Tewari & Sons, 23, Chandni Chowk

Notes from the Past: Part 2

March 2002, Siri Fort Sports Complex, New Delhi

Khushi looked around for Lavanya, but she was nowhere to be seen. She had been away for just ten minutes, leaving behind a sobbing Lavanya to go and collect her medals. And now she was gone. They were at the North Zone Track and Field Trials all day. Athletes from all across the North Indian states and union territories were competing. The top three in each event were of course awarded medals, but the top six would qualify for the National Meet that was to take place in August in Hyderabad. All of them had been training for the last ten months towards securing a spot in this event. Khushi qualified in the 100m and 400m races, securing the third spot in both events. She also qualified in the triathlon by a last second spurt that saw her finish on the sixth spot, edging past Lavanya. This effectively sealed Lavanya's fate and she would not be able to compete on any of the events at the Nationals. Of course, Lavanya was disappointed. Anyone would be. But Khushi had not expected Lavanya to burst into tears, sob noisily, her body shaking and her heart breaking.

"It is okay, Lavanya," she rubbed her back hoping to calm her down, "It is okay. There will be other chances."

But Lavanya was inconsolable. Being an athlete, you are prepared for your share of disappointments and Khushi had always assumed that Lavanya, who had a wonderfully equanimous sort of temperament would not be the one to feel so much dejection. But then, in the last ten months that she had known Lavanya, she had never lost. It is easy to be composed when you are only winning.

"Go away, what do you know," Lavanya said, pushing Khushi away from her, "The poor girl from Chandni Chowk whom the coach loves and who gets all the support from everyone all the time."

Khushi had been taken aback. She had never seen a hostile Lavanya until now. In the privileged world of New-Ons, where she was a firm misfit, it was Lavanya who embraced her as is. To everyone else in New-Ons she was many things: the girl who spoke English with a Hindi accent, who got tiffin in a stainless dabba, whose parents were a halwai, who lived in Chandni Chowk, who was the first in her family who would be completing school. Ma had dropped out of school after Class VIII and Baba after Class X.Shyam, her older brother had completed school, but since he remained untraceable, it was assumed, he was no longer a Gupta. To most New-On-Ite Khushi was either a behenji, mataji, weird girl, funny girl, some-kind-of-prefix girl.

Lavanya was the only one who had accepted Khushi as she was, her classmate, fellow athlete and the girl who was better at maths than her. Lavanya's friends became her friends, or at any rate were friendly enough to her. There was Karthik, who was the goofball of their batch. Khushi liked him because while he made fun of everyone, it was never hurtful. Because Khushi was from Chandni Chowk, he christened her Chandni and every morning he would greet her singing, Chandni, O Meri Chandni. Then there was Veena, who was a rather stern and fierce sort of girl, but good at heart. According to Lavanya, Veena and Karthik would marry someday because there was obvious chemistry there. Khushi did not see it, but she trusted Lavanya's judgement. And finally there was her favourite, Aakash. Khushi felt that among all the students of New-Ons, if there was one person with whom she had a relationship of equals, it was Aakash. They had a shared love for maths, and this became a source of kinship even while them being fiercely competitive with each other about it. But the main reason why Khushi liked Aakash was because he was the only one who would eat from her dabba during lunch. To Khushi that was the most intimate bonding between friends, someone who was willing and happy to break bread with you. Of course inspite of their connection, Aakash Mallik's background was very different from that of Khushi. Both his parents were senior bureaucrats and though many of their classmates's parents probably made more money than his parents did, but being a Babu's son, fetched you enormous respect in the New-Ons circle. Even Payal, who was disdainful of everyone and everything, showed mild reverence towards Aakash. Basically everyone was indoctrinated at a young age that in the entitlement pyramid, a bureaucrat trumped most other professions. Except for Shantanu Yadav, whose father was a politician and held a ministerial berth in the government then. He came to school in his laal batti walli gaadi and had the privilege of getting dropped off at the school entrance arch. Even their school principal was required to park her car near the main gate and walk for half a kilometre towards the arch. But the truth was, none of these people would have bothered with Khushi had it not been for Lavanya, she was the enabler, the first to get Khushi into fold.