Three Mistakes Of My Life Part 11

'Nothing,' she said in a broken voice.

A girl's 'nothing' usually means 'a lot'. Actually, it meant 'a lot and don't get me started'. I thought of a suitable response to a fake 'nothing'.

'You want to go wash your face?' I said.

'I am fine. Let's get started.'

I looked at her eyes. Her eyelashes were wet. She had the same eyes as her brother. However, the brown was more prominent on her fair face.

'Your second problem is correct too,' I said, and ticked her notebook. I almost wrote 'good' out of habit. I normally taught young kids, and they loved it if I made comments like 'good', 'well done' or made a 'star' against their answers. But Vidya was no kid.

'You did quite well,' I said as I finished reviewing her work.

'Excuse me,' she said and ran to the bathroom. She probably had an outburst of tears. She came back, this time her eyeliner gone and the whole face wet.

'Listen, we can't have a productive cla.s.s if you are disturbed. We have to do more complex problems today and....'

'But I am not disturbed. It's Garima and her, well, forget it.'

'Garima?'

'Yes, my cousin and best friend in Bombay. I told you last time.'

'I don't remember,' I said.

'She told me last night she would SMS me in the morning. It is afternoon already, and she hasn't. She always does that.' 'Why don't you SMS her instead?'

'I am not doing that. She said she would. And so she should, right?'

I looked at her blankly, unable to respond.

'She is in this hi-fi PR job, so she is too busy to type a line?'

I wished that woman would SMS her so we could start cla.s.s.

'Next time I will tell her I have something really important to I talk about and not call her for two days,' she said.

Some, I repeat only some girls, measure the strength of their friends.h.i.+p by the power of the emotionally manipulative games they could play with each other.

'Should we start?'

'Yeah, I am feeling better. Thanks for listening.'

'No problem. So what happened in problem eight?' I said.

We immersed ourselves into probability for the next half an hour. When she applied her mind, she wasn't dumb at maths as she came across on first impression. But she rarely applied it for more than five minutes. Once, she had to change her pen. Then she had to reopen and fasten her hairclip. In fifteen minutes, she needed a cus.h.i.+on behind her back. After that her mother sent in tea and biscuits and she had to sip it every thirty seconds. Still, we plowed along.

Forty minutes into the cla.s.s, she pulled her chair back.

'My head is throbbing now. I have never done so much maths continuously in my life. Can we take a break?'

'Vidya, we only have twenty minutes more,' I said.

She stood up straight and blinked her eyes. 'Can we agree to a five-minute break during cla.s.s? One shouldn't study maths that long. It has to be bad for you.'

She kept her pen aside and opened her hair. A strand fell on my arm. I pulled my hand away.

'How is your preparation for other subjects? You don't hate science, do you?' I said. I wanted to keep the break productive.

I like science. But the way they teach it, it sucks,' Vidya said.

'Like what?'

'Like the medical entrance guides, they have thousands of multiple choice questions. You figure them out and then you are good enough to be a doctor.

That's not how I look at science.'

'Well, we have no choice. There are very few good colleges and compet.i.tion is tough.'

I know. But the people who set these exam papers, I wonder if they ever are curious about chemistry anymore. Do they just cram up reactions? Or do they ever get fascinated by it? Do they ever see a marble statue and wonder, it all appears static, but inside this statue there are protons buzzing and electrons madly spinning.'

I looked into her bright eyes. I wished they would be as lit up when I taught her probability.

'That's quite amazing, isn't it?' I said.

'Or let's talk of biology. Think about this,' she said and touched my arm. 'What is this?'

'What?' I said, taken aback by her contact.

'This is your skin. Do you know there are communities of bacteria living here?

There are millions of individual life forms -eating, reproducing and dying right on us. Yet, we never wonder. Why? We only care about cramming up an epidermal layer diagram, because that comes in the exam every single year.'

I didn't know what to say to this girl. Maybe I should have stuck to teaching seven-year-olds.

'There are some good reference books outside your textbooks for science,' I told her.

'Are there?'

'Yes, you get them in the Law Garden book market. They go into concepts. I can get them for you if you want. Ask your parents if they will pay for them.'

*Of course, they will pay. If it is for studies, they spend like crazy. But can I come along with you?'

'No, you don't have to. I'll get the bill.'

'What?' 'In case you are thinking how much I will spend.' 'You silly or what? It will be a nice break. We'll go together.' 'Fine. Let's do the rest of the sums. We have taken a fifteen-minute break.'

I finished a set of exercises and gave her ten problems as homework. Her phone beeped as I stood up to leave. She rushed to grab it. 'Garima,' she said and I shut the door behind me.

I was walking out when Ish came home.

'Hey, good cla.s.s? She is a duffer, must be tough,' said Ish, his body covered in sweat after practice.

'Not bad, she is a quick learner,' I said. I didn't know why, but looking at Ish right then made my heart beat fast. I wondered if I should tell him about my plan to go to Law Garden with Vidya to buy books. But that would be stupid, I thought. I didn't have to explain everything to him.

'I figured out a way to rein in Ali,' Ish said.

'How?'

'I let him hit his four sixes first. Then he is like any of us.' I nodded.

'The other boys get p.i.s.sed though. They think I have a special place for this student.' Ish added.

'They are kids. Don't worry,' I said and wondered how much longer I had to be with him and why the h.e.l.l did I feel so guilty?

'Yeah. Some students are special, right?' Ish chuckled. For a nanosecond I felt he was making a dig at me. No, this was about Ali. I didn't have a special student.

'You bet. Listen, have to go. Mom needs help with a big wedding order.'

With that, I took rapid strides and was out of his sight. My head buzzed like those electrons inside the marble statue in Omi's temple.

She was dressed in a white chikan salwar kameez on the day of our Law Garden trip. Her bandhini orange and red dupatta had tiny bra.s.s bells at the end. They made a sound everytime she moved her hand. There was a hint of extra make-up. Her lips shone and I couldn't help staring at them.

'It's lip gloss. Is it too much?' she said self-consciously, rubbing her lips with her fingers. Her upper lip had a near invisible mole on the right. I pulled my gaze away and looked for autos on the street. Never, ever look at her face, I scolded myself.

'That's the bookshop,' I said as we reached the store.

The University Bookstore in Navrangpura was a temple for all muggers in the city. Nearly all customers were sleep deprived, overzealous students who'd never have enough of quantum physics or calculus. They don't provide statistics, but I am sure anyone who clears the engineering and medical entrance exams in the city has visited the bookstore.

The middle-aged shopkeeper looked at Vidya through his gla.s.ses. She was probably the best looking customer to visit that month. Students who prepared for medical entrance don't exactly wear coloured lip gloss.

'Ahem, excuse me,' I said as the shopkeeper scanned Vidya up and down.

'Govind beta, so nice to see you,' he said. One good way old people get away with leching is by branding you their son or daughter. He knew my name ever since I scored a hundred in the board exam. In the newspaper interview I had recommended his shop. He displayed the cutting for two years after that. I still get a twenty-five per cent discount on every purchase.

'You have organic chemistry by L.G.Wade?' I said. I would have done more small talk, but I wanted to avoid talking about Vidya. In fact, I didn't even want him to look at Vidya.

'Well, yes,' the shopkeeper said, taken aback by my abruptness.

'Chemistry book, red and white b.a.l.l.s on the cover,' he screamed .it one of his five a.s.sistants.

'This is a good book,' I said as I tapped the cover and gave it to Vidya. 'Other organic chemistry books have too much to memorise. This one explains the principles.'

Vidya took the book in her hand. Her red nail polish was the same colour as the atoms on the cover.

'Flip through it, see if you like it,' I said.

She turned a few pages. The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow. He was asking me about the girl. See this is the reason why people think Ahmedabad is a small town despite the multiplexes. It is the mentality of the people.

'Student, I take tuitions,' I whispered to satisfy his curiosity lest he gave up sleeping for the rest of his life. He nodded his head in approval. Why do these old people poke their nose in our affairs so much? Like, would we care if he hung out with three grandmas?

'If you say it is good, I am fine,' she said, finis.h.i.+ng her scan. 'Good, and in physics, have you ever read Resnick and Halliday?'

'Oh, I saw that book at my friend's place once. Just the table of contents depressed me. It's too hi-fi for me.'

'What is this "hi-fi"? It is in your course, you have to study it,' I said, my voice stern.

'Don't they have some guides or something?' she said, totally ignoring my comment.

'Guides are a short cut. They solve a certain number of problems. You need to understand the concepts.'

The shopkeeper brought out the orange and black cover Resnick and Halliday.

Yes, the cover was scary and dull at the same time, something possible only in physics books.

'I won't understand it. But if you want to, let's buy it,' Vidya agreed.

'Of course, you will understand it. And uncle, for maths do you have M.L.

Khanna?'

I could see his displeasure in me calling him uncle, but someone needed to remind him.

'Maths Khanna,' the shopkeeper shouted. His a.s.sistants pulled out the yellow and black tome. Now if Resnick and Halliday is scary, M.L. Khanna is the Exorcist. I haven't seen a thicker book and every page is filled with the hardest maths problems in the world. It was amusing that a person with a friendly name like M.L Khanna could do this to the students of our country.

'What is this?' Vidya said and tried to lift the book with her left hand. She couldn't. She used both hands and finally took it six inches off the ground. 'No, seriously, what is this? An a.s.sault weapon?'

'It covers every topic,' I said and measured the thickness with the fingers of my right hand, the four fingers fell short. She held her hand sideways over mine to a.s.sist.

'Six, it is six fingers thick,' she said softly.

I pulled my hand out, lest uncle raise his eyebrows again, or worst case join his hand to ours to check the thickness.

'Don't worry, for the medical entrance you only have to study a few topics,' I rea.s.sured her.

We paid for the books and came out of the shop.

We walked on the Navrangpura main road. My new shop was two hundred metres away. I had the urge to go see it.

'Now what?' she said.

'Nothing, let's go home,' I said and looked for an auto. 'You are a big bore, aren't you?' she said. 'Excuse me?' I said.

'Dairy Den is round the corner. I'm hungry,' she said.

'I am starving. Seriously, I am famished.' She kept a hand on her stomach. She wore three rings, each with different designs and tiny, multi-coloured stones.