====Maze===
Chapter 2
With nervous mind and heavy steps, unaware of the future days, she was walking through the corridor of Law's Academy. After 1 month, today is her first class. Taking some air in, she went into her class. Her class was supposed to start at 4:00 pm. It was 3:30 pm, and the class was mostly vacant and there was only one student. She has never been normal like others and neither is she comfortable to talk with anyone. She sighed and sat beside the girl with a vacant seat between them. Both were sitting silently and after few moments she thought, this is law. She is grown up now and she should attempt to change herself. For better. Though she was not comfortable, she slowly said to the other girl,
" Hi. I am Tarika. I am new here." She said with a smile.
The girl was looking into her phone and looked up at her with her voice and said with a smile" Hey, I am Ankita." They started talking about their schools, study years and etc.
Slowly the classroom started to fill up with students and she was introducing herself to Ankita's friends. They all seemed friendly and she was comfortable with them.
Days went and she was attending all the classes but she did not seem to understand all the classes properly. She never studied law before, and she also missed the introductory classes. She couldn't befriend anyone and that was making things more complicated. Because she was not getting any type of help and she had to study on her own and attend classes. Since childhood, Tarika could never understand the classes properly. She always needed a personal tutor at home. The major reason was, she was always scared of responding to teacher in the class and she stayed silent even when she couldn't understand. She stayed silent with the proportion of lecture she understood and she tried to understand the rest on her own. It's not that she never tried to ask the teacher what she didn't understand, but most of the times she got negative response from the teachers. She didn't understand what was wrong with the teachers! And she couldn't see any difference between those teachers and those bully classmates.
One day she was sitting quietly in the classroom like other days. Ms Avatika was conducting the class and all the students were talking about the topic and were also joking and talking outside study.
Tarika is also not allowed to go anywhere without her parents or the car. She always comes home when the car comes to get her, otherwise she sits in the Academy. She has tried many times to talk to her parents to let her travel alone, as the schedule of the car is hard to manage as they have only one car which is used by both Tarika and her father, but the discussion always ends with a earful of lecture from Tarika's father about her safety and her own good.
After class, when Tarika was crossing Ms Avantika's room she called Tarika in and asked her to sit down. She then asked her,
"Tarika are you okay?"
"Jee ma'am. I'm okay. Koi problem nahi hai. Thank you ma'am" Tarika replied her and gave her a smile.
"Aap humesha saab class pe aise chup chap keun reheti hai? Maine aapko kabhi baat karte huye nahi dekha. Yaha humare halwa ban jati hai dusroko chup karanemai, aur aap hai ki kuch blte bhi nahi. Padahai sab samajhte ho na aap? koi problem nahi hoti samajhnemai?kuch batati bhi ho nahi aap claas mai." Ms Avantika said in one breath.
Tarika gave an embarrassed smile and said, "Ma'am thank you so much aap itne dheyan diya. Mujhe koi problem nahi hai, main toh humesha se aise hee hun. In fact aisa complain mere school college ke teachers bhi karte."
Avantika smiled and said "Accha. Main samajhh geyi, likin Tarika ye law hai na. Aab toh aapko baat karni hee padegi thodi."
"Yeah ma'am. I understand." She said looking down.
"Aur koi bhi problem ho ya koi bhi confusion, phir dusra koi confusion create na karke without any confusion mere pas chali ana. Thik hai?" Ms Avantkita told her in a cheerful voice.
"Okay ma'am, sure. Thank you so much." Tarika laughed at her little joke and said smiling.
"Okay, aap jaa sakti ho." Avantika told her and Tarika bid her bye and got into the car after coming down of the building of Law's Academy.
She rested on the car seat and closed her eyes. She traveled back to her memory lane, which happened long time ago, but seems like they happened just yesterday.
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In a school classroom of class 4, a teacher was sitting on her chair and all the students were writing the classwork the teacher gave them. After few minutes the teacher said,
"class captain aapni seat se uth jao, aur saab, aapna copies aapni jag ape baithke hee class captain ko de do." The etacher said and the class captain and the students started doing as they were told to do so. But all the students started screaming " mere hogeye, mere..mere..yaha…mere le jao.." the whole classroom became crowded and the teacher was asking them to stop.
"Mere bhi hogeya. mera copy le jao." A cute looking girl in curly hair also shouted from her place.
"Ye kisne bola. kisne bola ye. aapni jag ape khari ho jao. aur agar khari nhi horahi hai toh as paas ke saab dikha do koun bola yeh. "The teacher shouted from her seat.
The bench mates and everyone around her shouted "madam isne bola. Ey khari ho ja khari ho ja." All the students sitting beside her started pushing her and she stood. The teacher called her in the front and she went silently.
"Tumne waise chika keun aapni seat se. Tumhe pata hai tum kis class mai padhneki layek ho? batao kis class mai padhneki layek ho tum?" The teacher shouted and the girl in curly hair stood silent scare.
"Ma'am, kindergarten mai." a student shouted from her seat and the teacher now shouted towards all the students.
"Ye kisne bola?"
All the students around her made her stand too who replied to the teacher.
"Sab uske liye taliya do. Keunki usne bilkul thik bola. Ye ladki kindergarten mai padhneki hee layek hai."The teacher said and the whole class started laughing and clapping loud.
"Jao jakey baitho aapni seat pe." the teacher said and the curly haired girl went to her seat. She couldn't understand while everyone was shouting, including the girl who answered the teacher, how could the teacher call only her and how is she the only one who is capable of studying in Kindergarten? She couldn't figure out the logic and silently sat on her seat without saying anything.
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Another memory from grade 4 flashed in front of her eyes.
The students in the classroom were talking too much and the teacher was not able to make them stop. In the end the teacher said," Sab apna books bandh bag mai rakh do."
The students became happy and did so. After that the teacher changed the seat of the students and some of the students became too sad because they were parted from their best friends and talking buddies. But some were also happy because they were united with their best friends. She saw them laughing and clapping and thought the teacher separated the students so that they could not talk, but those students got to seat together and they will talk more now. She told this to her bench mates and they said,
" Han han yeh toh madam ko batana padega. Batao batao." They said in a serious mood. But without seeing them suppressing their laughter and with innocent thoughts and mind she told this to the teacher when the teacher came near their bench. Hearing her the teacher said, " Accha? toh tum eek kam karo, tum waha jaake keun nahi baith jati? Tab wo log alaga hojayege na? Jao jao, tum waha baith jao."
Without understanding the tease of her bench mates and the teacher, she silently got up from her seat in a gloomy mood and went to seat there. Here the teacher and the bench mates were laughing and the bench mates high fived each other. Here, though late, she understood what just happened and became more quite.
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When she got admitted to grade 5, she found a friend who was good to her and supported her. She was different from them and she never let her feel bad about herself like others did. Her name was Uvani. During Tiffin period they used to stay together, their seat was also together, and in the whole class a friend whom she could call a best friend was Uvani.
One day, during class, she was sitting on the front seat two feats away from the teachers table. She saw one of her classmates drawing during calss time when the teacher asked them to study. She found it inappropriate. During other class days, when a student complains to the teacher about any inappropriate work like this of another student, the teacher normally takes action and gives them detention. Keeping that fact in mind, she told the teacher, " Madam ye padhai na karke book ke piche tasveer ank rahi hai."
Without looking up at her, the teacher said in a moody voice, "Han toh? Ankne do usey. Tumhe keya." and continued her work. The student beside her looked at her with narrow eyes and continued drawing.
She didn't understand, why her? Every time why her?
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It was during her grade 6 times. Uvani and Tarika were in different sections as each year her the school changed the sections. As there were many students, a class was divided into three or four different sections in different classrooms.
One day, during tiffin time, Tarika was sitting alone in her seat and was having her lunch. Uvani came and sat with her and they started to have their lunch and talking. With Uvani, she still felt comfortable. Because unlike others, at least she treated her like a normal human and gave her good quality of time during classes as much as she could.
Suddenly a friend of Uvani peeped from the door of the classroom as they were sitting near the door. Te friend told her,
"Arey Uvani, tu yaha iss ladki ke pass keya karrahi hai? Ye bhi koi kam hui keya? chali aa yahase." Uvani's friend shouted at her.
"Tu ja. Main ati hu." Uvani also said in a loud voice.
"Uvani tu ja. Tere dost bularahi hai." Tarika said in a gloomy voice.
"Toh tu keya aasman se utar aayi jai? Uvani said making a face making her smile.
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The sound of the cars honking brought her back to present. She closed her eyes tight pressing her head with her fingers.
Like this days went by and a class test took place. After the result of the test came out, she couldn't score good marks. It was because of the short time and things went too fast for her to cope up. Tarika formed a good relation with the teacher Perdyuman Sankar, so she and her parents decided to seek help from him. After sitting in a meeting with Perdyuman Sankar, they all decided that Tarika would start to take tution at his home with her batchmates, and as she needs personal help too, Perdyuman Sankar set her up with her classmsate Tasha who would help her to understand the topics. After that day, alongside academy classes, Tarika started to take tution in Pardyuman Sankar's home with her classmates and also continued her study with Tasha. Abhijeet and Daya were two best friends of Tasha and they were always together. Tarika only knows those two by their names.
One evening Tarika came back from class and when she opened facebook, she saw a friend request from Abhijeet. Seeing the friend request she chuckled.
"Class mai neyi ladki ageyi toh usey friend request bhejenege nahi toh daily routine pura toh nahi hoga na. Request toh bhejna hee hai." Tarika said and made a face. She came out of Facebook and went to have some snacks.
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"Yeh Abhijeet bohot hee hoshiyar student hai. Aur koi maney ya na maney, class mai attentive students mai se eek hai ye."
At one class at Perdyuman's home, he said while talking with the students outside of study. Perdyuman is always too much friendly with his students and his students always become like his family. In his class, students are always able to talk so much freely that seems like they are talking with their friend.
"Han sir,wo toh manna hee hai." Another student said from her seat.
" Joyi ko toh sure wo pasand hai. Usdin main Abhijeet ke baremai baat karraha tha, toh usne aapni seat se aise saar uthake mere baat sunrahi thi. Aab Abhijeet hai hee asie ki kisiko bhi pasand ayega. Pasand naa hona hee impossible hai." Perdyuman said and other students agreed with him.
Tarika was onlylistening to them andwas silently doing her work. Love, date, interest, crush, marriage talks this things have no place in Tarika's life. She doesn't believe that there is anything called love. For her love is only a waste of time. In reality, there is no love, because if there was, relationships would have been different than they are like now. For Tarika, being in a relationship, or dating, or being interested in anyone is the same as living in a fantasy world and wasting times of real life. Whenever she sees people romancing or talking lovey dovey, or being so in love that they are not able to live without each other, she gags at the thought. When she hears people talking that, to live, it is important to have a life partner, or it is impossible to live a happy life without dating, she feels like she is living in a world surrounded by idiots and stupids.
" Abhijeet jaisa polite ladka toh ajkal milna hee bohot mushkil hai. Tumlogoke class mai bhi utna hai nahi. Wo extraoridinary hai." Perdyuman'sa voice made her travel the lane of her memory of few days from after she started studying with Tasha.
After class Tasha plays Table tennis with Abhijeet and Daya. Tarika normally directly goes to home after class without sitting or going anywhere else. She doesn't have any friends anyways, whom would she sit with. But since she started to study with Tasha, as they study at Tarika's home, they often go to Tarika's home together after class. So, no, most of the days, she has to sit in the canteen and wait for Tasha to play table tennis for few minutes. Most of the times when she is sitting on the sofa, while passing her Abhijeet smiles ear to ear at her greeting her forcing her to smile back. Some days, when Tarika just arrived at the campus or going out of the campus walking through the corridor, if Abhijeet is crossing her some day, he greets her with the most bright smile ever, and asks, "Hi! kaisi ho." which forces her to smile and reply, "Hi! Thik hu." This is it, without giving her any more chance to speak he just passes her. When a boy smiles and greets like that, it seems too heartless to pass without saying anything. It's more irritating because he amazes her the way he just greets her and passes. She can't even think badly of him, because he doesn't start talking to her make her uncomfortable with some other talk. He just…simply greets and goes. It bothers her. She never intended to even look at any boy. But this one, somehow he makes her miss that smile. Somehow his politeness bothers her without her wanting to be bothered. This feels irritatingly odd. She does not look at other boys, she is not even interested to know their names! But this boy!
"Tarika, skeleton hua answer ki? Perdyuman's voice brought her back to reality.
"H..han..jee she forwarded the copy to him.
"Hmm thik hai. Mere ghar mai toh aaplogoke class k students ko do batch mai padhata hun. Toh aap eek kam karna. Kal dusra batch ko bhi ye solve karne diya tha, toh Abhijeet ka answer mujhe bohot pasand aya tha. Aap uske answer zara le lena, thik hai? Perdyuman told her explaining.
"J..Jee sir. Main le lungi." She didn't know why, she didn't even want to, but feeling nervous she replied.
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After coming home, she was scrolling through her facebook. But Perdyuman's words kept reminding her she needs to ask Abhijeet to give her the answer. But she still has not accepted his request. Perdyuman's words of praise about Abhijeet kept ringing in her ears and she thought to herself, " Sir jiske baremain jo bolte hai wo sahi nikal ta hai. Aur upar se Abhijeet ko maine bhi dekha hai, sir jo bolte hai sab sach hai. Class mai response bhi karta hai bohot accha, aur behavior bhi….His bright smiling face and his manners and courtesies started flashing on front of her eyes again.
She opened the friend request menu and saw the unaccepted request from him. She opened facebook only for study purpose and she didn't want to add any boys form her class. But she is realizing now, this can't happen. In this class, she needs to add some boys after all.
Keeping all her thoughts aside, she hit the confirm button and received a message on messenger saying
"You and Abhijeet Srivastava are now connected on facebook. You can message and call each other now"
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A/N: So, this is the end of chapter you didn't find it too much boring. Really hoping that you all liked this chapter. Please let me know n the reviews.
Guest: Thank you so much. But dear, I already finished Eek tha raja eek tha raani. That story is not pending. It's already finished. Probably you didn't notice "The End" written at the bottom of the last chapter.
Mona: Thank you so much dear. Yes, I remember that story. I will try to continue that. You know I am back after a long time, and also I am into KDramas, so it's a bit hard to manage all in one head. Please give me some time dear.
: Oh thank you so much. Your words really increased my confidence level. I will try my best to keep writing.
kanizrini907: Thank you so much for your inspiring words dear. I need these type of words now to boost up my level of confidence. I really hope that I can continue writing.
ABHIRIKA JAI: Hey! Thanks dude.
Kamikaze Knight: Apuuuu apu apu apuuu :D :D :D we have already talked ;) ;D Thank you so much apu. Ypu my biggest and number 1 inspiration. Please be there for me. I need all kind of inspiration I can get to keep going. You know, abhirika fics and KDrama all in one head. So I need a little time to get back into my speed. Thank you apu, for your valuable words. Though I am not sure, but, hope I can fulfill the challenge I took.
And do you understand now why I said it's more comlicated than just facbook love? hehe
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Guest: Happy that you found it interesting. I hope I was not too late. Did you like this chapter?
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