The Seminar and the call

Jignesh was preparing to leave for the airport when his cell beeped. He had got a message.

All the best, when is your presentation?

Jahnavi had wished him. He replied.

Thanks for the wishes. Reach there tonight. Presentation is in two stages. Tomorrow afternoon and the morning of the day after tomorrow.

Then he left for the airport and all this while he was just thinking about Jahnavi and realized how badly he missed her. He regretted for not getting a minute to talk to her throughout the day. He had really put in a lot to prepare his paper and had truly hoped and wished for his paper to be selected, but today when his paper was actually selected he was feeling more dejected for missing Jahnavi than feeling ecstatic for having achieved the feat. Now he wanted time to flyby and he could go and talk to Jahnavi.

On the other hand, the situation of Jahnavi was also no less perturbed as she was also missing Jignesh like anything. Though she was aware, there was a lot to be discussed between them, but these short messages meant a lot to her. She was surprisingly feeling much better than how she was feeling after just talking to Sid. And again beep goes her cell. Saakshi had texted.

Need some big help. Tell me what you can do.

Reading that, Jahnavi suddenly realized that she was going a bit slow in her studies, now that Jignesh is not around for three days, she can probably make it up by studying. Also she thought going over to Saakshi’s place she can study well, for Jignesh won’t let her study in her own room. He used to get very naughty inside the room. She loved it and despised at the same time. So she went over to her place and spent the night there only.

Next day was hell in college. Jignesh was not there in the college. She missed him at the breakfast table, during lunch break and all throughout the day. Similarly Jignesh too missed her in the breakfast. He told his project mate that he did not feel like having breakfast, but she insisted saying that they will sit through the presentations and required to be attentive as well, so they better eat something and go. Being an ardent student of biology, this was not Greek-Latin to Jignesh but he had other reasons for not having breakfast which he will not be able to explain to Pooja, his project-mate. Finally he had the breakfast thinking about Jahnavi and after that entered the hall where the presentations were going on and they sat through them, some were interesting, some were boring. Jignesh was struggling to concentrate. Their turn was to come up after lunch. After they finished their today’s part of the presentation, they headed towards the canteen to have tea.

Jignesh: “Hey you just order something; I will join you in a moment.”
Pooja: “OK.”

Tring Tring
She was so engrossed in Jignesh’s thoughts that she did not even bother to see who is calling and received the call dispassionately.

Jignesh: “Hi.”

Jahnavi could not believe her ears.

Jahnavi: “Jignesh!!!! Is that you?”
Jignesh: “Yeah it is me. How are you?”

Someone had injected life into her. Her face started beaming with happiness. Excitement overpowered her, poor girl, barely could she speak.

Jahnavi: “I am fine, how about you? How was the presentation? Did you have anything? Did you sleep properly?”

Jignesh smiled. The moment she would start showering so many questions he would understand that she is too happy and now he was also feeling so happy talking to her.

Jignesh: “Hey I am fine here. Presentation was good. We had lunch and now we will have tea. But I could not sleep properly as I was tensed about the presentation. You know I worked hard for it. Let us see how the second session goes tomorrow and then we have the results on the day after tomorrow and same evening we will leave.”

Jignesh was not feeling comfortable lying. He could not sleep as he was thinking about Jahnavi and was missing her. He had also thought of calling her, but discarded the idea.

Jahnavi: “Hmmm. You told me, ‘We had lunch and now we will have tea’. Do you mind elaborating on ‘we’?

Jignesh was confused, why she is asking like this.

Jignesh: “Oh that’s Pooja; we are jointly presenting the paper. I will hang up now. Call you later. Bye and take care.”
Jahnavi: “Bye.”

These revelations were disturbing to her. He is with Pooja there. And I was not even aware that Pooja has been his co-worker on this project. But so what, he remembered to call me. And I am sure there are many things he wants to tell me, just that we are not getting time.

The whirlwind of thoughts continued and the day passed. It is again lunch time the following day. Her cell goes ringing. This time she was sure about the caller. It looked like ages to her since she was waiting for this call.

Jahnavi: “Hello Jignesh, how are you?”

Jignesh sensed something. But he chose not to mention it now. Anyway he was apprehending a long talk with her on returning.

Jignesh: “Hey I am fine. You know the session was brilliant. We handled it so well. Today was the questionnaire round and we faced the brickbats in an awesome manner, to be honest. I am feeling great. Now I do not care about the final results. And how is your college going on?”
Jahnavi: “Nothing much here, just normal college life going on. But I am happy you had a great session there. What time will you reach here tomorrow?”

Jignesh had not ignored the eagerness in her voice and the anxiety with which she was waiting for him to return. He liked it and also did not want to keep her waiting for long.

Jignesh: “We have our flight at 3: 30 pm. So we should touch down Mumbai by evening I guess, if there are no delays in the flight. Hey listen tomorrow I have a packed schedule here and might not get time to call you. Can we meet for dinner?”

Somehow he had gathered all his strength to ask this question and this was the first time he was asking this to a girl and that too without consulting Sid. But then he thought, it is his life after all and Sid cannot take all decisions.

Jahnavi: “Why don’t you give me a call on reaching? Will plan accordingly.”
Jignesh: “OK, bye.”

As usual, he was confused again and the million dollar question making rounds in his mind was, Gosh, was it right on my part to ask her for dinner? We have yet not discussed Sid properly, anyways the arrow has departed from the quiver, cannot be undone. Will handle it on reaching Mumbai. He thought.

Why does he need to use words like WE, OUR? Can’t he say I have my flight at 3: 30 pm. Stupid, idiot. Wait let him come? He needs a good class. Thinking this she blushed and then smiled. Her face was again glowing with joy as Jignesh had asked for a dinner date. She could not believe Jignesh could do this, but was happy that he did and she was also feeling great as she had kept him in dark about her decision. Slowly she realized she loved teasing him. She could comprehend his situation, Will she, won’t she? And this question was really driving the nuts out of Jignesh. Pooja was busy summarizing the day with him but he was lost. Twice she shook him to jolt him out of the reverie. Felt like asking him, but something just stopped her. She liked him, but he had never shown any personal interest in her.