Coloured Me Grey (Book Two)

Chapter 35

I didn't expect this chapter to be so long, I swear.

***

The first thing Zara said upon returning home was that she saw pictures of naked men.

I considered myself lucky since it was her mother who had opened the door. She immediately caught on to my cautious glances, and took it upon herself to warn my sister off such remarks around our father. I took a quick shower, changed my clothes, combed my hair and left the house once again.

Baba never showed up in all that time. I didn't care as long as he stayed out of my way. I'd been successfully avoiding him since that day and I don't regret it. Needless to say, there had been a lot of quiet around me for the little time I spent at home and I got used to it.

For once, I was at peace for the longest time since I lost my mother.

I returned to the campus as fast as I could.

People were still checking the last minute light and sound adjustments. The center stage in the field was flooded with lights. Local bands were going to share the same stage with big names in the industry tonight. But before that, there would be two battles – JAMs each for music and dance.

The field was empty, save for the few odd students and staff volunteers helping around by picking up the litter and cleaning the field as much as they could before the upcoming onslaught of the evening crowd. I put on the cleaning gloves as Maity Sir waved me over to where our year was working, and handed me two huge plastic bags filled with garbage to dump in the vat.

"We have to do this again tonight after the programme ends," one of Yash's friends complained loudly. "What's the point of cleaning now?"

"It's your ass that's going to sit here for the next few hours," Pramila Ma'am croaked. "If you're comfortable with sitting in a patch of garbage, then select one at the farthest corners of the field so that you don't contaminate others with your unhygienic self. Plus," she picked up another handful of newspapers and plastic wrappers smeared with a squashed banana peel, "Your old professors are helping you out. The least you can do is not complain and be grateful."

"Who are you calling old, you snotty little brat?" Maity Sir grunted.

She did not even bother to look at him and continued lecturing the student, "Your old professors, who are still very spirited for their age."

The classrooms and studios had been opened up to visiting students for the time being, so that while we cleaned the field, Chacha Ji and the other security guards could check their IDs and finally let them in.

And then you could go out of the campus, get your booze and pack of cigarettes and come back inside by flashing your ID at the gate, nobody would bat an eyelid. This whole system was weird, they only wanted to weed out the parents and underaged people but not exactly stop students from getting high.

The student body couldn't be happier about it. They made the most of it. Not that I was complaining either.

Pramila Ma'am turned to us and said, "I'll not stop you from enjoying this evening however the hell you'd want to. But at the same time, I need my class to observe what is going on around you. The exhibitions put up by other classes were meant to be viewed during the day, but our installations can be viewed in the night too. I want you all, irrespective of your years, to write an essay on how different your reaction is as a viewer seeing this installations in daytime and in nighttime. We do this exercise every year. Submit your essays by the end of this week."

***

The audience lounged around on the dry grassy field, watching the performances flit by, laughing and fooling around. Occasional commotions could be heard from the farthest corners but they'd soon die out as somebody or the other broke up the fight. The food stalls set up around the perimeter of the grounds were buzzing with young adults looking for quick, savoury snacks.