Missing her ...

“No, I’m leaving now.”

“Please stay. We have only ten more minutes and after that we can…”

She did not let me finish my words and stood up. She took her books, held them close to her chest and looked straight into Dr. K. P. Ranade’s eyes. He looked back.

“Sorry Sir, I need to go now. I’m getting late.”

Before he could utter a word, Gayatri was out of the class. He went (almost) running behind her as if to call her and raised his hand in anticipation. He was about to shout when he stopped. He came back with a dropped head and came close to the green board. He threw the chalk stick out of the window which got lost in the dark in a flash, and smiled; as if he was thinking of his olden golden days. He looked at me. I moved my eyes away from him.

“Class is adjourned for the day,” he said as he picked up the duster to clean his hand and the board.

Everybody looked at each other. This never happened in last two years here. We were used to Dr. Ranade’s four hours of class, two days a week and every week for the last two years. We were in dilemma, whether to move out or it was one more prank from this old prankster.

“Do I send you a card now? Get lost,” he shouted in the peak of his voice and the whole building shook. I felt my desk moving and we jumped from our chairs and went straight out of the class, into the lawn and out of the gate of the institute.

It is half past nine now and one and half hours for the schedule closure of classes. The watchmen looked at us in surprise. Does everybody know Dr. Ranade and his way of teaching? I doubt! I was amongst the first few who leaped out of the classroom. I got a glance of the old man’s eyes while leaving as if he was asking me to stay back and talk to him and help him out of his misery; but I was on my own hurry – and I rushed out to see if I can find Gayatri somewhere. I came out, crossed the road and asked Rajan, the shopkeeper to give me a light. I took one out of the cigarette box and lit it outside the dark shop. There was hardly any customer apart from us, the students of Prabhabati School of Business and Entrepreneurship. It was so dark that I could only see the main gate of our campus with the golden logo on it and the last part of the name of the college in silver.

“Did you see Gayatri around here? She came out a few minutes ago.” I held the cigarette between two fingers and asked Rajan, who went clueless. I knew he would not tell anything without any tip; but I did not have any to offer him. I went past the shop and crossed the road again and came closer to the gate. One of those ogling watchmen came running as if I was detonating a bomb there.

“I’m not coming in with the cigarette. Stop.” I held my palm up and told him. He stopped but strolled towards me.

“Did you see Gayatri, I mean, a girl in jeans and white jacket coming out of the class before us? She left just before us and came out. Did you see anything?”

“No.” He said and looked at me in anticipation. I took one more drag and left him stranded. A few of us went in their own vehicles and rest of us was waiting for the institute bus, to leave at eleven ten. I sat near the shop for a long time looking here and there, sometimes restlessly but could not locate Gayatri. She did not come till we left. The bus moved fast and I reached home in almost no time.

Gayatri did not turn up for the rest of the week. For some reason, Dr. Ranade skipped his next class too. Well, they say everything happens for the first time someday. We did not care much. I came back from school on Friday night and slept. I was tired.

“Sukanya, get up girl. It’s almost noon now. Your mother is waiting for you to go out.”

“Yes Bua, five minutes,” and I pulled the blanket and tried to steal those last moments of the morning sleep.

“There is news about your evening college. Some girl called Gayatri Ranade is missing for some days now and her father has advertised a callback. Check it when you wake up completely.”

Bua (My father’s sister) left leaving the paper on my bed side. The last few words rang in my head – Gayatri – missing – callback! I threw the bedspread and jumped on the paper, where I found the following note:

I could not read the number in full. My eyes were full of tears and Gayatri’s face appeared in front of me.