Conundrum 》ICT AU

-1-

Meera knew one thing as she got up from her bed.

She was very very late.

As she hurriedly scarfed down her breakfast and ran out of the house, with her mother protesting behind her to slow down, she began thinking.

Only a week ago she had moved down to Delhi from Hyderabad. Her friends back home were from all backgrounds - Hindu, Muslim, Parsi you name it. She thought it would be the same here as well.

She was so wrong.

With groups of people existing within large friendship groups, even after a week she hadn't found friends. She had been dubbed as the Outsider - even people who came after her had quickly found their group.  She wasn't that well off, often having to see how to cut back on their household purchases. Whereas in her class, she saw students bringing the new 2000 rupee notes to buy food from the cafeteria. She was so lonely, she often wondered whether shifting to the capital was the right thing to do.

She got in her school bus, again hardly taken by any. Most of the students in her class had their own drivers and would get chauffeured around. Only two of them would take the school bus - her and another boy. But even he had his own friend circle.

She reached school with a dread.

Opposite her, the boy grinned as he saw the school.

He actually feels happy at the thought of going to school.

She shook her face side to side at that thought.

As she got down, people stared at her. This had been going on for a long, long time. Well, a week long. At first, she thought it was the novelty of a new student just walking in but now she was confused. Other new students didn't get the same behaviour as she did. They whispered as she walked through the corridors and into the classroom.

Meera just kept her head low and sat at the first available place that she found.

Right next to the happy go lucky guy in the bus.

"Hi." He whispered. Meera remained silent.

Seeing this, he tried again.

"Hello, I'm a new student as well." He said louder than last time.

"Aye, bro. She doesn't talk. Hasn't spoken since she walked into the school." A boy from the back said as he listened to our conversation.

"Why are you with her anyways? Come on, we have a seat for you!"

They thought she was mute.

Somehow, that eased her conscience. There was nothing wrong with her - it was just the fact that they thought that she couldn't speak!

Well in hindsight, there was probably something wrong with her.

Shrugging, the boy next to her got up and looked in her way one last time. Seeing no response, he walked to the empty seat that his friends had reserved for him.

"Good morning, class!" The teacher walked in smiling at the students.

Everyone chanted the same.

"So, as so many are new students, I'm starting off the school year with a school project." She said, hearing excited murmurs.

"Now, I'll be choosing the groups since nobody knows anybody."

The class fell silent.

"Okay." She spoke out after a few minutes of looking at the roll call.

"Ashish, Yashvi, Siraj, Pallavi, Nayan, Aniket and Trisha in group number one." She said, looking at the class. "Are all present?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good, okay. Next group is Prithvi, Anushka, Anuja, Malvika, Parth, Srinivas and Chaitanya."

"Yes, ma'am."

"The last group is Meera, Jai, Anil, Shoumil, Rohit, Preeti and Hardik. Is that clear to you guys?"

"Yes ma'am." The others replied. Meera? She hadn't opened her mouth at all.

"Great. Your topic would be to discover and reimagine the Italian Renaissance. Use at least seven figures of importance - one for each of you. There will be a group discussion on this topic at the end of the month. Each member has to speak for two minutes and should be able to answer any questions asked by me or the students. Answers given correctly will result in more marks for the group. Clear?"

"Yes ma'am!" The class shouted.

"Great. You can sit with your groups and discover everything - silently." She said and sat on the chair, reviewing her work.

Slowly, the class got up and began rearranging the chairs, sitting with their groups. Meera tentatively moved towards her group, who were already discussing with animated movements.

"You're Meera, hi." Preeti was the first one to notice her. "Come sit!"

She sat beside Preeti, who waited until she sat before she started speaking again.

"So, let's just exchange numbers for now, it's cool?"

All the people agreed.

"So, where are you guys from?" Jai spoke up as phones were being exchanged.

"I'm a localite, dilli ka launda." Rohit said, which prompted laughter.

"I'm from Baroda." Hardik said.

"Mumbai!" Jai said, which made Preeti sit up more.

"Really? Me too!"

"Guys, I'm from Goa." Anil said.

"I'm from Surat, bro. Kemcho?" Shoumil said.

"Where are you from, Meera?" Preeti asked, amid the laughter.

"Aare, bro. She doesn't talk." Jai said.

"I'm from Hyderabad." Meera said softly, which made all the people silent.

"She does talk!" Shoumil and Hardik said together, making all the others laugh.

"She was just shy, weren't you?" Preeti said.

Meera nodded.

"Hey." Hardik said, at the bus stop. "I'm from  a middle class family, too."

"What- what do you mean?" Meera stumbled.

"I feel a little out of the group, you know? All these big people." He snickered. "But maybe, just imagine that they are normal. Like us." He shrugged.

Meera nodded.

"Come on, our bus is here."

"So Meera, any new friends?" Her mother asked, as she served parathas to her during dinner.

"Yeah." She swallowed.

"That's good, baby."