"Not all poems rhyme"

37 3 3
                                    

~ Yaad rakna ki duniya ke kisi kone mein koi khush hai, kyunki tum khush ho ~

--------------------------------------------------

Srishti stared at her phone that had been lying dead ever since morning. Fine, it did buzz with two texts - a mobile network provider offer and an Amazon Grocery Sales text. But who cares? He hadn't called her and that was all that mattered. They had come to know each other's weekly schedule like their own and she was sure he knew about her free hour then. Why hadn't he called her yet? She kept fiddling with her cup of coffee as she sat in the college cafeteria surfing the Internet to kill her time.

She felt a few strong gazes on her and lifted her head to meet a group of girls standing a little closer to her table, expecting to strike a conversation with her. She instantly recognised them to be her students from one of the classes she had handled earlier that year, in the previous semester. She immediately kept her phone aside and sported her usual friendly smile, gesturing them to take seats with her. The girls pulled up a few extra chairs from around and gathered all around the table, seating themselves comfortably.

"So, long time! How have you all been? How's university treating you all?", Srishti spoke in her cheerful tone, her anxious thoughts disappearing in the background. That's what teaching and students did to her. Her passion made her forget the worries of the world. It made her happy.

"Good...All good...yeah, good mam", one of the girls stuttered.

Srishti couldn't control the amused smile that grew on her face as she found the girls behaving a little differently. They seemed a little doubtful. Being a teacher, she could easily observe changes in her students. She took a deep breath and asked them, "What's wrong? You guys aren't behaving normal".

When she realised she only got silence as an answer, she knocked on the table to gather their attention. She then raised her eyebrow in question when the girls stared at her, their eyes wide open as if they had seen someone rise from the dead.

Srishti had always been their coolest teacher. Maybe it was because of her age. She was the youngest professor in the college, just a few years older than the final year students and anything unlike those age-old, snoopy professors they otherwise had to face. Srishti would be aware of all the love stories blooming across the campus and still ignore it, giving the students the space and privacy they wanted. She wasn't like Mrs.Kulkarni, their fifty-seven year old computer networks professor. That age explained it all.

"Mam, is it true that you're retiring from your job?", one of the girls meekly questioned.

Srishti giggled as she responded, "Retiring?! Holy cow, do I look that old now?!!" The girls laughed at the horrifying expression their teacher had on her face and instantly nodded their heads in denial, trying to stifle their own giggles.

Srishti smiled inwardly as she saw the girls relax. She understood how uncomfortable it would be to question a teacher something personal. She smiled and continued, "Resigning, not retiring. I am getting married on the 20th and will have to shift to Bangalore after that. So I had to."

She was sure that by now, the entire college had come to know that she was leaving. While the other professors knew that she was getting married, not many students knew. So probably they had their own doubts assuming it to be rumours.

She saw the girls stare at each other for a second and squeal in excitement like a bunch of hormonal teenagers. "They are teenagers", her mind mocked. She instantly shushed them down as their table had started gathering all the attention in the cafeteria. Before she could open her mouth, the girls now all excited, started shooting questions at her.

On the Brink of falling in Love (On Hold)Where stories live. Discover now