Siddharthranjith
He was an average student studying in the 6th standard in
Merryland secondary school, due to lack of grades in the former school, his
parents transferred him to the St George international located at
chennai. In the former school he was ragged by a lot of girls , eversince that
events ….. he hated the opposite sex , he continued his hatred till today even
after he left that city behind.
First day at St George , he did not want to be late ,he
entered the school block and asked for his classroom at the reception and then he gave sendoff to his parents who had come to
drop him.
The receptionist gave him directions to his class 7c ,which
means 7th grade c section , so he followed the direction and he reached
the class, but to his surprise the class was empty, he asked the attender who
had just passed him about the students in 7c. Attender said that they had gone for an art
class and asked him to stay in the next class for that period. So, the attender
took him to 7b section and said to the teacher that he was a new joiner and the
teacher welcomed him and asked to introduce himself to the class , which he did
…… the teacher asked to take a seat in the middle column first bench , there
were 3 columns of benches the 3rd column were the girl’s. He noticed
that the class room had 4 girls and 16 boys , 2 in each row , he noticed that 2
girls of the 4 were from Tamilnadu , because any south indian can be distinguished
by their looks and hair. He was not sure about the other 2 girls and he did not
bother anymuch longer because even now he has hatred to opposite sex .
The teacher started the geography class by asking students
various questions about the india map , to his surprise he answered one of the
questions , he felt confident , the teacher cheered him which encouraged him to
answer any question , either he knows the answer or not , and the teacher
clapped for him for trying , he started to like the school already . 30 mins
had passed , he noticed that the girl in the first bench was eyeing him ,he
turned to look at her , she shifted her eyes to the teacher who was right next
ahead of him , he turned back to listen to the teacher . Again he caught her
eyeing at him , he turned this time she gave a smile to him ,he did not like it
because the fact he hated girls , so he just gave a weary smile to not to be rude
, he did not like what he did but he ignored her after that incident . Finally,
the class was over the teacher said to him that by now his class would have
returned and can go to his class. As he
left the classroom she giggled at him , he got a little pissed. But he was
happy he would not see that girl again since they were in different section.
He entered his classroom he made new friends and he noticed that his class had 18 boys and 2 girls , both are south Indians
who looked very conservative ,he smiled and was happy he would never see that b
section girl again.
The next day
He took French as his 2nd language and all the
students of all 3 sections had it at the same period so all who chose French
would come together in one class, to his surprise that b section girl was in
his French class , she noticed him and she gave a smile at him ,he gave a weary
smile back , he felt angered that he has to take French classes with her, the
girl who made him uncomfortable on the very first day in this school . One of
his friend in class told him that her name was Suzanne Shelby , she came from
Canada , he even got to know that she
was a topper of b section. He did not
like her at all .
Days passed as water passed from a waterfall , he started to
ignore her completely and concentrated at his own work . He still did not know
her intension because he never spoke to her . He had a very strong motto of
despise against girls . So, days passed and unit class exams were going to
start from the next day.
The unit exam
He sat in the very first bench studying for the exam , the
time was 9 am , which was time for the girls to come to class from their hostels…
and the exam started at 10 am . Just before the morning prayers at 9.15 ,
Suzanne entered c section , he didn’t notice her ,he was studying for the exam
. she walked towards him and he was shocked to see her , she came towards him and asked “ how is your
preparations for the exam ?” he nodded
in shock and said "well, Not so bad actually" and she continued “study well and perform well
“ she smiled in the end , her eyes sparkled and in a spontaneous reaction he
replied “ thank you” she looked satisfied and she left the class . he was
completely in a shock and froze , one of
friends said to him that she never spoke to any boy since she joined school
, that very minute his friends started
teasing him with her name and teasing him that he loved her , and infuriated
him and he felt angry but he had to stay focused since the exams were about to
start in 30 mins and he had to perform well since that was the very reason why
his parents transferred him from his previous school.
Exams ended well for him , he performed pretty well in all
the subjects , in his surprise he had actually been ranked 4th In class
,he was awestruck because in his previous school he hardly managed to get 25th
, he even learned that Suzanne ranked 2nd in class, which angered
him ,from that day he mentally made her a rival , he promised himself he would
bet her in any event, competition etc in school. During the recess break , he
saw her come out of her class , she noticed and gave him a smile and this time
he gave similar smile, a smile which meant that he was going to bet her.
The school cultural
The school cultural events had started , sid was interested
in dancing so he joined the school dancing team , he danced very well so he was
one of the lead dancers among his teammates . the teacher who head of dance
team explained us the entire dance theme and various moral of the dance.
suddenly the girls dancing entered the auditorium , and among them there was
Suzanne who jumped onto the stage as she saw sid on stage . He felt angry and
satisfied as this would be chance to compete with her in talent. She gave smile
of excitement to him , he gave a smile of rivalry to her .
The cultural had started and he and his friends totally
shaken the audience and all of them cheered at their performance and the next
was the girls team performed , and the
audience cheered them in a similar way, the girls had also given a extraordinary
performance , as they got down the stage , he saw her get down and she walked
pass him and she looked at him , he said to her “ nice performance “ he gave a
angry rival smile to her and she replied ” thanks” , before she could say any further
he went away from her in a hurry as he felt defeated , but still he never gave
in, he had hope he would show her one day …one of his friends noticed speaking
to her and they all started teasing him with her name ,which infuriated him and
angered him.
Days passed and the mid term exams had started and sid performed
very well this time but still he got 4th
rank and Suzanne got a clash of marks with 1st rank which angered
him, so he again started ignoring her even though she looked at him.
Days passed and 7th grade came to an end and they
all left home for the summer leave for 2 months . sid’s parents were very happy
with his performance and they all were happy for sid. Sid had completely
forgotten about her and his stupid childish rivalry with Suzanne , but sid hates
the opposite sex still.
Starting 8th grade…..
8th grade had started and sid came to school 2 days
late, he entered 8c class with teachers permission and he noticed that new
students have joined this year and now his class strength was 30 , 24 boys and
6 girls, sid hated the increase in number of girls In his class and he cursed
the parents who had joined their daughters in his school and hated the
administration for assigning them in his class. He walked pass the class and
took a seat in the last but before seat, he waved at his friends who greeted
him back and the day passed and he got along with the new students in his
class. sid’s friends explained him about the new girls, 3 are from Thailand and
1 from Bangalore and the other 2 are south Indians who had been from previous
year. Sid learned that the Bangalore girl’s name was sandhyaramaswamy aka sandy
who happens to be the girlfriend of one of his friend rajeshnavieda , sandy had
joined this very school for rajesh all
the way from Bangalore. Sid felt annoyed to listen to such love story but still
he respected his friend rajesh so he endured it. Sid had learned that among the
3 thai girls 2 of them already had
boyfriends both the boys were from 9th grade and slowly his friends
started to realize and started teasing him with Suzanne’s name which sid
totally forgot during the summer.
Sid went to 8b section during the recess ,where he noticed
that there was a increase in population his b section too. He noticed that there
were 9 girls an 22 boys. He searched for Suzanne , there she was in the 2nd
row , she did not notice him enter the class, sid did not have any rivalry
towards her anymore, sid went towards his b section friends and played with
them until the break. As sid passed by
her to leave the class , still she did not notice him. Sid when he left the
room he felt happy and free from her eye traps and then he went back to c
section.
Days passed by, it was all normal and boring, sid got along
with all of the new students but at first new hostel students cried being
homesick but all of them consoled them and they all got along .
One day after the
French class , sid has been told that one of the new students named
Mahesh Millan was flirting with Suzanne , and sid thought that she never spoke
to any boy before him and now it looks like she had found a guy and sid finally
thought she had freed him out of her system, sid felt very happy for himself
and slowly friends stopped teasing sid with Suzanne’s name and they started
teasing Mahesh, unlike sid Mahesh felt
nice as everyone teased him, sid didn’t understood what was mahesh’s motto. And days passed after every French class as
Suzanne and Mahesh started chatting with one another , it was more like
flirting.
One day French class got over a bit early so all of them
remained in class , sid went out to drink some water as he did not like to sit
simply in class. As time was almost over sid was 40 feet away from the class
door and Suzanne and Mahesh came out of the class , they were the only one out
of the class ,the rest were seated in
class other than sid who was already out at a 40 feet distance, suddenly Mahesh took hold of suzanne’s hand, got Infront
of her and proposed to her, Suzanne was facing towards sid, she looked devastated and she was looking at
sid instead of Mahesh, Mahesh noticed her eyes elsewhere and saw In her
direction , Mahesh didn’t care, didn’t see much . Mahesh again turned towards
her and proposed again “I love u suzzanna and don’t u feel the same way…” , she
got angry and threw his hand away and slapped him on the right cheek. Mahesh
became red with watery eyes and suzanna burst into tears and ran towards b
section , she passed sid but he didn’t notice. Mahesh with his right hand on his
right cheek turned to see what suzanna was actually looking at he saw it
clearly now , it was sid who she was looking while Mahesh proposed. One of the PT masters saw suzanna slapping
Mahesh , and the PT master came to Mahesh to talk to him , sid was not aware of
any of it , he came to c section and sat In the 2nd last row in the
middle column and sid started preparing for the next class.
Mahesh entered the c section class after a few minutes ,after
washing his face along with a PT master who was consoling him , he entered the
class holding his right cheek and sat in his seat which was a seat ahead of
sid’s ,the entire class started wondering what happened to Mahesh, most of them
assumed that one of the PT masters slapped, everyone started to ask Mahesh what
happened . Mahesh’s eyes started to fill with tears and he still did not remove his hand from his
right cheek . Eight mins passed still no answer .
Suddenly suzzanna entered the class, everyones eyes were on
her, her face was full red and her eyes filled with tears , she was looking
Mahesh and she even noticed sid , she looked straight into sid’s eyes and who was
sitting right behind Mahesh, her sight of contact had both sid and Mahesh
…..now she started shouting in crying tone “ what do u think of yourself ?!!!!
, just that I talked to you and started being nice, does not mean u can take
advantage of me” the entire class froze in astonishment and started looking at
Mahesh and she continues “ I never expected this to happen , I was completely
foolish of opening up myself to someone, just that we started talking personal
stuff does not mean that I wanted a
relationship, how could you have ever felt that way and just that I smile…. ”
She stopped and looked at sid and she
started to cry and she ran out of the the class no one noticed that the last
sight she gave was for sid, only sid noticed it but he didn’t care about, the
PT master followed suzanna and another PT master came towards Mahesh, who had
kept his hands folded around his head and his head on the desk the PT master
asked him what had happened even though he knew it all ,Mahesh did not answer
anything he remained silent with his
head lied on his desk.
The teacher who was supposed to take class had not come yet,
so the PT master had to go and find out. Just after the PT master left the
class, Mahesh got up and stood and turned towards sid and started shouting at
sid“ she rejected me because she loves siddharth” sid was shocked and
infuriated.
Sid replied “ what !!!?”sid was completely bewildered by his reaction ,
Mahesh said “ shut up asshole , she was looking at you the
entire time” he wiped his face which was covered In tears and he continued “ I
saw her looking at u ….after French class…”
Sid completely frustrated “oh … now you are pinning this nonsense on me
, when I am not even involved in any of this ….what do you think of yourself ,
just that you were embarrassed infront of everyone by one of your own mistakes
does not mean you have to pin it on someone else…”
The entire class fell silent after sid shouted at mahesh ,as
a matter of time the entire class sided with sid and asked Mahesh to shut his
mouth and sit down.
The PT master again
entered and took Mahesh outside to meet the principal , while English teacher
premkumar sir entered class like he doesn’t
know anything what happened in class , because he was right outside the
entire time watching what was happening , he even pretended by asking one of
the first bench students what had
happened.
So the classes continued till 3.30 pm and Mahesh did not
return to class , everyone prepared to go back to hostel since school had ended
, sid just before he was about to leave
rajesh called him and asked him to stay for a while .
Rajesh asked “just stay back for a while”.
Sid replied “ why?”.
Rajesh said “ sandy wants to talk to you in private” .
Sid who was stunned by rajesh’s statement said “ sandy ,why
does your girlfriend wants to talk to me in private” .
Rajesh said “ I don’t know , why don’t ask her yourself”
Sid replied “ you will be here by my side right”
Rajesh replied “ yeah … I will be by your side , by the way
its just sandy”
Sid replied “ still , hey did I do something wrong”
Rajesh shook his head symbolizing as ‘I don’t know’
Sid and rajesh waited
till the entire class cleared and soon even the girls left , except for sandhya,
she stayed back pretending to arrange her books in her locker and when everyone
left she walked towards rajesh and gave him a kiss ,which rajesh gave back to
her and then sid realized that this was
the private time rajesh and sandhya got together.
Sid felt a bit uncomfortable and moved away towards the door
to give them space ……… right when he was about to go out the door
Sandhya called out “ sid can you come now we are done here”
saying with a chuckling smile..
Sid walked back toward them ,while they were semi hugging
holding each other’s waist and her hand around
rajesh’s neck sid still felt a
bit uncomfortable but he ignored it.
Rajesh looked at sandhya and asked “sandy what is it that you
wanted to talk about to sid , that even I don’t know”
Sandhya replied “ hold on dear ,you will find out soon” she
kissed him holding his face and turned towards sid , so that he can see that her entire
concentration was on him rather than rajesh.
Sid asked completely restless “ okay sandhya , what is this
all about …just get it over fast”
Sandhya replied “ okay baba …. Fine by the way call me sandy you
don’t have to stress on my name sandhya
all the time”
Sid who was completely pissed said “okay SANDY, will you
please get to the catch …….”
Sandy replied “ okayokay baba… don’t
get pissed . ……this is all about you”
Sid confused “ I am sorry what ……..”
Sandy replied “ Mahesh’s incident and all it was all
connected to you”
Sid again confused “ what?”
Sandy “ ookay lets begin with ,how much do you know about
suzanna”
Sid “ not much , I know that she is the topper of b section”
Sandy “ suzanna knows everything about you , she is your
secret admirer , she is connected to you from your very first day of school”
Sid “ wait how do you know about that as you joined in 8th
grade na?”
Sandy “ahahaa no… this is one thing you should know, all
girls are connected, each girl’s secret is known to all girls , and I happen to
be close to suzanna , that’s why I am opening up to you”
Rajesh confidently said “she is right bro all girls are
connected” reaching her waist to grab her
while sandy stopped him ………..
Sandy “let me tell you the entire story which was happening
to you from day 1 …which you never noticed”
Sandy started narrating suzanna’s story
“Suzanna was a very
conservative girl ,she never spoke or opened up to anyone since her parents got
divorced , her grandma took care of her, her grandma brought her to india from
canada and joined her in this school ,away from her parents who fight with one
another everyday .. she joined school in 5th grade , she never spoke
to anyone for 6 months ,but she started getting along a few friends but she
never opened up herself to anyone , she had no emotional concerns so she
studied most of the time this happened till the starting of 7th
grade until you siddharth happened to her …. She felt you safe than any other
of her girlfriends ………she started having feelings in her for you ….. she wanted
to connect to u the very first day but you never seemed to notice her . she tried to come to a lot of times but
you never seemed to even notice her ……one day during the unit exams she took
full courage and came to you and to wish
all the best but she panicked infront of you and just said ‘study well’ even
today she remembers that day , she also remembers the reply you gave to ‘thank you’
she treasures those moments till today , she keeps saying how stupid she was
that….. slowly she started opening up her feelings and shared with other girls ……
were the reason for her emotions to run in her system again…. She used
to look at you half the time in french classes but you don’t even notice her ,
and the days you give a smile back to her makes her happy… she tried to talk to
you lot of times that you cannot imagine , but you used to be busy or escape
before she could come forward to her , during the culturals she wanted to talk
to you when you appreciated on her performance ,she blushed by the time she
turned to talk you vanished …… she never got a chance to speak to u …..
So this year she wanted to somehow connect to you so she
started speaking to other boys meaning , Mahesh , she opened up to him to make you
jealous but you never even noticed her
she felt devastated and today the unexpected happened to her when Mahesh
proposed to her she never looked at him but you who were a distant away from
her , which angered her and she showed her anger on Mahesh , even she never
expected Mahesh would actually think that she had feelings for him but the
sight of you made her completely disturbed even when she entered the class she was actually shouting at you
indirectly not completely to Mahesh after that she regreted what she had done
and she didn’t even eat her lunch , she did not even come to the afternoon
classes ,she kept on mopping , we all consoled her that you might not have
understood whom she was scolding …she actually didn’t just want your smile but
she wanted to share with you her love……. she is completely disturbed she does
not even listen to any of the girls …….”
Sid was completely speechless
Rajesh was shocked “wooh bro even my girlfriend wouldn’t go that far man…” cracking a joke ,
Sandy seriously “ shut
up , what do you understand a girls heart” and sandy punched his hand
Rajesh “ okay just kidding dear” he held her tightly
Sandy emotionally “ don’t kid about such things …….”
Sid still completely speechless
Sandy “ so sid what is your call”
Sid “ I don’t understand why me , what did she see In me”
Rajesh replied with a smile “that my friend is in love …..”
holding sandy’s waist tightly , she smiled back at him.
Sandy looked at sid and asked “ are you okay ,actually I am
not supposed say any of this to anyone but I happen to care for suzanna”
Sid stayed still
thinking what to do , he did not understand what to he looked at the couple
sandy and rajesh who were close to each other
, he closed his eyes and thought of himself while he was occupied with
his thoughts
Sandy interrupted “ sid I don’t know what your decision is but I care for suzanna
and you are the only one who she will listens to right now”
Sid cleared his head and asked boldly to sandy “ where will she be right now ?”
Sandy looked at the clock above which showed 5.30pm and replied
“ whenever she feels lost or sad , she goes to school church for church
service”
Sid replied “ okay , I have never done this before ,ever in
my life but what the hell……..” he looked down and asked “ would you guys
accompany me ?”
Rajesh and sandy in a sync replied “ sure ,why wouldn’t we” they smiled towards one another
after they realized their syncronisation
Sid , sandy and rajesh left for the school church ……..
At the entrance of the church sandy and rajesh stayed back
and asked sid to go alone …. They were a bit excited for sid.
As he entered there
were a very few people seated in the church
He searched with his eyes for suzanna and finally he found
her in the 5throw , he went silently and kneeled right next where
she kneeled , she was praying very peacefully with her eyes closed.
He waited until she opened her eyes , when she opened her eyes she did not
realize anyone beside her
Sid looking straight with bold tone said “ I am sorry” she
turned and she was shocked to see sid and now sid turned towards her and
continued “ I am sorry , I should have realized it earlier”
Suzanna started to blush she turned red
Sid continued “ I have to thank you , because it was you who
encouraged me to study well and get a good rank in class, I was a average
student from merryland , my teachers called me hopeless back home , I lost hope in myself and you were the one
brought hope back I managed to become one of the toppers in my class just
because you wished me on the first exam day, at first I took it as challenge to
compete but in the end you were the one who changed me, you are my inspiration
,so thank you……”
On listening to sid’s confession suzanna was moved and made
her feel proud
Suzanna replied “ thank you ,…. YOU were the one who made me
feel the joy of having friends and relatives”she wiped tear which rolled from
her eye and continued “ even now , I would have shut myself from the entire
world , but your presence and the fact that I was your inspiration make me feel
a bit proud” she giggled with a smile and continued “ your words made me forget
about isolating myself from the world
……thank u very much”
Both sid and suzanna smiled at each other and this time sid
smiled from the bottom of his heart……
Both of them now stood as they finished their prayers and
slowly walked towards the entrance ,while they were walking. Sid said “ you
gave hope to me and I gave hope to you ,so that make us even …..” they smiled
towards one another as they walked towards the entrance sid continued “ you do
realize where I am going with this right….”
She looked at sid gave a smile and replied “yeah…….. I
know” and sid gave a smile back.
Sid and suzanna understood what would happen as they reach
the church entrance
As they reached the entrance suzanna grabbed sid’s and hugged
him and said to him “thank u for saving for me”
Sid patted her and said “ thank you for understanding” and
hugged her and after a few seconds , they left one another and they walked out
of the church as if nothing ever happened
There as they came out they saw sandy and rajesh eagerly
waiting for them ,
Now they had spotted them and the ran towards them , sandy went to check upon suzanna and rajesh
towards sid.
Sandy asked suzanna what had happened and similarly rajesh
asked sid what had happened
Sid and suzanna looked at each other and shook hands formally
and gestured eachother.
Sid with formal smile
said “it was nice meeting you suzanna”
Suzanna replied “ it was nice meeting you too” and she smiled
back and then they left each other hand.
Sandy and rajesh were shocked by sid’s and suzanna’s
responses to one another……
Sid gave a wave
towards sandy saying " bye sandy "
And then sandy and rajesh gave each other a good bye hug and
then they all parted ways
Sandy and suzanna parted towards the girls hostel and Sid and rajesh parted to the boys hostel
As they walked rajesh asked sid, " what exactly happened
in the church?"
sid smiled and said “ hope happened bro ,……HOPE”
-By N.LOKESH
Special thanks to all my friends and peers who encouraged me
In writing this story ……
Thank you one and all……
