Us │✔

21│How Does A Moment Last Forever?

Jivika~

"Tujhe patha hai kal hitman ne first innings mai kitne maare? Ek sao chihtthar!"
["Do you how many runs 'hitman' made yesterday in the first innings? One hundred seventy six!"]

Asking who this mad fellow is?

Shreyansh Jha.

Who watches test match these days? Its as old as Charles Babbage's computers and as long as Lavanya's gossips. Sighing, I ran my eyes over the chemical reaction which I had to memorize. Exams were approaching soon. And I have to, I have to  score better in Science.

"What is ek sao chihtthar ?" questioned Kiara.

"Abey firangi! One hundred seventy six."
  ["You foreigner! One hundred seventy six."]

I was not surprised. The girl who could read 'Kerala', the state where she was from, as 'Karela' [bitter-gourd], was definitely capable of anything. Reading the Devanagari script was something which her eyes could not muster. No wonder why she chose Sanskrit as her second language in ninth, she was willing to go to any extent to drop Hindi.

Rushing past us and knocking us down, Shreyansh joined the crowd near the cupboard. The boys were cleaning the cupboard and disposing the waste papers and other materials outside the class. Strange. Very strange.

Hmm. High suspicions decoded. Should I check? I'm the class monitor after all.

Nah ... I feel lazy. But seriously, what are these guys doing?

"Jivika solve this! Please!" whined Maahi, handing out a sheet of mensuration problems. Well, she had already solved it. But the answer was unfortunately, miles away from the correct one. Scribbling over the paper, I solved it in seconds.

I could handle anything except  Social Science. That subject was like a sleeping pill for me.

"Great, you solved it! Now, help me find where  I went wrong!"

Finding where you could've made a calculation mistake, was the toughest job one could ever hand you. And this girl was crazy. Even her answer was crazy. There was a definite mistake, but none of us could spot it. At last, we both gave up.

The bell for the next class rang and I slightly jumped. So early? Are there any changes today?

Mrs. Suganthi Peter walked in. Her peacock blue sari, quite striking. Surprised, I skimmed over our class timetable. It was English period, Rane sir was in school, then how come? As Sachin pushed himself forward to tell her that it wasn't her period, she raised her hand, demanding silence.

"I switched periods with your English sir."

Fishy. Something was very fishy.

The lady who could make a string of excuses any day, on why she did not want to take classes, was willing to take an extra class today. Especially, when it was a half-day, last working day of the month, and incessant rains added to the top. The gloomy weather being a reason why many children took leave today and only around twenty were present.

As she opened up the textbook, the picture became clearer.

"Children, today we are going to start with 'Reproduction'."

Of course. This cunning, shrewd woman. She had to choose the day when Mumbai was flooded with rain, to teach the most awaited chapter of the year. And knowing her, she would finish off with the chapter today itself.