Tewari & Sons, 23, Chandni Chowk

Notes from the Past: Part 4

August 2005, Bimal Patnaik Library, Alchemy College, University of Delhi, North Campus

Her first semester was about to end and so far her internal assessment was not even a little bit impressive. Khushi was worried as she made the sixth attempt that month to borrow a book on Differential Equations by SL Ross. The Bimal Patnaik Library, thus named after a leading intellectual and one of the first pupils of Alchemy College when it ran out of a small house in Chandni Chowk was believed to be one of the best stocked libraries. In fact, the almost hundred-year-old library was considered one of the very best in the country, causing for it to be open to the general public for half a day on every Saturday. And yet, this well-stocked library only had one copy of a book, which was but the bible for every mathematics and physics student. She had made so many trips to the library in the last two months for that book, that in this college of over two thousand students, all the library assistants now recognised Khushi and knew her name.

Her everyday pilgrimage to the library finally paid off. And last week the librarian assistant had placed an order for another copy of the book and had promised Khushi that she would have the honour of being the first student to have it issued to. The assistant a middle-aged man who went by the name Harsh Narain had taken a liking for Khushi ever since he heard about her having her roots in Kakori, a town near Lucknow, where he too was from. Of course Khushi herself had been born and raised in Chandni Chowk, but she had reached a level of frustration that she was willing to use any connection no matter how tenuous.

So armed with the elusive book, Khushi sat at the corner table of the massive library and plodded through her assignment. As she sat along with other students, some of them serious, some of them chattering, she realised that not one of them knew who she was. If in New-Ons she stuck out like a sore thumb, in Alchemy College, she was the opposite. She was almost invisible. It was one of the biggest colleges in Delhi University which offered undergraduate and post-graduate courses in almost every subject. She was not the brightest in her class. Nor was she the most attractive. Or have some phenomenal extracurricular talent. Or have strong political opinions. She was just an ordinary first year student. And for this Khushi was grateful. After her somewhat torrid time in New-Ons, this was needed. She was fortunate that not too many from New-Ons opted for Alchemy. The only people whom she knew who were in this college were Veena and of course Arnav Raizada. Veena and she ran into each other sometimes, but they exchanged pleasantries and moved on. Thankfully she did not run into Arnav Singh Raizada at all. Except for one time.

The very first day of college, during their orientation she had seen him. It was strange to see him in casual clothes and not the New-Ons uniform. He seemed more intimidating in that moment. Like suddenly there was nothing at all in common between them. Whatever little inclination that Khushi had to go over and say hello to her former classmate died in that moment. Perhaps this weird complex was only inside her head. But unfortunately, it was and there was nothing that she could do to shake it off. So when Veena, who was sitting next to Arnav waved at Khushi and pointed to the seat next to her asking her to sit with them, Khushi declined and instead chose to sit on the first available spot. Throughout the orientation she barely paid attention to whatever it was that the Principal said and felt petty and small. After the orientation she walked up to where Veena and Arnav were to say hello, as a peace offering. Just as Khushi reached the spot, Arnav gave Veena a half-hug and said, "Veens, I will see you around.". And he was gone. In the two and a half months since then, not once had she spotted Arnav.

"Hey, Khushi."

A startled Khushi looked up to see that the object of her thoughts had walked up to her desk in the library and was subjecting her to that all too familiar stare of his.

"What is it," she whispered, partly because they were in a library and partly because her voice failed her.

"You have taken the Ross book, I wanted to know when you will return it. Been trying to borrow it for the last couple on months," Arnav said, looking thoughtfully at Khushi's work-in-progress assignment that she had done pitiful little of. Defensively Khushi turned the pages of her notebook at this scrutiny. Arnav seemed to realise this and took his eyes off her work and stared at the giant photograph that was behind Khushi, evidently of Mr Bimal Patnaik, but Khushi had never paid too much attention to it. Khushi had to admit that in the last few months she had thought about Arnav and contemplated about what their conversation would be about should they run into each other. But of all the things that she expected Arnav to say, that was one thing she did not expect him to.