Warning: This is going to be the cheesiest post that I have ever written in this blog.Will be in three parts.The next two parts to be published soon.
I. The chase
Let's call her J.She wasn’t exactly the kind of girl for whom every other guy would have fallen for.Not fugly or anything but wasn’t exceptionally beautiful either.J was fair skinned (quite unlike the average South Indian girl of wheatish complexion)but if somebody had made a list of the most beautiful girls of our college I am sure that she wouldn’t have featured even among the top 30.Yet I got attracted to her.Obviously it wasn't her looks that charmed me.She wasn't one of those goody goody mallu girls either(some of my batch mates had even labeled her as 'that kind of girl who would spend too much time with boys') then what the hell was the basis for my attraction to this mallu Muslim girl, you might ask.Was it lust?frankly I don’t know.
In the M.B.B.S curriculum there is something called as 'internment'(labour room posting).The students are posted in the labour room for 12 hours a day for about 1 month.They are supposed to observe the functioning of the labour room and study the steps of labour(delivery) and other basic obstetric procedures and examination techniques during this posting.12 hours a day for a month and that too in a nasty place like Labour Room,might sound like hell to you.But in reality internment is a fun posting(even for those who hate OBG to the core).If you are a wannabe Obstetrician,you will love it (for this is the one posting where you can learn just about everything of Obstetrics and gynaecology)and even if you hate the subject you will definitely enjoy the 'internment'(for it's the only time where you can sit and chat with your friends as long as you wish without getting interrupted in between).I definitely didn't hate OBG neither did I like it as much as to think of making a livelihood out of it.She was a few roll numbers next to me in the college register.So both of us were in the same batch during the internment posting.Since I had heard a lot about her 'flirtatious behaviour' and the 'multiple affairs' that she was supposed to be having at that point of time, was a bit apprehensive when she started talking to me.
J was quite an interesting character.I am yet to meet a female who is as funny and honest as J in my life.Her brother was getting married a few months from then and hence the initial few days of our conversation revolved around that.By the end of one month(which also meant the end of the labour room posting)we were good friends and what I found special about her character was her honesty.She never tried to portray herself as 'that ideal mallu girl who never dares to look beyond her text books' to me and was even frank enough to admit that she had a good number of male friends .I still remember the innocence in her 18 year old voice when she had asked me once “Nikhilesh is it okay to love two guys at the same time?”-That’s J for you; dumb yet truly lovable!
For the next 2 months or so she was busy with her brother's marriage and me with the college magazine(I had got elected to the college union as the college magazine editor).Our friendship was limited to the couple of forwarded texts and the occasional 'what yu doin','hw r u' kind of smses.The magazine was ready to be launched.We badly needed some celebrity for the launch function.So along with my friends I started chasing the celebrities(not the bigger ones,the ‘chotta- motta’ ones)None of them except one complied and when even the guy who had finally agreed to come(the male lead of a TV soap which was popular at that point of time) demanded a sum which was almost half a lakh rupees we were in a fix.To get out of this predicament somebody came up with that brilliant idea to make a ‘short movie’.Though making a moving picture of half an hour duration without even the rudimentary knowledge about lens/frames/angles/shots(and other blah blah) felt a bit weird in the beginning,we realized it’s true potential soon.To make an ‘Oscar worthy piece’ was never our intention.The only aim was to get the conference hall ‘filled’ when the launch was taking place. Since no one (including us) knew what exactly a short movie was(dude this happened some good 7 years back) we were pretty convinced that the students would flock to the hall to check out our ‘monumental piece of art’.The short movie (shot ,written and acted by the medicos)could be screened just before or soon after the magazine launch.The plan was indeed a brilliant one.The story had five male characters and 2 female ones in it.The girls who had agreed to play the female characters wanted the scenes involving them to be shot last and hence we had postponed those 9 scenes for the last 2 days(of the total 10 days) of the shoot.
Everything was going well until the 7 th day of the shoot when I suddenly got a call from K(the female lead of our movie).
"Nikhilesh,i think i wont be able to be a part of your film?"
"What....what happened?"-I was surprised
"I have to go home"
"Why?you told this weekend you will be free na?"
"Something happened,I have to go home urgently.It will be better if you can find a replacement for my role"-her voice was getting louder .
Why this sudden trip to home,I wanted to ask.But before I could complete my query she hung up the phone.A few minutes later the second girl called and said pretty much the same thing.May be someone wanted to destroy our ‘short movie plans’,I thought.As a last resort I called J.(I still don’t know why I hadn’t thought of J for that role initially) and asked if she could be a part of our short.She seemed to have been expecting my call for she readily accepted my offer at once.In a way that short film ‘OOF’ was a turning point in our relation.
J not only helped us by playing one of those female characters but also helped us in getting the ‘actress’ for the other role.On the last day of the shoot I enquired whether she knew the reason for the sudden change of mind of the other two. She smiled and paused for a second and replied- “oh, they got scared..”
“What? Scared of whom? Me?”- I asked
“No,of the camera.The other day in the hostel we happened to see a video clip of a boy and a girl…”- J continued.
I instantly recognized that it was the ‘DPS MMS’ that she was referring to.Someone from our hostel had downloaded it from the internet two days back.It had just hit the net and was slowly becoming a rage among the ‘porn hungry’ school and college students of the country.
“So what?” I couldn’t control my anxiety.
“The girls fear that you people will somehouse misuse the footage and put it in the internet” she concluded.
“What the F…..! We are not making A PORN FILM here.This is just a Campus film which is meant for public screening….What did those b….es think about us?”-I shouted
“No,not like that..They don't want to take risks”- J tried to calm me down
Though I wanted to shout a bit more what came out of my tongue was something like this
“J,Then why did you come for this shoot?You don’t have that fear?”
“Sana(the replacement for the second female )was a bit afraid but I could convince her”- J
“Why convince her?You aren’t scared of us?-me in the shouting mode again
“ No,I do trust you”-J didn’t wait for my reply.She walked away from me.I could see tears rolling down her cheeks.
(to be continued….)
Disclaimer-
This Is A Work Of Fiction
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters(except the protagonist), places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. -nikhimenon
