Five and A Half Days(Arsal Shoaib) -Five and a Half Days-

What started out as a new year at college with a promotion of a class turned out to be a lifelong fairytale of great memories, cheers as well as tears! First day of a new session seemed like a fantasizing beginning to a new life. With roses and lavender sparkling in the open, I felt delighted to be back at college.

Being a part of this college for a year now, I knew what was on the menu lined up for this first day of a new class. All there was to be done was some formal introduction with a couple of teachers, telling them about our holidays, relishing the advancements and beautification of college during the vacations, and most of all glancing at new faces sitting in the class. I entered my class and some highly cherished smiles welcomed me from the inside. Obviously these came from my friends of the previous year and so I felt exquisite to be reunited with them.

Taking a quick look at our weird looking class schedule and watching a lot of new faces treading with amazement in shady willows rising up from their seats, I really didn’t felt much except skepticism.

Being a Girl was never really much of fun out here! Especially considering our college’s strict limitations over us for our confined outdoor activities, as well as a bizarre phenomenon, embraced upon everyone’s mind out here that there was a great deal of hatred towards a boy and a girls consolidation, co-operation, or any sort of interaction. After all, it was suppose to be a college, an end to a decade long era of schooling and childish behavior. We should be assumed as grownups now. But in this institution, there always remained a ruthless sword lurking in the shadows, waiting for you to make a single wrong move. If you do, it would make sure that you spend the next three days outside the headmistress’s office begging for mercy of any sort.

Having spent nearly a year in this institution, yet still confined to just our tiny little girls section in the far east, made me really upset at times. I still hadn’t seen more than half of my very own college. With a canteen as a border between the two sections, there wasn’t a single moment in my previous year where I had seen any girl ever cross that perimeter.

But then again, there was no need of my possessing such ridiculous ideas of enlightenment. It was a fully functional, perfectly organized, highly mannered, if a bit overly disciplined, college so to be honest, it favored us as well. Everything going in its utmost manner, I was pretty contented with the kind of institution I was blessed with.

Confining my thoughts to our class again and going through the time table chart, a sign of relief finally swept across my face when I saw that the teacher I dreamt all my vacations to be with me the next year around was surely there. Staring at her name written in bold glossy finish on the top right corner of the chart was truly a delightful sight.

With nothing much to do, I stayed at my seat passing the day while anxiously waiting for her period to start soon. With the ring of her period reaching up to me, it was almost like music to my ears. In the distance, I could easily hear the knocking of her shoes heels from a mile away. Sensing the moment of joy, I peeked out from the window and there she was. In a misty blue and white suit embalmed with some artistic patterns all over it, the whole fabric was embedded with deep blue pearls and with a silver lining covering the border of the textile, she carried her slender figure briskly towards her destination with diligence. Matching it all up with a long grey scarf beautifully wrapped around her glowing face in the midst, she kept on with her pace, walking swiftly towards our class.
She came, and with her came a profiting livelihood, a superb intellect, a befitting personality and above all, somebody who was more than a teacher for me. With her sweet melodious voice indulging us in serenity, she truly lighted up our dim souls with joy. In our discussion to follow she told me that she has got a surprise for me which she’d tell me after the period came to an end. Although I never really wanted that period to die down quickly, but just as it started off with a blast, the whole forty minutes passed by a bit too early.

She left the class and asked me to follow her on the way back. There she offered me to host an upcoming event in the college’s reputation. Me being a fairly old student, as well as an exceptional debater of this institution, as people liked to call me, I surely was her number one preference in this hour of responsibility. Always delighted to work with her and share my thoughts upon certain topics outside our regular course books, I felt blessed for getting an opportunity like this to sharpen up my skills. Without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, I accepted the offer and was asked to meet her in the college’s auditorium in the last two periods.

Ignoring anything and everything that came in the way, I hardly felt my presence in the class as my mind kept on wandering the whole day about this upcoming event I had to host. Anxious for the sixth period to end soon, I was eager to leave my class and head towards the auditorium. Just as the bell for the end of sixth period rang off, it was like a marathon starting up for me. I raced down the building, leaping through the grounds and towards the offices sides of our college where the auditorium was located, and so in an instant, there I was, standing right on the door of the hall in a flash.

I opened the door and got inside the fairly large hall with a stage at one end and lots and lots of chairs in the stands at the other end. To my surprise I wasn’t the only person called out there for the basics. There was my teacher standing, already waiting for me to come over, but I was completely dumbfounded when I saw a boy in college uniform standing beside her as well. He was truly someone I had never ever seen, heard or known about over the past one year I had spent here. I peeked over to his face and from the first sight, he was different. Usually only the name of a girl is more than enough for any boy of this college to detract his senses for a moment and make his world get a bit dazzled; forgetting the whole appearance of anyone else. But the same could not have been said for this guy. He was different from head to toe. Considering the fact that I opened the door in a really bizarre manner and made such bewildered noises with my actions, he seemed totally calm and quiet. He just glanced up for a moment and immediately rolled his eyes down towards the floor.

Only then were we introduced to each other by the teacher standing there and we humbly passed a smile towards each other. Then it was told to us that it was an Annual Investiture Ceremony of our college which we were to conduct jointly. It was an event involving the designation of appointment holders as well as acknowledging the position holders of the previous examinations. Being an important event in the history books of our college, it was surely something which really required a great deal of confidence, discipline, co-ordination, co-operation, commitment, teamwork and above all lots and lots of rehearsals to make our presentation absolutely streamlined. With only five days in between us and the grand day, there was surely not much time to lose.

Right at that very moment, the teacher gave each of us a paper and called us up on the stage to know some basics behind our verbal skills. Being the first of many practice sessions we were to go through, we were excited to start it up in a nice fashion. It was my turn first and I truly delivered my heart out. With all I had ever learned from my previous debating career, I honestly performed with my utmost skills. Appreciated by a few claps in a vacant hall, I returned back and it was my partners turn to climb up and show his talent out loud.

In a forceful manly voice, he really raised the bar up for me. Never expecting to find him such a charismatic lad, he melodramatically spoke like he truly meant every single thing he was saying up there. Finally his turn ended and now it was clear to me that he wasn’t an amateur at this stuff as well.
We both were called down and then came the time to learn some tips and tricks followed by some energetically expert guidelines from our teacher. Although she seemed really contended with what we had put up on the stage right at that very moment, but still there was a lot of room for improvement which we honestly knew by ourselves as well.

It was a long and tiring session of discussions for us, repeating single lines again and again till our teacher was satisfied. So after more than an hour of hard work put in from both sides, that day’s practice session was called off and we were allowed to depart back to our classes located on the farthest two corners of our college’s premises.

On my way back, one thing I noticed was the fact that, although that boy had a very charismatic personality standing there behind the roster, while speaking with the teacher and discussing something, he was almost melting down with politeness and respect for her. It felt like softness and reverence dripping down from his mouth. Over the past decade long schooling I possessed, I can safely say that I surely hadn’t come across someone that respectful towards the teacher’s concern.

The other thing that kept me wandering in the meadows of deep thoughts was the deliberation that although we both were together for more than an hour or so, there never came a single moment when we two spoke a single word with each other. This fact really surprised me, but then again I realized that it’s supposed to be that way, since we attended an overly strict college, not a fairyland.

I didn’t know the reason, but all we did was discuss any of the topics our teacher asked for, agreeing to her point of view, adopting what she wanted to see from our sides and asking her to forgive any flaws and imperfections we still possessed after being told to correct. That was all! Not a single moment came across when we got an opportunity to speak anything among ourselves. Neither did our teacher ask us to share views among ourselves, nor did we ever show any signs of knowing each others point of view.

With these intriguing facts of deterrence lingering in my mind, the rest of the day passed by quickly and it was not long enough when I noticed myself getting up from bed early the next morning and leaving for the college.

Time perished and all three of us were back inside the auditorium. Just four days remaining now, pressure over all of us was surely immense. With our energetic teacher looking fresh as ever, she really demanded to see some solid performance this time around. So, I and my boy counterpart did perform well, but both of us seemed to jumble up a few words, forget some important quotations coming in between the lines and hesitated reading a few sentences that surely made our teacher a bit nervous. We never really came up to her desired standards even after the previous day’s long practice hour and so it felt really shameful.

Usually, a student never realizes his mistakes and never feels sorry till the time he is physically punished, but I really don’t know why, only a few harsh words of embarrassment from our teacher’s side made both of us literally melt with shamefulness and disgrace standing there right in front of her.
Being a girl and, sadly, a really emotional and sentimental one, it seemed really hard to control myself from bursting into tears at that point. For the first time since it began, I made a promise with myself to take matters seriously from that point onwards. I really wanted to show the teacher that it was not a ghastly mistake of hers in choosing me for this particular task.

The day passed with the guilt of not preparing ourselves well enough for the job in hand and it felt really awful. Coming back home fairly frustrated with what I had done that day, I realized that we truly didn’t come up to her standards. With no room for error she demanded us to be absolutely flawless on the grand day. Disappointing my favorite teacher surely wasn’t the best of feelings that ever came across my life and so I was almost in a state of disbelief when I reached home. Night came and just as I was off to bed I realized that another day had passed for me and my co-host without having any sort of interaction between us. It seemed really strange that although we were part of the same project, we both had to do equal amount of effort and without each others support any one of us was definitely not capable enough to host the entire function all alone, yet still we hadn’t spoken a single word with each other.

The next morning came and I, being anxious as ever, got to the auditorium a few minutes earlier than the desired time. Assuring the teacher that I wouldn’t be the one disappointing her this time around and apologizing for yesterday’s overconfident behavior which caused the mishap, I stood there with blossom’s of my sentimentalist personality when the door of the hall opened up and there was my co-host a few minutes late. I looked up and our eyes instantly met each other making at least me feel really flattered. But then again the feelings were shared equally among us because it was not long when I noticed his face lighting up in serenity as well. Greeting both me and the teacher separately, he abruptly made me realize that this was the first time we ever greeted each other.

Actually this was the first time he came after me in the auditorium so he was the one greeting me. But still, all these times when I used to come in the end I never ever greeted him. I thought a lot on this fact but never really got to any strong point to prove myself naive in my own eyes. Maybe the reason behind all this being that in this college, greeting from a girl to a boy was never considered to be a justified act, or maybe it was my selfish ego that prevented me to perform such a humble act. All in all, it took me a few minutes to commemorate the whole situation in my mind and I really felt ashamed of my doings in the end. Although it was not that big a deal, but the least it did for me was that from now on I was proud to have a boy like him as someone sharing my responsibility and working for the same purpose as I was. That single act of commendable behavior made him earn a great deal of respect right at that very moment.

With all the lights turned on, mike checked, speakers set to work; it was show time for us. This was categorically the last session of rehearsals we had to do alone, because from that day onwards a lot of boys and girls would be joining us for their rehearsals of tabloids and singing skits.

After calling both of us down from the stage, the teacher went off to gather some ribbons and banners for decoration and demarcations of borders and linings of stage. She left the auditorium and a chill of silence swept across the auditorium. Patiently trying to gain the courage to speak up to him, but every time getting pushed back by the air this college possessed, I was completely helpless. That silence was fathomless and pretty much overwhelming for me to bear. Honest to God, I still remember the words were all there in my mouth the entire time but I just wasn’t able to get them out somehow. The only thing I could do was look deep into his eyes and make him start a conversation. I then relied highly on the power of my dramatic expressions that were to hopefully ignite some flames and open up my frozen mouth.

I was astonished to know that all my hours behind the television screen didn’t go to waste. I did somehow manage to force him to say something and so there was our first ever conversation starting off with a flying question hurled towards me. Obviously I was more than happy to answer anything he might have to say at that time so he didn’t have to wait long before getting his desired reply.

The question was simple. Probably the question everyone in his place would have asked. It was about studies, how are they going? Followed by, what’s tough and what’s not? Who teaches what? Marks, grades and all such crappy stuff. To his surprise I didn’t mind any of his questions, even in this restrictive college environment. Trying to get out of all this study related query, which seemed more like an interrogation to me, I realized there wasn’t any other topic we could discuss apart from this one. Being students, acting like students, behaving like some well mannered students in college, we were bound to talk only about this kind of stuff.

It had been ten minutes since our teacher was out of sight, even though she said it would take her only two minutes in bringing back all the items from the store area of the college. Realizing this, I immediately heard someone’s footsteps clanging the floor underneath. Gaining the desired attention, my head instantly turned around and saw the same classy image standing on the doorstep smiling in disbelief. She surely never expected to see such a sight on her return and so she was completely flabbergasted. With the heels of her shoes still trouncing the marble floor, she walked inside with an astonished look upon her face. Although those looks did seem pretty intimidating, they proved to be pleasant gestures as she was happy to see us out of our confined separate bubbles and showing some confidence. That show of extrovert attitude from two extremely introverted personalities like us had truly given her a shock, which I realized afterward.

That was all we had for that day. I came back home feeling like a war veteran having achieved something worthy, that really proved I was not a shy girl. I had finally slayed the mighty dragon and had newfound confidence breathing in my chest now. That feeling of accomplishment truly rose out of my face throughout the day, and much of my family was surprised to see the ravishingly fresh looks up on my face the entire time.

The next day came with lilies glowing all around, the meadows shinning bright and the sun sparkling out in the open. I woke up completely rejoicing. I don’t know whether it was really the nature of that day which made me so joyful or if it was my astoundingly fresh mind that morning. Whatever the reason was, I was on cloud nine once I landed back at my college in a blissful manner. Right in the third period I was gladly dispatched from my class and was overly excited on my way walking towards the auditorium yet again.

In a state of cheerfulness I accidentally slammed the door wide open which made me catch everyone’s attention upon my slender figure. Sensing some grief upon the senseless act of ridicule committed by me, I tried to deliver my apology but certainly there was no way to it. The hall was much filled this time along with other participants of skits and tabloids who I had completely disregarded while entering the hall. By now I was cursing myself from the inside but found no way to prove my innocence except walking inside to my desired position. On my way towards the stage I peeked at everybody’s faces and was not quite able to make out the face of my co-host the entire time. I went up to ask the teacher and a lightning struck over my face when I heard that “He has gone absent today and won’t be coming college at least for this day.” I was completely broken down in shambles! The teacher further concluded by saying that she would be trying to prepare some other student and hope that he would do well on the occasion. Those words completely knocked me off my feet as I was never expecting such kind of tides turning. The rambling thoughts of leaving my companion high and dry like this started haunting my mind altogether at that time. In reply, I was more than just infuriated over this thought of hers and so I strongly rejected her proposition and regarded her of my opinion that with this little time left in between, I highly disagreed and doubted her contemplation that anyone else could join in and rise up to the occasion. Our conversation ended when I finally made her realize that this task could not be handled and executed well by anyone she might come up with from the boy’s wing. To me it sounded impossible that someone might even come close to that teenager’s level of confidence, commitment and execution.

I was the only one for hosting that day and it felt really boring. Even though at the start of all this I never wanted anyone to accompany me on this task, but now everything I said behind that roster seemed meaningless and incomplete. To be honest, I just wasn’t capable to deal with all the stuff on my own. All that high flying attitude of happiness I possessed while coming to college that morning surely started fading away right from the moment I had opened up the door of the auditorium. By now I was cursing my companion for his absence from college because nothing seemed to be going alright at that time.

So, after a few rehearsals of my script, feeling inexpressibly sick, I requested the teacher to please spare me for that day as there was no point in performing alone. She made me realize that tomorrow would be the last day of any sort of preparations because the day afterward would be the grand day on which everything should be happening nice and fine in front of the audience. Assuring her of a great show at the end, I did manage to take all the responsibilities upon myself and made her a bit contented. The rest of the time passed by in cursing myself and my partner for all that we had done wrong separately in our own ways and soon I noticed myself leaving the college yet again in dismay.

Coming back home in an apprehensive mood and following my hobby at night of sneaking at flashbacks of the day’s incidents, there was one thing that definitely stood out in my character and personality. I categorically noticed of myself that I had put up an overwhelming support for my partners defense and had remained completely stern over the unmatched talent and skills my companion possessed. It really felt strange in the beginning, but as the day came down to a close, I started considering it my duty and felt proud to have done what I did. To me he surely was a sublime personality and I just couldn’t let anyone take his place, which in my opinion nobody deserved as much as he did.

The bright yellow sun turned itself up in the lustrous blue background yet again the next morning just to make sure that the heap of a great gamble was all over me. Either my partner would be there waiting for me in the auditorium when I step in there or else it would be me and myself alone who would have to conduct everything in an astoundingly perfect manner all on my own. Hoping for the best yet preparing myself for the worst, I knocked the door of the auditorium patiently and softly pushing it aside to make my way inside. To my relief there surely were two images that caught hold of my sight instantly upon which one was our teacher, who was as always glowing in array of lights surrounding her. The second figure was only slightly recognizable, but because of his body turned towards the opposite side, I really wasn’t able to have a firm belief that he was the same boy I wanted him to be.
Holding tight on my breath, I cleared up my throat and graciously greeted him in an astoundingly lively manner. To my surprise, he immediately turned around and it was one of the biggest signs of relief I had ever encountered. It was such a soothing moment as it relieved so much pressure and burden over my shoulders and made me feel sparklingly fresh. With the fears and apprehensions of conducting all the stuff alone gone now, it meant the whole world to me glancing at his sweet sun lit face near the window.

With the clocks turning and the time drawing closer, we were back in business. It was the last day of any sort of rehearsals for us because the next day held the function itself. There was certainly no room for error and we just had to take our places on stage for one last time before the event itself, so this final rehearsal session called upon the principals of our college as well. We indeed executed all the stuff to our level best and at the end of the day, it was all claps and joy for us. We outperformed even our own expectations and so our sweet teacher sensationally praised our performance and blessed our souls with the words, “Your presentation and power of speech were truly beyond the point of perfection!”

Thanking our teacher for such high words of appreciations we went down from the stage acknowledging each others commendable performances. Out of all the participants present there, he was the only one a bit familiar to me so I had no intentions to interact with anyone else except him. Sitting there together and passing our time, we did come up with some short yet well thought out conversations time and again, but sadly most of them still referred to the same sluggish and worn out topic of studies.

There wasn’t much to learn that day after our superb performance on stage and so we opted to stay away from anything more than we had already done. By now we were fully aware of our duties and responsibilities so it was better to make us stick to those things which we were already able to do fully rather than keep us engaged and stuffed with new ideas.

That day’s departing held its own charm and excitement. After talking for quite a while, the time ran out and we were the ones leaving the hall yet again. Both of us headed towards the door in a well conversant mood and got out together. For the first time we bid goodbyes and above that, like any true companions would have done, we wished each other best of luck and success for the grand day. It was one or the same thing for us working together as a team in which both our goals were the same and our heartiest wishes were for the same desired success.

The next day came up and we were back in the hall quite early this time around. No classes, no books, no nothing! We were there just to accomplish what mattered the most to us. After the previous day’s humble farewell, greetings remained just a formality between us that morning. I felt really comfortable and extremely flattered standing there with him as he was by then surely someone I knew somewhat in person.

The universal language of smiles still carried both of us in contact and they were surely our concerns that kept us checking each others nervousness all the time. With the event quite near to its proceedings both of us were made to sit on two chairs lined up fairly close to each other at the back of the stage. We watched the deep flooding of students continuously dwelling inside the hall from both wings at a time.
With so much going on down there, I opted to keep my image upright in front of the audience as it was an inevitable sin even talking to a boy, forget the whole conversations we were in habit of doing inside the college premises.

Sitting there in complete silence I concluded one thing, that I still wasn’t that much at ease talking to him. After all that we had gone through for the last five days the only thing that mattered to me was that I belonged to a bright army background and was really proud of it. My dad was a lieutenant colonel and this fact had made me much reserved talking to civilians. Even though he well and truly wasn’t a stranger to me now, there still lived a deep desire in my mind to know his background before starting off any proper discussions. I thought of questioning him with this query the next time he turned around and glanced towards me. But the moment his head did swung by, he had a question of his own which had been lingering in his mind that he wanted to pose to me. He questioned me about my parents presence, as to whether they were coming along to watch me conduct the whole stuff or not? Further he concluded by saying, “It would be a great deal of honor for them, you know.”

I hesitated a bit in replying but then quickly got hold of myself and responded that they were not in the best of manners at the time as my mother wasn’t feeling that good when I left her home in the morning and my father told me that he would be quite busy in his office work so they would opt to see the video recording of the whole event later, as it suited them a bit more.

Before he could have come up with a single word in reply, I hurled back the same question he had put me through a few minutes back. To my surprise, his reply was a bit confusing and instigative natured itself. With a gentle smile on his face, he answered that I’d be able to see them in the audience as they must be on their way and would be arriving shortly. Completely freaking me out for a second, I asked him how much time was left in commencement of the event and he whispered five minutes.

Another four minutes passed with no signs of his parent’s arrival. With just a minute remaining in between us and our proceedings, in a state of utter disbelief, I asked him whether he was still confident his parents could pull it off in time? Without a shadow of doubt flickering from his face, he only gave a curl to his lips in reply and smiled in excitement.

A few seconds later it was all settled. I made him realize that I was able to actually hear the footsteps of the chief guest’s as even they must have arrived by now. With a vivid look on his face, he turned cuddling towards me and responded by saying, “So my mom and dad have finally arrived!”

I was completely dazed! For the past five days, the only thing that had stopped me from talking about anything other than studies was this fact that I couldn’t be comfortable with him as I always pretended he was from a civilian background of some sort. Now with just seconds remaining for the event to proceed, he is telling me that he is the son of the administrator of this very institution. I was completely frustrated. With the whole crowd watching the expressions on my face fading and swinging away, I turned back at his side, shook his hand, and looking deep in his eyes said, “Why couldn’t you tell me all this in the first place idiot?” Unfortunately, before he could have come up with any sort of reply, the chief guests, who were his mom and dad, had already stepped inside the hall.

There was no time to clarify the world of misunderstandings I had gone through the entire time as the ceremony was just seconds away from starting. Knowing my responsibilities firmly, I knew that I couldn’t break up right that moment just because of some foolish misunderstandings that had kept me blindfolded for so long. With everyone’s eyes settled towards me, I pulled off my bleak looking face and replaced it with a really mesmerizing and melodious one as I carried myself towards the roster. It took a great deal of confidence in hosting an entire event like this in front of some highly cherished personalities present out there, but it was well and truly paid off as we received a standing ovation in the end from all the audience present there.

Thanking my teacher as much as I could for her tireless efforts and hard work she had put forth on us, she truly earned a great deal of respect from my side that day as the ceremony came to a close. Then turning back to where the other half of this hosting team was standing, I looked around and noticed my partner already making his way out of the hall. In a state of sheer panic, and regardless of what anyone might think about my act, I took a few steps forward and called out his name in a low tone in order to stop him from leaving! Gladly he did listen to my call instantly and came to a halt, turning around towards me.

There were already two teachers gazing up to my slender figure yet bold moves. Not knowing of what next to do, I kept my head knelt towards the floor staring at my own shoes. I could actually observe the chill of horror sweeping across the faces of teachers present there once he started making his way towards where I was standing. I peeked over his shoes as they drew nearer and once they were almost a foot away, I looked up, glancing over his face, and as few more minutes passed without anything in between, I looked deep in his eyes and came up with a humble request of my own.

“Would you mind a handshake with me for the first and most probably last time before saying our final goodbyes?”

He hesitated a bit, but I soon saw his right hand making its way out of his pocket and quite near to where I held mine. We shook hands and before he could leave that place for the final time, he relished my emotions by asking me to exchange my hand written hosting scripts for his and so I was enthralled while keeping his one in my possession.

One final smile passed between us and he left that place, most likely never to be seen again, at least through my eyes. After his departure I tried to look back at those two teachers who stood there the entire time and when I did manage to turn around and peek at their faces, they both were actually drooling with astonishment. A few minutes later, I made my way out as well and freedom welcomed me along the way.

A whole month has passed since that ceremony came down to its ending notes, but the influence of that single personality has completely enriched my soul inside out. It's drizzling a bit as I am sitting on a bench of my college with pearls of remembrance in my eyes, ending this long story of mine which has become truly a never ending and unforgettable event touching every bit of the emotions I have left in my body whenever I recall all that happened in those five and a half days. Sitting here in the cold weather with dew drops and rain making their way onto me, I am not bothered at all as long as I am remembering one of the sweetest moments of my entire life. The only person I can see from here is the same glossy, lustrous and fresh image of our beloved teacher standing on the far side, in the corridor in front of the auditorium for the last ten minutes, watching me get wet under the falling raindrops as they are picking up more and more pace and intensity!

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