Tewari & Sons, 23, Chandni Chowk

Notes from the Past: Part 3

December 2002, Gupta Mithai, 1209 Gali Bhojpura, Chandni Chowk, New Delhi

Ever since Khushi started going to New Horizons school, she had turned into a Hindu God. No, it was not that she gained a bunch of adoring followers, just that the masses had a thousand and one names for her.

Of course, names were not new to her. The very first name that was given to her came from Baba when he started calling her Champion, a name given to her when at the age of six, she outran Shyam Bhaiya who was on a cycle to give him his tiffin dabba that he had left behind at home. This is how Baba became the first person to realise that Khushi could run faster than most children her age. One morning rather purposefully Baba had picked up Khushi when Ma was combing her hair, made her sit behind on a bike he had borrowed from Pandey Kaka and taken her to the nearby Madina playground and made Khushi run. And she ran. Tez, aur tez, Baba had egged her on. Though Baba had a wristwatch that was not particularly sophisticated, even he could tell that his daughter had a special athletic talent, something that he was both proud of and constantly encouraged her to pursue. However, this remained a bone of contention between Baba and Maa, who felt that "bachein toh kuch dhang ka karein" And yet, each time Khushi didn't do well in a race, it was Maa who used to be be upset for days.

Another name given to her was Ziddi Ped, this was courtesy Madhumati Bua, for what she felt was an unreasonably stubborn streak found in her niece. This was not altogether wrong, Khushi knew well enough to hold on her ground when the situation arose. Even if the opposition came in the form of the fierce Madhumati Dubey. Especially if Madhumati Dubey were the opposition.

But in the eighteen months that she had now been at New-Ons she had been given eighteen names. Baig Sir insisted on calling her Gupta. Gupta! He would say in his most strong, military commander voice, which immediately made Khushi nervous. Being referred to as Gupta somehow made her feel that she was responsible for more than just one person. It was as if she was representing every Gupta out there. Aakash christened her Shakuntala Devi, after the genius mathematician because of her ability to be able to deal with complex numbers in her head. After a while, because Shakuntala Devi was a mouthful, she just became Devi, a name that caught on among the New-On-Ites. There were other names too. Divyesh used to call her Headlight Walli Deer because of her constant stunned expression in her early days at New-Ons. Karthik called her Chandni, a name that she quite liked for herself. Payal upgraded her from behenji to mataji. Perhaps it was not an upgrade, Khushi was not too sure for the reason behind this. She was also called Gharelu Nuske, Halwai, Jalebi Bai, PT Usha, among others.

However, the most annoying name that was given to her was courtesy Aman Sabharwal, her desk neighbour and nemesis. The offending name was Dhanno, the famous horse who was the custodian of Basanti's izzat in the cult classic film Sholay. Because Khushi was an athlete, who ran, just like Dhanno, in Aman's book, that was a brilliant name. Sometimes when Khushi would be on the playground running, Aman would show up and cheer her on, Bhaag Dhanno, ab New-Ons ki izzat tumhaare haaton mein hain. It was probably harmless, yet it annoyed Khushi. Aakash, the person she turned to for advice on how to handle her run-ins with various New-On-Ites gave her the same advice each time, if you ignore them, they will go away. And that is what Khushi did. Or at least tried to.

**

When in the start of school year, the teachers had done the grand reshuffling of Class X D, Khushi had been horrified to discover that she would need to sit next to Aman Sabharwal, Chairman of the New-Ons brat pack. Veena told her that the reshuffling happened after a meeting that involved all the teachers and they took care to spread the thirty six students in the class appropriately. It was not some freak statistical probability that had got her and Aman together, but because someone had designed for this to happen.