40. The Hallucinating First Touch

I dedicate this post to my followers Rajasekar, Asish and Surajlal and also to my esteemed critics at Chennai rulezz esp. Siraj and Arun.

The Projects are all over now with the 4th sem exams due in a week. I did a really enjoyable work in projects esp. the one with Shantanu. There is still a working day left before they close the attendance.

The internals are expected to be displayed in the department notice board in a day. I am good enough in the assessments 1 and 2 there is not much of a need for the 3rd internals, yet I wanted to know how good a work we did in our projects.

The projects are supposed to reflect one’s true ability as a software engineer or that’s what seniors told me. I wanted to know how good I am for Microsoft, though these mini-projects are not even worthy enough a mention in Microsoft interview.

The next day first hour was Internet Programming (IP). Ma’am has completed the syllabus and was just having a few words on how to prepare for the end sem etc etc.

Before she was about to leave, “I really wanted to mention this, most of you have done your projects well, yet I had a feeling that you have done it only for the sake of doing”

She continued, “But this project Simulated Chat Room was really good and is an outcome of a true passionate effort. I just wanted to say that you being engineering students from such a reputed institute should have that passion in you”, and she left.

I am blushing wide. Girls around me started teasing me. Shantanu was similarly besieged by guys around him. We checked our internals I was good in all other projects also. Over lunch Harini akka joined the teasing and I am now named Microsoft.

It was not because I am so good at my projects. In fact only in IP ours is the best project in other papers there are better projects than mine.

I am not sure whether it’s the ideal mixture of my background coding and Shantanu’s applet or the ages we spent together in the project. Anyway we could now proudly say we were not just mashing but we worked for the project together. I laughed to myself at this thought.

That evening we met as usual, we were cheerfully discussing about the projects and I told him about the lunch break baptism where I was christened as ‘Microsoft’.

At the mention of this Shantanu was almost rolling on the floor laughing. I laughed with him yet I was a bit irritated. I hate to get hurt at my ego. He later did apologize for that.

Now he also started calling me Microsoft. Elvia is now virtually replaced by Microsoft. I felt it a bit bothersome but the wings of dreams and the pride the term brought with it put me into blushing and bliss.

As we got up to leave Shantanu gave me a hand shake “We rocked”, a warm feeling of current passed through my veins. My palm got struck with his. The icy warmth spread from my right hand fingers through out my entire body and froze my toes.

The entire dimming dark environment at 7.00PM suddenly turned bright. The dull sound of the leaves galled by the breeze is now replaced with the cheery chirp of birds like dawn. I saw a halo behind Shantanu’s head. I don’t know whether he shared all this hormonal excitement.

I guess that’s the first time he touched me ever. I am in India yet it’s no sin for a girl to shake hands with a guy. As a matter of fact I have shaken hands with guys and other men yet this was different, more than that quaint.

I walked back to my hostel it was just a few steps away, but Shantanu didn’t fail to fulfill his chivalry. He walked with me till the edge of the threshold to avoid the eyes of our warden.

We bid adieu and I walked back to my room filled with the bliss and cheers of projects. The brilliance of the touch was more dominant than all that. I entered my room.

Divya and a couple other girls were also there with Anu and Sangi. I sat on my cot. Divya as always the Elvia’s predictor, “Hey what’s the aura around you?” smiling.

I kept blushing. “looks like Shantanu kissed you today”, Sangi teased.

“hey shut up, told you girls we are just friends”, crimson of my cheeks are now powerful enough to stop traffic both sides of a road.

“Come on girl why do you retell the same old tale”

“Ok yaar she will say that when she have to stop bugging her”, Anu smiling.

“All I want to say is be careful and don’t end up like Anu”, Preethi. She bit her tongue in the moment realizing the implication of those words on Anu.

The cheerful environment in the room suddenly turned grave. I expected Anu would cry, but she just fell silent. After a few seconds, “Ok girls lets move, it’s time for dinner”, Anu cheerfully.

I felt so numb. Life has given more than her share for her to bear. She has been overdosed with too much stuff that anything will not make her shed tears anymore. She is not acting. I really felt that she has grew stronger with the turn of events.

The mood in the mess was cheerful we now stopped regretting and cursing mess food and the authorities rather we started making fun of them all. We all had a nice time.

With a good long week before the semester exams we didn’t want to spoil the engineering tradition by starting preparations this soon. So decided on watching a movie that night.

After a heavy duel on the languages English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu we zeroed in on a Tamil movie. Now it’s the dispute on the movie.

Somehow with Divya with her usual maturity acting like Kofi Annan solved things and finalized on a typical tamil movie which is a mixture of action, comedy and romance.

We cuddled ourselves on two cots, switched of the lights, placed the table and the laptop on it strategically such that all of us could have a clear view of the screen. Created a virtual theatre for ourselves and now silently started watching the movie.

Saranya being an ardent fan of the hero whistled like hell at the hero’s introduction. We asked her to control herself not wanting to bring the warden up at this hour and spoil all this.

The movie got over with Sangamitra crying at the death of hero’s mom and with loads of such emotions. Everybody left to their respective rooms.

I happily fell on my bed. After I closed my eyes, Shantanu flashed before me, with Preethi’s words echoing in my ears, “Don’t end up like Anu”