Anirudh switched school. This time it was a thousand miles away from the previous one he attended. It was an ICSE school in the town nearby his grandparent’s place. His grandfather had been living in the same village for the past forty years and owned a cashnewnut orchard, spread over twenty acres. He has a house adjacent to the farm. Anirudh was kind of ‘deported’ away from the city to this granny’s place to study, so that he could do something better with his life. Though it was same place he always grew up during the summer breaks, the idea of staying there for another two years pinched him in the mind.
His grandfather arranged for the local school to have Anirudh picked up and drop him at school. Again, Anirudh hated the idea of traveling in a school bus. He thought he was big enough for public transport. But, his grandfather didn’t feel the same way. The first day at school was quite strange for him. His Telugu was not so fluent and had to use broken pieces of Hindi and English in between, to express himself. All the students gathered around, as they heard the rumors of some chap from ‘Bombay’ getting admitted in their class. But, Anirudh wasn’t the expected ‘Bombay’ cool dude. Before the class could feel the presence of the new guy, Anirudh adjusted himself to the class and the environment. He got adjusted to the customs around and the ways of the people. He had his first unit tests quite and he didn’t perform much to the expectations. The teachers expected more, his classmates were looking upto him, the toppers were afraid of getting toppled down, and the juniors looked at him for inspiration. And he let them down, scored as usual 60’s. And that was it, the whole pressure of the world came down upon him. By the time the half yearly examinations approached, Anirudh was into THE SYSTEM and working his ass out, to run that extra yard.
Meanwhile, all through the trips in the school bus, one of the girls in the bus, had a crush on him. She was so stupid. She asked Anirudh, what does he understand by – 143? Anirudh pondered for a little while and replied – “Ya, I got it, it’s 11 multiplied by 13, a product of two primes”. She stared at him for a while and then gave a naughty smile and whispered – “You fool, 143 stands for I love you and I love you!!”. Anirudh looked around, pinched himself and then again looked around. He was absolutely clueless. And the God’s answered his prayers, the bus got to his house, and got down and ran pushing opening the gate dropped the bag and the basket and then ran into the orchards. He was scared to hell.
The next day, she asked. She asked something different. She asked – “OK?”. Anirudh again looked at her puzzled – “What OK? No, it’s not ok with me”. She again gave her naughty smile and whispered – “You silly ass, grow up, OK stands for One Kiss and I want you to gimme one.” Well this time he was shot for a direct six, he had no where to run or to hide, gave his confused look and turned away from her. But she still kept tickling him. He just sat for the whole 30 minute ride to the school. The same day on the ride back home, Anirudh said something to that girl – “1443, go home and figure it out!!”. He wanted to kid her, but she was too smart for his sick jokes. Her eyes glowed and she blushed and Anirudh looked like a lost puppy. She figured it out – “1443″ stood for “I tooo love you”.
He thought for the whole day in the school to play that stupid joke and it just took a few seconds for his plan to backfire on him. Well, he lost to her again. He stopped thinking about the next thing to do and started thinking about an excuse to skip the school bus and to get himself a bus pass. Nothing, could convince his grandfather. He had to stick to the bus for the rest of the year, until he was rescued by the extra classes back at school, at the end of year. And they were his saviour. He had his life back, away from the giggling, tickling and the fear of getting kissed back.
He was afraid of getting kissed, by the girl, because a few days after the 143 stunt, he looses a bet with her and had to offer a lip service to her. From that day, he started dieting on lots of onions and anything that would give his mouth foul smell for the bus ride. But, he lost out again, on a fine day she whispers to Anirudh again – “i like the smell of you..!!”. The next moment he knew, he had a strange feeling in his stomach and he almost puked, but controlled himself. He puked out the next moment he got down the bus. He was down with fever and nausea for a week, which later turned out to be food poisoning. But, he still believed it was ‘the’ whisper that brought him down.
