April 2005

Vikram was conflicted.

As Shruti's friend, he should have been mad at Aditya for the way he behaved with her but he had to start the English project that was due in the first week of May. For three days after the match, Shruti didn't come to school. She was probably embarrassed and for those three days, Vikram pretended that he didn't know Aditya, which was kind of true because the only common factor between them was Shruti.

There was also the project looming over him but Vikram didn't consider it. He was starting to believe that the project was going to be an awkward situation now that Shruti was ghosting Aditya but when she did come back on the fourth day, much to Vikram's surprise, she began behaving like the conversation between her and Aditya had never taken place.

Vikram had pulled her into a corner, trying to figure out what was going on to which her only reply had been, "It's fine. Aditya and I are fine."

Vikram could not draw up one scenario in his mind where any of this was fine.

Seeing how Shruti was back to treating Aditya like he was the only person who existed on earth, Vikram relaxed a little. The project wouldn't be so awkward after all.

Aditya had asked Vikram to meet him at the library after school to discuss the assignment and as the last period approached, Vikram found himself staring at the time every now and then, nervously waiting for the bell to ring.

"What is with you today?" Ruvee asked when she saw Vikram fidgeting with his watch. "Do you have somewhere to be?"

Hearing this, Shruti turned around. "You're meeting Aditya in the library, aren't you?"

Without waiting for an answer, Shruti flicked her hair and gave a very weird glance to Ruvee before turning to face forward.

"What is wrong with her?" Ruvee asked, this time too low to be heard by Shruti.

Vikram shrugged. Whatever was going on between the two of them, he didn't want to be a part of it.

"Anyway..." Ruvee said in a low voice as her eyes were fixed on the teacher. She didn't want to be found talking in the class. "When are you giving me the photos from the second match?"

For a second, Vikram didn't understand what Ruvee had asked. But then he remembered that she would need those photos for the monthly newsletter. Except that he had none to give.

Vikram hesitated for a second but decided that it was better to be out with the truth. "I... I didn't take any photos that day." he confessed. There was a temporary silence. Like the calm before the storm. Vikram closed his eyes and waited for the storm to come. But it never did.

When he opened his eyes, he found Ruvee staring at him with a very weird expression on her face.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked.

"I thought you'd yell at me, so I was just... waiting."

Hearing this Ruvee turned and cleared her throat. "I am working on my anger." she said. "I've been told that I react too quickly and that I need to control my temper. So instead of yelling, I will first ask you the reason why..." her voice trailed off a little. "... you failed to take those photos."

Vikram swore the last bit was spoken through gritted teeth because it was visible how much Ruvee was struggling to control herself. It was adorable, kind of. Ruvee had her lips pressed to a thin line which formed a small crater on her cheek and it instantly made Vikram think of the dint on Aditya's face.

A smile was just beginning to form on Vikram's lips when he realized what he was doing. Why the fuck am I thinking about Aditya? He asked himself and suddenly looked away from Ruvee. She had asked him a question, hadn't she? Did Vikram answer? He had no idea.

Oh, right, it was about the photos. "I umm... I wasn't feeling too well so I sat the match out."

Ruvee looked at him, eyebrows furrowed. "Are you fine now?"

There was a general tone of concern that was evident in her voice.

Vikram nodded.

Ruvee opened her mouth to perhaps ask something else but just then, the bell rang and before Ruvee could say anything, Vikram stuffed his books and pen into his bag, grabbed it and dashed out of the classroom.

When he reached the library, Aditya was already there by the XYZ section and Vikram noticed that he was placing something inside a book. Vikram walked over. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Aditya looked up at Vikram and showed him the book. Vikram's eyes fell on a pile of money kept between pages. Aditya closed the book and placed it on the shelf under X.

"You're keeping your money here?"

Aditya turned and pulled a chair before taking a seat. "It's the safest place."

Vikram's eyes widened in surprise. "How is the school library the safest place?" He dropped his bag on an empty chair and pulled one for himself, right across Aditya. "Anyone could come and take that book only to be suddenly rich."

Aditya pursed his lips and shook his head. "I can guarantee you that no one in the history of the universe has pulled out a book called 'Xylophone and Marimba Method' from a school library."

Vikram's turned to look at the shelf and indeed there was a book called Xylophone and Marimba Method. He let out a laugh and only then realized that he had laughed at a joke made by Aditya.

He composed himself immediately and placed his bag on the table. "Can we start with the project?"

Aditya nodded. "What book are we doing?" he asked.

Vikram pulled out a list of books that Mr. Jha had given them to do the project on. "It's all Shakespeare." he said, complaining a little. He hated old English literature. Mainly because he didn't understand anything.

"Typical Mr. Jha." Aditya replied. "Sometimes I wonder if he is sane."

Vikram blinked and looked at Aditya. Did he just make small talk?

His stare must have been obvious because Aditya flicked his eyebrows at Vikram, asking him what was wrong.

"Why... why would you think he's not sane?" Vikram asked, clearing his throat. "I just think he's a romantic."

"Shakespeare wrote tragedies, not romance." Aditya politely reminded him.

"Well, he wrote comedies and histories too. Not all were tragedies and the most common theme in his work has always been romance."

Aditya casually shrugged. "I bet all the books in the list are nothing but tragedies"

Vikram glanced at the list and read the names out loud. "Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Timon of Athens" he then looked up at Aditya. "You're right."

He had that I-told-you-so face on and Vikram couldn't help be amused.

"Mr. Jha really loves a sad ending." Aditya said.

Vikram was still not quite ready to concede. "Just because the books end sadly does not mean you can discredit the rest of the work, which in most cases are, as I said, romance."

Aditya shook his head and tapped his pen on the notebook. "It's only the end that matters."

Vikram laughed. "And what about the middle? Or the beginning? You can't have an end without a beginning."

Aditya's lips curled to the left and he lightly chewed on the inside of his lip. Then he nodded. "Okay, I give you this one."

Vikram acknowledged this small win with a smile.

"But you can't deny that Mr. Jha is a sadist." Aditya continued. "I am surprised there is no Romeo and Juliet here. I guess he's not that of a romantic after all."

And just like that, the star football player had won the argument back.

Aditya had suggested that they better collect all the five books from the library and skim through the synopsis to decide which book they would want to work on. So now they sat reading in silence, exchanging books, reading the gist and making mental notes.

"Let's do Macbeth." Vikram suggested.

Aditya raised an eyebrow. "I thought you'd go for the romantic tragedy Antony and Cleo". He said Cleo so casually that it would seem like Cleopatra and Aditya were childhood friends.

Vikram shook his head. "I don't mind but I thought you'd not want to work on it so I chose something in between. Macbeth seems to fit best."

To Vikram's surprise, Aditya did not fight back. Instead, he nodded in acceptance. "You should get on with the reading then."

Saying this, Aditya picked up the book from his right that Vikram hadn't even noticed and began reading it. The cover read 'Michael Connelly City of Bones'

Vikram was flabbergasted, wondering what was going on. Was he actually reading a novel while commissioning Vikram to work?

"Why am I the only person doing the reading?" Vikram asked, a little flustered. "If you think that it will only be me slogging my ass off on this project, you're very wrong."

Aditya sighed and put the book down. "I have already ready it. I don't need to read it again."

Vikram couldn't believe Aditya's smugness. "We need to write a detailed essay. There is no way you remember everything from the book."

"I do actually." Aditya said in a flat tone. "I even remember the exact sentences."

Vikram scoffed. "This scam would work on Shruti but it won't work on me."

Aditya put the book back where it was resting a few minutes ago and crossed his arms. "You think I am lying?"

Vikram shrugged and it made Aditya a little mad.

"Fine" Aditya said. "I will prove it to you."

"How?"

"Pull out any book from the library and tell me any sentence from any page and I will tell you the sentence after it. Hell, I will read you the entire paragraph." Aditya was now leaning on the table a little and Vikram noticed the hint of frustration on his face. It excited Vikram to see Aditya react for a change.

Aditya sat there, silent and looking at Vikram and the latter wondered what it would be like to peel all those emotions out of him, the ones he kept inside, locked away somewhere out of reach. Vikram wondered what the release would be like. Would it be like fusion, like a supernova collapsing, or would be outbound, like the devastating eruption of a volcano? Either way, Vikram knew he wouldn't mind being destroyed in the process to find out.

"Any book?" Vikram asked in suspicion.

"Well..." Aditya faltered, "Not any book, just any book that I've read."

Vikram pressed his lips to a line, crossed his arms and considered it for a moment. "Okay..." he said after a while. "Tell me which one."

"Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer." Aditya said immediately. "You will find it under 'Fiction'."

Vikram quickly got up, ran to the fiction section and came back with the book.

He flipped it open and his brain told him to go to one of the later pages. He glanced at Aditya once to check if he was cheating. Once he was satisfied he was not, Vikram randomly opened a page.

"What comes after..." he began "'... I gave the hero each picture as she gave it to me, and he could only with difficulty hold it in his hand that were doing so much shaking.'"

He looked at Aditya and found him sitting with his eyes shut. After about three seconds, he spoke up "'It appeared that a part of him wanted to write everything, every word of what had occurred, into his diary.'"

Vikram stared at him with his mouth open. He had recited the words verbatim.

This had to be a trick. Vikram would not believe Aditya so easily. "Okay, next book."

Aditya looked at him surprisingly and a flutter rose inside Vikram. "You still don't believe me?" he asked.

Vikram didn't care. Right now he would do anything to see Aditya keep reacting.

"Fine." Aditya said. "The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde."

Vikram quickly brought the book over. This time, he was going to actually test Aditya. It could be possible to cram sentences like that in sequence; maybe there was a trick. But Vikram knew how to break it.

"'Those finely-shaped fingers could never have clutched a knife for sin, nor those smiling lips have cried out on god and goodness.'"

Aditya was about to start when Vikram stopped him.

"Wait. This time..." Vikram said with a smile. "... tell me what comes before that sentence". It was probably easy to recite sentences that came after, but there was no way Aditya could tell the sentence before it.

Like the last time, Aditya closed his eyes. It took him longer than three seconds and Vikram was about to shut the book when he heard Aditya. "'Certainly no one looking at Dorian Gray that night could have believed that he had passed through a tragedy as horrible as any tragedy of our age.'"

Vikram did not have any words anymore. Aditya wasn't lying. He actually knew the words letter by letter.

"Do you have eidetic memory?" Vikram asked curiously.

Aditya nodded.

The first reaction from Vikram was a laugh that was so loud that Mrs. Sengupta had to warn him to keep it low.

Aditya looked at him strangely. "What is so funny about having eidetic memory?"

Vikram shook his head but continued to laugh. When he was done, he wiped the tears off his eyes. "I just realized that I have hated you for eight years for no reason."

Aditya's eyes narrowed. "For no reason?"

Vikram nodded. "I always thought I was competing against someone who was actually very hardworking. I would burn with envy when I saw you topping exams while also playing football, bunking classes and reading novels. I have spent hours trying to figure out how you did it. Turns out it was that brain of yours."

Aditya still did not understand. What was funny about it?

Vikram continued. "Had I known you have an eidetic memory, I'd have stayed happy with my 2nd rank since forever."

And then Aditya understood. Vikram was pitying him. He scoffed. "You know," Aditya said, "Only you can take something like this and make it something to despise." He shook his head in disbelief. "Everyone who knows about this, envies me, wishing they too had a memory as photographic as mine and then there's you, pitying what I have." Aditya gritted his teeth in anger.

Vikram saw Aditya behave this way and was taken aback. It must have been his lucky day. Aditya was giving him a lot of surprises. "I am sorry..." he said, "I don't pity you, it's just that now I know this about you, I don't have to stress about outranking you all the time and it's kind of a relief."

It was true. It was a relief for Vikram because he knew that his hard work was as valid as this conversation they were having. He suddenly realized that he didn't lack anything, just that Aditya naturally had something more and it didn't mean that Vikram's efforts were no good. He finally had an answer for all the times his father had asked why Vikram couldn't be as good as Aditya and why he hadn't outranked him yet.

"Let's get back to Macbeth." Vikram said, trying to change the topic and found Aditya nodding at him fondly.

One lucky day indeed.