In half an hour they were ready with the first music piece. The list of
audience was big enough. Text books, incomplete projects and assignments, cough
syrups, Mannu's shoes peeping from beneath the almirah and his socks hanging
over them in such a fashion as if they had struggled hard for their seat and
have finally landed on the shoes to watch this concert. They were the first
seat spectators. Mannu sang and played it around sixteen times and every time
he did so, there was a sense of achievement rather than just the striking of
chords and throwing out his crunched voice. They even missed dinner.
Happiness and future glory were much more immense than hunger. Mannu
picked out some eatables from the almirah that Mrs. K had packed with clear
instructions to distribute them as little as possible. They ate all the packets
of biscuits and drank water, adding orange flavoured squash, and again they
were practising. Mannu played as much as he missed Pia. She had only messaged
once to confirm whether Mannu got the gift or not. He had no words, not even a
’No’ to reply.
It was 4 am. Playing the six strings with only four little fingers, the
pain in his palm had reached saturation. Mannu put the guitar aside, set the
alarm for 8:30 am and turned off the lamps.
“Good night Nitesh.” Mannu spoke while switching off the tube light. His
silence gave Mannu the answer that he was already asleep.
No one has ever won the race against time. Even the most opulent fail to
purchase a lost moment. The clock showed three am. Was it real? Mannu didn’t
know. The Alumni meet was to start from nine am and Mannu was lost in his
virtual world, picturing the audience, the sounds of claps and whistles and the
smile on every face that his performance would deliver.
The lower part of Mannu's leg was entangled in Nitesh’s quilt. But how
could he MNM be in a quilt at the stage? So, where was he? Mannu's eyes opened
wide as if a second spirit had entered his body. Infront of him were the ceiling
fan, the cobwebs and the yellow painted walls of his room 510. In an abrupt
motion of consciousness Mannu searched for his cell phone to check the time.
Under the pillow or inside the pillow cover? Mannu searched every nook and
cranny of his bed and quilt, but found it nowhere. He was choking, sweating and
searching for my it like a dog searching for a bone in a heap of mud. The time
was 9:30 am when he finally found it under the bed. He shook Nitesh.
Surprisingly, he woke up at once, but it was already too late. Mannu clearly
knew why this had occurred. They both had a common habit. Mannu slept more when
he found Nitesh sleeping and he did the same.
“We’re late!” Mannu exclaimed, scratching his head.
“What!” He jumped up whilst throwing these words out.
Holding on to their hanging heads they sighed, but it was momentary as
two minds are always better than one. Every guy in the hostel had a common
cosmetic product. A facewash! It gave the complete after effect of a body wash
and saved a bucket of minutes.
In fifteen minutes Mannu was on the stairs to the auditorium, aka ODDY.
Only the odd ones out got an opportunity to perform there.
It was an audience of around two hundred and all the eyes turned towards
him as entered the ODDY. Mannu wasn’t very sure whether their looks were for
him or on his Gibson guitar? Or was the turning of heads due to a delayed
entry? Mannu kept a narrow look and went straight to Gargi who had the program
list.
"When is mine?"Mannu enquired, bending close to Fargo's
cheeks.
"Still time. First register yourself." Gargi informed Mannu,
pointing his name in the list. Mannu eyed the stage for his first concert.
No comments:
Post a Comment