Part 2 (Let it flow)
"I have won three international photography contests. When I asked the judges what made them choose me, they began to give some bullshit logical reasons, while as I said, they just liked it."
The senior takes the remote off the table and clicks on it for the screen to change into a picture of an upside down sunset scenery.
"Here's what we will do with you guys. Go out, take any photo but should be exalted to nature. Best photos will find themselves stapled to the main noticeboard along with your name. And those guys with the best photos will get access to the DSLR that I brought from USA. 1000 dollars, was a hard bargain but was worth it."
The senior takes out the large camera and places it in the desk infront of them.
"Go."
The students flock out of the classroom, with many of them opening their camera in their phones at the same time. They spread across the campus, going in every direction possible from the building. Sasi follows a group going towards a place in the campus filled with more flora. And soe fauna if they really unlucky. It was close to evening. Some of them looked into the sky for better angles of the setting sun. Some students have bent down to the ground to click some good pictures of ants or small herbs.
Sasi tried many pictures of the partially orange sky, some of the ants magnified, or of the tall trees which seemed to dissipate into the sky. He tried clicking pictures of the rows of birds soaring into the sky.
"They are calling back everyone!!".
As soon as the announcement ringed close, Sasi became anxious. None of the photos looked magnificent but they didn't look atrocious either, which made it difficult to choose. He began scrolling down the photos and looking around, searching for something more worthwhile to click.
Meanwhile in the economy club, Amit sat transfixed, trying to reply to the girl
"Not such a tree geek, but their company doesn't hurt me.", Amit says and smiles.
The girl smiles back. And rests in her hands and tried to think of something.
Although, Amit is not that depressed as a single but he won't be bothered to get shot by the arrow of Cupid.
"What do you like in trees?", she leaned more towards Amit.
"They don't try hard for others to like them. Maybe that, I guess."
Amit could feel his heart pounding, beating so hard that it wanted to detach from the body, run around and come back to a normal restored state in the body.
"Do you try hard for others to like you?"
Amit smiled and slyly closed his eyes, looking down to the desk.
"Only for others who like me back."
An old man walks into the room but students remain busy talking. He takes out a chalk and draws a thick, short line in the blackboard making a large screeching nose. The whole class goes into silence and look towards the source that made the sound.
"Fifteen years. And still it's the best way to get attention of you morons", he says and throws the chalk straight into the bin. His chin was three folds of hanging skin and his glasses covered half of his face.
"Trees give us oxygen. Trees regulate water circulation. All that dipshit you know. You morons, go join a real club. You want to spend four years here just bullshitting?"
The class goes into a burst of laughter.
"Anyways let's talk about our activities for this month. So, we will be conducting a tour with...."
The girl behind Amit gets up and goes to the first bench. Amit suddenly felt something had gone into his shirt collar. He takes it out and he sees a neatly folded cheat.
'Who?'
Amit cluelessly looks around and the girl looks back smiling at him. Amit gets the hint. But he pretends to look a bit bemused and surprised. He slowly starts to open the chit.
'Meet me infront of the washroom.'
"Sure, sure. Never stop your pee pee. Haha," the old teacher says to the girl, as she goes out of the classroom giving a brief glance at Amit before leaving. Amit looks at her leaving, and finds himself in a confused state of mind in contrary to everyone giving a fake smile to the professor's joke.
'She is genuinely beautiful. Why would she like me? At least some fatso like me.'
Anyway Amit went upto the old man, asked for permission and went out.
"Never stop your….", huge rounds of fake laughter and applause reverberated throughout the empty narrow corridor as Amit gets out of the classroom.
'But where is the washroom?', Amit began to ponder.
He looked around. A tall guy seemed to come towards him.
"If you are looking for the washroom fuckboy, it's that way," the tall guy said, raising his eyebrows and giving a creepy smile.
Amit began to walk faster. His heart beating higher and higher and higher. After walking some distance, he sees a sillhoutte infront of the washroom. Probably the girl.
Amit stopped abruptly, opened his front camera in his phone, and then adjusted his hair and took a deep breath. He began to walk towards the girl.
"Did you know the route to the washroom?", the girl asked.
"No, of course I am a first year guy. But someone helped me out."
"Oh! I sent him. I thought you may be lost".
Amit nods his head and looks behind him and then back at him.
"Well, I am still lost, after seeing you."
"What?", the girl asks and starts laughing.
"Sorry, it just slipped off my tongue."
"But I liked it. It was funny".
"That's great. But why did you call me here?"
The girl keeps a smiling face and tilts it a bit towards her right shoulder looking at Amit.
"Does your imagination suck that much?"
Amit gives a half smile. Both begin to move a little bit being in the same place with the romantic tension building in. Amit suddenly senses something. He turns back again to see no one.
"What happened?", the girl asks.
"Nothing just... I don't know. I think someone's there."
"It's a college building after all. Someone is going to be somewhere or the other."
Amit looks back at the girl.
"Yeah....", Amit says nervously.
"I want to remember this day. Will you do something so that I can remember this day?"
"What?", Amit says and tries to keep his imagination within the confines of logic yet again.
"I will sing a song and you will have to dance."
Amit gets surprised.
"What?".
"Let's do it. Why? Are you scared? Didn't you tell me that you try hard for people who like you back?"
From a surprised expression, Amit's gradually changes into a diminutive smile.
The girl begins to sing and Amit begins to do bad dance moves with his hands.
"Move your legs also."
He begins to do sliding in ice manoeuvre with his legs and sings along. Some seconds into this, he suddenly hears someone laughing.
"Oh shit. Is someone there?", Amit asks as he stops dancing.
The same tall guy and all the guys from the economy club come out, laughing hard. The tall guy holds a camera, recording the whole thing. Amit goes into a shock and he turns towards the girl. The girl is laughing as well. She goes and joins the group laughing with them.
"What dialogues sir!", the tall guy exclaims, falling down laughing hard.
"And dance Ofcourse", the girl exclaims,"Sure to go into top ten pranks on YouTube. Oh my God! Such good content".
Flabbergasted, Amit rushes out of the building.
Meanwhile, the students have now gathered in the photography club after clicking their photos to know the results.
"I think this is the best photo", he shows it to everyone in the white screen and the student photographer goes to the senior.
"Clap for him", the senior says.
It's followed by unenthusiastic clapping. The students look at the photo with disbelief.
"Fuck. There are far better photos here. Why this one?", a guy behind Sasi questions.
"That guy is the cousin of the senior. Nepotism in the truest sense", another guy says.
Listening to this, Sasi goes upto the senior.
"Sir, but you haven't seen all the photos. How can you choose this as the winner?", Sasi asks.
"I have seen everything."
"I think my photo is better. You see it once…."
"Doesn't matter", the senior says," If you had been paying any attention to what I was saying, if you like one art, you just like that. Why some art is better is a very subjective matter. But in this matter, I like this art. I just do."
"Sir but I think it's unfair. Everyone knows that this guy is your cousin".
The senior looks around at the staring students.
"I have won three international photography contests. And I have participated in 279 contests in my entire life. If you think it's really unfair to you my boy, then you are wrong."
Sasi picks up his bag and leaves the room.
"I am going to click another picture", Sasi says, as he finds a tree with a good backdrop of sunset. As tries to click the picture from an angle, he finds someone sitting behind the tree. As he inches closer, he recognises the shoulders.
"Amit?"
Amit looks back.
"I am not joining any club. Ever", he exclaims and buries his head down.
"And I only like clicking pictures. But this club is shit."
Early stars had come out in the sky, which was a mixture of blue and orange hues. Both looked at the sky in silence with a spark in their eyes - a spark of having already made a decision.