Yin-Yang

Jit was always there. By this I mean he was the sort who never made
any difference. None at all. He was not handsome. He was not ugly
either. He just did not stand out. You saw him in the morning at
school. He would attend classes with you all day. He was not good at
any subject. Social work maybe. At the end of the day we all went to
the school compound and waited for the school bus to fill up. We were
the seniors and would be the last to board the bus. The bus I took
traveled through Lake Gardens. Jit's bus moved through Belvedere. Till
I started going by school bus I had no interest in Jit. He was just a
faceless co-student. But then I started meeting him while waiting for
the bus. It did not make a difference though. But Jit wanted to talk.
He wanted to speak to anybody he met. In those days the person we
always talked about was Pauline. We were in the tenth grade, all of us.
And she was in the seventh. According to rumour she had failed twice in
the sixth grade. But that was immaterial. She was pretty, very pretty.
In fact boys from all over the school would gather in the compound to
watch her board her bus. It was the same one in which Jit
traveled.
That day was a Monday. A perfectly ordinary day. We were discussing the
latest film release when Jit appeared. He was grinning from ear to ear.
'Hi guys' he said. 'Do you know what happened yesterday?' he
questioned. 'What?' said I, out of decency and nothing else. He went
on, 'Yesterday Pauline and I were standing next to each other in the
bus. The driver braked and what do you know Pauline fell on me. That
fellow Jon from eleventh grade said hey Jity Pauline is now your wife.'
As Jit said this his eyes were gleaming. To egg him on I said, 'So
Pauline is your wife now!' Jit seemed to take me seriously and uttered,
'You bet!' That day onwards till I last saw him he referred to Pauline
as 'My wife'. We found this funny but felt that it was of no use trying
to explain to him what we felt. School was about to close for winter.
One morning Jit rang me up. He wanted to tell me about a dream he had
the night before. I asked him to wait till I got to school. During the
break the whole class gathered around him. He related the events of his
dream in great excitement. He said that he had dreamt that he was
dancing with 'his wife' all night long. We asked him what kind of dance
it was. He said he knew nothing about any kind of dance. Nevertheless
he was happy to have been in her intimate presence. We were beginning
to feel bad for him. Somehow Pauline became aware of his weakness for
her. She asked him to do errands for her and more. If she needed to
make notes from a particular textbook she would give him the name of
the book. He would borrow the book, even buy it at times. He would stay
up all night copying notes. My friends told me that Pauline would not
even thank him for his pains. She admired a particular film star. Often
Jit would buy that star's glossy photographs at premium and present
them to Pauline. That was the only time Pauline condescended to smile
for him. The whole affair had a tragic end. The end of the academic
year was approaching. Pauline told Jit that she wanted to go out with
him on the day the promotion results were declared. Jit seemed to be
the happiest person in the world. He bought a new wardrobe for the
occasion. He was unable to sleep all night in anticipation of the
private meeting with Pauline. The exam results were made known. After
many years Jit secured good grades. But there was disappointment in
store for him. At four pm he was summoned to Pauline's residence.
Pauline was waiting with a huge suitcase. With Jit's help the luggage
was loaded into a car. Pauline drove off never to be seen again. It was
later known that Pauline had failed in every subject in the examination
and would be asked to leave the school. Jit grieved for a while and
gradually became as boring as before.