Monday, December 28, 2009

The Trip to Maitree

So one drab day of us practically nodded off in class. No guesses required for this, it was the social formations class which could put even a tree to sleep. Various plans shot across such as 'lets go to City Cafe', or lets go to 'Brown Sugar". I was game for both, considering the fact that I was dying to miss my tutorial.
Devika and Ranjana couldn't come for either, because they had to go for their 'Leaders for Tomorrow' saga. It was an NGO which seemed to suck every ounce of free time from them. Devika mournfully said,
"We have to round up people for the NGO from Maitree College."
Anandi piped up,
"Oh, I will come with you! I have a friend to meet in Maitree!"
Like a hapless puppy, I jumped up at the opportunity to go out and miss the tutorial and I said,
"I'll come too!"
The four of us were about to cheerfully set off when we were accosted by URay and the looming tutorial. Luckily for us, the tutorial ended quickly and we all quickly dashed out before any other teachers could attack us for an extra class.
We decided to take the bus. Anandi had kittens when she heard about this idea, as she had once had a bad experience. We, like true comrades promised to protect her...or rather whatever was in our capacity. So we invaded the first bus which came by. I was pushed to the first free seat I saw, and the other three managed to get seats at the back.
From what I heard, a man with a burnt hand was in front of them, and was unfortunately dangling it in front of them. Anandi and Ranjana stared horrorstruck whereas Devika looked blissfully on. Anandi was confused. Here was a girl who normally freaked out about the most normal things, and now was complacent when faced with something frightening and gory. It turned out that Devika hadn't noticed. Anandi nudged Devika in that direction, and Devika had a million mini fits at once.
The bus ride ended in twenty minutes, and all of us got off relieved for different reasons. Just as all of were walking, Devika squealed in excitement and said,
"Oh look! There is an escalator in the middle of the road!"
All of us were truly fascinated by this. Being Devika and the paparazzi she was, she instantly clicked a picture of it.
After a long winding walk to look for the Maitree college, we finally found it. This walk was punctuated by Anandi's "I have to get back by 3" chant.
It turned out that Anandi's friend was not there, so we sat and watched Devika and Ranjana capturing innocent students from the college and 'inducting them into the NGO' in Devika's words. There were some interesting cases who ran off and really got under Ranjana's skin.
For every person they had to repeat themselves. So by the end of it, I learnt their speech by heart. During the last ten minutes, Anandi and I were busy clicking pictures.
Finally it was 2:45, and Anandi's fever about getting back by 3 rose to a peak. After arguing with a million autos, we finally got one...well as Anan had turned blue in the face. So for her sake, we paid eighty rupees when it should have been just sixty.
But anyway, I loved the day. it was one of the best college days ever :D

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