Chapter 3. Sun Under the Rainbow

Koel was intently flipping through the brochures trying to find the community hall in the map. Her parents were asking the passerby's for directions. They were in the campus, beating the heat, trying to be the family that is ready for their daughter's maiden voyage. Mrs. Dasgupta stood with a suitcase and a bag, while Mr. Dasgupta held Koel's documents and luggage. They were confused, frustrated, and lost. They undeniably looked like a family.

"Baba, why don't you both sit at the cafeteria, while I try to figure this out? I will call you once the orientation is over," said Koel.

Koel touched her parent's feet and Mrs. Dasgupta kissed Koel's forehead and said, "Shona, kichu kheyenish" (Take care, my dear).

Koel left, wandering until she finally hit a map that was engraved into a big stone, sitting all by itself. She noticed she was the only one staring at the map; everyone else seemed to know where they were heading.

"They should have a map to locate this map, don't you think?" Koel heard someone speak over her shoulder. She looked back and smiled in haste and returned to concentrating on the map.

"Are you here for the orientation?" It was that voice again.

"Yeah, and I don't know where it is," replied Koel in a disgruntled voice.

"Which community hall are you headed for?" asked the voice.

"Business," answered Koel.

"You had to have walked right past it to get to the map!" the voice answered with a smile.

Koel stared at the building in a distance while adjusting her glasses, and commented, "And this is just my first day!" The voice cracked into a hearty laugh, and they shook hands.

"I am Will. I am heading there too."

Koel raised her eyebrows and then said, "I am Koel. Shall we hurry?"

Zara stepped into the hall and looked around, hunting for the table that had her name tag. She ignored the ogling looks she got on her way. She settled into her chair and corrected the name on the tag from Zarah to Zara. There were three other chairs of which one was empty. Aditya didn't notice Zara sliding into her chair until she started correcting her name. He watched her calmly as she was digging for a pen in her purse and scratching off the h from her name.

"Hi, I am Urmilla," the girl sitting next to Aditya said. "Aditya," and along came all the names. They looked at Zara, waiting for her to introduce herself. Zara reclined back in her chair moving her eyes around looking at the freshers at other tables. This is when she looked at a tall, light-eyed man sitting at a table right across her. Aditya and Urmilla rolled their eyes, smiled at each other and looked away. Urmilla and Aditya pinned their name tags onto their shirts, and Zara pinned it right onto her waist band.

Nandita waved her parents goodbye with tears in her eyes, while her domestic help waited with the car and her luggage right outside the hall. "Didi, this is where your orientation is I believe. I think you need to enter from the door on your right," said her domestic help .Nandita nodded and watched her parents leave. Her parents had to take a cab back to the airport because they had to rush for an important family event. Jogi, a 50-year-old domestic help of the Saxenas for 20 years stayed back to help Nandita with the bags until she settled into her hostel.

"Chacha, I will see you in a few hours; get yourself something to eat," said Nandita and stepped into the hall.

She walked right past everyone into the center of the hall where she was seated. She suddenly felt baffled by the crowd. She tried to take control of herself and placed her name tag. She noticed how people had already made friends and that she was the only one not engaged in a conversation. She looked at everyone at her table with a nervous smile. They smiled back. She sipped her drink a few times and finally introduced herself, "Hello, I am Nandita."

Parveen, Anirban, Jack, along came the names. Deep down she realized that this was her first step away from home. She may now only be a visitor to her own home. Life is strange, she thought, and quickly concealed her feelings that were now starting to be evident on her face. She didn't know how to start a conversation, so she nodded, smiled, and played along with the rest. God, give me the strength to do this, her inner voice spoke while she posed a childlike smile on her face.

"So Nandita, are you from Delhi?" Jack asked.

"Uh, no…I am from Gurgaon…how about you guys?"

Nandita started realizing that it didn't take much of an effort to carry a conversation. It is not that bad, Nandita thought to herself. Within minutes she was engaged in a conversation, and to her surprise she enjoyed having everyone at her table. She realized how it only took minutes to know and like a stranger, if someone tried. She had made her first friends on campus.

Will had noticed Zara too, especially while she was noticing him. He sat at the table right across them with Koel. Koel was looking intently at the agenda, reading the introduction on the orientation guide. "Are you always locating and finding things?" asked Will.

"Not really. I am worse," Koel pointed at a brochure in her stack of papers which read" History of Lawrence".

Will smiled and said, "And who said the world is going paperless!"

Will and Koel spoke about their background to each other. Moments into their conversation, an announcement echoed in the hall.

"May I have everyone's attention please?" A tall man in his 50's stood at the altar in a fine Italian suite. "I am William D Fernandez."

"I guess all famous people are named alike," Will muttered.

"Good he doesn't look quite like you," Koel snapped back.

"I am the assistant head of the department. The HOD, Mr. Anil Shukla, couldn't attend the orientation for some reasons. On behalf of the entire staff of Lawrence, I welcome you today and congratulate you on being a part of this distinguished institution. The history of Lawrence…" the assistant dean continued.

Aditya and the rest of the students heard a screeching sound. It was a guy rushing into the room, pulling an empty chair and sliding quickly in to avoid being noticed. It was too late anyways. He smiled unassumingly at everyone at the table and whispered, "Hi, I am Roshan."

William resumed his speech after warily pausing for a moment, "So if everyone has settled, may I resume my speech?" William looked at Roshan with a frown, and resumed, "The history of Lawrence dates back to the 1970's when …."

Roshan sighed softly and closed his eyes. "He just started," Aditya said with a smile.

"Oh, really?" said Roshan.

Everyone smiled at Roshan, except Zara. Zara was too busy trying to ignore Will. She seemed to have been deeply engaged in both the Williams'. William Fernandez was a man of such remarkable personality that being an assistant HOD didn't justify his stature. "He looks more like a dean. I like him," said Zara. That was the first time Zara had spoken in the last 20 minutes. "What?" exclaimed Roshan and thought to himself OK, so she talks? Roshan knew in his heart that she was not the kind of person he was going to hang out with in future. What a smug! Roshan said to himself.

The speech went on for another fifteen endless minutes and was followed by four other speeches on the rules, laws, schedule, and agendas. After lunch, the students were to be toured around the college. That being the most exciting item on the list, everyone cued up for lunch quickly.

"Ah man, can they not serve us at the table; thought that was a part of the scholarship," Roshan said with a giggle.

"You have a scholarship?" exclaimed Urmilla.

"I guess," said Roshan with a grin as he adjusted his collar.

"I have one," Zara added abruptly and stood up to wait for her turn in the cue. Roshan stared back at her in disgust.

Aditya smirked and told Roshan, "Man, why don't you go first. Seems like you are starving"

Roshan thanked and delightedly took the offer.

Everyone had lined up for lunch and Zara had already received a few offers to move ahead in the line. She refused to accept any offers. She had her eyes tied on one man, and decided on something that very moment.

Moments later, the committee announced that it would have a surprise debate in which students would be randomly picked to form two groups, each comprising of 2. The teams would be given five minutes to prepare. They claimed that this would be stepping stones to initiate competition, leadership, and reasoning amongst students. The room was suddenly filled with unwillingness and resistance. Everyone felt differently about this. Some loved the idea, some were intimidated, some complied, and some were just indifferent. Some knew they would win, some knew they won't. The names were announced – Aditi, Parveen, Shoubhik, and Will. There was a huge sigh of relief amongst many while some were just uneasy to hear their names.

"Oh, too bad-why me?" muttered Aditi.

"A great escape, that's what you call this. Hey bhagwaan, ladkiyon ke samne bacha lia tune," sighed Roshan.

Zara grumbled for not being chosen.

Composed and confident, Will walked up to the stage as everyone watched him.

"Is Feminism still relevant? Group A, Will and Aditi, will take the affirmative," announced a member of the committee. Roshan blankly commented, "I wouldn't know that."

"Did you say you had a scholarship?" Zara asked with a scorn and looked away.

Aditya bent towards Roshan and whispered, "It sure is relevant."

The debate started and Will took no time to prove his points – how supporting sex- role differentiation led to the debates feminism had promoted. Parveen fought back into the argument pointing the downside of sex-role differentiation and the damage it has made to women's image. Will compared the reservations across the world that was meant to bring the society to a level where there would be no further need for reservations. He pulled examples from different cultures, followed by their outcomes. It was clear; Will was a well-read man who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. But above all, he was a good speaker, and he made the audience believe in him.

The debate was over; there were no winners in the debate. But the committee and the students knew in their minds who the winner was. He stepped down to shake hands with the other team, something others might have passed. "You guys were great. I am actually against Feminism by the way," said Will and walked back to his table avoiding looking at Zara.

The committee asked the students to share their views on leadership and Zara was the first one to stand up to speak. "Leaders aren't made by taking sides. They have to believe in what they stand up for. That's what a true leader is to me."

Many applauded in the hall while Will waited calmly in his chair. He stood up and said, "Believing in something is about taking a side, a leap of faith." Everyone in the hall was listening carefully.

"Now we are talking!" Roshan said to others at his table.

Amidst the real debate, Aditya noticed the girl sitting next to Will. While everyone was listening to the exchange of opinions, Koel was engaged in her own world of papers, as if she was on a mission to dig an extraordinary piece of information.

"I heard what you said after the debate. You are against feminism and yet you spoke in favor of it just because you were asked to. If you are not honest to yourself, how can you lead others?" remarked Zara.

Everyone started talking amongst themselves.

"I believed in everything I said. Yes, I was asked to take an affirmative and I had to stick to the guidelines. But I can use the same examples again to speak against Feminism to prove what I believe in. It is how you use your examples to prove a point is what matters the most in an argument. You cannot be a leader if you can't prove your point. If you really want to argue with me on feminism, you will have to come prepared with a lot of ammunitions Miss, because I have dodged all kind of bullets on that topic that you can think of!"

Everyone cheered in the hall. Members in the committee said, "Any other remarks?"

Unwilling to comment further, Zara sat down in her chair and said, "I will gladly take your offer on that one. The ammunitions I can throw will nuke you"

Everyone at the adjoining tables laughed at the finishing line, including Will. He shrugged and showed two thumbs up at Zara.

Everyone was toured around the college and in three hours everyone was tired and ready to settle into their new nests.

"It was good to see you Koel. We will see each other in class I guess," said Will. Koel and Will exchanged numbers. Koel wasn't the kind to give away numbers but she knew, after what she saw, it won't do her any harm to be his friend. Zara walked past Will and both ignored each other. They knew in their hearts that it was a pretence that they had to get used to.

Roshan was headed for his room carrying a load of luggage past the ladies hostel. Nandita, standing by the ladies hostel, noticed that the he had no transport and was struggling with his luggage. She went up to Roshan and offered him a ride, "Chacha could give you a ride to your hostel"

Roshan surprisingly stared at the new girl but gladly took the offer.

"Thanks a lot. I am Roshan"

"Nandita"

There was a short pause after the formal introduction.

"It was a great orientation, minus the speeches," said Roshan

"Yeah. It was," said Nandita with a shy smile.

The silence took over again while Jogi watched the two. Before the silence could become more overpowering, Nandita shook hands with him and moved ahead into the hostel while Roshan dotingly watched her leave. Jogi waited for Roshan to come out of the daze, and offered to drive him to the hostel. "Chale bhai?" asked Jogi.

"Kahan?" asked Roshan.