The Brain and the Soul

All the characters referred to in the below blog are fictitious and bear no resemblance with anyone living or dead whatsoever. Any co-incidence is purely co-incidental and unintentional.

First time readers, please refer to the post Out of Syllabus for reference.

They went on talking, over the coffee. Jahnavi was surprised knowing a totally and completely different Jignesh. She came to know, how much he loved his mother and how his mother had always been so proud that Jignesh was good in studies and was not made of the typical stuff, boys are made of, running after girls. Jahnavi realized she was falling for him. She stopped him abruptly,

Jahnavi: “I need to go, just forgot some task. Will catch you tomorrow.”
Jignesh: “OK”.

Jignesh never insisted on anything, even if he wanted to. He wanted to tell her many things, but she wanted to leave and he had also sensed something so he did not stop her and bade her Bye-Bye. Being an ardent student of biology, he was well aware that sudden remembrances do not occur unintentionally. Whenever the brain starts processing something that the soul or the mind does not approve of, a separate processing thread is started in the brain, wherein it tries to find an escape route. And it comes out as a sudden remembrance; I just remembered I have forgotten something important, is the instant response normally and usually in such cases. Jahnavi had also reacted similarly, Jignesh could understand, stopping her now would have meant inviting unnecessary troubles, because right now she was not ready to discuss. Jignesh knew this, so he let her off, acting stupidly as if actually believing Jahnavi’s ordered chaos of the remembrance crap. He saw his watch, Six-Fifteen PM, time to go back to studies he thought. He dashed off to the library and buried himself in books.

Jahnavi reached home and went straight into her room. She was feeling very uneasy. Jahnavi was surrounded by a whirlwind of thoughts. She was recalling all those ‘debacles’ with Jignesh and was thinking, was he really the same Jignesh who used to commit blunders? Was it that unintentional? Or was he just portraying such a boring image just to keep girls away? It all seemed so perfect, for Jignesh was always the same, boring and bio-bragging, with all girls, his image actually was that of a moron. He had earned the dubious reputation of a bookworm himself. And she had never seen him trying to talk to any other girl, nor had she seen him clarifying to any other girl about his stand. Jahnavi was startled. She started respecting Jignesh all the more. Just because his mom expected him not to fall for a girl, he had been trying hard to present an image which girls would normally hate and stay away but Jahnavi somehow was kept drawn to him and was slowly seeing a totally different Jignesh hidden inside.

She also thought that if really Jignesh was that boring, she would not have tolerated him for a moment and they would not have had such memorable and wonderful coffee meets. And Jignesh was not only smart, he was over-smart. He had not only dropped subtle hints of his liking for Jahnavi, but also had simultaneously maintained a boring image which he used smartly to ward her off when the situation went out of control or he feared being exposed. By Nature’s design, emotionally girls are smarter than boys, and Jignesh knew this very well (thanks to his undisputable knowledge grip on Biology). He was well aware that being a sensitive and emotional yet well-cultured girl, Jahnavi will catch his hints and his acquaintance with her shall always go on in the positive direction, till the matter came to developing a relation which was a mutual process and needed a dual participation. Slowly Jahnavi was realizing that it was not solely she who was feeling attracted to him despite his debacles, but that moron, that bio-geek also had dropped several hints which her sub-conscious mind, her soul caught and her brain processed.

She started fearing herself. She was losing control over herself, she was feeling all the more drawn to him. She wanted to talk to him, know him, understand him, what irritates him, what pleases him, she wanted to know all, and she wanted to study him, SHE WANTED HIM. She wanted the person called Jignesh, she had fallen for him. She had fallen for him for he did not fail his mother, he always maintained a pseudo-positive image and also studied very hard to stand up to her expectations, she had fallen for him for he had liked her and yet he chose to abide by his decision but also smartly used his knowledge on biology and psychology to communicate his wishes to her. She fell for his smartness and his righteousness and his principles.

But there was more to this. These were the things, she had realized but reality was different. She was not aware that had it not been for Sid, Jignesh could not have come out of those bottlenecks when she had decided never to talk to him again. And he was still the same, he will not change. The moment he realizes he is coming out of his self-imposed shell, and might go back on his mom’s standing, he would re-invoke the BIOLOGICAL MONSTER and would go inside his shell like a tortoise. And this meant that she would never be sure from Jignesh’s side about the relationship. Does he really LOVE her? Did he also fall for her the way she had fallen for him? Did Jignesh notice those qualities of hers that she wanted him to, and the way she had noticed his qualities and appreciated them? Answers to these questions will haunt her, which only Jignesh can give, and he will have to EXPRESS these ANSWERS, something whose possibility looked remote to her, at least in the near future. For now, a startling revelation was basking in her glory and that being; Jignesh was a moron by choice and not by chance. His brain made him act moronic, and not his soul. Jahnavi had always despised the brain as it plans, manipulates and extrapolates. She liked the soul, which felt and advised expression. Her soul was in love with Jignesh’s soul, but her brain feared his brain.

On the other hand, Jignesh was slowly realizing how he had been losing his concentration-quotient in BIOLOGY. Only one thing haunted him now, What if mom comes to know? He knew his mom loved him very much and knew him inside out and top to bottom. He could not and should not try to out-smart her. She had brought him into this world, and nurtured him with her love laced with good values, principles just like a plant. He was her baby. But he had hidden his LOVE for Jahnavi from his mom and all she knew about Jahnavi was that she was his college friend. How could he tell her and the first thing that his mom is gonna fear is about his studies and he will have a tough time convincing her that his studies will not be affected. But anyways he knew these were manageable issues as he knew his mom understood that Jignesh was young and this was HIS AGE to possibly like some girl and there was nothing wrong in it.

Issues demanding a higher level of contention and a more serious consideration were between him and Jahnavi. Although he was sure she was attracted to him and was pretty sure that his SUBTLE hints had done their share of work on Jahnavi (the coffee meets and her smiles and her eyes after all the debacles were sure-shot evidence of this), he was not sure how Jahnavi would react to them and whether she will take them positively for they were YET TO KNOW EACH OTHER. Also he knew Jahnavi was a female and he will have to read between her lines to get to know her properly. His moronic image helped him to do so to a certain extent, as Jahnavi would sometimes get a bit easy with him taking him to be a moron, under a ray of hope that she expressed herself and yet went unnoticed. Jignesh enjoyed this part very much. But this was just on a lighter note. He was aware things were getting serious and he would no longer be able to continue to hide under his tortoise-shell. He will have to come out and express himself, something his soul had always wanted but his brain stopped. He knew that now the questions were increasing in his mind as well as Jahnavi’s and those questions were not at all ignorable.

And those questions can only be answered with certain facts coming out, the first and foremost of them being Sid. He will have to tell her that had it not been for Sid, Jahnavi would have never known the real Jignesh. This involved the risk of Jahnavi getting annoyed with Jignesh, for she had always thought it was Jignesh’s realization which made him come back and try to patch-up. But it is impossible to hide lies and erase facts. Though Jahnavi had never asked him, what made him come back to her to patch up, he knew the question was in pipeline and he wanted to tell her before she asked. This was a burden on him, which he could no longer take. His soul advised confession, his brain contested. But this time he listened to his soul and decided that he will disclose about Sid to Jahnavi in their next meeting. He saw his watch, Seven-Forty Five PM. Time to get back to home, he thought. Never before in his life did Jignesh wish that he could travel forth in time and go to the next morning where he would have a cup of tea with Jahnavi before the lectures and tell her about Sid. But TIME had its own physics. His soul was lightened now, his brain worried.