Chapter 56: The Memory of School (2)
But before Samer could utter a word to her, class teacher came inside. Mrs Kapoor was an English teacher in her fiftees. She had already taught the same batch before and hence it didn't take much time for her to recognize the new student.
She pointed her finger towards Ira and called her.
Ira came and stood beside teacher. Samer looked at Ira and once again their eyes met. He really found her so scared. For some unknown reason he really wanted to take her away from the class and comfort her.
Teacher said in her tough voice "Introduce yourself."
Ira pursed her lips and introduced herself in a very simple way "Good morning everyone.. My name is Ira Bhagat.."
Teacher didn't want to spend so much time on Ira asking more questions, for her this student look so timid and scared.
"This is your first day. You should sit at the front benches to acquaint yourself with others."
Then teacher pointed at one of the student sitting in front of Samer "Lucky you go and sit with Amar. Ira you take your bag and sit with Amaira."
A smile formed on Samer's face 'Great! Now I can I have my eyes on her.' he thought.
Ira nodded and shifted to the said place.
Everyone's eyes were on her as if they were looking at something they hadn't seen before. It might even be true. Since everyone belonged to the prestigious families, they had only seen students who take care more of their image than anything else.
When she sat beside the girl named Amaira, Amaira placed her fingers on her nose as if she was smelling some rotten thing.
Everyone laughed looking at Amaira's reaction. Samer really felt bad when he saw this. He signalled Tina to stop laughing. When this was so humiliating for him, how must have Ira felt?
He could see Ira maintaining a distance between her and Amaira. From this he could guess, how everyone's behaviour was affecting her.
Few lectures were already over. And his line of sight would frequently fell on her. Her focus was only on the teacher and books in front of her as if trying to catch up everything the teacher was teaching.
During lunch break when everyone went to canteen to eat their tiffin or to eat something from canteen itself, Ira remained in her position. History book was in front of her.
Samer wanted to say some few words to her, but he felt weird to talk with her under such circumstances.
Tina took him in the canteen where they sat in group and started eating. For some unknown reason he wanted to know if Ira had brought anything to eat or not.
He ate few bites, finally couldn't stop himself and said "I am feeling full Tina. You continue eating with them."
Without giving her the time to react, he packed his tiffin and went inside the class.
Ira was alone sitting still inside the classroom as if in daze.
Samer stopped right in front of her. He placed his tiffin on her table and said "Here. Eat this."
Ira looked at him, surprised and shocked both. She then utter "I am not hungry."
Samer furrowed his brows, took his tiffin and then said "Come and follow me."
He reached towards the door and looked back at still Ira "Hurry up!"
It was only then, when Ira stood up from her place and followed him outside the class.
After going up certain floors, they reached on the top of open and empty terrace.
"No one comes here. Whenever I feel sad and alone I come here." He said while arranging some wooden blocks "Now come and let's eat together. I am very hungry."
He opened his tiffin and signalled Ira to take her seat.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked with her hoarse voice, he could see some traces of moisture in her eyes.
'Why I am doing this? Even I don't know. It's just somewhere on the left side of my chest I felt pain when I saw how conflicted you are.'
"Because we are friends. And I don't left my friends alone." Samer could only say this.
Ira sat but she still didn't touch the food. Samer again urged her to start eating.
"About that day, it was really awkward between us. I never thought that we would meet under such circumstances. Let's just forget that and be friends." Obviously Ira knew that he was talking about their first embarrasing encounter. That time she really acted bold and shameless. And see this time, she didn't have any words to say.
He stopped and again said "My name is Samer Moon. You can also call me Sam."
Usually Samer didn't allow any random person to call him as Sam. Only few including his very close friends and his family could call him by that name. But he didn't knew why he allowed her. They only met now yet he felt a lot more warmer with her than with anyone else.
"I am Ira."
"I already know." he said while smiling.
Samer took his first bite and again reminded her to eat something.
"So do you like your new school?" Samer asked her suddenly.
Ira gulped her bite and then replied "I was very excited first. But the environment here is so different than what I had been in. Till now I have only studied in Marathi(1) medium school. So it's difficult for me to catch up with the speed where everyone speaks English so fluently."
Now Samer understood why she gave such a short introduction of her.
"You will get used to it soon. It's not very difficult actually. You can always ask me for any type of help." he smiled at her.
"Thank you."
When they finished eating, Samer gave her a cadbury "Eat this also."
Ira hesitated first but eventually accepted it.
(1)- Marathi is a language spoken in Maharashtra state of India, while Marathi Medium schools are those schools where every subject is taught in Marathi and a very little attention is given to English.
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