℘

Meanwhile, unaware of this obituary given by the short man, I stood before the professors, his wife and Kittu, as Dr. Prabhakar spoke on, “He must have strict bed rest for at least fifteen days or it can be serious.”

The professor looked on in a condoling manner, just as the doctor had looked at me, when I had entered his clinic. His look was even more profound and touched, more like of a mother whose child had fallen off a bicycle.

“He must have rest then,” he declared.
“It is vital,” added the doctor.
“Tejas, I know you were so enthusiastic about the tour, you arranged it all and God decides to injure you out of everybody,” he said, wondering at the ways of Providence. ‘Strange and wonderful!’ as Dr. Prabhakar would say.
“Unfair,” added Dr. Prabhakar.
“Most!” said the professor, “I know you will not like this, Tejas, but you must not visit any industries,” and, then, looking at the doctor said, “He must be sad, you don’t know how he helped arranging this tour. He is a fine boy.”
“I have gathered as much from the short acquaintance I have had with him, professor,” said the doctor. I looked on as if he world had ended. ‘No tour, no life’ was the message that my face flashed.

Meanwhile, the astonishment of the inner crust, which consisted of my peers, had increased to a bursting point and there was absolute mayhem. The students were obviously amazed at what was happening, refusing to believe the genuineness of it all, for it was more other than Tejas, the king of frauds, at the helm of affairs.

“What on earth is happening here?” inquired a fresh spectator, who happened to be Khosla. Quickly, seeing the scene, he kept quiet and looked on with that ‘in vogue’ astonished look. E knew about my plans to skip the tour, and was bowled over by the way that had been chosen to do that.
“Sir, it is okay; I will talk to my father and ask him what to do,” I said, hanging on to the branches that my friends offered. “If you want to go home, do that, but make sure you are comfortable,” said the
professor.

I wanted to dance but I didn’t. I wanted to smile but I didn’t. I just thanked God. The final frontier had been conquered. There was no stopping me now. I looked at my friends and then at the doctor, thanking them with my eyes. I could see that they could scarcely suppress their happiness too. The time had come to walk off from the scene, or rather say limp off, for, how long can mirth be muffled.

“Sir, I’d do that,” I said, “I’d like to rest now.”
“By all means,” said the professor, “And thanks a lot, doctor. Really nice of you o bring him here personally. You two, take good care of him.”
“Yes, sir,” added my friends.
“We will miss you, Tejas,” said the professor.
“I’ll miss you too, bhaiya,” said Kittu, who had become a friend during the train journey, looking sad.
“I’ll miss you too,” I sain and limped off, wondering if it was correct what I had said. I thought it was.

The professor withdrew into his quarters. The crowd started to disperse. The whole class of Industrial and Production Engineering surrounded the three of us as we made our way.

Voices could be heard, “What the hell is this?” “This is fraud!” “Is this genuine, Tejas?” I remained silent, while my two friends did their best in answering.