Sakshi Krishnan

Om Gan Ganapataye Namaha!!

AUTHOR'S POV

The sky was brushed with hues of orange and soft pink, with just a whisper of violet lingering in the fading darkness, a quiet signal of morning's arrival.

In the serene morning, Sakshi stirred in her sleep as she heard the sound of the alarm. She languidly searched for it and turned it off.

Opening her eyes lazily, she stared at the clock for a few seconds, which showed 5:00, before getting off the bed. She completed her morning routines and draped herself in a beautiful red saree, a small bindi and simple bangles. She wrapped her hair in a towel to let it dry.

She made her way to the kitchen and smiled seeing her mom.
"Good morning, Amma" (Mom)

Savithri smiled and greeted her the same.
"What are you preparing for breakfast today?"

She piqued curiously.

Savithri shook her head at her and asked,

"Tell me what you want, I will prepare it, but you have to help me."

Sakshi, being the biggest foodie, listed her favorite dishes.
Then the mother-daughter duo started to prepare all the special dishes. Well, it's Sakshi who prepared with Savithri helping her.

It's 6:50 when all the dishes were prepared and the lunch boxes had been packed.
Sakshi had to drive for 30 minutes to reach her college. She went to prepare her bag in the room.
When she reached the living room to have her breakfast, a loud voice echoed through the entire house.

"HOW DARE YOUU...!"
Sakshi snapped towards the voice and raised one eyebrow.

"You betrayed me! How could you do this to me! How! How! How!" the voice exclaimed dramatically.

"Stop being dramatic..." Sakshi was cut off.

"I am being dramatic!" The voice pointed a finger to themselves and then at Sakshi, continuing,

"You were the one who didn't wake me up at 5 o'clock. Because of that, I missed my bus!"

Sakshi glared at her little sister, Apoorva.

Apoorva tried hard to maintain her stern expression. Sakshi took a step towards her, making Apoorva follow the same backward.

Before Apoorva could say anything,

"Who was the one who played till late at night in my room and left the alarm? Who was the one who yelled at me for waking them up at 5? Who is responsible to catch the bus?"

Apoorva, caught in the act, smiled sheepishly at her elder sister,

"Please na Akka, I missed my bus and I have a very important exam at 8. I have to be in school at least by 7:50. Drive me to my school, please." (Sister)

Apoorva pleaded, blinking her eyes innocently.

Sakshi sighed, "I have some important work at college, Apu. I can't. Ask Appa," (Dad)she told Apoorva while placing her lunch box in the bag.

"He went for a morning walk, Akka. Please drop me. Pleassssse," she dragged the 's', making Sakshi roll her eyes.

"He went for a morning walk?! But he never does." Sakshi wondered aloud.

"What are you still doing here, Apu? I thought I saw your bus passing..." Savithri, who returned from giving flowers to her neighbours, asked her second daughter.

"Today Akka said she will drop me, so I didn't board it, Amma," Apoorva smiled, showing all her teeth at her sister.

"But she told me that she had to go to college soon today..." Savithri remembered.

"Oh, that she will manage, right Akka?" Apoorva flashed her sister a smile.

Sakshi took the gajra and tucked it into her hair, then grabbed Apoorva's hand. Her smile faltered for a moment, thinking Sakshi might hit her.

She sighed a breath of relief when Sakshi simply turned her around to help her wear the gajra, not to beat her.

"Yes, Maa, I'll drop her at school. And I'll be late this evening, I have to finish some work," Sakshi replied, while tying the flower garland into Apoorva's hair.

"Ok," Savithri replied meekly.

Sakshi frowned at her reply but brushed it off.

She dropped Apoorva at school in time and drove back to her college.

At College

Sakshi entered the college, the whole atmosphere was jovial. She shook her head seeing the way every student was sneaking around the playground and how everything was all red.
Ignoring everything, she entered the department. She smiled warmly at her colleagues.

"Good morning, Ma'am," she greeted Sangeetha Ma'am, who sat beside her table.

"Good morning, Sakshi. So tell me, did anyone give you a rose today?" she asked excitedly.

Sakshi smiled and shook her head,

"No ma'am, and I don't want any roses , not today or any other day."

"What, Sakshi! You are getting old find someone for yourself."

"We can only find students in college, ma'am, and I'm not interested in all this love-shuv and all..."

"Uffo, Sakshi! At least give it a chance once. And hey, I heard from one of my friends in another department there's a new, good-looking professor who joined last week. I can get you his number, maybe even arrange a meeting..."

Sangeetha was cut off.
"No ma'am, I'm not interested. Leave me out of it. You tell me, what did sir gift you?"

Sangeetha blushed. "We're going to dinner tonight."

Before Sakshi could pester her further...
"Romantic dinner, ha ma'am?" came Jiya's excited voice.

"O ho, it's just dinner, nothing much..." Sangeetha replied, still blushing so hard.
"I didn't..."

Sakshi diverted her attention toward the bunch of students who were standing in front of the department, arguing among themselves.

"What happened?!" Sakshi asked, eyeing all the things they were carrying.

"OMG! Sangeetha ma'am, I think they are here to propose to someone!" Jiya whispered excitedly.

"Maybe it's you!.." Sangeetha held back her smile.

Jiya huffed and replied, "Ooo ma'am, the only single person in this room is Sakshi. I'm committed, ma'am."

Sakshi shivered at the possibilities.

She made a neutral face when one of the boys started, 

"Ac-actually ma'am, we ar--are..."

"Sorry, sorry, we are late!" 

Some other students, both girls and boys, came rushing and stood along with the boys.

"What took you so much time?", He asked in frustration.

"Oh! That, we saw a girl proposing to the new professor and man, I am whipped by the way he smoothly rejected her!" a girl grinned.

"Who? Aarnav sir?" the boy queried.

"Yeah, it was funny," another boy replied controlling his laughter.

Sakshi witnessed the scene unfolding before her and wondered who is this Aarnav about whom everyone is talking about...

Her thoughts were broken by the students,

"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, SAKSHI MA'AM!!" Everyone sang in chorus.

Sakshi smiled slightly, covering her nervousness.

"Ma'am, we know you are single, and we all love you so much. So this is from us, a small VALENTINE'S DAY gift." One of the students represented everyone.

Sakshi smiled widely at them and replied, 

"Thank you for this. May God bless you all."

 She accepted the gift. She couldn't come up with other words; she had been moved by this gesture.

The group of students moved to Jiya next and so on...

The day passed by smoothly for Sakshi. She entered the department after completing her last class, which was the last hour of the college as well. The students rushed toward their respective buses. The parking lot was filled with students getting their vehicles.

Sakshi too would have gone home earlier if she hadn't delayed her morning work. She wanted to complete the department files which had to be submitted tomorrow.

She sat in front of the system and started off with the work. To her surprise, almost all staff from all the departments were on their work.

It had not been more than half an hour when she heard commotion outside. She quickly saved the files she was working on and went to look.

When she reached there, three members were being dragged by the police officers. Her breath hitched to see the police vehicles standing there... a shiver ran down her spine on seeing three vehicles filled with the criminals and police rushed off the campus.

Those criminals seemed to be the college professors. Not to make her mind more confused, she asked the nearby professor,

"What was that?"

"Oh that, they're part of some drug ring. They disguised themselves as professors in our college. Thank God, they got caught today. And you know what the surprising part is...?"

Sakshi shook her head in denial.

"One of the professors is very new to the college, he just joined our college last week. He's good-looking but I didn't expect him to be a mafia drug dealer though..."

"Who, Professor Aarnav?" Sakshi asked to confirm whether it is Aarnav, the man who captured everyone's heart by his charm.

"Yes, it's him. Thank God I didn't propose to him for dinner today..."

Sakshi excused herself under the pretext of finishing her work. 

Her mind, however, wasn't on the screen anymore. Faces, whispers, and that name , Aarnav, swirled in her head. Just this morning, students had swooned over him. And now........ this?

She shook her head slowly. Maybe beauty really was a mask.

Indeed, looks are deceptive!!

She packed up quickly and left for home, unaware that the biggest shock of all was still waiting for her...