"PART-2"

                                           PART- 2

“ Maa!! I am leaving!!” I shouted from the doorway, swinging my bag over my shoulder and stuffing the left-over stack of toast in my mouth, as I ran down the stairs of my multi-storeyed building towards my bus-stop!

 “ Have you taken the house-keyyyyyys??? I have a meeting in school, today,” my mom shouted after me from our balcony. I shouted back in the affirmative and proceeded towards the crossroads at the end of our street where my bus would soon arrive to pick me up! Shama  Aunty was already standing on the stop with both her boys. I had settled down well in Pride after the first few months. To my delight, as I had anticipated, all the popular girls had befriended me and I had soon, very comfortably moulded myself as one of their number. Today, I was a confident, smart and a blooming eleventh grader and the past three years at Pride had been like a dream!

 I had come to love my school more and more with each passing day and felt that I was meant to be at this place more than anywhere else. It was a model school! The kind you read about in books, but in reality such schools don’t exist. The teachers were just like your friends. They conversed with the students ,not as strict and distant members of the faculty, but in the midst of piles of laughter, sitting on the front desk before Assembly, sometimes even asking if anybody had a spare piece of candy which they could enjoy after classes! The workers like the maids and bus conductors had strictly to be addressed as ‘didis’ and ‘bhaiyas’.  I soon learnt to exchange with them the same respectful greetings which we were expected to share with the teachers.

Pride was  a large, warm, happy family where everyone was equal and close to each other and of which I had also become a proud and prominent member! I had three very special best-friends too. Sonal-  a loving, helpful girl with long hair and hazel eyes. We had started calling Sonal “ mumma” because she was always so caring and homely by nature, taking care of us and fussing over us all like a mother. We used to tease her that she would be a perfect wife someday as she was flawless in all the house-hold chores like cooking and tidying up. Another one was Sakshi – a sweet looking, extremely fair girl with a gentle voice who was basically an introvert. Shy around most people,  with  us, her close ones, she would be a mischievous prankster! And lastly was Pratishtha, who had initially seemed extremely bossy and snobbish but once I got to know her well, I realized that she was harmless! In fact she was one of those people who unintentionally make people laugh with their entertaining remarks. Pratishtha was a jovial soul who could be as absent-minded and forgetful at times as she could be brainy and smart. She was not at all ladylike , rather she was rough and tough and tom boyish in her mannerisms! All in all, I made these three great friends and our rapport with the rest of the class was good as well! Thus, our so called ‘gang’ was popular and liked and cool  and we had great fun at school!

“Hi Shama Aunty, Good morning! Hi Arkam! Hiiiii Shhufeeee!” I said, cuddling Shama aunty’s young toddler, as I arrived at the bus-stop and placed my heavy bag on the tiled pavement by the road. I had befriended Shama Aunty in the tenth grade when she had started coming to the bus-stop to drop off her elder son Arkam.

Shama aunty was a beautiful lady who was  just twenty-seven! She was born and brought up in USA ,had married early and shifted to India with her husband. She was always dressed in a black burkha and had the prettiest and most charming face with lovely features. She spoke English with a heavy American accent, but her Hindi was also fluent and delightful to hear! She had two sons- Arkam, the elder one who was a shy, chubby boy with spiky hair. He had joined class 4th in the senior school the previous year and his very cute younger brother Sufiyaan looked just like a fluffy bunny rabbit! I had found a great friend in Shama Aunty as the age difference between us was not very vast and had also visited her place many times in the evenings for long, fun chat sessions. Today she was fidgeting with the zipper of Arkam’s school bag and turned to smile at me as she finally finished her task.

 “Hi  Mallika! I thought you weren’t gonna come today. I was just about to send Arkam to ask.”

 “Naah! Just got a little late,” I said, “ Wouldn’t want to miss school . I had never imagined that someone can actually like their school, but to my surprise I just love mine! By the way, I saw you and Arkam near Anand Bazaar yesterday!”

 “Yeah!” she said, “ I had taken him to see the doctor. He has a touch of cold.  Oh! Here comes your bus now! Maybe you can come over to our place in the evening. I am trying a new chicken recipe today and i know how you love non-veg.  Arkam don’t run beta!”

I promised Shama aunty that I would be there and picking up the school bag, ushered Arkam towards the edge of the road. We both waved bye to Shama Aunty and Sufiyan and hopped onto the huge yellow bus! I was the only Eleventh grader who took the bus on this route so I usually chose to sit alone on a back seat, but today as I advanced towards the back of the bus, I saw Vyankatesh too onboard. He was a dusky, lanky boy from my class and was sitting on an empty seat, with a gigantic blue bag on his lap. He was chewing gum as usual, gazing out of the window. He was known all over the school for his wit and great sense of humor!

 “Hi Vyankatesh!” I exclaimed, plopping onto the empty seat besides him, “How come you are travelling by this bus today? Missed your usual bus?”

 “No no!” he answered, “ We have shifted to a new locality in Anup Nagar. I will be taking this route from now on!?”

“ Great!” I exclaimed, “ So missing Arshad?” I asked, referring to his best friend of many years who had recently moved to Canada.

“Verrrrrry!” The forty-five minute journey to school passed well with Vyankatesh keeping me company. We had interacted in the class numerous times with everyone else but it had always been casual one line exchanges like “Pass the ball!” during the mixed sports sessions, or arguing about the subject in the class group discussion but today, we really talked at length to each other for the first time and we had good fun laughing together at the stories Vyankatesh told me about the science- whiz Arshad’s cockroach collection!