Those enchanted four and half years

Chapter 18

Our class representative, Tarun, declared a 'College Week', wherein we would celebrate various days. First in the list was 'Chocolate Day'. The college auditorium was booked for some official function so we had arranged for the celebration in our badminton hall. Statistically speaking badminton hall was the third most famous place for dating in LBSMC, following katta and central library.

Outside the ladies' hostel, boy's hostel and on our college notice-board, the official Chocolate Day notice was displayed.

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CELEBRATING CHOCOLATE DAY

1999 BATCH

CADBURY DAIRY MILK → LOVE

ALPENLIEBE → SILENT ADMIRATION

CADBURY ECLAIRS → SPECIAL FRIENDS

MANGO BITE → FRIENDS

COFFEE BITE → BROTHERS & SISTERS

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"No chocolate for hatred?" Sufee commented, as we read the notice board.

"A great person has said 'love thy batch-mates,'" Arun said.

"And who is this great person?" Sufee asked.

"Of course me!" Arun laughed.

After evening practicals that day, I, Sufee and Nayana rushed to the nearest chocolate mart and brought dozens of mango bites and few Cadbury éclairs. "Let's buy some coffee bites too...it's a defense mechanism against unwanted Cadbury dairy milk." Nayana said.

Exactly at 6:00 pm we went to the badminton hall. Few of our batch-mates were already there. Once inside the hall, I, Sufee and Nayana exchanged Cadbury éclairs. We gave big hugs to each other. "Are you going to hug each and everyone while giving chocolates?" We hadn't noticed Vivek watching us.

"Oh shut up Vivek," Sufee said.

Gradually as everyone started pouring in, we started exchanging chocolates. The event seemed similar to the festival 'Makar-sankrant', where we distribute 'tilgud.' Here we were distributing chocolates and instead of saying 'tilgud ghya god bola', we were saying 'Happy Chocolate Day.' We kept on moving from one end of the hall to the other, met everyone, shared chocolates, chit-chatted, in short, enjoyed immensely. Miss Wierdo was conspicuously absent. I was looking around for Arun, but I couldn't spot him either.

"Attention everyone!" We turned around to see Tarun standing on a small table, addressing everyone. "Time for today's surprise event," he said. The whole hall fell silent. "As witnessed by all of you, Avinash and Shabana are the first couple of our batch." We listened attentively. "On the auspicious occasion of Chocolate Day, there's one more couple who want to make their relationship official." He paused to gauge everyone's reaction. We all were astonished as there was no air about one more affair in our own batch. After a painfully long pause, Tarun said, "Presenting our newest Jodi, Abhinav and Vibha!" Everyone was stunned. No one had ever seen them together. The hall was filled with murmured whispers.

"I had no idea!" I said to Sufee.

After a few minutes, Abhinav entered the hall with a packet in his hands and a big smile on his face and climbed the table. Everyone started shouting slogans of, "Roll number 4."