12. The Missy behind

Chris, the hunk on his way to the dungeon people call a lecture hall, realizes he's late. Enters in through the back door,sits on a squeaky bench which attracts undue attention."Why me, why do i always get the squeaky ones?" , he wonders. As usual, he isn’t able to make head or tail of the lecture, seems LOST. He tries to stay awake with all the strength left in him.Looks at his watch, scratches his head, gives his neck some workout, stretches his legs, sends his friend an SMS and looks at his watch again only to find that one ONE single minute has passed since the last time he’d seen it. The professor seems to go on and on endlessly, Chris is clinging on to dear life, trying to stay awake and come through this ordeal Alive!

Then suddenly he gets a reason to stay awake - A girl sitting just behind him, in the next row, coughs. He’s got a mission now, to find out “Who’s that girl ?”. Thinks for while, cant turn right back as it would make him look silly, so realizes that he needs to accomplish the task with the limited neck-rotation range. Time’s not a problem, it never is when you are in a lecture hall, coz the clock just stops ticking :) Now starts to think of ways, gets very weird ideas. Takes his left wrist (he sports a watch on his left hand) close to his face and starts tilting it in such a way that the reflection of the glass frame zeroes in on her. But does take care that he doesn’t make his viewing efforts obvious to the girl behind. The watch rotation strategy works, but only partially, the IMAGE is’nt clear, it’s all blurry. All he could make out of it was that it was a fair female with long hair….."hmmm, that reduces the list of suspects ;)" he thinks, that’s coz many of the gals in his class are of the bob cut/mushroom cut variety.

Ponders for a while , hears her cough again, so is even more eager to solve the mystery, listens to the prof for a while (courtesy sake) as he is still on the lookout for a way. Sees the guy in front has a pair of sunglasses (the reflective kind) in his bag. Do anything to stay awake and not listen to the lecture ,that was his motto. He takes the glasses out, and thinks “aah, this will do the trick, these shades will gimme a picture of the princess sitting behind…”. So engrossed is he in his musings that he doesn’t notice the professor standing next to him all this while.

Prof : GET UP !!

(Chris does slowly , with the squeaking chair making his rise even more dramatic :P)

Prof: What are you trying to do?

Chris thinks “Should I tell him? He’ll commit suicide if he knows the scant attention I am paying to his lecture, being busy on a girl quest instead, I’ll remain silent”.

Prof : Please leave the class.

Chris bends to take his books, then turns around to leave from the back door. Manages to steal a glance at the female behind, whom he was trying to figure out for all this while. Turns out that it was Reggie….Oh so beautiful Reggie! He had a liking from the time he had joined college. Gets a big smile from her and walks out like a victorious warrior :) “Mission accomplished and done with the lecture too!” he muses as he walks out. What made it still magical was the killer smile she gave passes at him in the end. Begins to wonder “ May be she did notice all my efforts, may be she does want me to notice her…Naah! Be the pessimist you are, just stay away, you cant take girls! …. But that one smile has made my day”.

Footnote :
Remembered this SMS that I got off late.

Barkha Dutt(the NDTV interviewer) ask some boys,

Q. What do you guys do to get a girl’s attention?
Ans: We have to ride bikes, learn to play the guitar and drums, get our hair streaked, get muscular going to gyms, follow them like dogs….Damn , the list is too long, and embarrassing too :P.

She asks a group of girls ,
Q; What do you girls do to get a guy’s attention?
Ans: Just smile once and he’s all yours :)