Upper division love(amor división superior)

There may be multiple answers to the question “Why do you want to learn any foreign language?” but what you will do to that one who, when asked “Why do you want to learn Spanish” his reply turns out to be:

“I want to learn Spanish because I want to roam in Spain and sing Despacito there”

Actually, you can do nothing. The first part of the answer can be well accepted without any objection but when you will utter the second one, you may be guffawed at in public which you will certainly not like or the other possibility is you may be welcomed with grimace faces. In either case, you won’t find yourself in a good position hence I am opening up two option for you. If you want to avoid the above, contemplate before answering the question or else speak the truth.

I would find it easier to go with the latter one. Hence in future you can expect me singing Despacito like Luis Fonsi somewhere in the streets of  Spain while roaming like those people in Zindagi na milegi dobara! Well, abhi tak I haven’t planned to go with that Seniorita wala song, because of my inability to mix español and inglés so promptly and I don’t want to be made fun of, in public. With such similar motive, I started heading toward ‘mi primero español classe’.

The weather was fine, warm and bright, sunny day as it is at the onset of odd semesters in colleges across DU i.e July/ August. The scorching heat has enveloped the whole surrounding and the sun shone above my head. The birds found it better to settle in their nests to enjoy the fresh air by the gentle movement of the branches. Their young ones perched on the branches to enjoy the swing when the air blows sometimes with Stroke. The scorching heat has almost forbidden the movement of the air. The birds’ family were sitting quietly as the weather’s cruelty had restricted their movements.

I entered swiftly having a glance at my watch which showed 3:10. The class was about to start at 3 ‘o clock. The fear of being late in the first class made me a bit consternative. It becomes the awkward situation when the class is going on and you have to enter, first by asking permission and attracting the attention of everybody sitting there and their eyes leaving no chance to give a scornful look until you accelerate yourself to find any vacant seats. Even teachers are not much worried about latecomers than students are. This is how the whole process works. The situation becomes pathetic when it is your first class and numerous new eyes are waiting for the drama(of comedy genre) to happen. Also, In such situations, you can’t make you comfortable easily as everyone is stranger at first. Anticipating some such danger, I hurriedly checked my room number in the notice board placed aside the centre of languages. It didn’t take much time to figure out my which was ‘XF’. I fastidiously plodded to the assigned classroom.

Unlike I preconceived, the room was near to empty. I could see only a few bags, mostly ladies one with no madams. It took two more minutes to release all my anxiety and restore my breath which had been lost out somewhere on the stairs and corridor. I also abandoned my bag on 3rd bench in 2nd row from the entrance side and came outside in corridor again to relish fresh air which has started blowing till then due to the campus having extensive dense trees and have a view of the landscape of new college. St Stephens has this table-chair sitting style instead of benches and on one table, a max of 2 people can be adjusted. The college was built somewhere in the late 19th century, pre-independence and has obsolete infrastructure but well-maintained one. The ceiling fans of the classroom can take you back to those havelis where the oldest or haunted movie had been shot once. Nonetheless, the it was equipped with two AC and a cemented blackboard had been overlapped by the white ones  giving the feeling of an orthodox person being imposed with modern ideologies. The thing which I liked about this college most was it’s built with great symmetry and extended up to the first floor only.

The students started coming one by one, mostly girls. I was embarrassed to sit among their groups and being bored of their lofty talks so I decided to wait till the professor comes or any other boy, hence I sat above the railings of the first floor, gazing down and across in a manner to explore the college. Barely I waited for 10 more minutes, I saw the professor entering the classroom. I stealthily strolled behind him in the manner of aping his walking style and entered the classroom. In those 10 minutes, the classroom had brimmed with students. Only last few benches remained deserted. It became a predicament to locate my helpless bag among those several faces which might be waiting for its master. After a quick search, I could locate my bag which was still solitary whereas everybody was sitting in pairs. Also, I found a couple of boys among the group of around 55 who had already formed pairs. I felt a little uneasy on the account of seating alone and consoled me about the benefits of being alone  and settled on my place. Meanwhile, a girl entered the classroom, taller than me, I can say 5’8″. After inspecting the class from right to left, her pupil fixed at me. She reflected for a moment and walked nimbly in the direction in which I was sitting. She sat beside me inaudibly, dropping her satchel at the support of the chair and tried hard to put the mind at what is being taught in the intro class. I too copied her and stared blankly at the whiteboard to look a bit studious. Barely few minutes have passed when she turned to me and enquired:

I came thoda sa late. Can you help me with what I missed?

Ummm, Sir was detailing about the pattern of exams, the division of marks and the schedule of internal and needless to mention the dreadful marks for the attendance.

I replied at once and slid my notebook nonchalantly toward her, giving her a pleasing look and smile. This was the time when I looked her face scrupulously. I couldn’t stop myself and exclaimed; What a fine epitome of beauty she was! It appeared that every part of her face had been put in befitting place, that too after caring on every minute detail. While she read my notes, a part of her hair was on the notebook, caressing it while the rest was swinging. The nourished black hairs looked golden when the evening rays of the sun embraced her without the application of any artificial colour. The dimple in her fair-coloured cheeks, to be more precise- her dusky complexioned face when she smiled, magnified her beauty to a manifold. Her eyes were musing over the notebook, eclipsed by her dense and independent hairs on one side. The hairs on the other side were supported by the ears which had the dangle type traditional earrings, moving unreservedly with a little shake in the face and making me alert of her presence. A pointed nosering was enough to embellish the face and giving it a final touch. The whole paraphernalia associated with it can be said as met its purpose.

After finishing, she handed the notebook to me. Till then, I was transported into the other world, the world concerning her, abandoning the language which I came to learn. The ‘Thank you’ said by her kept reverberating in my ear, Untill professor pointed out me and asked the reason for my distraction. I could say only nothing sir, to escape as quickly as possible from this embarrassing situation. The surprising part was to see her chuckling by keeping her hands over her mouth. This annoyed me a bit and after eyeing her once again, I kept quiet. The whole class went smoothly. Sometimes I asked what I didn’t understand, sometimes knowingly too just to initiate the conversation. sometimes she too discussed a couple of things. The class didn’t go too long as it was the first one. Professor dispersed us by instructing us to mug up the Spanish alphabet by the next class and teaching us how to give the introduction and to talk generally. The students started walking towards their home while discussing whatever been taught today. I at once felt as if we all were transported back to  childhood starting from nursery and chanting alphabets and creating hustle and bustle. Everybody around was again starting from zero levels, this new language. The pronunciation was being taught, the alphabets to words and from words to how to make sentences from them. The grammar section was there also starting with articles followed by others, all in the other language. Everything seemed very interesting and funny at this age too.

We two were the last to leave the classroom as she busied herself in asking some question to sir. I too waited for her outside the same corridor. She came after 5 minutes in a jolly mood and said:

Hola! ¿ cómo estátes tu? The new language had overpowered all of us.

Hola! yo estoy bien. ¿ y tu? I asked the same question to her after answering how I am.

fenomenal! She couldn’t control her happiness as she spoke.

I thought its a good opportunity to know her name so without wasting a time I asked ¿ Cuál es su nombre?

mi nombre es Amaera. 

She spoke by breaking the sentence into fragments as children used to do while telling the teachers the mugged up things and asked my name also.

mi nombre es Shashank. I smiled as I replied followed by the laughter by both of us. Conversing beyond that in Spanish was beyond our capacity so we thought it better to switch to english.

How are you feeling after being a polyglot? I asked to take the conversation beyond the introduction.

Kaha yaar! Abhi to we have just started only. She replied showing some disappointment.

Atleast we have started. Sikh bhi lenge. I tried to be hopeful here.

Haan haan! Thik hai. I don’t want to think about it now. Jaisa chal rha hai chalne do.

I nodded.

From the further conversation, I came to know that she was in second years of masters(the fact that surprised me the most as I was being drawn towards somebody senior to me for the first time) in Economics honours and looking forward to MBA. The only thing which brought us on a common level is this language and nothing else to a second-year English-honours student like me. With such conversations, we came to the garden where the chirping of birds have increased to a new level as the sun had receded, exempting them from the heat of the afternoon. The young ones had called their friends to play and the elders were busy on their evening flight in search of foods.

From the garden we came to the main gate of St. Stephens talking casually, moving from one point to other. After the gate we had to go in opposite directions. Before leaving, I asked her  what do we use to say ‘good bye’ in Spanish?

She, after considering for a moment said – Adios!

I repeated the same and thereafter the we both giggled.

On my way, I was occupied with certain  questions like Does it matter how old or young one is? How handsome/beautiful one looks? What is his height/weight/ physique? What religion/caste they belong to? What benefit one can get from him/her? What position/status one hold? From Where does one belongs to? Does it matters all the above things?

After deep introspection, What I found is nothing matters much than the thing “how comfortable you are with him/her”

The very next morning, I went a little early to the classroom to take the same seat as yesterday, waiting for her to come by sitting there and doing all odd things to pass the time. (In weekend type classes, classes on Saturday took place from 3 PM and on Sunday, it used to start in the 9, morning)The clock was too cruel to wait for me. The time went past 9. The professor came and started teaching something new today. I fixed my eyes toward the gate for her to arrive. The clock showed 9:30 and she was nowhere.

In the meantime, a big bruiser of a boy, weighing over 100 kgs came and sat beside me. I couldn’t refuse and continued glancing toward the door for the rest of the time.
        (to be continued)

……..Shashank