Dharam Yuddh - 4

I parked my cycle next to Dharam's the next morning at school. He had already arrived. I felt like a nice dose of Dharam would soothe my hurting (body and) soul. I still remembered Vijay's words. Would Dharam have found out about my outburst at Sarathi, and would he break his friendship with me because of it? 

I didn't see Dharam until lunch time. He stormed up to me, and glared me down.

"I should have known something was up ever since you and Vijay dumped your boxes on me and ran away on Tuesday." 

He grabbed my wrist and I winced, pulling it back. Dharam's eyes widened as he examined the bruise. I had not bandaged it up after my shower that morning. He clenched his jaw and dragged me towards the library, where Vijay was tutoring Chithra. This was a one-sided love which Dharam and I used to take much pleasure teasing Vijay about. 

“Oh by the way, Vijay, I wanted to ask you something…”

“If this is once again about taking me out to that coffee shop you really like, I’ve already told you, I don’t drink coffee.”

“Uh, no, this isn’t about coffee.” She tucked a hair strand in behind her ear. “It’s about-”

Dharam snapped his fingers in front of Vijay, who looked up at him and grinned. He then saw me and his grin faded away. I looked down at the ground.

“Hello, I need to speak with you.”

Vijay looked at me again. 

“I can speak to you in private.”

Dharam squinted his eyes and turned to me. I sighed. 

“Is there something going on between you two?” Dharam shook his head. "You know what, I don’t care. I need to know something.” He took a seat and clasped his hands at Chithra. 

“Madam please, can you leave?”

Chithra packed her books up and waved goodbye to Vijay, who amicably waved back. Dharam stifled a smile. I couldn’t smile, as my face muscles were hurting from being constantly pushed to the ground by my vicious opponent. 

Dharam watched her leave and then took out his phone, looking for something on it. He shook his head with disbelief. 

“I cannot believe this. What is this?!” He showed the livestream of the previous day’s Kabaddi match. 

Vijay leant back and folded his arms. 

“Did you catch it live?”

Dharam rolled his eyes. 

“No, the livestream is saved. I… Stumbled across it.” He turned to me. “Must’ve been because of its rising popularity amidst our school.”

Vijay and I remained silent. He glared at me and I kept avoiding his sight. 

I might have vowed last night that I would never become enchanted by Sarathi’s words, but inevitably, his words kept on ringing in my mind. There was this voice, my own voice, which kept saying ‘I can fight, so I must fight’. It wasn’t like I was fighting on the wrong side either. I was fighting on the side of Dharam. Justice. 

Dharam elbowed me, and I winced again. He placed his forehead in his hands and almost crying, he said sorry. I put a hand up to say it was alright. Vijay picked at his nails with disinterest. 

“Pavan, tell me right now. Did Sarathi put you up to this?”

Vijay’s eyes looked up from his nails and into me. I bit my lip and closed my eyes. 

“Come on. Tell him the truth. You want to blame Sarathi for everything, right?” Vijay nodded at Dharam. “This was all Sarathi’s plan, and-”

“No.” I mumbled. 

Vijay shut up suddenly, as Dharam turned to me. 

“Sandhu chose to fight with me. He could have chosen Sarathi, to extract his revenge, or he could have chosen Vijay, as an easy opponent.” I kept gazing down, and finished with a whisper, “But for some reason, he chose me, and I need to finish this fight.”

Dharam clenched his jaw and got up abruptly. He strolled back and forth for a second before running outside the library. 

I looked up into Vijay’s eyes. He gazed back. 

"What happened?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe I realised I can't keep on blaming Sarathi for everything that happens in my life."

Vijay's mouth tugged at a smile as he nodded.

“You’re going to continue fighting?”

I nodded. 

“Do you know, for what?”

I shook my head. Vijay smiled. 

“Sometimes it would be so easy if Sarathi spoke normally.” 

I smiled and nodded again. 

“It would be too easy.”

~ ~ ~

Dharam returned soon with a healing ointment from the nurse’s office. He sat down behind me and started rubbing it into my back. His hands felt wonderful. 

“Thank you, Dharam.”

“I figured your back would have been the only place you couldn’t bandage up by yourself.” He leant forward. “Does Pushan know about this?”

I shook my head. “No. He’s good-hearted but a tattle-tale. He’ll tell my parents that I have two day old injuries all over my body, and then they'll beat me up even more.”

Dharam laughed. “Beats the purpose.” He continued massaging my back. Vijay watched us with his usual grin. The It trio was reunited after two messy days.

A group of girls came towards us and watched me get the relieving back massage from Dharam.

“Hai, Dharam! We didn’t know you were a massage specialist!”

Dharam looked up and stopped massaging. He stood up with a soft smile and nodded at them. 

“Would you give us a free back massage in exchange for a vote?”

The girls giggled, and Dharam chuckled along.

“As honoured as I would be, my heart would be in the right place if I knew you all voted for me because of your genuine trust in keeping me as the backbone of the school, rather than because of me giving you a free back massage.”

The girls laughed more, and nodded. One girl piped up. 

“What are you going to do for us, Dharam? How will you help us improve our school lives?”

Dharam seemed to have an instant answer. He opened up his bag and got out a full packet of pads. 

“Emergency Pad-Pod. When you get your periods on the day you were least expecting, or if you need to change and don’t have a spare on you, the Emergency Pad-Pod is where you go for free, school-sponsored pads at your everyday disposal.” He looked to the sky and thought for a second, “Sorry, everyday use, and then disposal.” He grinned.

The girls were pleasantly shocked at Dharam's foresight. 

“Dharam, this is a wonderful idea.”

“The girls' votes will definitely be for you.”

Dharam smiled widely. 

“Thank you so much for your support, I’m glad you appreciate my little ideas.”

“We are sure your next ones would be as good.”

“How are you going to convince the school to buy pads and give them for free?”

Dharam was ready for this question as well. He opened up his notebook and showed a little page filled with diagrams and pie charts.

“My research for my campaign.” He grinned proudly. “This school has 57% females, and 43% males. When the obvious majority of students is part of a population that is… Naturally derived from physical and mental comfort during a considerable amount of time throughout the year…” He pointed at a statistic which had a little woman stick figure saying ‘60-84/365 days spent in discomfort, “I thought it important to tackle that issue by alleviating the trouble of those few days, by just providing something that could assist a little in boosting self-esteem, right?”

Dharam closed the book..

“I believe you feel a sense of control when you are wearing one, right? It’s physically uncomfortable and the inner procedure is painful, but having the assurance that you are not going to leak or stain genuinely makes you feel better, right?”

I looked at his audience. They were impressed at his foresight and were giving him reassuring nods here and there. They also laughed between themselves at the amount of times he asked ‘right’. 

“If the school’s majority population has better mental comfort, they will automatically get better grades, and shoot up the academic performance of the entire school!”

A silence ensued as the girls nodded with appreciation. Dharam must have misunderstood the silence as he knit his brows with worry.

“Am I mansplaining? I’m sorry if I am.”

The girls laughed and gave him another applause. He exhaled with relief and smiled fully again. 

“Hai, great job, Dharam!”

He ruffled his hair, blushing.

“I need to work on that pitch.”

“No, no. It was excellent.”

“You have to advertise this concept to the whole school.”

“Yes, we’ll also do our part in spreading the word.”

“What are you calling it again?” 

Dharam grinned awkwardly.

“The Emergency Pad-Pod.”

The girls giggled, and walked off waving and giving thumbs up signs to Dharam. He turned back to me and gasped.

“Oh, I’m sorry for forgetting you!”

Vijay and I laughed.

“So, girls are your weakness now, are they?”

~ ~ ~

I was cycling to Patna Public School after school finished when I stumbled into Sarathi and Vijay, doing doubles as always. Sarathi caught up to me and we cycled together for a while in silence. I swallowed. After everything that happened, would Sarathi forgive me? 

He turned to me and smiled.

“Vijay told me you forgave me." 

I hurriedly got off my cycle and ran to Sarathi, who braked suddenly and got off the cycle himself, as Vijay caught it and watched with an open mouth. I slammed into Sarathi, hugging him tight, and fell onto my knees. I was absolutely no one to forgive Sarathi. He worked in mysterious ways, but ways that mysteriously always worked. 

"I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me. I-it must have been the physical pain, and the mental stress about winning the Kabaddi match.” 

I blurt out my secret, bumping my head on his knees.

“The only reason I’m on Kurukshetra's Kabaddi team is because they wanted someone 180 centimetres tall for the team photo! I don’t do anything in the matches! I’m such a faker!”

Sarathi slowly lifted me up, embracing me entirely, as I continued sobbing into his chest.

"I don't know how I could've even thought of disappointing you." I took my head out and looked into his eyes. "Did I? Did I disappoint you?" I shook my head. "Sandhu may appear in my nightmares, but my real nightmares consist of me doing something you said not to do. I know you won't get angry, but you'll get disappointed right?" I buried my head into his chest again and apologised profusely. I refrained from counting how many times I said sorry in this exchange. 

Sarathi ruffled my hair and gave me a kiss on the cheek. 

"Oh my sweet sunshine, Pavan. You are so innocent, caring and genuine. How could I ever be disappointed in you?" He wiped my tears away. "You make me proud everyday." 

I burst out crying at his happy words. He looked at Vijay and shook his head. Vijay watched us, grinning.

"Vijay, do you see this guy? He's crying when I compliment him."

Vijay shrugged. 

“I would cry if you complimented me as well, Sarathi.”

My sobs turned to laughs at Vijay's statement. We resumed the cycle path to Patna Public School, awaiting the adventure of the afternoon.

~ ~ ~

There was a huge crowd at the oval. It seemed like everyone in all the schools of this area found out about the match and were dragged here in the hopes of catching the live match in person, and getting more views. 

Cycles were all over the place, some leaning on each other dangerously in a dominoes manner, and some others forming a pretty faerie dance next to the trees that bordered the grounds. The students who had already found their watching place cheered as they saw me get off the cycle behind Vijay. Sarathi placed a hand on my shoulder.. 

“I can make them all go away if you-”

I shook my head. 

“No, Sarathi. They have to stay. This is the perfect chance.”

A slight smile formed on Sarathi’s face, as he patted me, and we walked on past the crowds, as some cheered, some booed at my entrance.

Sandhu was doing his usual preparatory oil massage, he kept on smirking at some girls here and there as he slowly massaged his upper thigh. The girls scowled at him and avoided his eyes. 

He sneered at me as I entered.

“Wow, you made it today as well. You just love getting beaten up don’t you?”

For the first time, I had an answer. I smiled at him.
“Just as much as you love kissing crossdressed men in secret closet rooms, I bet.”

His sneer disappeared from his face, as he clenched his fists. The crowd whooped and laughed.

I looked at the crowd. There were familiar faces sprinkled here and there. Satya and her friends waved at me. Roohi was there, standing hesitantly next to her overly tall solemn-faced brothers who booed at me and chanted Sandhu’s name. She gave me a little thumbs up however and turned her gaze to Sarathi.

Soon, I zoned out remembering what Dharam had said the first time he had thought of taking the responsibility of being class president. 

“My classmates trust me so much. They believe I can make the school a better place despite my limited time as class president.”

“One year is a good amount of time. We rebuilt that park in two months.” Vijay said, popping a groundnut into his mouth. We had been standing outside Dwaraka, waiting for Sarathi. I stole a groundnut from Vijay’s packet. He frowned and shuffled away. 

“I have so many ideas to make our school provide the best student experience in this vicinity.” Dharam planted his hands into his pockets, and smiled up at the sky. “But I shouldn’t have any expectations.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being optimistic.” 

Dharam shook his head.
“I agree, Pavan, but life doesn’t always work according to our limited understanding, right?” He leant on my cycle. “I must see everything from a realistic perspective. Which is more like considering alternative ways in helping my schoolmates without the position.”

I shook my head, and hurriedly swallowed the groundnuts in my mouth. 

“We all want you as class president, Dharam. You shouldn’t give up.”

He laughed. “I’m not giving up. I’ll try my ultimate best to get that position. It’s a great opportunity, and I have a good purpose. I have utmost confidence in myself. But I can’t let that mess with the predetermined.” He stood up and finished, as we saw Sarathi run out waving at us. 

“What will happen, will happen.”

Dharam liked to call his concept of thinking as optimistic realism. It was seeing the good in everything that happened. No expectations. A life of detachment. His marks always averaged at seventy, but that never threw him off. Perfectionist and topper Vijay was the one who would be crying at Sarathi’s feet if he got anything below ninety. Dharam believed as long as you were genuine in your thoughts and actions, your life would turn out fine. 

At that moment, watching over that crowd, I understood Dharam’s concept of thinking alongside Sarathi’s motivating words. I had to fight Sandhu, but I couldn’t do it because of the prospect of victory. I had to do it sincerely, as my duty that the universe had placed upon me at this crucial point in time. This fight was my Dharam.

~ ~ ~