Episode 5: The C tutorial

Thank you Srirang for the 'plane flying below the moon' idea.

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"Butterscotch Cornetto"
"Chocolate nuts Cornetto"
"Chocolate?"
"Yup! I love chocolate!"
"Girls like chocolate."
"Guys do too. BTW, what's great about butter scotch?"
"Its the best flavor for an ice-cream, haven't you tasted it?"
"Nope. As a kid I used to think the ice-cream had alcohol in it, butter with scotch! You see, I don't really want to get drunk and lose my senses."
Natasha laughed.
"That's so lame, Parth!"

We walked back on the road leading to the hostels while eating our ice-creams.
OMG, she looked so cute while eating the ice-cream.

"Hey, that's Venus over there." I pointed out to a lighted celestial object in the sky which didn't twinkle.
"Venus is visible just after sunset, its past 11 pm now." She said and smiled at me.
"I see. It must be Saturn then." I said and shrugged. Suddenly I saw an airplane approaching the moon and the line of trajectory it followed suggested me that it would come directly below the moon. I had seen this beautiful spectacle before!
"Hey Natasha, look up at the plane." I pointed at the dark silhouette of an airplane slowly approaching. She looked up and stopped, didn't move for a few seconds.
I saw the moonlight fall on her, after the plane had passed from below the moon. I felt the same way I felt when I saw her jogging, I felt I could live with that moment for the rest of my life. Before I could absorb her beauty in the moonlight, she looked at me and said, "That was lovely, Parth!"

"Parth, dude, class is over!" Arun pats me. I see all the students walking out of the class. I had spent the whole class thinking about my time with Natasha last night!

Today, all my efforts to avert the C tutorial session are in vain.
Plan A: I call in sick. The Professor doesn't accept the excuse, suggests I do a video-conference or take the tutorial the next day. :(
Plan B: To think of another plan.
A light bulb lights in my mind, I remember a chat done with an alumni a couple of weeks ago. And I have another plan.

Later that morning, at UG1 lab, which I visit as a volunteer to help some students with their PCs, I sense her walking towards me stealthily while I am installing Karmic Koala (latest Ubuntu OS) and feel her poke on my shoulder.
"Hi! You must be a labcom (a person from UG1 who has prior experience in handling PCs, and could help his batchmates who are new to PCs), could you please help me? I installed Linux, then I installed Windows and now I can't find the Linux I had installed." Her mannerism is completely formal, as if she is talking to me for the first time. But her tantalizing smile doesn't give me chance to think much about anything at all! I leave that guy's PC and go to help her!

At 4 pm, when I walk into Seminar Hall 2, the chattering ceases and murmurs start at some parts of the class, while others simply stare at me. With my body sweating profusely, I take a deep breath and in a harsher voice, I start the tutorial.

The moment I sit across her in the library, after dinner that night, she scribbles a note and passes it to me.

Hey, I didn't see you in the tutorial today.

Yeah, I missed it, slept off.

I scribble in short, and keep my reply to a minimum and don't look at her.
She scribbles real quick.

The tutor looked hilarious wearing a monkey cap and a jacket in the month of August. Oh and yeah, he wore black specs and also had spots on his face! He looked like a complete clown!

I look at her, she looks amused.

I want to know everything! :)

And as she narrates me her experience at the tutorial, I remember about the chat with the alumni. He asked for my suggestion for a disease that doesn't affect his health but renders him useless to work. After some discussion, he suggests conjunctivitis but finds something better! I use this one. Chicken pox easily conceals one's looks, so I used this one as well.

But honestly, people did stare at me while I walked from my hostel to Seminar Hall 2.

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