Bittu Part 2

Part 1 here

continued...

But he promised to himself this was the last time he would be #2. Hel(L) would know only of Shekhar #1 (though he cringed inwardly at making himself sound like a David Dhawan movie). The first day at L was registration and section allotment. As he walked up to the registration desk, somebody tapped his shoulder from behind. When he turned back he saw it was a girl.  The girl said -Hi! Do you have pen to spare? I need it for just a minute. Bittu took out one of the pens, handed it to her, said - No sweat! and moved on to the join the queue.

Girls were a rare species in L, in fact they were rare in almost all fields of under-graduate and post-graduate studies except for medicine (only in India), and this could be very well understood from the stats which stood at 27 + 256 = 283. Where 27 being the number of girls, 256 being the number of guys and 283 the grand total of students in the class of 2009, IIM Lucknow. These stats would undergo some subtractions as hel(L) was notorious for chucking out students with poor academic record at term ends. But that is something that we need not concern ourselves, Bittu was in the positive tail of the normal curve. Academics would be the least of his preoccupations. Trust me on that.

Well, having registered himself he went ahead and joined his friends for remaining part of the pre-lunch registration session. During lunchtime he decided to skip lunch and go to the "Chintan Block" to collect his study material for the first trimester. Not that he was in a hurry and eager to start studying but he just wanted to avoid the rush that would be there later on. Actual studies would not begin for another two days as the first two days would be taken to prepare the students for the case method of studying. Right now most of the others had their nose buried in the sample case which would be taught in class today after lunch. That meant when the class would break for the day there would be a sudden surge in the Chintan block and getting your material would become a positive headache.

He was still a good 50 steps or so away from the counter but could still see that there was already somebody there collecting their material. He silently cursed himself, not #2 again, but he was not surprised, of course his was not the most original idea. What was interesting though was it was a girl at the counter, what were the odds he thought and then answered himself about - for: 1/9. The girl had obviously underestimated the the volume of books and notes that she was to receive and so had he. It would be difficult to carry all the books, nay impossible. He aborted the idea of collecting the books now and reminded himself to bring along the trolley suitcase when he comes later in the evening. He turned around and had taken only a few steps when he heard - Hey! Help please!. It was the girl at the counter asking for help with the books. I had no idea it would be so much, can you help me please? My hostel is closeby only. Up to the gate if you don't mind? Shekhar thought was this fate? Second time in a day some girl speaks to him. Well what the heck he thought, try karney mein kya jata hai, right? Shayad yahan #1 ho jaye? He walked up to her and tried his charming best - Serious miscalculation, huh? The girl smiled a very disarming smile and said - Totally! I should have listened to my boyfriend when he had warned - go prepared. He's an alum you know, 2007 batch. He is in Merrill right now, IB division. Shekhar mentally -KUNDA!!! boyfriend? aur karley try, kuch nahi hoga, verbally - Oh really! That's awesome, so a power couple, sahi! Let me help out with those, it's not a problem. About 10 mins. later they were standing in front of Hostel 1 - the girls hostel. He hesitated for a second as he stood at the gate, the girl sensing that said - It would be super helpful if you could just bring it up to my room. Anyways its cool here, boys can come in and go anytime of day and there is no guard also. And you can get your first peek inside the girl's hostel as well. This girl sure knew how to get work done by the guys. Anyways our hero Bittu didn't see any harm and came with the girl up to her room. That is when he heard - Ruchika! You got your books also? Right behind him was the same pen-girl he had seen in the morning. She recognized him immediately - Hey! You again, thanks for the pen in the morning. I couldn't give your pen back, you simply disappeared. I'm Cyra, Cyra Sahukar. Bittu, not used to so much of female company blurted out - I'm Bittu, I mean Shekhar. Cyra just smiled with raised eyebrows while Ruchika could managed to raise only one eyebrow and commented - Cute name! Thanks a ton for helping out. By the way which section? Bittu - D, what about you two? Cyra - D? That's quite a coincidence. So am I. And you too Ruchi, right? All in the same section. Ruchika - Small world. Cyra seemed to be in thought and then said - Am in room 119, next to Ruchi. See ya guys around, have to run for lunch.

to be continued... 
-