Broken Strings...

Chapter 7.

      The next morning was one of a kind. I was a complete mess. The nervousness had taken a stronger grip of me. I kept forgetting things, kept things at a place and then curse when I didn't find them, kept flipping through the pages of the declamation and the lyrics of my song. YESH! They had finally agreed to allow me take part in the song competition. The authorities confirmed about this in the night when we were helping ourselves with dinner. The very thought I would get a chance to show my talent was overwhelming. But then a sudden panic struck me when I realized I would me performing without much of a practice. So, I just kept aside my dinner, took the permission of our teacher in charge and took my guitar and went and sat in an isolated corner. I kept beating those guitars strings late into the night till a guy came and took me back to the tent. The night was also one of a kind. Colder than usual, eery than usual. With so much tension for the competition and the ball, I just wanted to resort to those comforting lap of my Ammi.

       Sharp at 8, we were taken to join the girls of our team who had camped at a different site. The events were to be held in different rooms. Soon, Radhika, I and our sir were found striding towards Auditorium 3. Radhika had worn a quite formal red top with a black skinny skirt. Her hair was made into a messy bun. She definitely knew what fashion was and how to steal people's heart. I found myself somehow relaxed.

       "Nervous!?" I asked as we continued walking.

       She let out a deep breath. "Very! Like... I still have the feeling that we are going to win but this stupid nervousness is really irritating."

       "Yeah I know. We will give our best. Let's see what happens then."

       "Yeah. We need to make English mam proud!"

       As we entered the hall, we were greeted by an atmosphere of greater tension. The hall was big enough to accommodate 60 pairs of students. Our college was alloted the number 33. Once we were seated, I noticed that we were exactly on time. The organizing committee must have been very efficient as the event began exactly at 9. As the pairs started to climb the stage and give their best, our hearts started speeding up. I wasn't able to pay attention to the competition going on. The time seemed to pass too quickly and we were asked to report in the back stage while the 32nd pair continued with their speech.

       Radhika seemed to be in a worse state than me. She just didn't stand still... As I heard the people on stage give their concluding lines, I felt Radhika come up and stand very close to me. She held my hand tightly. This sort of made me forget my tension but made my heart race like a horse. We looked at each other and I gave a reassuring smile before we climbed up to the stage.

       The entire 5 minutes of our speech was greeted by somewhat dumbfounded audiences. As we started speaking, silence spread through the room and confidence started building up. I and Radhika took turns in speaking. She was fabulous. By the time we neared the end of our speech, we saw a boy stand up.

       He was wearing a black shirt with denim  jeans. His hair was perfectly oiled, combed in a manner to give him the studious look. He wore black spectacles which completely covered his eyes. He directly threw a tricky question based on our debate in an eloquent accent. As the sudden interruption drew a lot of attention, I felt panic rise up through my feet but then as the answer struck me, I went on to argue. This continued for nearly 3 minutes as the boy kept firing questions. For the whole time, Radhika was standing absolutely silent, just gazing at the boy. Was she that nervous or didn't know what to say? But we had worked on this together.

       I was drawn away from my thoughts by the loud sounding of claps.

                         *****

       "Umm... Sorry. I wasn't able to speak up. I should have just helped you answer those questions back. I am really very sorry." Radhika said once we were back at the back-stage.

       "No. It's okay. Happens sometimes. Still we did pretty well. A hell lot of clapping that was. So cheer up." I said giving her a reassuring smile.

       "Yeah let's hope we win something. I will just go and freshen up a bit."

       "Yeah sure." It was a relief for the first time to see her walk away from me. I was actually worrying how I would go and attend the song competition. I didn't want Radhika to know. What if I perform badly!

       The other competition was scheduled just one hour later. I hurried off to our resting tents to fetch my guitar and then back to the campus, to the main assembly ground. The campus was huge and consumed half of my time. The assembly ground had chairs decorated in the front. The whole ground was full of students, cheering. The stage was decorated beautifully with all sorts of lights. The sound from the boxes raised the hair on my arms. It was the time to finally show some real talent.

       I kept tuning and rummaging those six strings. As the event began, all of the participants were asked to assemble backstage. I felt the anxiety rising again. I took my stuff and lined up along with other students. The rest seemed more confident than me, they might have performed at some point of the time or other. Karan and my Ammi were the only person who knew that I was interested in singing. Performing on stage and in front of so many people was a very big deal for me. Either I will face rotten eggs or rounds of applause.

       The event began and one by one students climbed up the stage and gave their best. I soon noticed that I was the only person who had got an extra instrument to play. Amidst all these curiosity, the anchor announced my name. I took a deep breath, kissed my guitar and went up to the stage. I took a seat in a chair and arranged one microphone such that it faced the guitar sound box. Just when I was about to start, I looked up at the crowd and the first thing I noticed was Radhika standing there in the middle, staring at me with a vivid expression of awe.

       I didn't think it was the right time to think about her or even judge her expression. I closed my eyes and began. I sang the most popular song of the time, "Dil toh Pagala hai" from Shahrukh khan's DDLJ. I finished and opened my eyes. The crowd had completely gone silent for a moment. I soon realized that it was the silence before the thunder of claps and roars broke out. I saw that Radhika had made her way to the front of the crowd and was standing right near the stage. She was clapping like a maniac, her eyes gleaming and trying to speak a lot of things at a time. The hairs on my arms simply reciprocated by standing as high as they can...

A/N:

Hey guys! We are sooooo sorry. It's a veeeeeeery late update. I had my 12th boards and Satyadeep was caught up with his stuff. But I assure you, your ride through this book is going to be filled with thrills. Stay tuned.
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