When a Lawyer Falls in Love (4 page)

Caroline was tall, Ankur noticed. It would have helped, he thought, in implanting the idea of climbing to the first floor of the hostel, into her head.

‘But nobody caught you…? The watchman?’ asked Ankur, intrigued.

‘No child, there was no watchman!’ replied Caroline, in her Anglo-Indian lingo. Ankur had the sudden urge to disappear. Caroline, with a five foot, eight inch frame, made Ankur feel dwarfed already, without having to be referred to as a ‘child’.

‘Vyas should be coming now,’ he said, more to himself than her.

Ankur was tempted to ask Caroline to climb back and wait in the cupboard. Being caught with a girl in the hostel was not the best answer to his dreams of being relieved of the study load. Even as Ankur was thinking of other polite things to say, like requesting Caroline to climb out of the window, the door suddenly opened. Ankur and Caroline gave a start as Vyas who walked into the room, suddenly stopped.

‘Caroline!’ he said, as he came towards her, wondering if it was actually his hostel room.

‘Caroline…what are you doing here?’ he asked, concerned. It was a rather valid question considering that it was a boys’ hostel. Then, regardless of his one member audience, he came over and hugged his girlfriend.

‘I thought I’d surprise you,’ said Caroline, breaking into a sob.

Vyas still had her in his arms as he planted a spontaneous kiss on her head.

‘I think I should be leaving...,’ Ankur declared awkwardly, his right as sole roommate, temporarily usurped.

Ankur closed the door behind him as he stepped into the quiet corridor.

Five

‘It’s not fair! Just why does everyone crack jokes at the expense of lawyers?’ asked Sonali, grumbling to Ankur one evening as they strolled towards the canteen. The girl simply loved to argue; she was without a doubt in the right profession.

‘People crack jokes at the expense of lawyers because lawyers are an expense to society,’ Ankur said and proceeded to laugh at his own joke.

‘Shut up! Thanks to you, all lawyers are considered lunatics, when in fact, we are the legal brains of the country,’ Sonali said, indignantly.

‘Oh really?’ countered Ankur. ‘So the rest have illegal brains, is it?’

‘In your case, definitely!’ Sonali replied, ‘Okay let me start by asking you your opinion on the National Trade Deficit.’

‘National Trade Deficit,’ Ankur repeated and pretended to think. ‘I understand all the three words, but put them together, and they don’t make sense!’

‘Just like the grey cells in your head,’ his friend said, giggling.

They had reached the canteen by then and Sonali selfconsciously, decided to walk into the place first. ‘Excuse me, didn’t know we had a race going to reach there first,’ Ankur protested, suddenly finding himself trailing.

‘Not that silly. Just that it’s best that a guy and a girl should avoid being seen together alone,’ said Sonali, making herself comfortable on the red plastic chairs. The rest of the gang was to join them shortly but Ankur was glad that he was getting to spend some time alone with Sonali before the crowd and the cacophony descended.

‘Girl?!! Where’s the girl?’ Ankur promptly asked,pretending to look around, but seeing her bored expression, quickly added, ‘Why did you say that; are you embarrassed to be seen with me?’ Ankur tried his best to keep his tone casual yet it somehow hurt him to think that Sonali would not like to be seen in his company.

‘It’s not that…just, you know how people are…the moment they see a guy and a girl hang out together alone, even if there is nothing, they start teasing,’ said Sonali, distractedly looking about.

‘Which women’s magazine do you subscribe to?’ Ankur asked suddenly, and before Sonali could put words to the quizzical expression in her eyes, he explained, ‘You ought to feature in the Agony Aunt column!’

‘I know,’ Sonali agreed. ‘Dealing with you is nothing short of agony!’ And then she asked abruptly, ‘Tell me, do you believe in re-birth?’

Ankur knotted his eyebrows, amused. ‘Am I supposed to believe in it?’ he said, as he pondered over what could have triggered such a queer topic.

‘Well, I’ve undergone a past life regression therapy,’ Sonali said, a little dreamily. ‘We have actually known each other from a different incarnation.’

‘Possible,’ Ankur said, breaking into a nervous laugh. ‘Such idiocy can’t be collected in one lifetime.’

Then clearing his throat, Ankur ventured to ask, ‘Okay so what was I in my previous birth?’

Ankur purposely chose a jocular tone, except that he sounded more like he was enquiring about the evening show at the local theatre. After all, he expected that he would be told that he had been a playful raccoon or a baboon that fell out of a tree before its time.

‘I won’t tell you your past, but in the future, you’ll abandon law and set up a firm that will be a global brand some day. Even your astrological chart says so,’ Sonali said, looking into the distance. Ankur felt uneasy each time Sonali began to talk like this. Forget astrological charts, at times like this, Ankur wanted to see Sonali’s mental health chart.

‘Why do you make such a special effort to sound creepy when you are naturally scary?’ Ankur asked. ‘And how do you know all this—tarot cards are not part of our prescribed syllabus,’ Ankur said, the only one snickering at his own joke.

‘Meditate, and the answers shall come to you,’ said Sonali so softly, that Ankur felt he was sitting before an oracle. Ankur was convinced. When it came to Sonali, only superlatives applied. Everything about the girl was supernatural. If there was ever to be a theatre production of
Macbeth
, Sonali could effortlessly play the role of all three witches. Suddenly pointing to a thumb nail sized airplane in the sky, Ankur announced, ‘I think we ought to hide.’

‘Why?’asked Sonali, both puzzled and amused.

‘See, if the pilot in that plane looks out from his cock pit and sees just the two of us together…what will he think?’ Ankur completed with a laugh.

Sonali sighed. And smiled.

Six

‘I AM NOT FAT. Ankur, repeat after me,’ Sonali said, breaking into a giggle. ‘Positive affirmation Anks, yes you can do it.’ The pretty Gujarati girl was now laughing out loud. The young lawyers were sitting in class during the break with Ankur’s portly frame perched on the desk adjacent to Sonali.

Ankur tried not to look amused. Yet his tubby paunch seemed to amuse Sonali.

‘Tell me, have you always been so idiotic? Or is it an acquired art?’ Ankur asked.

‘Actually it requires hours of practice,’ Sonali said, choking over a cough induced by too much laughing. ‘But now since I’m in your company, it comes naturally,’ she said, ready to be in splits all over again.

‘Listen lady, not so long ago, I was quite slim,’ Ankur protested, making Sonali laugh even harder.

‘Why is it that all fat people always claim to have been thin!’ said Sonali, giggling and wagging her little finger. Ankur was forced to smile.

‘I give up,’ he said, sighing and grinning simultaneously. Sonali was without a doubt in an unusually buoyant mood. And it was hopeless to argue with her. She kept chuckling to herself and giggling almost as though she had swallowed a laughing gas cylinder. It irritated Ankur, yet it was a lot better than seeing Sonali in one of her
moods
. And Ankur had definitely seen a lot of those moods of hers, from which he hadn’t known whether to run or hide!

Quite recently, when Ankur had boarded a choked bus, Sonali, had quickly managed to elbow through the herd and create room for the two of them.

An over enthusiastic Romeo tried keeping himself entertained by swaying too close to Sonali with every bump of the bus. If only he had known of the trouble that he was inviting upon himself! At one point, Ankur stepped up and was about to corner the fellow when Sonali signalled to him with her eyes to stop. Midway through the journey, the fiery female lawyer, having endured enough, decided to take matters into her own hands.

Quite literally. Without any warning, she simply turned and landed a sharp slap onto the unsuspecting cheek of the startled fellow. The slap—crisp and loud—created enough commotion among the sardine-like packed passengers, and managed to bring the bus to a screeching halt.

‘Let’s go for a walk. You need some exercise,’ Ankur was suddenly shaken out of his thoughts by Sonali as she shook him. ‘Exercise!’ emphasised the pretty, self-declared fitness instructor, nudging him, and sauntering out of the class leisurely, as if a tourist on a sightseeing tour. Ankur hurried after her. They had hardly reached the road facing the ground floor classroom, when a cat darted across the road.

‘Ankur!’ Sonali shrieked, almost going into a spasm. ‘I want a kitten, I want a kitten!’

It took a second for Ankur to register what was happening. Sonali specialised in this. She could flit from one topic to another and with such abruptness, that he was glad he didn’t suffer from any cardio-vascular diseases.

‘You want a kitten?’ asked Ankur incredulously. ‘What do I look like…a pregnant cat?’

Sonali giggled. ‘The thing I like best about you is that you always make me laugh…especially when it comes to your intelligence,’ Sonali said, turning to look at her bespectacled male buddy.

‘But you seriously want a pet? You can adopt me instead,’ Ankur volunteered, grinning.

‘No thanks!’ Sonali said, turning down the gallant offer. ‘In fact now that you admit that you resemble a expectant cat, at least from certain angles, maybe I should drop you off at Blue Cross.’

‘Not fair! Here I’m talking of being your pet and you treat me like I’m a pest,’ Ankur said, almost whining.

‘Okay then you are my pet. But I’ll have to get you a doggy collar first,’ Sonali said playfully.

‘I don’t mind,’ replied Ankur, rather earnestly.

Sonali was forced to smile. Almost slipping her arm through Ankur’s, the Leo lady casually asked, almost in a childlike voice, ’So does my Arien, the Ram, promise to be a little lamb and follow me forever and ever…?’

Ankur turned to look sideways at his best friend, and answered, smiling broadly, ‘I do, I do, I do!’

Seven

Rohit Randhwah? The very name sounded like a slap. A fourth year student now, the new and improved version of a contact lens wearing Ankur, was sitting in the canteen with Vyas. The lanky Vyas who resembled the straw he was drinking from, had just informed his chubby roommate of the likelihood of a certain Ms Sonali Shah being in a steady relationship with one of the most disagreeable elements in class. Vyas was hardly the kind to be an agent in the transmission of the pollen grain of gossip, so Ankur was actually worried.

‘They did their internship together last summer. They’ve been seeing each other since,’ said Vyas, as he proceeded to make annoying, gurgling sounds with his straw and what was left of his drink. Ankur’s face contorted, bothwith the noise and the news. He suddenly wanted to reach out and tear all the tissue papers that stood in front of him, neatly arranged in a glass.

‘But how can you be so sure? I did my internship with Jaishree, but I’m not seeing her!’ blurted Ankur, ready to let lose the dam of his Arien temper on the hapless Vyas.

‘Listen, everybody in class knows. Everybody, except you, evidently!’ replied Vyas, who having just finished his drink, was ready to bite into a hot samosa.

‘What are you saying? We hardly see Rohit in class!’ shot back Ankur, visibly irritated.

‘That’s the point!’ Vyas replied calmly, ‘Sonali used to skip unimportant classes to do research; now she skips research to do unimportant work!’

‘Listen…are you like, really sure? I have to ask Sonali about this,’ said Ankur in a slightly desperate voice, his sense of reasoning returning.

‘What will you ask her?’ Vyas asked, noticing that Ankur had not touched his drink.

‘What you just told me,’ Ankur answered, making Vyas sit up.

‘Please don’t. I’ll be murdered right here, in this law college!’ pleaded the till-now unruffled Vyas.

‘I mean it’s true, right?’ asked Ankur, confused.

‘Yeah, but, Sonali may not like the fact that I told you about it,’ said Vyas hastily, putting the rest of the samosa in his mouth and wiping his greasy fingers on a paper napkin.