Chapter 15: Alley
In the next ten minutes, the classroom was filled with students.
'Subhash!' Mr. Swaminathan called from the corridor
'Come with me to the staff room, help me with the bundles'
In the staff, he handed him a bundle of papers
'These are the upcoming practicals, distribute them, and the last two are for you and Ashvini,' said the teacher
He went to class, followed by Subhash, and started distributing them
' Class, this is the list of upcoming practicals, so please go through the theory of these topics till Monday.'
He did as instructed and got the last two for him and Ashvini.
After the school was over, the classroom was almost empty except
Ashvini was packing up the bag, and Palki, who was out of curiosity going through the list,
Just then, a sudden gust of wind from the corridor took that away, and she tried to catch it by extending herself towards the window, but
The sheet flew away out of the window and drowned in a ditch of water off campus.
Ashvini was watching all this, and just took out his sheet and handed it over to her with a proud appearance
'Hold it, copy it, and give it back tomorrow!' He said
'Ohh, yeah, Thank you' with a slightly hesitant voice, she replied
And he leaves the room with audacity.
She rolled the sheets, keeping them in her right hand, and picked up the bag and
Went out, where she was totally surprised as she saw her father standing there.
'Papa!!' She excitedly called him
'Ye, My Girl!' his father hugged her
'Hey, what's this ?' he asked, pointing to the sheets
'Better you look' and give them to him, she went inside the Car
When the chauffeur was ready to start the car,
His father also sat in the front seat, left of the chauffeur
'Let's go,' he ordered him
He unrolled the sheets and turned the pages
On the last page, he saw, an envelope was stuck
Upon which a stamped seal was pressed with the label of I.I.L.
His senses were alarmed reading the name of I.I.L.
And immediately scratched out the envelope and kept it in the inner side pocket of his Blazer,
'What happened Papa?' she asked from the rear seat
'Nothing' and rolled up the sheet, passing them back to her.
'Stop the car at the next signal' he said to the chauffeur
As he stops the car, Mr. Banerjee gets out
'Hey, you go home, I'll be there in the next hour,' he said to her with a bit of fright that could be easily sensed in his voice
'WHY?, What happened?' She was concerned about why he suddenly started sweating
'I got some work, you start the car and drop her home,' He said, looking towards the chauffeur.
He crossed the road and entered a narrow alley, which was pretty dark.
As he was getting ahead, the rainwater from the different canopies started pouring down, wetting up his blazer,
The ditches were filled with muddy water, till he got to the middle of the alley, it started showering again with stormy winds.
His left hand was on the collar, holding up his suit, and his right hand was above his eyes, covering up to keep the vision clear against the strong wind and the rain.
He somehow managed to get on the main street of Chinatown across the alley on the other side,
He boarded a tram there, stood there near the door, and took out his blazer, folding it and hanging it on his left arm.
Around few block passes by, in ten minutes, the weather got cleared up, he gets off in front of Xavier's But instead of getting in from the main entrance, he turned right to the cycle stand, where he found Mr. Swaminathan who was holding a briefcase and his blazer in his left hand while smoking cigar from his right hand.
He furiously walked towards him and took out the envelope, showing him,
' WHAT is this??, Mr. Nathan?' He asked angrily