The Missing Notebook

7:56 AM: ’Thud Thud Thud’ ‘Thud Thud Thud’..Usually when I hear something of this kind I feebly say in my broken Hindi..’Kaun hain’.I have a dangerous predisposition of possessing a fluent hindi accent which people don’t approve of very often. I have really never known whether the person banging on my door trying to wake me up and interrupt my unconscious mind’s never ending hallucinations even heard my usual answer indicated above.I know this because the answer to that is usually something like this.’ ’Thud Thud Thud’ ‘Thud Thud Thud’.I got up from my not-so-cozy bed to answer the call.Binny stood there with a calm but annoying face. Something was running on his mind and it definitely had to do with me. His morning schedule invariably includes waking me up which I would have to be indebted to him for life for.But after looking at his face today,I suspected something wrong. He asked in his usual tone ‘Sine, where is my FM notebook?’.Little did I know that this seemingly innocuous question would lead to my imminent mental breakdown..and from there it all began!

Let me take you to the past. Yesterday after lunch I borrowed Binny’s FM notebook to check out the class I missed. I went to my linguistics class.It being a boring one I started to read from his notebook in the class. I was a bit uncomfortable doing that because Fasil was sitting right next to me. At one point of time, Fasil had one of his hands in the air indicating to the teacher that he had a doubt and the other on my crotch.He being a guy who enjoys the bisexual tag on him never had any apprehensions of his acts on me. After D slot was over we raced from the HSB to the B-slot class in the BSB. I tried to concentrate on the presentation but couldn’t due to obvious reasons of course. Then from 3-4 I attended the OR class in HSB after which me,fasil and shuboday decided to meet in the civil department to complete the due assignment.

7:57:By the time I realised that I did not have the notebook in my bag, Binny realised that I must have shown my regular dose of carelessness and irresponsibility of the day. I couldn’t gather the courage to tell him that I did not have his notebook and my mind had abruptly stopped functioning. Practically, I was experiencing Alzheimers for that moment.He was getting late for his 8:00 class and he formally said in a stern voice,”I don’t care where in the world my notebook is but I want it by the 9:00 AM FM class.I gave him a signal of affirmation even though I had a hard time coming up with a pacifying explanation about the missing notebook. Human tendency in most of such situations plays the blame game.I remembered Fasil and his molestations at that moment.Binny was drifting to his class by then.I answered as loud as possible ‘May be its with Fasil’.My mind experienced a momentary relief as expected and by now last night’s hang-over from our infamous beer binge started appearing .So to summarize the state of my mind shifted from amnesia to a hang-over.But more than that..I experienced the utmost tension of losing his notebook which he tendered and care for all throught this semester. The worst thing which could happen to me today was losing a sincere friend’s notebook who worked so hard to maintain it that way.

7:58:Fasil was online on my Gtalk. I thought it would be ridiculous to call him and ask him about the missing notebook early in the morning. But I shed my inhibitions and with a sense of urgency in mind and politeness in my voice asked him whether I misplaced the notebook in his bag last evening. He declined my supposition after checking his bag. My heartbeat grew intense because I lost my first chance of saving myself from the wrath of guilt. In such situations we expect the most optimistic things to happen in due course.I remembered that there was a unclaimed book lying in BSB 212 yesterday. Fasil had asked me then whether it was mine. I recollected that I had said no and ignored that book.So I asked Fasil again now.’Do u remember the book lying in the BSB last evening?’Fasil with his agile voice answered,”Yes, but it was a case-study book and note a notebook.”There goes my second chance again.Now I had to quickly do something because time was running out. I decided to retrace my steps and hoped to find the missing notebook which had caused me iimense pain and tension early in the morning. I bid Fasil bye, pulled up my pants, grabbed a T-shirt,picked my worn-out bag,locked my door and checked the time.It read 8:01.

8:03:Most people reading this would be expecting me to be on my way to HSB.But I being very unpredictable decided to spend a few minutes on planning to resolve this crisis and optimize on my time and energy.Firstly I wanted my mind to get back to its normal fully and secondly I wanted to buy some peaceful time to recollect any clues as to where I could have misplaced the book. Now the more than the book,my relationship with Binny was at stake.Lately I have realized the irresponsible and outragingly audacious person in me whom I wanted to subdue. I had to save my prestige and somehow find that missing notebook. Now to do all these things simultaneously (optimizing), I decided to have a fag at tarams .So I was on my way to Tarams to smoke and think. After my relentless efforts trying to recollect, I was lucky enough to get a free ride to the HSB from Tarams. Now I had bought 2 more minutes of my time on the bike with cold air hitting my dry lips. This was the time to remember HIM.Yes,whenever I feel completely lost I embrace myself with the art of living fundaes.I quickly converted myself from the usual agnostic to a highly devoted God-fearing individual.I prayed and pleaded to him that whatever happens in the next hour..I just wanted to get hold of that wretched notebook.

To be CONTINUED….