Chapter 1
She stood there, on the spiky, minutely trimmed green grass, looking up at the huge, imposing building. It was huge, not in height, but in length. It seemed to stretch till as far as she could see. The architecture was such that it looked more like a castle than a house of education. With huge towers and turrets and tall glass windows, one could easily be forgiven to think that dreams came true here.
The grass crunched under her feet as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Everything that belonged to her in this world lay strewn around her in numerous bags and suitcases. Her clothes alone had required two suitcases and all the other things that either supplemented her hobbies or were required by her for the academic year were stuffed in three different bags. Along with that she also carried a case for her tennis racquet and a carry-on purse that contained all her cash and other important things that one likes to keep with themselves at all times.
She had barely celebrated her 16th birthday, when her mother broke the news to her. Her father was in the initial stage of blood cancer and needed immediate treatment. Her mother had decided that the best treatment could be received only in London and before she knew what was happening they had packed their bags and were on the plane to London.
Her mother couldn't be expected to look after her husband and her 9 year old son and at the same time tend to her daughter's needs. On top of that she had to juggle her work load too. So the decision to send her to a boarding school had been unanimous.
So here she was, standing at the doorstep of this colossal looking school, basically on her own, for all intents and purposes.
She unfolded the crumpled up paper in her hand and once again checked the address.
King's College,
South Road,
Taunton,
Somerset TA1 3LA.
She once again crumpled it and shoved it into her pocket where it would probably be till the next laundry day.
Gathering up her belongings, which proved to be a rather messy affair considering the size and the quantity of the luggage, she managed to enter through the huge, oak doors. Not being able to see where she was going, she inevitably banged into someone.
Most of her things toppled down from her hands and she was left with just the tennis case strapped to her back and her purse dangling from her left arm as a pair of stern, grey eyes looked condescendingly at her, through a pair of half-moon glasses perched on her hawk like nose.
"May I help you?" said the owner of those eyes, who was apparently one of the many mistresses here.
The mistress looked at her from head to toe, judging her. She knew what she could see. A sixteen year old girl, with light brown hair, hazel coloured eyes and smooth, olive skin. Of course, being of an Indian origin definitely had its perks. Her skin was devoid of any pimples or acnes or other abrasions normally seen on the faces of other girls her age. She wasn't exactly the prettiest girl on this planet. But she was by no means an ugly one.
Her calm exterior appearance often led to misconceptions about her personality. Once she opened her mouth, nobody could call her calm and composed. The most appropriate term to define her would be – wild. She had long ago stopped living up to other people's expectations and now she lived life on her own terms. You couldn't exactly call her an optimist, as she occasionally showed a streak of pessimism, but she was definitely on the cheery side. She possessed a good sense of humour and a slight inclination towards sarcasm. She was smart and she was proud of it. She was rarely intimidated and was mature enough to keep her head on in times of crisis.
"Yes, you may." She said, confidently and just as condescendingly. "I want to know the directions to my lodgings."
The mistress raised one of her eyebrow and asked skeptically, "May I see your admission letter?"
By the time she had finished asking her question, an admission letter was already pushed into her face.
She scrutinized it thoroughly and grunted in satisfaction before saying, "You're lodgings are in Meynell House."
"I know that." She said. She felt the urge to add 'Duh-uh' but somehow refrained. "What I want to know is how do I get there?"
Annoyance flashed in The Mistresses eyes, before she curtly began giving the directions to her boarding house.
"Go out the front door and you'll see a row a seven buildings on your left. The last one in the row is Meynell House. I hope you are aware of your floor and room no.?"
"Yes," was all she said, before she once again scooped up all her belongings and strode out the front door, without a word of thanks.
* * *
King's College was more buildings than Damini had seen in her entire life, furthermore, she wanted to believe that she hadn't seen a more paramount institution for studying sciences. It had the colonial edge to it, the garden-cum-corridors qualified for orchards. The classrooms smelled of crisp newly opened books and outside the classrooms, you could smell freshly mowed grass. It was England, but Damini found this of Irish standards, as though she was correlating her new school with the Ireland she had seen in Hollywood romantic comedies.
She could not believe life could actually be that eventful. She had her first class to attend that very evening, and all she had unpacked yet was her pocket. As she walked out of her first class, lifting her backpack, she rummaged for the packet of Wrigley's she had bought that morning, that's about the unpacking she did. Dusk happened and evening began to turn into night.
Speaking of which, the night was a velvety shade of red wine, she could not make up her mind as to how red or how purple the sky looked that night, only it had made it into her list of top-ten shades of the sky. She walked at snail-speed so she could have the skylight soak into her; she knew it would give her the much needed peace of mind. She decided she would unpack as fast as possible as sleep early.
However, serendipity happened and at Meynell Hall, a rendezvous had already been arranged. One other girl had occupied the room since the last time she had come in, her roommate. Serendipity at first seemed like the very arrival of her doomsday to her, she hadn't even let her brother put his toe in her room for a minute, and now she would have to live with a human being the size of an Italian super-model, in clothes half the length of the frocks she used to wear as a two year old.
"Hey there, name's Naaz!" the super-model-sized said excitedly, having the time of her life.
"Damini, nice to meet you," she mouthed, placing her bag on her bed.
"Oh, you know – I am not used to room-sharing either but then, this is the cost I am willing to pay for English boys, Indian boys with British accent, parties and some booze." She exclaimed, clearly having the time of her life still.
"Yeah, and your parents think you'd be studying." Damini guessed, feeling sarcasm throb in her system.
"I am afraid so," she concluded and resumed whatever she was doing with a bottle of pink liquid and her toenails.
Goody! This is going to be fun was the last thought in Damini's head before she dozed off on her bed, in the same clothes she had been wearing since morning. She hadn't even put her shoes off and the mighty task of unpacking remained undone for the night.
* * *
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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