Anyone Else But You... (7 page)

“
What is that supposed to mean?”
Rishav asked.

“See, we have a lot of groups in our school. There’s the
‘G
eek
and Nerd G
roup
’
. These people are the ones who are in science a
nd computers both. We have the ‘Council G
roup
’
. These are th
e ones who aspire to be in the Council of this school, o
ver achiever
s, basically. Then we have the ‘Gossip G
roup
’
. You know, what th
at group contains. We have the ‘Freak G
roup
’
. This is where the non-academic and non-anything people are. And we have the
‘Middle G
roup
’
. These interact with the gossip, a little bit of geek group, and with the council. So which one do you wanna be in?”

“Let me think. Which one do you belong to?”
Rishav asked.

“None,
”
Sahana replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Huh? How is that possible?”
Rishav inquired.

“Why would it not be? See,
accordin
g
to me I don’t fit in anywhere
. I have friends. I don’t care of
whatever group they belong to. It’s a stupid concept. Although, it’s not like all these groups don’t talk to each other. They do. But they just
don’t hang out with each other,
”
Sahana explained.

“Wow. I didn’t know that,
”
Rishav said.

“Why? Weren’t there any cliques in
y
our school?”
Sahana asked.

“There were, b
ut not so
much. Or maybe I didn’t notice,
”
Rishav replied, trying to remember what it was like in his previous school.

“I think this all started with watching those movies like
Mean Girls
or whatever. Some were so influenced by it that they also wanted something like that. And they di
d. But now, it’s not that much, b
ecause all
such people
have gone.”

“Good for us,
”
Rishav smiled.

“
Yep!
Good for us
,
”
Sahana replied.

The teacher came and Sahana went back to her seat.

SIX

The tube lights of the conference room flickered to life. Next was the AC which started efficient cooling within moments of it being turned on. A beautifully decorated flower vase adorned the centre of the 50 seater conference table. The chairs smelt of
polish and
the
room of vanilla. Just about then, the doors to the room creaked open and Madhuri and
Kalsi
walked in.

Kalsi
seemed sluggish in her walk. Her eyes reflected a kind of soreness that could have only been visible due to lack of sleep. Madhuri on the other hand displayed anxiousness. She was nervy and tense. They took two seats closest to the door.

“When will the staff arrive?” Madhuri asked adjusting her spectacles.

Kalsi
stared back at her as though a highly insulting question had been asked, “I presume we discussed it yesterday itself Madhuri.”

“Oh yes, yes, I remember now.” Madhuri recollected the timing in her head. “Do you have good news for me?” Madhuri knew that it was hardly plausible to ask
Kalsi
this question when the entire staff would
be present
. Hence, it seemed ideal to pop in the question now and let
Kalsi
have a feeler of things to come. Knowing
Kalsi
’s habit of keeping things close to her chest, deep within Madhuri existed a feeling that she would
not really get the answer she wa
s looking for.

“You need to understand Madhuri…”
Kalsi
started off with her squeaky and incomprehensive tone. “There are a lot of things one needs to take into consideration while appointing someone the post of the Principal. It is not really entirely in my hands you see…”
Kalsi
paused to notice the change in expression on Madhuri’s face.
Kalsi
had to be
clever;
she had to camouflage her autocratic tend
encies with clear cut diplomacy. And it was as difficult as asking Hitler to let his daughter marry a Jew.

“But
Bindu
dear, I think you are the supreme authority there at Greater
Delhi High School
. Isn’t the Director supposed to call the shots?” Madhuri tried to prod
Kalsi
’s tremendous ego by reminding her of the powers she possessed as the Director of Greater
Delhi High School
which was located around twenty kilometers away. Madhuri thought that all
Kalsi
wanted was a reminder of her endless power and by boosting her ego, Madhuri would stand a chance of getting her work done.

“It is not an autocratic setup. Running a school isn’t autocracy,”
Kalsi
’s left eye twitched while saying this. “I have weighed my options very carefully and in the end I have arrived at the right decision and I hope I’ll be having your support on this Madhuri,” she gazed at Madhuri expecting some kind of an affirmative reply. She waited for a silent assurance that Madhuri would accept any decision taken in the right spirit.

That assurance never came. Instead the door treated them to some loud knocking and an instant later, a head popped in
,
followed by the entire body. It was Veenu. “The staff is here,” she announced.

Kalsi
took in a deep breath of air, “Ask them in.” She slightly adjusted her sari and then placing her hands on the table, propped up her heavy head with an evident look of reluctance.

Madhuri looked on apprehensively as the seats went on filling in one by one.

*

Heavy footsteps in the form of His Highness
Jai
Chauhan
made its way across the 1
^st
floor corridors of
Delhi High School
. A constant growling noise under his breath and a chimp’s spine accompanied him as he walked past the innumerable students filling the corridors during the change of a period. The occasional - ‘Sup bitch?’ was followed by a hand shake or a back slap when he met a familiar face. In case it was a girl, the general mode of interaction would be to call out the name of a girl in different tones and voices. Otherwise, the royalty didn’t really bother to look around for
attention;
he
had
got
enough of
it from the moment he was born.  It was a matter of concern that so many, in
fact most students looked upon
Jai as a role model. And Jai in his
jainess
never cared a fuck about them.
Chutiya hai sab
, he would say and walk ahead in his arrogant strut.

Jai bumped into his good friend Hardik
,
on his way to class, “Fuck man! Where’re you going?”

“Nowhere man, going to Madhuri’s office. I got late today,” Hardik made a puppy dog face.

Jai started laughing on hearing this, he even backslapped Hardik, “You will never change will you dog? Tell me once in four years, when
you’ve
come on time?”

Unkempt hair, spectacles hanging on his nose and unshaved, Hardik searched for an answer but couldn’t really come up with one convincing enough.

The year before, the school began at 7.30, Hardik woke up at 7.45. Soon, due to excessive heat during summers, the timings changed to
6.45 and Hardik woke up at 7.15. Then came winters, the school got delayed by an hour and a half to around 9. Even then, Hardik reached school a good twenty minutes late. In the last four years or so, it’s been seldom that someone’s
not
seen Hardik running into school late on time with disheveled hair and a constipated look on his face. Meena Singhal had got so tired of seeing Hardik’s face every day that she soon shifted the responsibility of late comers to Veenu and Veenu after a month of dealing Hardik asked Madhuri to take over. By far this would be Hardik’s sixth visit to Madhuri this month, if he managed to reach her office on time in the first place.

“Dude, you think Madhuri will scold me?” Hardik asked.

“Do you think that’s even worth
an
ask? Of course she will, not unless she gets replaced,” Jai replied.

“Replaced? Why man? Now why will she be replaced?”

Jai shook his head, “Look at this, this way. Every time you’ve been coming late continuously for a fortnight, at the end of it the person looking after the late-comers has either been shifted from duty or has voluntarily asked to be replaced. And I bet Madhuri has had enough of you.” He chuckled.

“Not sure dude.
Tu chalega?
” Hardik asked unsure. “Man, you’ll be the Head
Boy;
I’m sure she’ll take your side and not take my case.
Chal na?
”

Jai contemplated the outcome of his actions. After deliberating, he realized that it would only help him earn his reputation of being a real students’ representative in front of Madhuri and decided to tag along with Hardik.

As they made their way across towards Madhuri’s office on the ground floor, they could see teachers coming out of the Conference room in flocks. “Some kind of meeting must be on,” Jai said in a serious tone.

“Yes dude?”

“Yeah,” Jai replied in affirmative. “Let’s see if someone’s there with Madhuri or not.”

As they went closer to Madhuri’s office they could hear her talking loudly on the phone. They went closer and peeped in through the small glass panel on her door. She was talking on the phone and nervously pacing her room.

She kept on repeating the word, “Unacceptable.”