After Tenth

Chapter 4

" So you also up for med,  huh? "
"  Yep "
"  Dasgupta,  are you you gonna join school or college? "
"  Yohaan , to be frank I have not decided  anything  yet,  but most probably  I will be joining  school,  and,  yeah,  I have got a name. "

I really found it annoying  when people  called me using my  surname.  I mean,  I have a name after all.  And yes,  I loved my name -  Shanaya  Dasgupta .  In my opinion ,  it was the  best  name my parents  could  ever give  me.
Shanaya  in  Sanskrit  meant  " The first rays of the sun".
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' A genus is a group of related species . For example Panthera is a genus which consists  of three related species  -  Panthera leo , Panthera tigris and Panthera pardus . Now these are the examples for animals . Let us look ahead with plants . Solanum is a genus which consists of Solum nigrum , Solanum tuberosum ,Solanum melongena . Is everyone clear with the concept of Genus ? ´

I was sitting on the first bench , and TLN was literally spitting on my face every time he opened his mouth . I really felt like carrying an umbrella and opening it up right in his class. But there is something called classroom manners ,you see. The only option I had was to either swap my seat with one of  the guys in  the other row or else give up my first bench , which I was not gonna give up at any cost. So I tried the first option with a bit of courage.

' Umm... Hi ! I am Shanaya and I know that you don 't know  me , well I guess you do not need to know me either , but still ...´

' Hi ! Im Ketan. Well , why do I not need to know you ? I wanna know you , know who  you are , every single bit about you .´

' Excuse me , what ? ´ I replied with an air of  surprise and anger , mixed together .

' Oh no no ! I just meant to say that  I would love to have the  pleasure of knowing you , as a friend you see . So ... Friends ?´ he extended his right hand towards me . And me who didn't give a damn about him or his ways or his looks , but business ( the bench business) , found myself pretty lost ,in his eyes . His eyes were  a sight to behold  . Three words - Big  ,Black and Beautiful. But then , reminding myself to not stare at people like an idiot , I resumed my composure and extended my right hand towards him . So , yeah we were friends . ( I guess )

The bell rang , an it was time for us to go home , and  for the first time in forever  , Shanaya did everything , right from introducing herself  in an  awkward  way to a totally awkward stranger , to staring at his eyes , to becoming friends ,  ' but '  talking business . I totally forgot to talk about my business . And I was feeling totally irritated at this behavior of mine . Now I could talk about my business ( the bench business ) , only the day after .
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I reached home at nine . Damn ! It took  quite a lot of time to commute . But for my quality education , my parents were fine with it .

To my horror , I was surprised to know that Yohaan and I were gonna travel in the same cab . Okay , it is not that I hated him , or I was scared of him or something , it is just that our familiar unfamiliarities made me feel weird . I always had  this feeling that we were too different to even  rest at peace  together.

We were in the same school , but we never ever talked to each other . I really didn't know much about him , but I had heard about him in bits and pieces . I was aware of the fact that he was a bully  . I also knew that he was a genius , but instead of staying inside , he was usually found lurking outside the class . Yet he managed to win hearts . He was hated by a few teachers , but was adored by most of the teachers .  He was rebellious . His behavior was terrible  .The description will go on and on . I wasn't even sure , how much of what I had heard about him was true . But I was pretty terrified  of the fact that he was a bully .
I was totally against bullying  , and this guy , who was a  friend of mine  ( hopefully ) , was a bully ?