I Was Hearbroken That I Had Missed The Bus, Until
Couple
Submit Report It, was the final evening at IIM- Ahmadabad. We a team of 12, were representing our college, at various events in the annual E-Summit. I was on the team to take part in mainly two events : The B Plan Competition and the Analyze me event. These were, by far the biggest crowd pullers, and had the most number of contestants. The unique B Plan we had developed and my inherent ability of good elocution and Analytical thinking had put me at a great chance of winning both of them. It was pretty obvious that most of the supposed “Brilliant” people would show up at both the events, and so was the case. Almost 75% of the contestants, were common to both of the competitions. I could clearly see a lot of prospectus faces and tough competitors. Of the few I remembered one of ’em was a girl. Anusha, they called her, and within no time I was constantly stalking her. Trust me, beauty with brains, sends you out of bounds. The panache, attitude and grace with which she carried herself, were awe-inspiring. Her lovely smile and perfect curves were the icing on the cake. So, in the B Plan round, it was a tough fight ( as expected ), people coming up with ideas that just took the rest by a surprise. Finally four teams were onto the final, and no she wasn’t on one of them. It was a very close pre-final, where we had a tie breaker, and my team just managed to scrape past. Ever since then she constantly kept grudging and complaining about how they were better than us. And so the event went on, we were the runners-up. Not bad, given the fact I was constantly imaging her, rather than the task at hand. The next event where she again showed up, was the Analyze Me challenge. A SWOT analysis of the situation was the requirement, and this time again we landed in the finals, but of course Anusha’s team had beaten us by a clear margin in the semis. She was full with excitement and raring to go. I would pay anything to stalk a desperate lady. As the final unfolded, the discussion, began to start and soon become a heated argument with teams trying to prove their own points. I had decided that, I wouldn’t let any distraction in the way and would work with the task on hand. But despite our good efforts, we again had to settle for runners-up and guess what we were next best to Anusha’s team. They were the winners by some margin, and I had realized it some time ago. The triumphant smile on her face, a sense of satisfaction, and winning. That child like attitude of celebrating over small success, talking about how they obviously deserved it, made a special niche for her. I realized this was one of the special pieces that had slid from heavens. We did have a formal talk later, where we congratulated each other, she still smiling provokingly. There was a small after party. All of us were excited. It was some fun in the past four days. We did get drunk, me for the first time, and you know it when its the first time. We were scheduled to leave that night, by bus. We had to catch another bus to get to the station. And yes, the scotch did us in. I was all over the washroom, not knowing what was happening and my friends, so “possessed” to even check if I was with them or not. It so happened unfortunately ( initially) that they left, and I was left behind. I realized it late in the evening and hurried back to the dorm, but if you have been to IIM A you would know, finding a place without assistance is impossible. I was lost, kept going around probably in circles in the huge campus. Luck had it against me, I didn’t have my phone either. I knew I was done and dusted for the day. I really felt bad that I had got drunk, lost 2 competitions, and missed a bus back home. I was sitting leaning to a pillar, chiding my fate, when all of a sudden from the blue, I hear in a desperate yet erotic voice the cry of “Hello!, Is anyone there?!” I realized that I was not alone on the boat, and had some company. Repeated calls, motivated me to go in search of the voice, to track down the person. I knew it was girl, but never bet on my luck for it to be Anusha. But seemed like destiny had a different plan. When I finally came over the person, after a dozen minutes of waga-bonding, my jaws dropped to find out it was indeed her. She was there in here amazing pink saree and untied hair. She seemed so happy to find a human after a couple of hours. She ran toward me and said “Glad I found someone, and happy that its you!”. You can empathize now, cant you? I didn’t take the pain of asking her why she’d been roaming around. She voluntarily told me that all participants had left, so had the organizing committee, and that they would return only the next day. It was no surprise, given that it was 8 in the night. She was on the verge of breaking down, emotionally! It was on me to console and comfort her, which I did with a lot of interest. We had nothing to eat for the night, and no roof over our head, as all classrooms and departments were locked. We did sit together in the corridor path way. I could still hear her murmuring, with the pleasant wind breaking it every now and then. After few minutes of hesitation, she asked me if we could go to the terrace, as she wanted to talk to her parents through the STARS. (PHEW) I agreed, I had to. In sometime we were on the terrace of one of the smaller building, she sat there with folded hands saying something which I could hardly hear let alone understand. I sat at quiet some distance. The powerful yet pleasant breeze, pushed her hair to the sides, exposing her lovely neck. The wind was from behind and she had a tough time keeping her pallu from flying. Initially I tried to get some glimpses, however found it to be incorrect and gave upon the idea. All along she’d been watching me struggle to control myself.