5. The Prelude to New Beginnings

 The Month Of October ;

 Marks The Beginning Of My Golden Days,

 Every Year.

Saturday,7th October 2023

The weekend, combined with the afternoon class, meant I wouldn't get a chance to visit the library. Studying at home until 1:30 was tough. I was done with KTG, but still had 4 pages left. As I always say, I've been a bit lucky. Maa's rava kachori was filling enough to last from breakfast to lunch, so I decided to go to the library, assuming I wouldn't feel hungry until evening.

Ramesh wasn't going to attend the lecture. It was probably going to be the last lecture on electrochemistry, as the topic was likely to end soon.

Our scheduled class was in Room 9, where juniors were having lunch and discussing their doubts. In the library, Mia mentioned that her Instagram account had been hacked. Despite there being only four students, including me, the library had never been a place conducive to studying. I got up and went back to our classroom but forgot to bring the AC remote, so I had to leave the class again to retrieve it.

On my way back, I stopped at the door of Classroom 10, where our classes were usually held, and, out of curiosity, opened it slightly to see if anyone was inside. Through the small gap between the wall and the door, I saw Naira. I was glad I was curious. Upon opening the door fully, I found Arjun and Sanjana J as well.

"Huh..?..have you been sitting in room no. 9 all this time??." Naira asked .

"If only I had been a bit more curious earlier, I might have had more time," my sixth sense taunted me.

"Yeah, if I'd known Naira was here, I would have come here earlier," I thought to myself and quickly responded, "Yes…"

"Ha….." I could not even complete my words and I was interrupted. 

Before I could finish, I was interrupted.

"Aye Tuh-nish, will we have two separate math exams for boards?" Sanjana J asked. I always got serious goosebumps whenever Sanjana J called me 'Tuh-nish,' similar to when others occasionally called me 'Tuh-nish' instead of my 'Tanish' 

"Nahi ..", I replied to Sanjana.

"Ek hi hoga na??..".

"Yes yes" I responded

"Mera bag rakh dega kya please??", squinting her eyes, Naira requested me to keep her bag in classroom 9.

'Yaar I wish I could hug you tightly and keep you in my arms forever.' I kept on saying that in my mind.

'Sure.", I agreed.

"Third bench pe rakhna ha." smiling, Naira instructed.

"Well I am sitting there.", I teased her.

" Classroom number 9 mein ham third bench pe bethte hai.", Naira proudly stated

"Sure. I had actually saved the bench for you.", I relieved her.

"Aur CS ke liye we have two separate papers right?." Sanjana asked another question.

"I had asked ma'am about it and she told me that two separate papers will be held.", I replied to Sanjana.

"But in the timetable…"

"..ha..there's only one CS paper listed.", i interrupted her back remembering Ramesh had asked the same question a few days back.

"When is our CS paper??.." Sanjana inquired.

"12th March.", I answered

"I can't see CS anywhere in this tentative time table.", she said.

"Since when are you all sitting here??..", this time I asked a question. But before I could get a reply, Sanjana handed me her phone. 

"Zara dekh na where is our CS paper's date..in this time table "

"Ek baje", then Sanjana replied to my question.

"What a time table they have made.", Sanjana further criticized. 

I squinted my eyes to take a proper glance at it, and began wondering what was more unclear, the time table or the screen of her phone?

"And that online form filling ka kya?", she asked her next question.

"Are I had sent that on the grp", I told her

 Sanjana questioned one after the other and I answered them one after the other.

"It was in hindi."

"Wo Marathi me tha", I corrected her, still finding CS in the row of 12fh March and I finally found it.

"Look at this. I got it." hearing me, Sanjana got up and looked into her phone which was still in my hand. I respectfully returned it to her and she came with another question.

"BS college grp pe send Kiya tha?"

"Yes" 

"Did you create the BS college group?" Naira entered with a question for Sanjana.

"She uhh…", I was trying to guess correctly. But she denied that she did.

"I'll send it to my mother. She will translate it." She continued, opening our college group and scrolled up to find my text which I had sent last night.

I saw it as the best opportunity possible to see whether Sanjana J had saved my number or not as Naira speculatively told me a couple of months back and upon believing it I saved her number as 'Sanjana 3'. I would immediately delete her number if she hasn't saved mine yet, since I always saved the numbers of people who had mine.

I attempted to peek into her phone from my spot, trying to zoom in on the information. However, Naira, who was engrossed in her phone, blocked my view. I saw a glimpse of something written in red at the top left corner of my message.

I believed it was obvious that she might not save my number by Tanish Bhardwaj. And Tanish, to be honest, seemed short for my name compared to what I had seen. Another noticeable thing was that even my username Tanish Bhai appeared short. 

 She immediately tapped the forward button and the screen had changed and so my time for guessing was over.

"I sent it..it will get translated into English.", blinking her eyes, Sanjana stated.

"Aur Hindi Marathi toh…", she further explained her difficulty in reading Hindi and Marathi to which Naira agreed.

"Then what's the point in being a maharashtrian??.." I questioned both of them as they got up and were moving to class nine where I had been sitting earlier. Naira took her bag from me and I followed both of them while Arjun said that he will join us later.

"Second bench pe projector lagta hai na?" Naira asked me.I told her that three students couldn't sit there because of the projector and lied that only one could. She might have missed that detail, but Sanjana J was always smart.

"Two students sit there with the projector.", she stated. 

"Are but I require a lot of space so i don't think me and the projector would be able to accommodate even a second person….", I excused, verbally abusing in general as they opened the door and we left classroom number 10. Turning towards the door of classroom number 9, I could see a smile on Sanjana's face from the side. 

"Ye toh har baat pe bas gaali dene lagta hai" Naira said. 

"Are It's not my catchphrase but I use it often."

The three of us entered the class, and I saw that the juniors were still there. I moved my bag to the second bench and sat down, relaxing with my legs on the bench. I suddenly remembered the questions I had been pondering for a couple of days and thought maybe Sanjana and Naira could answer them.

"Hey, listen up… I wanted to ask something," I said. Both girls looked at me with curiosity.

"Suppose we go to Monginis," I began. Naira turned back to Rushika, who had just entered the class, but Sanjana J was still listening.

"Monginis?" she questioned.

"Yeah, so there we see those triangular pieces of cake. Are they still called pastries?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"And in a lehenga, what is the bottom part called? The top part is called a blouse, right?" I asked my next question.

"Woh poora lehenga hi hota hai," Sanjana replied.

I glanced at Naira's NCERT math book and took it without her permission.

"There are some papers in it, so be careful," she warned me.

"Just tear off any papers you see," Sanjana suggested.

"These ones?" I asked, pulling out some ruled papers.

"No, the other ones," Sanjana clarified.

"Okay, so these?" I pointed to the blank pages.

"Yes. Tear them," she instructed.

"I mean… how do I?" I stammered, unsure of how to remove the pages.

"Leave it," Sanjana said finally. I placed her book back on the desk and sat back.

"Do you like this?" Sanjana had started a new topic, showing her phone to Naira and asking about someone.

"Let me see…" Yash had arrived by then and was sitting on the fifth bench.

"Yeah, it's nice," he commented after looking at it from the back.

"Isn't it?" Sanjana asked again.

"You guys like Korean stuff more, right?" I asked both of them, assuming Sanjana would have shown some Korean guy's picture to Naira.

"No," Sanjana replied, adding, "It's not like that." Naira agreed with her.

Sanjana then asked Naira if she had heard a particular Marathi song and shared her experience of dancing to it at a function that took place in her building, if I recall correctly.

"I danced to that song, and then I blinked like this in front of the camera," she said, blinking her eyes, "and then I turned around," she continued, placing her hands together with the fingertips of her middle fingers touching.

And it continued from there….

"The examinations for Class XII will begin on 21st February and continue until 23rd March. Class X exams will be held from 1st to 22nd March," Sanjana read aloud.

"Ours will end on 12th March." I happily stated, still relaxing on the bench.

"Are but here it's given 23rd March." She said,confused.

"But there are different subjects right.?" I explained to her. "Like you and I have the same subjects."

"Yes…".she agreed,"..we both have the same subjects…Achaa okayy!!", she realized after a while.

"So our boards end on 12th March. But other students have other subjects so their papers will end on the 23rd.", I nodded to her.

"This time class 10th students are having their exams quite late.", and then Sanjana remarked, shifting to a new topic.

"Yeah. Our 10th boards ended on 18th May.." Naira stated.

"They ended on the 20th...", I corrected her," I mean all the papers ended on the 20th. But then mine ended on 17th May. My arts paper was held in March." Naira agreed with me and I was relieved that we didn't argue over this trivial detail.

"The form fillings start from 9th October, which is the day after tomorrow." Sanjana continued, still focused on her phone.

"So how do we fill it??..I mean..you might have done it na? Since you've been studying at the state board.", I asked her.

"Are…college heads will make us fill the forms..jo BS ke honge…(taking a pause) And then we have to submit it on the BS grp. Like we did it for the identity cards..(taking a shorter pause)..Aye hamko id cards kab milenge?.", she explained and then questioned all in general. 

"What did you fill in the division section while giving information for the identity card?", I questioned, puzzled

"I did not fill anything."

"Then how did it accept your information if you left a column?"

Come on! Answer me properly Sanjana!! 

Sanjana's reply reminded me of Ramesh's words: "Woh aisi hi hai," about Sanjana.

"I just left a dot.", she changed her statement with a smile emerging at the end.

"Woah.. amazing.", we both laughed at it. 

"In school, we used to get identity cards quickly, but here, I don't see them arriving anytime soon," one of us noted.

"We got one every year."

"We had one in primary grades, one in secondary, and then one in 11th and 12th. If you broke one, you had to pay for the replacement," she explained.

"We got one every year," someone else chimed in.

"You had to manage with one for so many years?" I asked Sanjana.

"Yeah, you people waste so much plastic," she replied.

"State Board…" I interrupted. Those two words always made us laugh.

"Whenever I think of it, it reminds me of Gurukul," I said, which only made them laugh more.

"Gurukul ke teen niyam: Pratishta, Parampara, aur Anushasan. Waise hi tumhare state board me bhi teen niyam hai kya?" I asked.

"Are…" Sanjana started, but I shook my head, indicating that I didn't catch what she said.

"Ek minute ha," she said, showing me her index finger and opening her phone. I wondered what was coming.

"Ye toh sabko wahi dikhati hai.", Naira taunted.

"Ha..Mai sabko apni school dikhati hu." She showed me the screen of her phone. 'Father Angelo School' it read.

I leaned forward, still in my comfort zone, and saw images of a turf and a basketball court. It reminded me of Venkatesh School. The school building wasn't clearly visible, so I didn't touch her phone and returned to my spot.

"You had turf as well?" I asked.

"We had turf, a swimming pool, two basketball courts…" Sanjana listed, but I don't recall everything she mentioned. "Our school's full name was Father Angelo Multipurpose School and Jr. College. We had more than one building."

"That reminds me of Gurukul," I said, and they laughed.

"I'll show you my school," I said, opening Google and searching for Venkatesh School. I showed her the top view image of our school with its circular corridors.

"This looks like BS College," Sanjana commented, leaving me momentarily speechless. She quickly turned back to Naira, who always held Sanjana, as Ramesh had told me.

I opened Instagram to check if our school page had the top view image, but it seemed to have been deleted. I then searched Google for a top view of Venkatesh High School, hoping to find the image I wanted.

The first result was it.

"See the top view of our school," I said with a grin.

"Bro, this looks like a prison," she said honestly, and I was at a loss for words. The school, awarded as the best ICSE school in the city by Jacqueline Fernandez in 2019 and Suniel Shetty a couple of years later, was being insulted. Sanjana looked at my phone and then probably checked other images of my school, which I didn't mind.

"So, your school is in Vandor?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"Is it somewhere near Vandor Station?" I asked.

"Sector 9…"

"If your school had been near Vandor Station, I would have regretted not being in your school. The street food variety outside Vandor Station is a delight," I said, imagining Paaji's chhole bhature and Pop's jumbo vada pav.

"A lot of people here are from Ryan School. I'm from Ryan, Neil is from Ryan—"

"Sonali is also from Ryan, right?" I interrupted.

"Yes… And who else is from Ryan?" Naira thought for a moment.

"Listen to their pronunciation," one of the two girls taunted the other.

"What? I said 'Riyan,'" Sanjana justified.

"Even you pronounced my school's name wrong," Naira said.

"You're from the state board…" It was getting a bit heated.

"One minute, one minute," I said, intervening. "Both of you, say your pronunciation."

"I said Riyan," Sanjana stated.

"That's not right. It's Ryan," I corrected her.

"See?" Naira said.

"And you say your pronunciation," I told Naira.

"Father Agnelo," Naira said.

"No, it's Angelo, not Agnelo," I corrected. "She at least spelled it correctly, but you changed the spelling. Agnel is not Angel. But Faraday is actually better."

"Oye…" Sanjana's eyes turned to me. "How can you confuse Fr with Faraday?"

"I've told you many times, once a name is set in my mind, it stays there. Now it will remain Faraday for me."

"Did you stay in Vandor during your school days?" Sanjana asked.

"No…"

"So, Belsar to Vandor?" she asked, nodding.

"You stayed in Belsar. Why didn't you look for schools there? Riverstone School is also in Belsar," I said.

"That school? I would never. My school was better," she said. I had expected this response. Looking at the crowd from Riverstone in our batch, I could tell it wasn't a very good school, at least not for 'Sanjana J,' as I heard.

"So, where is Venkatesh School?" Sanjana asked.

"Do you know Splendor Tower?" I asked.

"No…" she shook her head.

"Ugh, how do I explain?" I thought. I struggled to recall the best way to describe my school's location.

"You must know Mehek Vihar, right?" I asked, hoping she did since it was the next stop after Azad Chowk where she used to come by bus. She finally nodded.

"From there, you go straight until you reach a circle. Take a right, and it's just a two-minute walk from there and you will reach Venkatesh School.

"Haa …", Naira added,"..Singh school ke taraf se andar."

"Andar nahi bahar.", Once again I corrected her.

"Andar hi toh bola…"

"Ha toh andar is from the main road. And bahar is towards the main road.", I showed it with my hands to teach directions correctly. 

"Tanish…," finally someone other than the three of us spoke. "My penalty fee... I was absent from the last lecture." Sai, always with a smile since I'd seen him in Venkatesh, addressed the issue.

"Are, and what about you? Even your penalty is remaining," I pointed out to Sanjana.

"I need to see..." Sanjana opened her purse, revealing a variety of new Indian notes—the purple 100-rupee note, the blue 50-rupee note, and the green 20-rupee note. She pulled out a 10-rupee coin, inspected it, and handed it to me. "Abhi itne hi hain."

"Look for five more rupees," I said, becoming a bit brusque. She took her hand back and continued searching through her notes.

"Sanjana has a lot of money," Arjun observed with a smile, his eyes on the cash with no ill intentions.

"Ice cream party!!" Naira announced excitedly.

"Do you all get money every month or do you ask for it?" I asked, curious if anyone received a monthly allowance like me.

"Like... it depends on mummy. I go to her and ask for money, and she gives me whatever she has on hand—like a hundred rupees or two hundred rupees," Sanjana explained, and Naira nodded in agreement.

"So, you don't get a fixed amount each month?" I asked again to confirm. I was surprised that Sanjana didn't receive monthly pocket money, considering she also traveled by bus, though on the opposite route to mine.

She shook her head, confirming she didn't.

"Mujhe toh do hazaar milte hain har month."

"Har mahine??!!" Sanjana's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yup!" I confirmed.

"Tch... mujhe teri zindagi jeeni hai," she said with a hint of regret in her voice, her eyes drifting to where no one was sitting. Her lips turned upward slightly, revealing her dissatisfaction with the amount of money she received.

Her words took me by surprise. Sanjana Jaiswal, who was known for her high standards and whose Instagram posts reflected a certain lifestyle as per Ramesh, was expressing regret over wanting to live my life just because she didn't receive as much money.

"You shouldn't be saying this..." I began.

"Huhh??" Blinking in surprise, she looked back at me.

"I said you shouldn't think like that. You might not receive as much money from your parents as I do, but you probably live in a better house and have a better car than me," I explained.

"Aisa tujhe lagta hai" she asked slowly, once again looking at the same spot as before. I felt like something was troubling her.

"Which car do you have?" I continued my habit of comparing.

"Brezza," she answered, her gaze returning to me.

"Acha, oh okay. Theek hai. I have a Baleno. My car might be bigger, but both cars can fit the same number of people," I said, trying to ease the situation.

Nodding, Sanjana smiled, indicating that my assumption about her having a better car might be wrong.

"Tera kitna BHK hai?" I asked next, comparing our homes.

She quietly showed three fingers with her right hand. "Three...??" I confirmed.

"Ha, your home is three times bigger than mine," I said, raising my voice slightly. It was true that she lived in a bigger house.

"Ghar me kitne log hain?" she asked.

"Four," I replied.

"Mere ghar me paanch log hain," she said, adding that she had one more

And finally, Shashank sir arrived. I quickly turned towards the whiteboard. All I knew about the lecture was that it was the last day of our quiz, and the scores were reset to zero. He swiftly introduced a new concept, and then presented the tie-breaker question.

Due to constant gaps and irregular lectures, electrochemistry had become one of my weakest chapters in physical chemistry. I stared at the reaction on the whiteboard, feeling completely blank. I could only copy down the question. As I looked around, Sir taunted, "Dekho yaha toh Tanish ka ho gaya, ab faila de answer jaldi se." It wasn't the first time I struggled as a captain; I'd faced a similar situation in chemical equilibrium as well. I turned to Sanjana, who was still focused on the question.

"Dekh yaar," I whispered urgently as she glanced up from the question. "Ye chapter mujhe bilkul nahi aata, toh please solve this question."

"Even I have no idea about this one," she admitted.

I told her to keep working while I scanned the room for anyone who might have finished. Sammy suggested that I have patience and let him solve the question. When I asked Karan and Piyush, they confessed they didn't even understand the question. The others showed no signs of having answers either. Finally, the three-minute timer ran out, and Simar from our team raised his hand. Aarav and Ayaan from the other team also came forward.

Since neither their captain nor vice-captain had their hands up, it meant the question would be asked to our team. Sammy, our vice-captain, chose option C, and we won the game. All the stress of the past few weeks seemed to lift. I knew Sammy would never fail to explain things well, and he lived up to my expectations. My entire team deserved the credit for this victory.

The prize of four hundred rupees was to be divided among us twelve students. "Inorganic??" someone whispered from the back as Shashank sir stepped out for a moment, saying we'd start revision after the lecture.

"Trust me, jabse apex batch bana hai, tabse I have started to believe I humare haal pe chhoda gaya hai," I told Naira. Sanjana agreed with a thumbs-up.

"Bhai, inorganic ka kya?" Naira cried out softly, still whispering.

"See, I feel ab se humare sath jo bhi hoga, uske hum khud zimmedar honge," I explained further.

"That... was so literal," the third one among us whispered, still focused on the whiteboard. 

After the lecture, I hurried out of the academy to the medical downstairs to distribute the money. In the corridor, I encountered Lea, coming from the other end. As we approached the only staircase, I stopped and let her go first. She smiled and whispered something.

"Huh?" I asked her to repeat.

"Sath chal sakte hain," she said with a smile, indicating we could walk up the stairs together.

Lea reminded me of modern-day girls—her open straight hair (though that wasn't a defining feature) and a chewing gum perpetually in her mouth. Her frequent use of slang and her confident "ABBEE, BHAYYYY," reminiscent of Kavya's tone, spoke volumes about her personality.

"Are nahi nahi, pehle tum chalo," I insisted, letting her go first before following.

I got two notes of two hundred rupees and gave thirty-four rupees each to Sammy and Arjun, who were waiting outside the academy. Then I went to the PNCF branch to submit the upcoming quarter's cheque. To my surprise, I found Naira, Rushika, and Sanjana there, coming out of Room 3 as I entered.

"Does anyone have a hundred-rupee change?" I asked them.

"Ha, mere paas hai," Sanjana J responded.

"Take this hundred-rupee note and give me 34 back. Divide the remaining 66 among you and Naira," I instructed.

"Are ha, your team won na? Yaar, isme 20 rupees mere bhi hain," Rushika said with a smile, regretfully noting that she was absent for one of Shashank sir's lectures and had to pay a twenty-rupee penalty.

"But Sanjana se toh sirf fifteen rupee ka penalty liya tha na?" my sixth sense teased.

"Bhai, wo fifteen rupees bhi badi mushkil se diye usne," Rushika replied.

Sanjana handed me a twenty-rupee note, a ten-rupee note, and two two-rupee coins. She turned each coin to confirm its value before giving me my thirty-four rupees. I placed the money safely in my wallet, as I always did with the prize money—from the fifty-rupee note against Sushila to the thirty-four rupees I won in the last game.

"Aaj pehli baar usse itni baat hui na?" My sixth sense was at it again.

"Yea…that thought kept coming to my head even when I was talking to her."

It was the first time I had spoken so much to her since I had known her. For the past year and a half, I had heard many things about Sanjana J, but I never cared to know who she truly was. Upon entering Batch 1, I was never comfortable around her. Initially, I tried to avoid her as much as possible. Even on WhatsApp, my messages to her were only reminders about physical chemistry homework or preparations for oral exams. When you hear so much about someone, you tend to stay away from them. 

I still remember telling Kavya that I was too hesitant to ask Sanjana J to make a diagram in my CS2 practical book. Of course, she was "Sanjana J." Kavya made it even more awkward by suggesting, "Are, mai bhi rahungi sath me, phir tu puch lena na if she can make the diagram for your practical book." I firmly declined, saying, "Mujhe apni setting thodi karaani hai uske sath jo tujhe sath me rehna padega."

As I got on the bus and began writing about the afternoon, I realized the importance of this day for the book and started writing then.