The Perfect Photo

Chapter 14

"Hello, Pritam speaking." His voice was different over the phone, like a woman with a deep voice. I did not imagine this would be the way I'd hear his phone voice for the first time.

"This is the dean's office. We would like you to answer a few questions. Would you mind speaking to us for a few minutes ?", asked the Secretary.

"Not at all. What is it about? Do you want me to come over to the office?", asked Pritam.

Why does he have to be so polite? He could have said 'Not interested' and cut the call, like how anyone would to a sales rep or an insurance rep.

"It is not required for you to come over. At least not for now. We can do this over phone.", she briefly paused. "What we wanted to ask you was, did you ask someone to meet you today ?"

"I do not understand that. Whom are you referring to ?"

This could be the worst way to get suspended, I thought. Maybe I should have just stuck with the truth. Now even if I am, to tell the truth, I'd only be seen as the boy who cried wolf. No one would believe the truth following a big lie.

"Was a senior student supposed to meet you today ?", rephrased the secretary.

"Yes, I was to meet my college senior, Asha". I didn't know why he kept calling me Asha.

"Yes, Harsha", she ignored his deliberate mispronunciation, "Did you not know that seniors were not supposed to come into the first-year campus ?"

"Sorry, I did not realize that. Is there any issue because of that ?", he asked. I could sense a bit of uneasiness in his voice.

"Not exactly. We just wanted to clear a few things up. What was the purpose of her visit ?". She sounded to me like an immigration officer. An immigration officer who was suspecting that the person standing in front is a criminal of some sort.

"Helllloooo ?", he said.

"Why did you ask Harsha to come and meet you on your campus ?", repeated the secretary.

"The line is a bit unclear; I am unable to hear you correctly."

"Why.... what was Harsha there for ?", she asked.

"Hellllooo ?"

"We can hear you loud and clear. Why did you ask her to come to your campus ?"

"Sorry but the line is getting broken real bad. I am not able to hear properly."

"What is wrong with this stupid line", she said looking at the professor.

I was so thankful for this gift out of the blue. The gift of unreliable Indian telecommunication. If the line got disconnected I would probably write a thank you note to the service provider for giving Pritam such pathetic connectivity. The best part is that there would be no implied sarcasm in that thank you note.

The line suddenly went silent. No background noise.

"Did you want to join the cultural society?"

Silence again...

"Shall I cut the call and call you again ?"

Still silence and no response from the other line. The secretary got frustrated and disconnected the call. But she was not done yet. She redialed. I hoped for his phone to be unreachable. But the stupid network connected and the phone rang again.

"Pritam speaking", he said.

"Are you able to hear us clearly now? This is the dean's office again."

"Yes, the line is much better now. I am out in the open, I guess the signal is better."

"That's good. Pritam, what I was trying to ask you was why you had asked Ms. Harsha to come and meet you."

"Yes about that, I wanted to join the society she was in. I liked the work they did in organizing the college cultural."

"Yes. Thanks for the information. We had to hold Ms. Harsha back for having found her inside the first year campus. Senior year students are discouraged from being inside your campus. So we had to make sure that she was not involved in any ragging activities. Can you please confirm if she had tried to rag you ?"

"Absolutely not. She was very friendly."

"That's about all that we wanted to hear from you", she eyed back at the professor for the wrong catch. "If you wanted to join the cultural society I would recommend you go and meet Radha Chandrasekaran who is the staff head of the cultural society. By the way thanks for your co-operation."

"No problems. Thanks", he said hanging up.

I stood there unable to believe what I had just heard. How did he play along with the story I had just made up. Have we already connected on such a deep level? So deep that we communicate telepathically? How did he even know what I had said, what I had lied about? I was confused, did not have a clue, yet again. Yet again by none other than the mystery guy whom I liked.

I lost my surroundings for a brief minute. The secretary called out my name for the third time hitting the desk in front of her to get back my attention.

"Yes mam", I said, my concentration back to the room.

"I am going to have to enter this investigation into our record, as a formality. This should no longer be something you need to be worried about."

"We recommend you stay away from the first year campus as much as possible. We do not want the image of being against first-year students engaging themselves in extracurricular activities. On the same lines, we would also like to keep a tab on illicit activities."

"Yeah, sure thing. I can understand", I replied.

"You may leave now. You don't have to mention this incident to anyone else, just to avoid the scene", she said.

"Sorry for having to be a little harsh on you. All first-year professors have instructions to do the same", said the professor. His tone wasn't too apologetic. But I'd take that. I nodded and turned back to leave. I heard the secretary and the professor start discussing some other topic that wasn't about me. I was not too concerned. I walked down the stairs and exited dean's office.

I took out my phone from my pocket. Five missed calls and a text message from Neha. I opened the text message.

'I am never ever coming with you, ever again. You abandon me, vanish, don't give me a heads up and on top of everything else you do not attend my calls. This is not done', it read.

I had to make up to her. I wanted to type a reply, but instead opened up my phone book and dialed Pritam's number.

"Hello Pritam speaking", he said sounding a little short of breath.

"This is Harsha here. Do you have a couple of minutes? We need to catch up."

"Hey, Harsha. Where exactly are you ?"

"I am outside dean's office. Where are you ?"

"I am outside my campus walking towards the main campus. Can you meet me at the juice shop in like 10 minutes? We can discuss it over there", he said.

"Yeah sure. Please keep your ID card inside your bag when you come in", I had to make sure I give him that information.

"I never wear my ID card. It is always inside my pocket. I'll meet you in 10."

I cut the call and started walking to the juice shop. I would like to know what kind of explanation he has for now?