Joy and Jill

Woodbridge College is the trendiest college in town. The students of
this college are not merely good at studies. These bright boys and
girls are into debating, dramatics, music, dancing and much more. The
boys play soccer, squash and cricket. The girls participate in table
tennis, lawn tennis and squash. In fact the girls are better at squash
than the boys. However, the nerve-centre of student life at Woodbridge
is the cafeteria. It is the only place in Calcutta where you get a
cutting of tea and coffee. If you cannot afford to buy a whole cup of
tea or coffee you buy a cutting. A cutting is nothing but half a cup of
warm, invigorating tea or coffee. It is not clear why a cutting is
so-called. But, to the cafeteria. The place has twenty round tables.
And to each table there are five chairs. Officially, all students are
supposed to stay in the gender-specific common rooms when they are
free. That is, either when there is a break between classes or a
particular lecturer is absent. But the common room is almost always
empty. The only time students come to the common room is during
'Woodstock', the college festival. Then, it is their duty to organize
the immensely popular festival. At all other times most students live
in the cafeteria. It's quite convenient actually. The three departments
in the college-arts, science and commerce divide the day into three
parts. The commerce department holds classes from six am. The arts
department starts classes after commerce has its turn and ends by one
pm. The rest of the day is used by the science department. No single
department has enough students to fill up the cafeteria at any one
time. Naturally, students like to eat sandwiches and gulp down cups of
coffee while discussing life while they are in the cafeteria. It is
August now. A new group of first year chemistry major students have
just begun attending classes. The third year students think they are
the supreme beings and expect to be treated thus by the new group. Joy
is quite the leader of the third year students. He is financing his own
education through a government scholarship. He comes to college on a
shabby-looking motorbike. All the students of Chemistry department are
sitting in the cafeteria. They are talking loudly. The maitre de is
trying to silence the students but is not very successful. A
quiet-looking girl enters the cafteria. Joy, who is in a boisterous
mood shouts out, "There she is, there she comes." The girl is a little
surprised, even shocked. She recovers to talk, "Hello, friends I am
Jill from the first year. I have joined college today and I want to be
friends with all of you." The rest of the people pretended not to hear
her and continued their discussions. Joy seemed to like the girl. He
got up from his chair and offered it to her. The girl smiled and sat
next to him. Joy asked the girl what her hobbies were. Jill said,
"Music." "What kind of music?" said Joy. "O, I?." Before Jill could
complete the sentence Joy began shouting, "She sings. She sings. Guys,
we have a singer in our midst. Come on kid, sing us a song." Jill's
face indicated that she was about to cry. She began to say, "But I
don't?" But Joy was adamant. He went on to say, "O, come on kid, don't
be so coy. Sing us your best song?" Jill protested "But I play the
violin." By this time Joy and his friends had began to clap and shout,
"A song, a song, a song?" Jill burst into tears and left the cafeteria
feeling very insulted indeed. In the next three months Joy and Jill
became good friends. Joy still played numerous pranks on Jill. But Jill
discovered that he was a serious student. He helped her with question
papers and notes, two things the students surely could not do without.
Jill drove to college in a swanky-looking car. Joy lived in the same
area and was often seen to follow Jill's car on his motorcycle. Jill
never asked Joy to join him in the car. But Joy repeatedly requested
Jill to ride pillion with him. This suggestion she constantly
negated.
Three months into the new academic year was the time for the annual
dance to happen. All the boys asked the girls they liked to the dance.
Joy was popular enough to go to the dance with any girl he wanted to.
But he chose to ask Jill. Though they were good friends Jill
disappointed him with a no. Joy refused to go to the dance with anyone
else. In the end Jill found that the other boys saw him as Joy's girl
and so she said yes to Joy. If she did not do this she ran the risk of
being the only wallflower in the gathering. The dance was great. The
boys and girls enjoyed their closeness thoroughly. All through the
dance Joy and Jill were inseparable. The event was supposed to happen
between seven pm and ten pm. At exactly ten pm, the door of the hall
opened. It was the signal from the college authorities that it was time
to leave. Joy had come to the dance in his father's car. He was the
first to leave. When he saw Jill coming out of the hall, he grabbed her
arm. "Let's go," he said. "Go where?" Jill protested. "Wherever I tell
you to!" was what Joy had to say. He drove to a Public Works Department
accommodation a few kilometres outside Calcutta city. He bribed the
caretaker to acquire a room. Joy and Jill entered the room and Joy
closed the door. "What are you doing?" Jill protested. "O, come on kid,
don't tell me you really don't know what I am doing." "But we are still
in college," Jill said, "We have to get married." "Aha, kid, will you
marry me?" Joy said. "Why, of course," Jill said. Joy asked, "Can I
kiss you, Jill?" It was the first time Joy had called her by her name.
Joy and Jill were about to lock their lips together when there was a
knock on the door. It was Jill's father. He had a gun and he took Jill
away. Joy was lucky that he was not sent to jail. At the end of the
academic year Joy took his B.Sc Exam. He secured a first class and was
able to get a good job. He met Jill's parents and formally asked them
for their daughter's hand. He was bluntly told that Jill was already
engaged to a famous cricketer. There was just one way out. About ten of
Jill's girlfriends visited Jill. They asked her parents if she could go
to a film with them. Jill's father believed that there was safety in
numbers. So Jill did go out for the film. She met Joy near Metro Plaza.
Later that day Joy and Jill were married. They were happy to become man
and wife.