A Thousand Encounters

Chapter-62

Lying on his stomach, Manik loaded his MG 2A1 and waited for commander's instruction. Bullet hit the bulls-eye and Manik readied himself for another shot. Precision was consistent as he kept shooting. Training at academy had turned rigorous. Draconian drills had hardly left him any time for life beyond service. He duly understood what this service demanded from him and he was willing to give it all. 

Class ended soon and Major General Gill applauded Manik before leaving the shooting range. Manik waited for Harshad who came wiping his face with towel. 

"It's getting serious, man," Harshad mumbled and Manik patted his back. Smiling to himself, he noticed dark clouds in the sky who had turned afternoon in late evening already. 

"It's gonna rain," He murmured and smiled. 

It'd been almost two months since things had found some stability.  Manik had thanked heavens for taking the drama away from their lives. Nandini had settled well in their new home and apparently had been very busy with her final year exams. It was another week till she would be busy giving papers. Their Sundays had turned into 'he all worried about her exams and she all busy in troubling him'. Nandini Murthy and books weren't best of friends. Manik shook his head with subtle smile remembering how tough it had been for him to make her study on Sundays. Her mind was like this boundless reverie which kept wandering from one silly thing to another. He couldn't even think of things her mind kept producing. 

Their relation had found a ground, it was safe to say. A ground where she preferred to step on his boots and felt like reaching the sky. 

Six Sundays together, and he could say he had known her better. Though it was hard to get her talk. She hardly talked about things which bothered her and kept on talking about all irrelevant things. She didn't share, he had started to feel sad about the blatant truth. He wasn't blind to see how it was getting too much for her to be all alone. He couldn't be with her all the time and when he was with her, she found it unimportant to tell him how her week was, how she was not getting enough sleep, How things at college were tough, how she didn't get time to study because she had no strength left after her part-time job. Manik wanted her to share her loads with him whereas she only sought his warmth when they were together. There were two different worlds, weren't they? Manik smiled softly. 

Manik entered the dorm and found his friends busy gossiping about something. He found it as good distraction. He didn't want to overthink knowing that Nandini was like this, like an empty book where you had to cast some spell for words to appear. 

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Nandini counted the pages which were still unfilled in her answer sheet. Cursing the examination system, she tried to write more. She didn't know how to fill that thick answer sheet. She had already written down everything relevant, she didn't understand why inking that entire booklet was so important to get marks. She looked around at other students who were busy writing their papers as if it was the only way world could be saved. There were still 20 minutes left and 5 pages to fill. She felt like filling the rest of pages writing about her soldier. She nibbled the pen in her hand as she decided to spend these 20 minutes thinking about that taut creature who had managed to be only thing on her mind. 

Manik was nothing less than a new mommy, Nandini rolled her eyes as her thoughts gathered at that one amusing man. It would be a lie if she said how she didn't hate him for scolding her like a professor for focusing on her studies. It wasn't her fault that he had topped the CDSE and knew only one way of studying, like a nerd. There were people like her too who just studied enough to get average marks and save themselves from two extreme ends. Bell went off and invigilator started to collect the sheets. Sneha Agarwal, the topper, literally had a tug of war with Invigilator to write that last line as if without it, she wasn't getting 90 percent marks. Nandini shook her head and laughed.