Life, as it goes.

The bell rang just as I put a double dash under the answer. The observer lady was collecting the papers very slowly so I stapled the supplementary papers together, checked my name and roll no. on the papers and gathered my things. I hadn't taken time to check anything else but resigned to "Jo hoga dekha jayega."

"How was it?" Harsh asked the moment I exited the class.
"Thank you. I shall be indebted to both of you forever." Shaun interrupted before I could reply and grabbed Harsh's hand, he was just behind me.
"I think I will pass. Thats all I want. If I get more than 60 my father will have a fit." Nili laughed following Shaun.
"I am swearing myself off maths from today onwards. Its not worth it." I said.
"Oh no, don't say that. You were pretty good." Harsh said.

Just as I was about to reply, some of Harsh's friends called and he left with a hasty good-bye. Shaun, Nili and I walked towards the exit. Not one of us discussed the paper, we had already discussed it enough inside the exam room. Instead we talked of the next paper which was a peice of cake for me. English. Especially the essays in which I would fill pages knowing fully well that no one is ever going to read them. On hindsight I was stupid to have worked so hard on them as today they would be lying dusty and hardly legible in some forgotten store house of the Education Board or in all probability fed into the shredder.

The rest of the papers were ok with a couple of bumps in science and social studies but overall it was good. I was an average student and didn't aspire for more, at least not in the 10th standard. We continued to share the short friendship that we had struck due to the permutations and combinations of our last names during those few days.

Every day Harsh, Shaun, Nili and I would leave together from the class. Harsh gustily discussing his answers and the rest of us giving polite responses before his more reciprocative friends came and he left. I liked him but realised this was no time for such an indulgence. I had a vague hope that after the exams I would get his number or something and continue the friendship but was not keen enough to initiate such a request mainly because i knew that such an action had a high probability of me making a fool of myself in public.

On the last day of the exam everyone jumped up from the exam before time. The narrow corridor of the school was flooding with joyous, chattering crowds of kids. I was more than anything else relieved. My other school friends and I had already planned the celebration and Papa was to drop me to my friend's place where I was going to spend the night. As we left the exam hall Harsh stepped beside me pushing Nili a bit to the side. He was out of breath. Shaun was walking a little ahead.

"I want to talk to you." He said, his voice was a bit low.
"Huh?" I could not understand in all the noise around us.
"Come out and I will tell you." He said and strode ahead to walk with Shaun.

Nili looked at me and raised her eyebrow. She nudged me and winked. Generally Mt. Carmel girls mature faster, she seemed to know something I didn't.

"What?" I asked a little indignantly.
"He is going to propose." She giggled.
"Are you mad?" I said, scandalised to say the least. When I was that age, believe it or not, it was an age of innocence. Though I did not accept Nili's opinion, my heart did skip a bit. If she was right, what would I do? What would I say?
"But you like him na?" Nili said. That girl knew everything.
"You are mad." I repeated.
"Its ok, all girls like him. He is cute, but not my type. Shaun's more my type." She continued imparting her gyan.

Thankfully, we reached the ground floor before Nili could explain what she meant by 'type'. The courtyard was filled with people. Children and parents. Most faces were happy but there were a few geeky once who were still tense. I looked around but neither Harsh nor Shaun were to be seen. Nili's elder brother had come to pick her up so she scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and after a hasty good-bye left with her brother.

I was about to give up and leave when someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around to see Shaun and Harsh.

"Hey. Its finally over huh?" Shaun said in an excited voice. "What are you doing now?" He asked.
"My dad is coming to pick me up. I will go to Municipal Market with friends later." I replied. "What are you guys doing?"
"My mom's here. I am going home and leaving for Mumbai tonight." Shaun informed and then added, "I want you to meet my mom."

It was then that I noticed the lady standing next to him. She was beautiful and dignified. Shaun introduced me as "my saviour" embarassing me quite a bit. All this while Harsh was standing there quietly. I was getting more and more curious as to what he wanted but couldn't be rude to Shaun's mom. She embarrassed me further by thanking me for all the help I had given to Shaun.

"It was nothing. I didn't do much, Harsh also helped." I said and looked around only to find him gone. "Where is Harsh?" I asked Shaun.
"Don't know, he was here just now." He was equally surprised.
"Will we go now beta?" His mom asked.
"In a bit, you get the car, I am coming." Shaun said.

I said good-bye to aunty and Shaun and turned away. I spotted papa beyond the gate astride on his Bajaj Chetak and started walking towards the gate all the while looking for Harsh.

"Listen Priya." It was Shaun again.
"Yup." I stopped walking
"I got something for you." He said in a shy voice.
"What?"
"I want to give you something." He repeated a little louder. He was blushing pink. He was so tall he had to bow his head while speaking to me.
"Huh?" was all I could say.
"This." He said as a he handed a tiny flouroscent green envelope. "To say thank you."

The envelope had a card with a cartoon on it and the words. Thank you. In his scrawny hand he had written a small message, then his name and phone number.

"This is really sweet." I replied quite stunned at his action.
"These is something more." His face had turned to a shade of magenta by now but he was smiling from cheek to cheek. Before I could reply he took hold of my hand and placed a cadbury 5 star on my palm.
"Hey thanks. This is literally sweet." I smiled, I am sure even I was blushing. It was the first time a guy had firstly paid attention to me, secondly acknowledged my help and thirdly given me a chocolate.
"Ummm, can you, ummmm, I was thinking if you would ... I mean, don't take it otherwise but, I ... your phone number. Can you give me your phone number?" His hesitation was obvious.
"Ummm, no problem." I said and rattled off my phone number and after a quick good-bye resumed walking towards the gate.

I think I had a big smile on my face. This was something I would repeat a thousand times over tonight at the slumber party with my friends. Harsh was still nowhere to be seen. Papa was waiting. I wanted to find Harsh before he became impatient but there was no sign of him anywhere. There was no explicable reason for me to hang around without alarming Papa, I was not sure how he would react if I said I got a card and a chocolate from one guy and was waiting because another guy wanted to talk to me. So I tucked the card in my jeans pocket and resignedly walked towards him.

"What took you so long? And who was that tall guy with you?" He asked immediately.
"He was one seat ahead in the exams, we became friends." I said quietly. My mind was still on Harsh.
"He gave you something?" Papa's vulture eyes had seen it.
"Chocolate." I showed him the 5 star. I was not going to show him the card as he is a stickler for discipline and copying in Board exams would be totally unacceptable to him.
"So ready to celebrate?" He asked.
"Totally." I replied smiling as I remembered that this was the last day of exams and it was my right to by happy.

Papa started the scooter and I climbed pillion. As we started our ride I turned my head to have one last look at the remaining students and I saw a hand waving to me. It was Harsh, he was standing beside a shiny blue Maruti Esteem about to get in. The distance between us was growing and for a second I wanted to ask Papa to stop but I didn't. I waved back and the next moment he disappeared in the car. I was to never know what he wanted to tell me. I guess thats how fate planned it.

Somehow even I didn't make any serious attempts to contact him either. Not that I would have come up with any brilliant plans had I decided to pursue him and not that it matters much now as life has taken its course and given me all that I hoped for but I still pipe up when someone mentions news of him from here and there. Harsh's life has taken him to shores far away, he is in London now the last I heard. Rishabh knows him via via some friends, coincidently, he is a CA and a lawyer.

Shaun on the other hand kept in touch with me for some time. When results came we compared marks, he had 67 and I had 74, for days he wondered what did he copy wrong. He took me out for ice cream on the day of the results. Then time and distance took over. He moved to another city and for years I had no idea what he was up to. Someone said he was trying modelling and acting in Mumbai. Then mom told me the news that he has returned to Ahmedabad and was married to her friend's daughter, "Didn't amount to much after all did he.", she opined. She never had a very high opinion of him anyways. Waise now-a-days for all she cares all guys except Rishabh are losers.

Today, as I write this and look back, I realise that some stories are never meant to end, they are just destined to linger, suspended in time bearing a question, what if? Mine and Harsh's was one such story. Till date I don't know what it was he wanted to tell me. But sometimes in nostalgic moments, that question does surfaces on the whirlpool of thoughts, what if?