He had just completed his intermediate and his physics
teacher offered him to teach maths in his coaching classes; he accepted happily.
He reached there 15 minutes before time. Peon was cleaning the class. He
introduced himself as Ankit and told him that Gupta Sir had sent him to teach
maths. Peon introduced himself as Bachchoo. Bachchoo was surprised by the lean,
young and shy personality of newly appointed teacher.
Ankit sat on a bench there and started waiting for students
to come. A charming girl, in a light yellow suit, came and sat on the same
bench. She introduced herself as Tanya to Ankit. Ankit reciprocated the
gesture. Bachchoo and Tanya got busy in their nostalgic conversation of
previous year classes. She said, ‘We used to tease Tiwari Sir by hurling chalks
on his back whenever he got stuck in tricky problems. But fun apart, he was a
nice man. He got a good job in Delhi. Gupta Sir was saying that he had
appointed new maths teacher for us’. Bachchoo said, ‘Tanya, don’t you know
Ankit? He is your new maths teacher’. And Tanya turned pale.
Ankit had done introductory discussion for 11th
std. and returned home as no one for 12th std. had come. His dad
wanted to know everything about the classes, the students and other teachers. More
than telling the details his dad was interested in, he narrated Tanya’s chalk
hurling story to everyone in the family. He was mesmerized by the budding
beauty of Tanya. He kept recalling her sweet smiles entire night.
Soon classes started running with multiple batches. Ankit
had established himself as a strict, introvert, young teacher. His grip on the
subject helped him maintain the discipline.
A soft corner for Tanya was getting tough to control for him.
That day when biology teacher didn’t come and Gupta Sir asked him to go and
maintain discipline in his class. He scolded Tanya badly for making noise and
drumming the benches. Tanya broke into tears and that triggered a storm of
feelings for him. Two-three days passed but he couldn’t forget her tears.
Tanya was a sweet intoxication and our studious student
turned strict teacher was having a daily dose of it. First term exams results
were not good for Tanya as a maths student. Her teacher had warned her to
submit an extra project on maths else join biology. She therefore requested
Ankit to give her extra time for the project.
One week, two hours, daily post regular classes: a dose of
maths for Tanya and a dose of sweet-fresh-smiles for Ankit. He, however,
respected the limitations of teacher-student relationship and didn’t share his
feelings with her. The week got finished and so was the project. She asked him
for his time on Sunday as she wanted to be more confident on the project. He agreed
for afternoon.
Ankit, as usual, reached classes 15 minutes before time.
Tanya came in off-white suit; she had little wet hair, straight combed as if
she had just taken shower and come. Afternoon sun had added sweat droplets on
her forehead. Project was already complete and she started talking about her
liking, disliking and hobbies. Ankit was trying to capture the moments. She was
getting friendly. Ahead was a night full of Tanya and her sweat droplets for
him. Entire world was running as usual, it was Ankit only infected with beauty
syndrome.
The other day, she thanked him for her selection in maths
stream. Bio teacher cracked a joke on Ankit and said, ‘Ankit, you have put lots
of efforts and hijacked one of my potential student.’ Ankit smiled.
Few days later, one of his achievements has killed all his sprouted
feelings. All the threads, both tied and untied, broken in a jiffy. He got
selected in All India Engineering Entrance Exam. Dad’s joy was mixed with
pride. On the day of his farewell in the coaching classes everybody
congratulated him; he was not only leaving his family, his city, but a lot more,
perhaps nobody noticed. Tanya was looking prettier than she ever looked. Ankit
lost himself in her deep eyes.
It had been five years - another achievement, proud moments
for dad, time to leave the city, office party to celebrate and similar deep
beautiful-but-sad eyes on the verge of getting blown all the oceans of love,
they are containing for so long. He couldn’t ignore affectionate eyes of Payal and
decided not to refuse the offer of love for anything else. He told his decision
of not going abroad for long term on-site opportunity to his boss and happily
shared the reason and said, ‘Now I can afford being with my love’. Payal was
her colleague; she had studied engineering with him. She had great love and
respect for him.
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