“Okay students! Today we will start our new unit, i.e., Diversity in Living Organisms. In this chapter, we will be studying the five kingdoms, i.e., Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia. We will be studying their classifications on the basis of similarities and differences in the method of their arrangement....”, and Mr. Singh taught us for straight fifty-five minutes. Mr. Singh was a biologist who used to practice his teaching in a government school and later in the evening took tuitions at his home. After the class was dismissed, Amit who was taking biology classes from Mr. Singh past four months introduced me to his friends since it was my first day at the tuition. While Amit was introducing me to his friends (whose names I don’t remember), I was looking at the quietest guy of the class. He had already started walking by. ‘Amit, who’s that guy?’ I whispered in Amit’s ears. ‘Oh! That’s Sarim. He is Mr. Singh’s favourite student. He doesn’t talk much. He is kinda the-attitude-guy. Everybody calls him Saddu.’Amit said chuckling. In the next class, I somehow managed to sit opposite to Sarim. Biology never interested me much. Neither did Mr. Singh. I can look at Sarim and read his different face expressions for the entire class. Sarim never tried to talk to me. Neither did I. But we always pass each other a smile (always, me being the first one to smile stupidly). After the 5th class, when we all came downstairs, I shouted ‘Sariiiimmmmmm’. He turned around. Said nothing. Saddu. ‘Hey! I am Ananya’.
‘Yeah! I know that. Heard other people calling you by this name.’
‘Do you know other people call you Saddu?!’ I said sarcastically.
‘Yeah! Well that doesn’t really matter to me as long as I’m good for myself.’
‘Are you going to show any interest in the further conversation or Shall I leave?’ I asked almost not looking at him.
‘Heyyy! Don’t take me wrong. This is the problem with most of the people. They think me having attitude shows my disinterest in making friends. And then they call me ‘Saddu’. But it’s really not that way.’
‘It’s okay’. I giggled. We talked for another 15 fifteen minutes when daddy came to pick me up. ‘Bye bye’. With every second I spend talking with him, I fell more for him. He’s not Saddu. I thought. He’s really cute. He’s shy actually unlike other guys. He’s different. He’s intelligent. He’s cute. I remember the every single moment we had together. From then on, we both greeted each other with a smile with an addition of ‘Hi’ (now, he being the first to say).
In the tuition class, Amit and I were discussing some random people from school. He was telling me about his football match that he had that day. We stopped laughing when Mr. Singh asked me to stand from my place and to shift my chair next to him. Actually, I was sitting between Sarim and Mr. Singh then. Sarim had his position fixed. While Mr. Singh was teaching us the stupid biology, I noticed Sarim. He was writing some numbers on the top of his register. I ignored initially. He turned the page. He wrote the same number on the top of this new page again. This happened for five times. Five times same number on the top of every new page he turned. Giving him response that time might show my desperation (which wasn’t there any).
‘Ananya, Hi’, he said when the class was dismissed.
‘Hi’
‘I wrote my number for you today in the class. Didn’t you notice?’
‘I did.’
‘Then why didn’t you write it?’, he asked.
‘Well, let’s just say that I’m good with numbers’. I smiled. He grinned.
‘Okay. BTW we can talk now.’
‘I thought you would want my number in exchange!’ I said almost teasing him. We both laughed.
