Once Upon a University Campus

Destiny

As she hopped on an autorickshaw, the only thought that was on Annika's mind was Shivaay. She wanted to be back in his life, desperately. She so wanted him to be back in her life. What was she thinking when she ran away from him the other day, that it would be so easy to coldly cut him off from herself and still be able to carry on? "No I am dead wrong. I am dead wrong. Why did I not put up a fight. Why was I so impulsive?" her heart cried. The pain she could never localize, shot up, forcing her to clutch her stomach and curl up in her seat. The autorickshaw driver noticed and checked on her if she was ok. She misled him into believing that the cold winds were bothering her.

As the rickshaw turned left on Africa avenue, her nervousness increased. What if Shivaay refused to take her back. Something told her that she had forever lost what she had left behind that day. She wanted to ask the driver to take her back to campus and she tried very hard to scream, yell, speak or beseech, but her voice was lost in the cacophony of her thoughts. Before she managed to find her voice, they were already at Udyog bhavan. She got off the rickshaw and walked towards the entrance but half way down, she turned around and walked away like a mad person wandering aimlessly. Life moved on, vehicles honked around her, vendors were busy toasting their peanuts, corn and hawkers went about selling their ware,. Her heart was bleeding and the world went about without a care. She did not matter in the scheme of things anymore, having run away from that one person to whom she mattered. She wandered a little further away from the crowded shack that stank of stale oil, samosas and pakoras. Completely distracted that she was, she bumped into a street lamp pole hitting her forehead hard. She cursed herself for her carelessness, for not watching out and then for throwing away her only chance for happiness. Shakti's words haunted her like ocean waves they kept coming back to her, hitting her harder and harder for not having tried. It occurred to her that she was doing just that again, giving up without a fight. For once, she mustered enough courage to turn around and walked briskly toward the entrance looking for Mr Bhattacharya's office.

It took her some time but she finally found it. She checked with the attendant at the door to make sure Shivaay was in there. The attendant did all he could to dissuade her from waiting there but now that she was finally there, she will not leave without meeting Shivaay at least once. As the attendant warned, it was a long wait. The afternoon gave way to dusk, dusk gave way to nightfall and Shivaay was still busy with his discussion. Taking pity on her, the attendant fetched her a flimsy plastic stool which she gratefully accepted. She had almost dozed off when the door opened with a thud and Shivaay stepped out. Annika looked at him disoriented, the lack of sleep over these days and her confusion had taken its toll. He paused for a brief second before walking away.

"Madam, madam, wake up. You have been waiting for him since afternoon and now what happened to you." The attendant yelled. Annika ran behind Shivaay. He was wearing his shades, though it was late in the night, as if he wanted to hide his grief struck eyes from her. Annika tiptoed behind him trying to catch his attention. But no avail. As she got closer, she could hear him speak in a foreign language. He must be speaking to Prof Annie, in French.  As they stepped out of the building, it was pitch dark. Fog had descended on the city again and the courtyard was completely empty. Streetlights flickered here and there but the fog made the place eerie. With each of Shivaay's step away from her, Annika's heart sunk a bit, as did her feet. It was a matter of minutes that the distance between her and Shivaay had grown considerably. There she was, almost all alone, in the middle of ghost city that would come to life only the next day after the sun did his job. Strangely, Annika did not panic. On any other day, such a situation would have scared the living daylight out of her. But that day, she did not know if she was alive enough to feel the pain, not the bump on her forehead not the pain tore into her that she could not localize. She walked like a zombie now that her hopes of speaking to Shivaay were all but reduced to ashes. She stepped out of the gate and dragged herself towards the road, unclear as to the direction she was supposed to walk. She had not gone too far when a car pulled over next to her.