Serah ( Part I )

He looked back at the man staring at him. Wrinkles sought refuge on his face, like they yearned to be there. He crinkled his eyes, ran his hair through his receding hairline, and winked back at the reflection in the mirror. Not bad, he thought aloud. Rajan Pillai tugged at the collar of his crisp white linen shirt and flattened invisible creases on his broad shoulder.

The wind blew in the ruffled curtains and covered his face. He sighed and looked back at the direction of the wind, and relished in the memory it bought him. A distant laughter filled his ears. He admonished the wind, and his eyes fell on a collage of pictures that adorned his wall. Serah, he whispered.

******

‘Why is it that love always eludes me, I’m loosing out on myself, you know Raja, I feel like i'm going down’

2 weeks later

‘helllooooo Rajjaaaaa, eeeee, IMA in looouuuveee’, she rambled over the phone.

Oh I almost forgot to introduce her. Trust me after knowing her, you would be wishing that you didn’t know her. I’m serious. Look at me! Alright so let me get to it. I know Serah since she was 20 years old. Oh she is 36 now, oh and I’m Rajan her best friend. But this is not about me. This story is purely about Serah. My Serah.

It must have been Summer, my memory fails me about the season, but why I think its summer is because of Serah again. Ok I am hopelessly in love with her, but who wouldn’t be! I still remember the time I saw her. She was wearing a cut out ripped denim, and an equally cut out white sleeveless t-shirt. Well the t-shirt was more or less something small enough to cover her assets; well you get the point right?? No and i’m not a conservative hypocrite, who secretly leched at her, I just found the outfit a tad too small.

Image courtesy : Dirty Hair Halo

Anyways, so here I was finishing my essay that was to be submitted for my honors programme for Ancient Indian Culture. Ok stop judging me already, and yes I was an average looking guy, only because I failed to pay much attention on my appearance and more on academics. So here I was minding my own business when she struts in (literally), and places an order for a Pepsi. Her eyes sweep over me, and remained fixed on a group of guys playing basketball. Curiosity got the better of me, and I followed her eyes, and well who could it have been - Rishabh or rohit, oh some ‘Dude’ of the college. Now rumor mills suggested that Serah and so called Mr. R. were dating since they were 16 years old, and recently broke up. I didn’t know the reasons.

So buzz was it that he had already started dating someone else, and she was the one who was alone, and as quoted by some girls ‘Heart broken’. So while I was watching this scene unfold in front of me, and also witnessing the ever changing emotions and expressions that waltzed away on Serah’s Face. I could feel my pants getting wet. No this isn’t some kind of Pervert reaction to her presence, but madam, was absentmindedly pouring the contents of her drink into an already overfilled glass, which was falling on me and on my 3 weeks of hard work.

‘Shit, what are you doing…?’ I screamed, and tried to save my thesis.

‘Oh no…i'm... ummm  what the hell are you doing staring at me, you.. you  Pervert!!!’ she screamed back, ‘Take this’, she flung the remaining in my face and walked off, and left me to deal with public embarrassment.

Yes, that is how we first met!! . I cursed her, and even wished that the earth would swallow her and not even burp. That was how much I hated her, as I failed to land my desired Honors seat, and was forced to get an alternate English Literature Honors instead. And lo behold who did I have sitting right next to me – why the mistress of misery herself!!!

She showed no remorse over her deeds last week, what I meant it she did not bother to apologize.In a way i was enjoying my Eng lit Honors programme, as that is where I decided on my vocation. Yes I knew I wanted to be a writer.

Did we talk??? No ways, I hated her as she had the answers to every damn question in class. She was one step ahead of me in every aspect, academically of course. So how did we become friends?? Well, now you guys do know how much I despised her, don’t you, no no there wasn’t any secret love brewing for her either.

Two months into the honors programme and we already had our big group assignment. We had to script, and enact a story, and the best group would get a chance to do the same at an inter - collegiate competition. She wasn’t in my group now. There were 18 groups in all, and I wanted to be among the best, and especially since I had already decided on writing as a vocation, I decided to check my writing skills.

3 weeks later we were ready to put our best forward with our play. The best thing about being in college is that you tend to know what the other group is doing, no mater how secretive they try to be. So buzz was it that 4 groups had excellent storylines, and well needless to say my group was one of them, and well so was hers.

We were the eleventh group to perform, and well we were a bit anxious as watching 10 groups perform before us does definitely tire the audience. Serah’s group would be performing 16^th , and this time I was happy to have been way ahead of her.

When my group was done, there was no applause for 5 seconds, those 5 seconds had my heart beating so fast that I felt it was ready to burst out of my body and lay punctured on the floor. I put my best face and went with my group on stage to bow before the audience, no sooner did we come on stage than a loud noise erupted in the hall. I feared the worst, of bullets being fired on us for our performance, but here the entire hall rose and gave our group a standing ovation. The claps died down only after 5 minutes. I was overwhelmed, excited, I wanted to scream. Oh and we did all of that. I was on top of the world. We did not wait for the results and rushed to the canteen and feasted like there was no tomorrow.

Finally the results were announced, ‘Two teams have similar scores and are on the first position, and we have to deliberate on either one of them’

Two teams!! Now i felt the celebrations were uncalled for.

‘We have come to a conclusion that both these teams will represent our college on an inter collegiate level, and only 10 members as per the rules would get to be on stage, I’m sure with the help of your teachers ,both the team members would come on a unanimous result’.

‘The winners are team number 11 and team number 16, congratulation to both the teams, and on the third position is team number 13’

To be Continued ......