“AN OLD SCHOOL GIRL!”

        “AN OLD SCHOOL GIRL!”

“Jogi.... Jogi.... Hey!” Suddenly the whole busy corridor of the airport made a tunnel way clearance for this super excited girl, running recklessly and screaming on top of her lungs. She had already bumped the luggage trolleys on the way and slumped a few human beings off their balance without even turning to apologize. Though she left behond a trail of waggling tongues, she didn’t care as she could see her best friend standing with open arms at the tail end. It had been six years since she met her. All thanks to college reunion these busy doctors were meeting again.

The girl on the other side was also happy but her emotions were much more controlled as she stood there being silent beholder for her jumping jack friend. The thump, hump and hug caused a loss of her equanimity but it was graciously accepted by the girl at the median point, “MJ! It’s so nice to see you.”

“Jogi you haven’t changed, you haven’t aged a day.”

“But Mahi putter, you are entirely a new girl.” The interruption of a voice distracted their surreal union.

“Oh! God, Biji, I am sorry I didn’t notice you. Ah! Tell me, do you have some magic portion which has stopped the clock for both of you.” She immediately left the young woman and leapt on the older version, who had futilely tried to ambush the age gap under her sausage make up.

“Honey, you are such an angel. You are like a daughter I never had.”

“Oh! Come on, not again. Beji, stop it, I know where you are heading.....”

“Watch your tone young lady, you may be Dr Sanjogita Randhawan for the entire world but for me, you still are my foolish little girl, who is running astray and little have I been able to do to stop you.” She carried on the performance with a melodramatic sob.

“What’s going on, Jogi, what’s the matter?”

Sanjogita just shrugged shoulders to her mother’s emotional upheavals.

“Let me tell you what I am going through. Look at you; you have been such a darling daughter for your parents, when you choose to wear that rock on your ring finger. Soon you will be Mrs Mahi Sameer Rana from just being just MJ...Oh! How blessed will that moment be, a butterfly rising from a cocoon, a dream coming true for every parent. But my daughter has ripped me of that simplest pleasure. One, she isn’t smart like you to find herself a good man and two, if I have been doing the needful on her behalf; she has been behaving like obstinate stubborn brat. For god sake, she is thirty.”

Mahi could see the pain in her friend’s eyes beneath those stiffened, frozen and indifferent expressions she gave to her mother. Clearly her mother was unaware of her bruised past.

Without giving any heed to her daughter’s plight she continued, “I found her such a good handsome tall guy, an entrepreneur, running a very high scale business in Goa. Did you listen, Goa, the Las Vegas of India! He is prince charming straight out of the fairy tale and moreover he has fallen madly for her too but she doesn’t care. What increases my misery manifold is that she doesn’t have any legitimate reason to refuse. Here I am dragging my heels from pillar to post to get into the land of beaches, wide cleavages, backless and bikinis. If she can’t think straight at least she should care about my old age. Won’t it provide me eternal happiness, wearing those thongs, getting my skin tanned under Goa’s sun and being surrounded by my grand kids, telling them the sensual stories of my lost youth...”

There was sparkle in her eyes, but frown on her daughter’s face, whereas Mahi was busy biting her lower lip at such an elaborate vivid description.

“Beji, for love of God, behave your age.”

“Karo Swapa! That’s what I am telling you sugar, start behaving your age.”

Before the duel between them would have reached next level, thankfully, the girl’s flight was announced. Even though they hurried their steps towards the boarding gates, they could hear her mother screaming on top of her voice, giving her daughter the departing message, “Think Goa! Darling, think Goa.”

It’s been half hour since the plane had been in mid air. After initial exchange of pleasantries, catch up phrases, what’s up in life confabulations, the girls went into ease mode. Mahi got leads up in her ears catching up with her playlist and Sanjogita having bored herself with glimpses outside the window, preferred to close eyes for a peaceful journey. But peace was the last thing expected out of her life. Soon her long gone ‘past’ started to make a flash appearance in her subconscious.

It all started back in 2003, her first day at medical school. It wasn’t in her roster to lose her heart on the very first day but she felt weak in her knees at first sight of her physiology lab partner, Naval Raizada. She would always blush like a tomato in his presence; after all he was a complete package to be any girl’s dream come true. Shyness was her compulsive attribute and patience the only way out of her anticipatory misery which finally paid, when the first sign of life of their relationship showed up in their sophomore year.

She was on cloud nine and since then never stopped giggling. Those stolen moments to clandestinely meet each other, the sweet bitter overnight severance, the feeling of butterflies in stomach and the canvas of life painted in rainbow colors; it was more than what she ever wished for.

She felt blessed even though her best friend MJ was skeptical of her relationship with him. According to her he was an over ambitious, canny, and astute guy. MJ feared that he would break her heart over his nefarious narcissistic goals.

Her oxytocine high love blindness never made her believe that destiny would be cruel to her. At same time who could trust MJ, when she herself turns blind eyes to Sam aka Sameer Rana, the love stuck Romeo. The poor boy tried every card in his peck to woo her but still at the end of the day she vouched for their platonic friendship. Sanjogita was always empathetic towards him and shared a deep friendship bond with him too.

As the time passed, MJ turned out to be right. It wasn’t that Naval cheated on Sanjogita with someone else but he did worse. He swapped away her five years work project, her final thesis on ‘new genetic mapping techniques to diagnose diseases in unborn babies’, a marvel venture which could have got her into an international scholarship programme. The whole courtship was his plan to steal away her life’s work and he executed it so surreptitiously that no one could lay a finger on him. According to him this project would have died a premature death under apocryphal guidance of an ‘old school girl’ who carried on her shoulder the mediocre priorities of love, marriage, kids and family rather than showing any ambition or zeal. After all this, he still had the guts to project himself as the ‘messiah’ who sacrificed his love by breaking up with Sanjogita to turn himself to the futuristic boon to humanity.

She was petrified. It was beyond her human understanding to decipher the malicious joke played on her. Even after his back stabbing she still went on her knees and pleaded in front of Naval to undo his deeds. It was her futile effort to save everything that was once dear to her heart. MJ and Sam had to manually rip her apart from Naval. He was unmoved and continued spilling bad blood about her and her friends. One punch from Sam made him zip off for a while.

MJ begged her to file an official complaint against Naval but she had lost all sanity of mind and power to think, say or do anything. They just had three days left for submission of her final thesis. They had to act fast or else her medical career could be jeopardized. Since she was not in her acting sense it was MJ and Sam who did the needful on her behalf. The professors too were sympathetic towards her but without any formal complaint from the plaintiff, their hands were tied. Worst, Naval got himself that international scholarship and in no time flew to America.

It’s been six years since that incident. She had buried herself under professional acumen and garnered herself a reputation in ‘genetic mapping of incurable diseases’ but her personal life had turned into a dry desert. It was MJ who pushed her for the reunion. But the possibility of crossing paths again with Naval gave her a bout of palpitation and she immediately got up with a jerk holding MJ’s arm tightly, impeding circulation to her hands.

“What happened, are you fine?”

“Yes.... I am.” She said gasping for air.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“It’s nothing. I am fine.”

“What the heck, I can see, your mother can see but why can’t you see that you are not fine. If I were you I would have stabbed a dagger in his heart for once and all, claiming salvation rather than behaving like an old....” MJ immediately checked her words.

“...old school girl,” Sanjogita completed it for her.

“I didn’t mean....”

“It’s alright...... I said I am fine.”

TWENTY FOUR HOURS LATER.....

She sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood strained knife lay next to her handbag covered with her blue silk scarf.

She wasn’t aware that MJ was watching her from other side completely bewildered. How could she be so calm after what happened in the day? The past couple of hours started to dash glimpses in front of MJ’s tear fraught eyes.

It was going nice and good at the reunion until Naval showed up at the scene, worst he tried to talk to Sanjogita. It was not a sense of guilt that drove him to her but he wanted to discuss about some intricate medical details about her field. MJ could sense, Sanjogita being emotionally tortured by his advances. Seeing her desolation, she secretly smuggled Sanjogita out of the party to nearby Starbucks cafe, where it all started.

They thought their ordeal was over but soon their illusion was broken when he followed them there. He was stepping toes to talk to her but MJ stood as the Berlin wall between them whereas Sanjogita struggled with right emotions to respond to the situation. Three of them knew there was never going to be a civilized talk between them and soon the things got so ugly that MJ had to physically push him away from Sanjogita.

The innocent thrust proved fatal for him when his chest banged at the edge of the table and he finally collapsed to the ground.

Unaware about the severity of her push, the duo was about to leave when someone in the room screamed, “He isn’t breathing.”

The girls immediately stopped and retrieved steps to his aid. They ripped open his white shirt exposing his chest. Sanjogita was frozen to her grounds. MJ was anxious but still frivolously checking his vital signs. She didn’t mean to hurt him; she was just trying to protect her friend. If something happened to him, her career would be over. Everyone in the room witnessed her pushing him. Fear took over her and compromised her judgement.

Her voice trembled, “Checking ABC... A... airways look fine, B.... Breathing, it’s absent. I am starting CPR. Someone please call for an ambulance.” She was about to thump his chest that for first time, Sanjogita moved and held her fist midway. In next split second she pushed her away and caught hold of the knife from the culinary set and thrust it in his chest. The little sprouts of blood stained her face.

“No....,” screamed Mahi.

Suddenly a message beep on her cellular brought MJ back to the present tense. She read it, wiped off her tears and made a move towards her friend.

“Jogi...”

“Is it over?”

“Yes.... Yes!”  She burst out crying.

The past again overshadowed the present.

“You missed ‘C’..... Circulation. Jugulars in his neck have collapsed...... Diaphragm pushed upwards..... It’s tension pneumothorax. You need to decompress it.”

“He is breathing again.” Someone in the room pointed out.

MJ immediately realized her blunder. The impact of fall punctured his lung and he collapsed. He was already drowning in his own air and if she would have started a CPR, it could have lead to his immediate death. He was rushed to Operation Theater thereafter to repair his injured lung and now he was out of danger after the surgery. MJ just received the message on her cell. After being saved by the girl who he back stabbed six years back, he finally realized his mistake and was now desperate for atonement.

“Jogi, you saved me and you saved him too...” She was still not able to control her tears while she sat there in Starbucks hugging her friend.

“It’s over MJ. You know what, you were right. It felt relieving striking knife in his chest. And what’s interesting, we have all taken chances to hit that man, Sam in the college, you pushed him and I ...... stole the show with the knife. We are even steven.”

Mahi was befuddled, in years, she hasn’t seen her friend so lively and with so many words and she was still on, “It’s a paradoxical life and I turned out just fine. I am a good doctor, my ethics were never my weakness or added burden on my shoulders. They were my strength because of which I was able to save that jerk. It finally pays to be an old school girl.” Her hearty laughter filled the room.

MJ too abandoned her leaky eyes and nose syndrome and joined the celebrations, “Hey Jogi, are you planning to keep this knife as a souvenir?”

“Ew! I am old school not pervert.”

“If you are not taking it, I will keep it.”

“Seriously MJ?”

“Yeah, it’s for my special collection. Leave this topic, tell me, now what?”

“I am thinking to take a vacation and take my mother to the land of beaches and bikinis. After all it’s my duty to fulfill her wishes, I am her only daughter.”

That was Sanjogita’s ultimate strike of the evening.

Mahi screamed in exhalation, “We are going to have a Goa wedding. You are going to get married in thongs.”

“Ew! That’s too much of imagination.”

“If that’s much of the fabric for you, we can replace it with small tiny little leaves.”

“Oh! Karo Swapa!” and they carried on with their jubilation.

Co-incidentally in the backdrop the music went on playing.....

“I might be sentimental...

But don’t be so judgmental.....

So what if I am an old school girl, old school girl.....

I am an old school girl....”