The 3G Life

July 1, Sunday, 2018

I hate coaching. For my entire life one thing I can never stand even to hear about is coaching center. And today I stand in front of Mohammed sir's class. I take one last glance at my mother who smiles encouragingly, push open the door and walk in.

No one is present except a guy of my age. The door is still open and my mother stands there. That boy glances back and gives Salaam to my mother. My mother gives the most radiant smile and answers his Salaam. Then he glances forward again.

I take down my bag and place it on the chair beside me. I take a good look at this classmate of mine. He is tall, at least 5"10. He wears a simple T-shirt and Army pants. He wears a cap that hides his hair. (Don't know if he has any hair or not.)

After sometime Mohammed sir enters the classroom. We both give Salaam. He comes straight at me and asks my name. I answer in a mild tone "Amber".

"Full name" – asks Mohammed sir.

"Amber Mustafa."

"An exceptional name. So your father says you are afraid of Mathematics."

"Yeah, I have Math phobia, but I managed well till now."

I glance once at my classmate and I see him smirking and not looking at me. I turn my eyes back towards sir again. He does not say anything else but just asks me to take out my Math copy and turn to the hardest topic I find in Math.

Then he says, "Aadil. How long will it take for you to do so?" I understand that he talks to that boy. So his name is Aadil. It suits him. He has a handsome face that consists of a certain Bengali charm but there is a naughty twinkle in his eyes.

We both do the class in silence and perform our math the best we can. After an hour or so another guy comes inside the class in a hurry. He looks as if he fought a battle before coming here and sits down with a loud thrust.

He is much healthy though not obese. He has a sweet and innocent face. His hair is shortly cropped and he wears simple T-shirt and jeans which fit tightly at places. His bag seems to pass down a cheddar but otherwise he seems okay.

Mohammed sir says in a groaning voice, "Where have you been Hadi?"

"I went jogging sir, then had to take a shower."

"Jogging is more important or math?"

"If I can't remain healthy, what will math do to me?"

"Does anyone else jog here?"

None of us says anything because of course we do not do any type of exercise that is mildly connected to outdoors.

Hadi just gives another smile and sits down bringing out his books and copies. He smiles sweetly at me and says:

"Hello, I am Hadi. Hadi Azam."

"I am Amber, Amber Mustafa."

Then we get back to our lessons. Suddenly Uncle Sahib comes hurriedly into the class and whispers something in Mohammed sir's ear and them both hurries out. I had done at least eighteen problems and already feels my head to be dizzy.

I look at Aadil several times but he never once look at me nor even makes any gesture that proves he notices me. But Hadi and Aadil talks with each other a lot and even laugh at each other's terrific jokes.

Once Hadi looks at me and asks where I live.

"Shahjadpur, just over by the lake."

"You come by walking then?"

"Yeah, good for health, right?"

Hadi laughs a little at this. Aadil looks directly into my eyes and I throw back a challenging look at him. Maybe he tries to make me nervous but it clearly is not going to work. Boys might attract or excite me but they can never make me nervous.

Mohammed sir does not come back. Uncle Sahib comes in with three cups of coffee on a tray. He gives me one but I say I did not order anything. "The payment had already been done," he replies and swiftly goes away before I can ask anything else.

The other two sips down their coffee but I still hesitate.

"The coffee is good here," says Aadil, surprising me.

"But I don't want it."

"Don't worry, no one had put any drug in it."

I am shocked at this but reply in a calm voice,

"I don't think anyone has the courage to."

I smoothly take the paper cup with two fingers and sip down the coffee as stylishly as I can. I can swear that Aadil is impressed by my reply if not by my appearance. Because see, I wear traditional salwaar kameez with a long, old-fashioned style hijab.

The reason I do this is because I feel comfortable if all parts of my body is covered and I follow some religious principles. I do not even wear makeup or a simple perfume, even not a piece of jewelry. I just like being as natural as possible.

The class is over and I walk back home. Maybecoaching will not be so bad. And by the way, the name of the coaching is "3Gcoaching center." And thus the name is "The 3G life." Let's see how my life isspent here.