Meeting the philosopher..

This was her first job and she had come with her uncle to see the college. Her uncle also happened to teach in the same college and this had put her quite in ease. She knew she had a support to fall back on. She was quite terrified to be in a campus where all the students were from very affluent families. This was an engineering college in national capital region which ran primarily on capitation fee. Hence the students who could manage to take admission in this college were born to rich or super-rich parents. We call it ‘ovarian –lottery’.

She was wearing a maroon cotton suit, dupatta taken like a shawl, which made her look ‘desi’ yet elegant. She was quite unsure how she was going to tackle the ‘Porsche ambience ‘of the college. But she was determined to make it.

After taking a round of the college her uncle left her at her department. There were three people in the department. Two middle-aged men who were supposedly the professors and a young man, whom she guessed to be a tutor, like her. The two professors started talking to her and one of them even went up to her subcaste and ‘gotra’ as if trying to match her in alliance. Suddenly she noticed that the young man who was sitting across her, was staring at her intently. And automatically she started adjusting her dupatta, a reflex she had developed whenever she got conscious. Now she was aware of the stealing glances the young man was giving her.

The two professors left and she was left there with this young man and an attendant in the department. Now she took a closer look and found this young man to be lean-built, medium-height with a child-like curiosity on his face. He was wearing ragged jeans with an unpressed kurta, which gave him the look of a philosopher. His eyes were piercing, trying to search her face for responses. Her thoughts were validated when she spotted a ‘ jhola’ usually carried by artists and thinkers, hung on his chair. She was amused at her discovery.

The silence seemed awkward so she thought of initiating the conversation. He was reading a thick book and she found it safer to ask about the book. She had never imagined this conversation would change her life.

He started the conversation in his plush English accent which actually impressed her. The talk started with the book he was reading which was written by ‘Osho’, the famous Indian philosopher. Her father had warned her once about Osho. But it raised her curiosity and “curiosity is that which kills the cat”. He started telling her about her ex girlfriend and how he had literally renounced the world for her and ran from home. She was listening with open heart, somehow believing every single word he said. It seemed like a film-story to her. She had hardly any idea that she herself would become one of the major characters of this filmy-story.

The icing on the cake was done by the phone call, when he picked up his phone and started equally fluent in his native Bhojpuri language. This was what actually swept her off her feet and made the beginning of a beautiful love-story.