She Said 'What A Chop?'

The cool breeze flung across my face as I alighted from the auto and grudgingly headed towards the college to attend my class. I was climbing the stairs when I heard a flurry of words said by the speed of the bullet train of Japan. I heard only King Khan speak faster than that.

Almost instinctively I stopped and looked back as a curly haired girl with piercing eyes and a cell phone clutched in her hand joined me on the stair case. We exchanged customary greetings and walked towards the class, taking a quick sip of water on the way.

The setting was a case discussion which neither of us had read. It was an exception that I had not read it and a regulation that she had not read. We sat together consoling each other that the faculty would ask neither.

My bubble of hope was quickly burst when Sir handed me a sub topic to be explained to the class. I tried my best to make her believe that we both have to explain it but she was shrewd enough to see through my bluff.

We both started reading the part and the cycle for case explanations started. I quickly got through my part which was more or less what Sir had expected. Then began the actual fun…………

I started talking to her regarding all the unimportant topics I could get in my head. Though she was listening but was skeptical about Sir’s presence. Once in a while she would try to stop me from talking. But it was more like a formality rather than a compulsion. She too was enjoying herself.

We had already transferred ourselves to the la-la land of thoughts and only our physical bodies were ominous to the happenings of the class. Our flurry of cooings and thoughts were rudely interrupted when Sir suddenly asked her a question. This came as a bolt from the blue for her.

I looked at her from the corner of my eyes desperately trying to stifle my chuckle which could have evolved into a full blown laughter.

She sat beside me dumbfounded as she was totally oblivious to the happening of the class. It would have been the same case for me if Sir would have asked me. But people say I am lucky, she was not so.

She looked into Sir’s eyes with a wistful smile on her face. I am sure she was heavily ‘galli’fying me for her condition. Sir continued to pester her for an answer and by now her face had turned red and her mind was blank. She sat there like a helpless Dumbo. Sir then realized that it was a waste trying to evoke a response from her and turned his attention towards other souls.

Her ordeal was over only for mine to begin.

With harsh ‘gallis’ and harsher anger she trained her guns towards me, holding me responsible for her ‘suffering’. All I could do is sit there and bear whatever she had to say. Though she never meant a word she said but the very expression of her face would have been enough to give horrible nightmares to toddlers.

Of the many ‘glorious phrases’ she said, my mind picked up the phrase,

‘What a chop?’

My mind suddenly went into an overdrive and I couldn’t restrain myself from asking her its meaning.

She was super pissed to take the effort to explain to me its meaning but I kept on thinking what it meant and her nonstop rants were reminiscent of the nonstop bullets of the Maverick gun of Counter Strike.

Even as I type these lines I am still making an effort to decipher what that word literally means and why did she use it in that context.

Finally a word to my friend: No hard feelings Dost because these are those instances which add and make memories to be cherished for a lifetime……………