Those enchanted four and half years

Chapter 2

Next day, I and Sufee rode my silver Spirit to college. We had Anatomy lecture in the morning. Many students were waiting outside the lecture hall building. They all looked unfamiliar. We parked the Spirit near the compound wall and started walking towards the building. All students standing outside, majority of whom were guys, were all laughing and shouting. As we went closer, we realized that they were passing comments on first year students. Just then, a bike zoomed past us. A girl riding a Honda Activa went ahead and parked her bike right in front of the building. I noticed that she was very fair, with a tall slim figure, shoulder length straight hair highlighted with Burgundy colour left loose, wearing a pink lace-studded sleeveless chudidaar with a thin strip of dupatta on one side. She had a heart shaped smiling face and very delicate features. As she alighted, there was a chorused, "Oooooo....," from the crowd. "Miss India" someone shouted and everyone laughed. Instead of quickly going inside, she stood there with hands on her waist, scanning everyone challengingly.

"Oh, Miss Bold and Beautiful," someone commented and again everyone laughed.

"Look everyone...," the girl started speaking.

A girl from the on looking crowd, who was obviously a senior, came forward. "Hey you, don't you dare to look at your seniors like that. You have no business talking to us. Show us a hint of arrogance and I'll see to it that you are punished. Come on! Wish us all a good morning." By then, the whole crowd had started closing in on Miss Beautiful.

She got scared and took a step back. "Good mor-morning," she managed.

"Is this the way you wish your seniors?" the girl was in full form now, especially with so many spectators. "Come on, bend 900 and say good morning." Miss.Beautiful was petrified. She started looking around for help. I and Sufee stood frozen at a safe distance.

"What's going on here?" came a bold authoritative voice. One of the professors had perhaps heard the commotion."What is going on Meghna?" he asked the senior girl. She hung her head down. "You all know that ragging is now a lawful offence, don't you? And I didn't expect this from you Meghna," he said, "Don't you all have your class? Now go away before I take you to the dean. And this should not happen in future, is it clear Meghna?"

'Yes sir,' Meghna said, and left after giving one last penetrating look at Miss Beautiful.

Half of what was being taught in the firstlecture of general anatomy was going parallel to my head. I looked around andsaw Sufee scanning the classroom. 'What?" I gestured with my eyebrows. Shewrote a chit and passed it to me. It read 'Scanning for a hunk.' 'I am gettingbored too,' I wrote. 'Hey look at Miss Beautiful' she wrote back. I lookedaround and spotted Miss Beautiful two rows ahead of us. She was busy tidyingher dress, redoing her hairstyle, applying lipgloss. 'I think she really losther way while going for Miss India beauty pageant,' Sufee wrote. 'Now lookbehind,' Sufee wrote further. As I turned carefully around to look back, I sawalmost all boys in the rows behind staring unanimously at Miss Beautiful. 

As we were walking towards the Physiology lecture hall, I asked Nayana who Miss Beautiful was. "Oh, she is Sasha Gupta. She's from Delhi," Nayana said, "I think she has done 11th and 12th from Mumbai. And till now, 42 boys have proposed to her."

"How do you know that?" I was astounded at her knowledge of such details. "Well, everyone who's met her knows that. She makes it a point to include it in her intro," Nayana chuckled.

Physiology department building was adjacent to anatomy department in the semicircle. . The building interiors were an exact replica of the anatomy department. Outside the lecture hall our roll numbers were displayed on the noticeboard. As we entered the lecture hall, the professor sitting on the stage made an announcement for all of us to sit according to roll numbers. "What's your roll number?" Savita asked me.