A Monsoon Alienation

This short story is selected as Story of the Month Mar’2014 and won INR 1000

This story is selected as Editor’s Choice

Monsoon would easily be my most favourite time of the year. Imagine this. You are seated in your comfortable reading spot, with a cup of Darjeeling tea and a bulky work of fiction (preferably one without vampires). The whiff of the damp soil, the crickets chirping and tadpole’s ribbeting, the rhythm of the thick sheet of rain that continuously lashed against the windows would bring about a magically calming effect on your soul. Monsoon is forever perfect. It can never go wrong.

It was a drizzling Friday evening at the park and I was dressed in dark blue denims and a bottle green tee.  My hair was neatly straightened and left loose (This would be the first time I’ve used a straightening iron.). I tried to make the best out of my bespectacled eyes with the help of L’Oreal’s thick liner. My lips were highlighted with a subtle hint of peach coloured lip gloss that (according to the Italian Vogue magazine) ought to match my wheatish complexion.

I’m usually a very indoor girl, but the weather and the anxiety to meet him kept me occupied enough.  I hoped I was not either too under dressed or overdressed for the occasion.

Eashan was unlike any other fifteen year old boy I’ve been acquainted with.  Suits me well. I’m not any typical fourteen year old girl either.  There existed a reciprocated link of eccentricity sandwiched between us that was strong enough to keep me waiting.

Four months ago, I was a nerdy teenager in a messed up physics project on which the rest of my life depended on.  I had just a week to figure out why black holes behaved like they did and formulate a theory of how time changed in a black hole. All this, without my teacher’s help.

I had a mind that easily disagreed with people and a tongue that was sharp enough to make enemies at first sight. Unfortunately, my physics teacher that I got into an argument the other day had a temper that was just as short as mine. He told me to figure out the rest of the problem on my own and walked out of the lab.

I was fuming when I got home that evening. I threw my bag over the couch, and crashed on the bed.  I was still very angry when I switched on my computer.

Cool-Teen-Rule Number-One: When you’re in a bad mood, keep it away from your parents and let the five hundred and fifty five strangers on Facebook know it.

‘I am the student of an idiot.’ I posted.

Eashan was one of the people I had added without knowing who he was. He wasn’t exactly a stranger but we had eight mutual friends on Facebook.  (Four of whom were actually strangers.) Thirteen minutes after I had posted my status, he in boxed me.  That was the very first time we actually started communicating.

Extrinsic Eashan: What exactly does the student of an idiot plan to do with the rest of her life?

I was taken aback. I hadn’t thought about that. I realised how much immature I had been to have been engulfed in my frustration.

Rohini  Ravenclaw:  idk…figure out how black holes work and how to keep my mouth shut?

Just as soon as I sent that I apprehended that I was blustering out my life problems with a complete stranger. That thought started making me uncomfortable.

Extrinsic Eashan:  What exactly is your problem with black holes?

Rohini Ravenclaw:  how does time change in black holes?

Extrinsic Anvinth:  Well, in a certain sense it does not at all. If you were to enter a black hole, you would find you watch ticking along at the same rate as it always had (assuming both you and the watch survived the passage into the black hole). However, you would quickly fall toward the center where you would be killed by enormous tidal forces.

I was astonished at how quickly he gave that reply. I concluded that I had finally found intelligent life on earth and decided to exploit the genius as my assistance. I blurted out to him about how my project was in a mess. How my teacher had walked out on me, and about the depth of the academic hole I was stuck in.

Extrinsic Eashan:  Ah, Don’t worry. This is a piece of cake for me. I’ll help you.

Just as soon as I received it I apprehended that I was blustering out my life problems with a complete stranger. That thought started making me comfortable.

In less than three hours, I received a completed and highly professional version of my project.

Rohini Ravenclaw: Thankyou  =D You saved my life.

Extrinsic Eashan:  Lol, I don’t do that very often, but you’re welcome ;)

The next day, I marched to the physics lab, submitted the hard copy and walked out of the room with my head held high. Accomplished and proud, I was smiling at everyone who made eye contact with me that day. (That must’ve left them wondering what was wrong with me, given I always put up a grim and ‘this-place-sucks’ face at school.)

I turned on the computer when I came home.

Rohini Ravenclaw:  Hey thanks a million. I nailed it =D

Extrinsic Eashan:  Coool!

Rohini Ravenclaw:  So what do you do, exactly?

And that was how we became friends. Turns out he was just as old as I was and that he wanted to be a scientist too. But the more I talked with him, the more I felt like a retarded kid. He was just pure genius. A frightening and fascinating genius. There wasn’t a topic under the universe that he didn’t know or have an opinion about.

I was starting to get addicted to his brain.

He became the fourth most important people in my life (Right next to my mom, dad and Stephen Hawking.)

Hence it was only obvious that I invited him for my fifteenth birthday party.

Extrinsic Eashan: Advanced b’day wishes Rohini, but I’m afraid I can’t make it.

Rohini Ravenclaw:  huh?

Rohini Ravenclaw:  Why?

Extrinsic Eashan: well, I’ve got a project submission at Delhi

Rohini Ravenclaw:  I’m not buying that. You’re such a pathetic liar.

It was twenty three minutes until he started typing a reply. I started having second thoughts.  Maybe I shouldn’t have invited him at all.

Extrinsic Eashan: I am an alien.

I laughed, wondering what kind of an inside joke that was. Or maybe it wasn’t a joke. It was a hipster code word for something I was obviously missing. I waited for him to start typing again, but he didn’t.

Rohini Ravenclaw:  lol!  What does that mean?

Extrinsic Eashan: It means I’m an alien.

He was still typing.

Extrinsic Eashan: Uh…alien as in ‘Extra terrestrial’. God, girl. You want to be a space scientist and you ask me what an alien is!!

What a lame joke and an even lamer excuse. The Delhi excuse was starting to sound better. Maybe my mom was right. People on the internet aren’t just as smart as they portray themselves to be.

Rohini Ravenclaw:  I’ve known you for only two months and already invited you to my private birthday party. Thank you very much for making a lame joke and insulting my invitation. I thought you were special but you are not different from the other boys, are you?

In a fit of anger, I turned off the computer after I sent that and drowned into some loud music to make the humiliation go away.  Three hours later, I turned it on again.

Extrinsic Eashan: Rohini, I would never ever make fun of you.  I’m sorry it sounded like that.   I respect you way too much and you deserve to know the truth because you are not like the other girls I’ve known. But trust me when I tell you this. I can’t come to your birthday party (I REALLY WANT TO, BUT I CAN’T) because I’m not human. I’m an alien. This is not something I would joke about. You of all people should believe and know that we exist. Think about it. Why is my profile picture that of a strange bluish green planet? Why haven’t I posted a single picture of myself? Do you even know me? And above all, how do I know so much about space? Think about it. You’re a smart girl, you’ll figure it out.

I gulped. My hands were trembling and I couldn’t type. The room around me started spinning. I shut the computer close and collapsed on the bed. What have I gotten myself into?

The next day I woke up with a bad migraine. Lucky for me, it was a Sunday I didn’t have to bother about dealing with school. Cursing the moment I posted that damned status, I started thinking over a cup of strong coffee.

An estimated 50 billion galaxies are visible. But the actual total number in the universe will surely double it. That would be about 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe.

The number of stars in an average galaxy would be as many as hundreds of billions in each galaxy. That’s 100,000,000,000 stars per galaxy. So the total number of stars in the universe is roughly 100 billion x 100 billion.

That’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

The number of planetary bodies to exist at only one in a million and at only one planet in each system results in 10,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the universe. And then the number planets capable of supporting life. Let’s assume that this is very rare among planets and rate it at only one in a million.  This results in 10,000,000,000 planets in the universe capable of producing life.

I had made a cyber encounter with one such life form.

I was petrified for five minutes as the reality of the crisis sank in, and like every other nerd girl on this planet, I snapped out of it by the sixth minute.

I realized it really didn’t matter to me if he was an alien or not. I would still be friends with him. I had made a connection at the intellectual level with him. There was no way I’d let go off that just because we were different species from different parts of the universe. I strongly believed that an alien would still be a better friend than a human who was a  terrorist,a corrupt politician, a backstabbing traitor, a psychotic hipster, a drug addict, a serial killer, a child kidnapper or an abusive low intellect male.

Rohini Ravenclaw: I believe you. But that doesn’t change a thing. You’ll still be my best friend.

Extrinsic Eashan: Really? You’re not anxious?

Rohini Ravenclaw: The sorting hat was very close to putting me in Gryffindor. I chose to be in Ravenclaw. So I’m not the least bit scared. Once a friend, ALWAYS a friend.

Extrinsic Eashan: Wow.

Extrinsic Eashan: Thanks.

Extrinsic Eashan: I’m really glad you took it well.

Rohini Ravenclaw: I want you to be there on my birthday.

Extrinsic Eashan: God, you’re stubborn :p

Rohini Ravenclaw: Five in the evening. At the park. Okay?

Extrinsic Eashan: What if I’m seen?

Rohini Ravenclaw: I’ll make sure I’m alone.

Extrinsic Eashan: Uh…are you sure?

Rohini Ravenclaw: I’ll be waiting for you by the swing set.  You know the one near the fountain.

Extrinsic Eashan: Rohini…..are you really sure?

Rohini Ravenclaw: See you at five.

I honestly felt a little lighter after I scheduled an appointment with him. I counted the hours to the day I would turn fifteen.

And here I was, seated on a creaking old swing set at a nearly deserted park. It was still drizzling and I was starring at how the hazy film of Scotch mist covered the entire fountain and the rest of the park.

My blackberry beeped, and a 90’s A.R.R musical shattered the silence.

‘Rohini?’ I was instantly conscious of the stranger’s voice. It was him.

‘Yea. Eashan? Is that you?’ I asked.

‘Yea. I’m here. Before we meet, I must tell you I agreed to meet with you because I felt you were one of those very rare girls who judge people by their minds and not by their biological and genetic details. Thank you.’

I was relieved that he had come. I did not want to be disappointed on birthday. The enthrallment gushed to my brain as I realized I was finally going to meet him. He continued.

‘You may now turn around and locate me starring at you from across the monkey bars opposite to the fountain you’re facing. ’

I turned around and it all made finally sense when I spotted Eashan, smiling at me.

There, right across the monkey bars was a fifteen year old skinny bespectacled boy, in a wheel chair.

I smiled back and waved at him as I walked towards my best friend.

__END__