The afternoon lectures scheduled for Thursday were Microbiology and Community Medicine.
“Aparna who is teaching microbiology today? Dr. Gopal?”
My planner says Dr. Gopal. But sometimes before holidays there is a change of Schedules. Usually the lecturer would let the students know during the lesson and in my case I had missed Dr. Gopal’s lectures.( Not voluntarily!)
“Yep. It is Dr. Gopal”
Oh! That is good news!
I had to find Arjun.
I rushed to the canteen and send the canteen boy to find Arjun.
Arjun came a short while later
“What’s up?”
He looked worried.
“Dr. Gopal is teaching Micro today”
“So?” Arjun was looking at me as though I was going to get him in to some major trouble. I thought of smacking his head and tell him to trust me!
“He is going to throw me out right? The lecture after that is Community medicine”
I looked at Arjun hoping he would get the drift.
“So?”
“So, if we skip Community lecture, then we can leave early!”
I wanted to go home early so I can tidy up the place before her highness Anitha comes for a visit.
“Oh yeah” Arjun finally got the message.
“Are you going to attend Dr. Gopal’s class?”
“Yeah. It will only take 10 minutes max.”
“Ok, I will meet you at the bus stop”
“Sure. Bye”
I rushed back to the hostel to pack my bag. I had to hide my bag somewhere near the lecture hall, so as soon as Dr. Gopal asks me to ‘Get out’ I can take the bag and leave. It will save me a trip all the way to the hostel.
I hid my bag under the table in Room 301.
Normally I have a folder with paper to pretend that I am a studious student and write down every single word the lecturer speak. I didn’t even bother to take my folder with me. Why should I struggle when the whole episode of attending a lecture lasts less than 10 minutes?
By the time I came down from the 3rd floor, Dr. Gopal was already in the class. Anitha was sitting in my favourite spot. I knew my classmate girls would have felt offended if I sat with any of them. So I walked up to the top of the Gallery and found a place next to the North Indian gang.
“Bhabi, going home?” Rupesh whispered quietly
“Yeah. Arjun is waiting near the bus stop”
Dr Gopal started to take the attendance and when it came to Arjun’s number I saw Rupesh getting up and saying
“Present sir”.
He sat down, looked at me and winked.
That probably was the moment I envied Arjun the most. I have always envied him for having a loving family, a nice mother and father who never fought, wonderful sisters who loved him for who he is. But that was nothing. To have a friend who was willing to risk suspension for giving proxy attendance was nothing but a blessing. Arjun had it all. He had everything I dreamed of.
When it came to my turn, I got up and said
“Yes sir” and sat down.
I checked my watch. 5 minutes after 2.
‘Hurry up’ I tried to will Dr. Gopal
“So where were we last time?” Dr. Gopal asked.
I thought he said Nina Thomas get out. I was almost getting up to leave when I saw Dr. Gopal standing next to Anitha and asking her something. Then Dr. Gopal took Anitha’s notes from the desk and was going through it.
“What is this I say” He was screaming.
“Get out, get out of my class”
Nobody knew what was going on.
“I am sorry sir” Anitha pleaded
Dr. Gopal threw her books on the ground and shrieked
“Get out of my class this instant”
I watched Anitha bending down to pick up her books from the floor. She turned around and looked at Dr. Gopal
“I am so sorry sir”
“OUT” Dr. Gopal pointed to the door.
Anitha walked out of the class with her head held so low, I felt sorry for her. I knew how terrible she must have been feeling. I had been in her shoes so many times.
“Let us learn about Clostridium”
“Eh?” I looked at Rupesh. He too was looking at me.
“What is going on?” I whispered
Rupesh shrugged his shoulder. He was as confused as me.
Perhaps Dr. Gopal had forgotten about me.
I sat up straight hoping he would notice me. He didn’t.
“Pass me a paper will ya?” I asked Rupesh. I didn’t want to get in to trouble for not taking lecture notes. When dr. Gopal turned to write on the board, Rupesh passed a paper to me.
“Pen?” I asked again
Rupesh shook his head disbelievingly. How often do you find a student attending a class without a pen or paper.
“No pen. eosin would do?”
“yeah”
He passed me his Eosin pencil and I started to write down the notes.
Little while later Rupesh pointed to the window and I saw Arjun standing near the bike park. He looked pretty restless.
I shook my head sadly.There was nothing else I could do. ( And I wanted Arjun to trust me!)
I will at least bunk community medicine. so he only have to wait an hour. I consoled myself.
As soon as Dr. Gopal left I ran down the steps.
There was a furore in the class because everyone wanted to know why Anitha got in to trouble. A part of me wanted to leave before the CM lecturer arrived. But curiosity got the better of me.
Anitha walked in with tear stained face. Her eyes looked so red.
“Oh Anitha don’t cry” Aparna got up and hugged her.
Soon everyone was busy consoling Anitha. In between all that I heard why Dr. Gopal got angry with her
Anitha had a tabular column in her folder showing how many times Dr. Gopal said the word through.
“How dare he throw me out. I didn’t do anything wrong. He was the one who used the word ‘through’ all the time, so why is he getting angry with me?”Anitha sounded so angry.
“True, it was such a small issue. He didn’t have to throw you out for that” I heard Aparna speak.
I walked out of the class quietly.
I knew life was never fair. In my case I didn’teven deserve a life, let alone worry about fairness.
How else can you explain the unfairness in all these.
Why no one ever consoled me when I got thrown out of the class. Why no one ever saw that I didn’t do anything wrong?
Why?
Why?