"No, both of us are from here, "Tanya and Illahi both exclaimed together.
Earlier it was only tanya searching for Jahaan Mehta on the entire campus but now illahi had also joined her in it. After wandering for about 15 minutes, both of them headed to the cafeteria. illahi was mad and tired.
"This boy will never be found. To find him we'll have to sort out a full-fledged plan and to do that I need to eat something or else my brains will not work,"illahi exclaimed.
tanya also related to her situation and replied, "Okay then, let's do one thing, let's sit here in the cafeteria and order something to eat. And we can think of where we could find Jahaan ." As she said this her stomach growled looking at the snacks placed at the opposite table. Saying this both of them walked towards the cafeteria booth.
illahi and tanya took one of the tables and settled down. They were talking among themselves like detectives and having their food at the same time. They were figuring out ways in which they could get a hold of jahaan . After putting the last piece of chips in her mouth, illahi spoke, "Take a look at his physique, he looks like a sportsperson, if he's really into sports he'll probably be in the sports complex". tanya too finished her last bite and replied, "He might as well be there, he's not here in the cafeteria."
illahi then gave it some thought and said, "What other places do children like to visit?"
Suddenly Tanya's eyes grew wide with excitement. She looked at illahi and squealed. "Library!" she stated with excitement. Hearing her, illahi too stood up from her seat instantly. " Oh yes, library, why didn't we think of this earlier? I'm sure your God of solutions will be sitting in some corner of the library reading solutions to specific problems" illahi chuckled.
Both of them quickly packed their bags and moved towards the library. As they walked towards the library tanya recalled her conversation with Jordan.
"Ahh jordan , the third ranker.. he also said that Jahaan usually goes to the library to study" tanya shared with illahi. Both of them rushed towards the library.
"Come on, hurry up, if only he reads that book of yours, your crush will continue to remain a crush like all the other times," illahi shouted to tanya . Saying this both of them ran to the library.
After reaching the library, both of them stood in front of it gazing at the huge building.
"Whoa! What is this building? Why is a library so huge?" illahi exclaimed.
tanya was also shocked to see such a huge library in front of her.
"I have never seen such a huge library in my entire life, even my school was not as huge as this one," she remarked.
Looking towards the main entrance, illahi spoke, "We can't afford to waste time getting surprised, let's go and find jahaan ."
The library was on the first floor below which was the parking valet. After reaching the first floor, the security guards ask them "Show me your library card, only then y'all will be able to enter". Both of them looked at each other and then went on to ask the security guard, "What? What library card? So you mean to say that to enter the library we need to make a card of our own?"
"Yes, even the freshers know this. You're from this college, aren't you? Or Did you come to the campus just to have fun?" the guard questioned looking at both of them with suspicious eyes. "If not then I can only allow you to enter the library after showing me your ID card or else there will be no entry," he added.
After saying this, the security guard showed them the way out. Both of them walked down the first floor being very disappointed in themselves.
"Now this is not enough for us to find jahaan ," tanya asserted. However, Just when tanya had given up, illahi got all excited and exclaimed, "Is it possible. Look at the other side"
tanya looked at illahi in a confused state of mind. illahi was pointing towards the library window. tanya looked towards the window and suddenly all the typical Hollywood romantic scenes played in her head with the 'Perfect' song by Ed Sheeran playing in the background. She forgot about everything and only focused on jahaan sitting near the window in the library. He was lost in the world of the books. jahaan looked extremely cute sitting by the window and being sun-kissed. Looking at him made tanya forget about everything.
Looking at tanya , illahi smiled and teased, "How long do you plan on just looking at him?"
Hearing illahi 's words, tanya blushed as she said, "Since it's not possible for us to enter the library, I'll somehow catch his attention from here and tell him about my novel, maybe he'll be able to understand that way."
illahi agreed to her plan and picked a pebble from the ground.
"Go, Tanya, show us your skills" Illahi motivated handing the pebble to Tanya.
tanya took the stone from her hand and asked confusingly, "Why did you pick up the pebble? What was the need for it? I can simply shout from here and he'll be able to hear it."
Listening to Tanya, illahi placed her hand on her shoulders and replied, "He's sitting in a library, I hope you know that one isn't allowed to make noise or even talk loudly in the library. If he shouts from there to reply to you the whole library will get disturbed"
"illahi, you are a genius. I would've never been able to think of such a thing. You are right, he won't be able to give me a reply properly so I might as well throw him a chit," Tanya suggested. Both of them went near the window and with a lot of force threw a paper slip wrapped in a pebble over to him. The stone went straight through the window where Jahaan was sitting.
Receiving the letter, Jahaan was surprised and he turned to look at both of them standing below. The slip of paper had "Hi" written on it. Asher looked down at tanya and immediately shut the window and thought to himself, "What is that girl's problem? She's been following me everywhere since morning. It's starting to get very annoying."
Seeing this behavior of his, illahi became furious. She looked at tanya and exclaimed, "Oh my God! Did he just shut the window on us? Where does this entire attitude emerge from? Why is he like this?"
tanya on the other hand could not even comprehend what just happened. She was frustrated and went on to say, "No, I can't give up so easily." After saying this she ran heading towards the library. illahi followed her. After reaching the entry gate, told the security guard, "Sir, this is an emergency."
The guard was sitting outside the reception area having his tea, after seeing both of them again, he said, "Hey, you both have come again? I've mentioned it earlier also no one is allowed to enter without an identity card."
"Sir, this is quite an emergency. I have to urgently meet a student who's inside. I have to inform him about an urgent project that has been assigned to us. If I fail to do so his marks in the project will get deducted. Please allow me to go inside or else he'll fail"tanya replied making an excuse
The guard kept his cup and stood up from the reception. He approached them without saying a word and when he finally came near then he said, "Okay? So if it is that important why don't you call and tell him about it?"
"I don't have his number..If I had his number would I be putting myself up to such risks?" She mumbled to herself.
Seeing tanya mumble to herself, the guard called out, "What happened? Now don't tell me you don't have his number?"
Before tanya could say anything, illahi interrupted in the middle.
"Sir, we're fresher and to add to that this is our first day so it's obvious that we wouldn't have each other's numbers. One can't exchange numbers on the very first day itself. But he knows us very well. If you can't let us in could you please call him out?"illahi explained in a requesting tone.
Listening to illahi's explanation, the guard believed her words. He agreed to help both of them. He opened the library gate and said, "Look, is your friend visible from here?".
tanya's eyes were focused on him because she had been chasing him all morning. She recognized him within seconds.
"Sir, he's right there. Look, Sir, he's there, the boy sitting by the window wearing a white T-shirt and a black denim jacket" said tanya .
The guard turned to go inside as he told them, "Okay, you guys wait here I'll go and get him."
tanya knew at the back of her head that jahaan would never agree on meeting them so she just stood outside holding his book in her hand. She held the book so that jahaan would notice what tanya and illahi were up to and that way he would come out and meet them.
The guard went over to jahaan .
"Listen, son, there are those two girls right there who have something to tell you, just go meet them once," the guard informed him.
jahaan looked over where the guard was pointing and saw tanya waving her hand up and down showing the novel in her hand.jahaan glanced over at them and behaved the usual way. He turned his gaze away and told the guard, "I don't know any of them."
"What? These girls have been annoying me for a long time. I'm so sorry son, you continue with your studies" said the guard and walked towards tanya and illahi .
"He refuses to recognize you. Now you both may leave from here," the guard said sternly. Saying this, the guard shut the door on their face.
Both of them walked out of the library in rage. illahi was furious witnessing his attitude. She went and sat down on the seats near the library and said in anger, "If he ever comes in front of me, I'll break his face for sure."
tanya kept listening to her silently. After some time she spoke, "Let's forget about it, we'll just return it to him in class. There's nothing else we can do about it."
Seeing tanya sad,illahi comforted her, "No problem, just be positive."
jahaan on the other hand was still sitting beside the window and kept looking at them from above. Seeing tanya sit there sulking he mumbled to himself, "What does that girl want from me? She kept showing me that novel when I own the same novel too. There's nothing about that novel anyway."
While he was thinking about all this, jahaan opened his bag but to his surprise he didn't find the novel inside.
"What is this? This is not my novel. I'm sure it's that girl's novel. She bumped into me in the morning. Maybe it was then that our novels got exchanged. Maybe that's why she kept following me around."jahaan thought to himself.
He looked for tanya through the window and then opened the novel to the page the bookmark was placed which was the last page that was read by tanya . He read a paragraph from it and in the course of reading it, his face turned red as an apple.
He immediately closed the book and started looking around to prevent himself from reading any further and checking if anyone saw him reading such clichéd books.
He quickly turned towards the title of the book and while looking at it thought to himself,"What kind of book is this?"
tanya sat on the bench kicking the soil beneath her feet. She had kept dancing around college from morning till evening and at the end when she finally had the chance to meet jahaan , he refused to meet her. illahi couldn't see her sadness anymore. She looked at him sitting by the window and told tanya , "Don't think about it too much, let's go back to the hostel. We can have some junk on the way back and then we'll hurry back to the hostel."
tanya took a last look at illahi and asserted, "Sorry, I kept you on the drive with me all day. Come on, let's go".
Both of them stood up and started walking towards the gate to leave college. Just after walking a few steps, someone called out from behind.
"Tanya Gill?" somebody yelled.
Hearing this both of them looked back and were taken aback. tanya felt as if she was in a dream. The boy who had been ignoring her all morning was now walking towards her. He held a bag in one hand and her novel in the other. He continuously looked at Tanya while walking towards her.
He came and stood in front of her and said, " Tanya Gill, this is probably your novel." After he said this both of them looked at the novel feeling embarrassed with each other. Tanya snatched the novel away from him and made illahi hold on to it. She couldn't seem to exchange glances with jahaan . Suddenly jahaan extended his hand towards March. Seeing him extend his hand, her heartbeat started racing. Somehow she gathered the courage to shake hands with him. However, as soon as she extended her hand jahaan spoke, "My book?".
All of tanya's dreams came tumbling down.
"Oh! Yes! Here it is. I'm sorry to put you through so much trouble this morning," she replied feeling awkward.
"It's okay," jahaan replied.
All this while jahaan was standing talking to March and she made sure that she wouldn't miss this opportunity that easily. She continued "Have you read anything from my book yet?".
Hearing this jahaan remembered the paragraph of the book that he had been reading earlier and started to blush.
"No, I don't read books that impart useless knowledge," he commented hiding his awkwardness.
"Why did you refuse to recognize us back at the library?" illahi intervened. She had kept quiet for a long time.
Looking at her jahaan replied, "Because I don't know you both."
illahi got all worked up hearing his reply and responded, "Don't know? Don't you remember introducing yourself in front of the whole class earlier in the morning?".
jahaan laughed hearing her response.
"I just gave my introduction and didn't hear anyone else's and I don't care," he answered coldly. After saying this he begins to walk away.
"So we don't know each other?"tanya called out from behind, one last time, as he walked
Hearing this, Jahaan stopped mid-way. Without looking at Tanya he answered, "Reading such novels will not help you from gaining knowledge." saying this he left from there.
Even though he left from there, tanya couldn't resist taking her eyes away from him.
"Looks like he opened and read some pages from your novel," illahi stated in anticipation.
"Dude I don't even care about that, all I care about is him taking my name. That is more than enough for me. I'll be able to sleep in peace today," replied tanya lost in her own world.
Even while saying this, her smile had not disappeared from her face.