Under The Mango Trees

Chapter Six : In Between Quiz Books And A Labrador

When I was in ninth grade, I was an insufferable child for my peers. My hair used to be drenched in oil that the US would be jealous, my forehead shone like a bald man's head and I wore two stiff plaits like dark cinnamon sticks. My chin snootily held up high, I responded to every question uttered by my teachers. Apart from my obsession with academics and following high scores which consumed my entire being with arrogance, I didn't really remember having a personality.

It all changed when four years ago, Lila barged into my life with dishevelled, loose braids, a mischievous grin and an encyclopedia on how to live.

I was befuddled when our class teacher announced that Lila was selected with me for the quiz competition. The pretty girl who had played x and zero with the entire class instead of paying attention during lectures, but never won a single time. I couldn't see how she would be of any use, but I didn't complain. I saw it as a golden opportunity to haughtily dominate over the competition and dreamt of bringing victory single-handedly.

Lila offered to take me to the centre where the competition was held and while I was revising from the Bournvita quiz books beside her, she carelessly chatted with her driver, Manu. Her zeal irked me because I couldn't concentrate on the questions. Whenever I whipped my head up to throw her a dirty look, her grin broadened, rendering me speechless.

Lila and I had been in the same class since fifth grade, but oddly enough, our paths never crossed like two parallel lines. But hers turned out to be a bit wonky and finally intersected with my rigidly straight one, bending and twisting my own in multiple ways. All these years while our classmates worshipped her, I scorned at her, thinking she was too vain. Here we were, in the same car, different journeys towards one destination.

She tried speaking to me, lightly tapping my upright shoulders and pointing out of the window at anything tiny that seemed to amuse her. With my brows knotted in irritation, I used to look up from my books, to find a dog's head stuck out of the window of some car. I had to suppress my smile and not give into the popular opinion of liking her, like all my classmates did. Lila was the cool girl, the first one to listen to English songs and genuinely like them in our batch while the rest of us pretended to like them and sang all wrong lyrics. When we finally understood the songs of Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, those artists ceased to be "cool." It was a constant rat race among us with Lila already being in the finish line.

The first two rounds of the quiz competition was a big blur, I was as thrilled as Lila had been and I successfully answered several questions. Lila was content in clapping beside me and tingles shot like firecrackers in my body every time I scored a point more than the rival team. The last round was the buzzer round and the deciding factor which added immense pressure. The rival team was quicker in pressing the buzzer and they got the first few questions right, causing me to sweat profusely.

The scores came to be equal with only one question to go and the pressure heightened, making me feel like a tense cricketer in the ultimate India vs Pakistan world cup. When the question was read aloud, I could feel the queasiness in my stomach intensify.