hint of doubt that was left in them.

During lunch time, Ritu came out to have her food when Bikram caught up to her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, seeing his hesitation to speak.

"Uh... I wanted to ask you for some guidance. Earlier during the rehearsal you pointed out my mistakes but I couldn't figure out how to correct them. Can you please help me with it?" he asked with a polite smile.

"Did I not individually point and list your problems?"

Bikram sighed and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Yes, you did."

"Then?" Ritutandra raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"The thing is... when you explain it I seem to understand but when I'm trying to correct them I just feel lost about where and how to change. So.." He bit his lips and looked at her.

She thought for some time and said, "Okay, come with me."

He sighed in relief and followed.