The ten year challenge
Lately the ten year challenge has picked up pace with everyone on social media, and as I scrolled my feed, a familiar face popped up.
Click Click Click and post. “Kya baat hai scientist, tu to hawwt ho gaya re”
*Ping* Tarun Ahlawat replied to your comment “Bro, Thanks a lot. Coming from you, It means a lot!”
The conversation continued on chat now. This was an old friend from school who everyone used to call a Pagal (Mad) Scientist for their obsession with science. I still remember how our friendship started, it wasn't the usual sweet moment of sharing candy, or taking turns on swings.
We were in sixth grade, classes had been shuffled to ensure social bonding skills as the administration called it. As a newbie, I was competitive and so was Tarun, we were both good at sixth grader science as per the assessment of our teachers and the then prevalent grading system. In our school there was a much coveted section of record books and encyclopedias in the library, which most of us loved. There used to be colorful pictures and super interesting facts about animals, birds and people that would always amaze the kid brain. Many of us kids used to run to the library in order to get their hands on the thickest copy first. Once, during class, an interclass quiz competition was announced and our teacher Ms. Patra decided to pair me and Tarun to represent our class. We were competitive, but agreed to participate together. On the day of the quiz, in his enthusiasm or as I recall, excess of it Tarun pressed the buzzer without hearing the question properly and we lost a few points, meaning we lost our position by merely a mark. After the competition ended, he stood with his friends, cribbing about how I was the reason we lost, and my hot headed self lost control and yelled at him to which he responded with a hard push that made me lose my balance. After that, god knows what came over me, but I slapped him with all my might. By then, our friends had gathered around and stopped the issue from escalating. Over the weekend, my grandma scolded me for having lost my cool over a trivial matter such as a competition and made me agree to apologize to him on the coming working day. It was not a respectable idea for a young girl to fight like a street thug over silly sh*t, she had reprimanded me. During game hour, I walked up to Tarun and apologized to him, he smiled and told me he appreciated my slapping skills. The sting had taken a while to fade, he explained. We both laughed at the absurdity of the situation and decided to become friends. He was a rather unusual boy, with seemingly coarse brown colored hair that people often compared to a show brush and shoulders always hunched. That was the image that stayed with me, that is until now when I saw his hashtag 10 year challenge picture. He seemed to have grown out of his mad scientist garb.
“Shireen, let’s catch up for coffee or something man. It has been so long”
“Hmmm. True that. Plus I want updates on how things are with Jiya. You guys were dating when we were in 12th grade. Hai na?”
“How did you know, we tried our best to keep it a secret”
“Mujhe sab pata hai, Pagal scientist I ran into her a few years back. She told me about you guys, and how you were sticking together even while attending different colleges”
“Yeah, about that. She was my fiance at one point of time, but now just an ex” He sighed heavily.
“Wait what? How?”, I was confused. As per my updates they should have been looking for wedding planners by now.
“It is a long story, man! I have been in therapy because of the break up. It was brutal. I don’t wanna bore you with that crap”
“Bakwaas na maar, we’re buddies, remember? Chal coffee leke baith ja abhi k abhi”
“You’re stubborn, zyada badli nahi tu”
“Badal jaye wo Ziddi Shireen kaisi ?” I chuckled. “Chal ab bata”
“Well, it was complicated, she got manipulative and forced me into shifting focus towards building a stable career. A prerequisite to convince her orthodox family of getting us married as they were losing patience. What I did not realize is, me getting busy managing work and career meant she drifting away and two timing me with that f****r Ruhaan. Bloody low IQ singer boy”, I could sense anger in his words. Trying to steer clear from the topic I mentioned Anamika, an old acquaintance who had visited a few months back with her two kids.
“Tujhe Anamika yaad hai? Ishaan’s ex, the girl from our batch who was married off right after school?”
“The fair one or the tall one?”, he asked. "Apne batch mei 5-6 bandi nipat gyi thi right after school ended. Tera dataset foolprrof nahi hai" He chuckled in his Mr. Know-it-all manner.
“How would I know? She was friends with your Jiya. They used to be besties remember?”
“Wait what ? How? They’re still in touch and as far as I know, they’re on good terms too.”
“My dear, what you don’t know is she leaked many of her secrets, about her past and present personal life. Stuff that only close friends share, and openly slut shamed her in front of some of mutual friends too. She has betrayed more people than I can count, and trust me I’m a data scientist now, yet thinking about her makes my brain hurt. It is a lot to process”
“Shit happens scientist, some things in life go beyond logic”
We talked for a whole hour and while life had moved by a decade, we were still those self proclaimed smarty pants who loved to question logic and talk like we knew our sh*t.
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