Manjha A String of Complicated Relations

The Long Overdue Conversation

It was a brand new day and Shambhavi was a bit nervous but she was ready. She had faced so much in her life. She could face this too. So, with that thought, she went to her drills. A look around the field told her that Yash Vashisht was not going to be at that drill. She let out a breath of relief.

Halfway through the drill and she knew that he was indeed watching her but she would not let it deter her.

Yash was hidden but he knew that Shambhavi had sensed him watching. He hadn't meant to watch her. He was just on his own run when he saw the senior class was having their drills, so he stopped in his tracks and watched. Finally, he spotted her.

He watched his little girl go about the drill as if it was a piece of cake and he was in awe of her. A few tears leaked out of his eyes. He was proud, so proud, and he was sure that Sakshi would be proud of her as well.

He had to start that day's classes, so he left the drill.

Shambhavi knew the exact moment when Yash stopped watching her. She was surprised he did not come forward.

She focussed on her drill and afterwards, she was ready to face him, right?

The notice board had a clear notice that Aniket's classes would be taken over by Brigadier Yash Vashisht.

Brigadier! Shambhavi remembered him as Lieutenant Colonel. Wow! It had been so long.

She shook her head and waited for the time she would see him. She went on to eat her breakfast.
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The whole class was waiting for the new guest lecturer. It had been five minutes since the class started. Suddenly, a ball of paper landed on Shreya and she looked around to see Anant sitting right behind her and immediately assumed that it was Anant or one of the boys. The boys denied and the rest of the class joined in the discussion. Everyone had their own opinion. Shreya threw the paper at Anant who dodged it.

The paper hit someone else and that started another argument, only this time there was less talking and more throwing balls of paper. Before anyone could have comprehended, the classroom was a battlefield with paper bombs flying left, right and center. Some comrades fell with a paper ball to their eyes, some to their heads, but others fought valiantly.

Shambhavi just sat back and watched on amused at the fight. Anisha was trying her best to stop Shreya and Anant who looked just about ready to kill each other. Things in the class seemed to get out of hand. That was when Yash entered and everybody shut up instantly.

"Don't stop on my account. It was quite an entertaining thing to watch. No other classes fought so well," Yash said, taking support against the front of the teacher's desk.

Everyone at least had the decency to go back to their seats and looked a bit ashamed. Yash looked around with a smile on his face and Shambhavi knew.

"So can someone tell me where the first paper ball came from?" Yash asked the class.

Everyone immediately blew up, throwing accusations on each other. Shambhavi was enjoying all of it and she knew this was a class. She also knew the answer to the question. So, she thought, why not?

"It came from the outside," she said in a low voice, hoping that Yash would not notice her voice amongst the others.

"What was that, Miss Vyas?" Yash asked Shambhavi to clarify what she had just said, showing a hand up in the air to the rest of the class.

All of them had their eyes on Shambhavi now. Some were curious, some were glaring at her, asking her to take their side in the ongoing argument.

Clearing her throat, Shambhavi said, "It was no one from the inside of the class, Sir. The first paper ball that hit Shreya was actually thrown from the outside. It hit the side of her head and not the back. So, it came in from the direction of the back door and no one in the class threw the first ball."