Mish' Fiction

“Pari. Why aren’t you in the class?” Catherine sent her an SMS the next morning. Prof. Subrato Sen was already in the class and Paridhi had not reached there yet.

“Don’t feel like. Will catch you in the Marketing Strategy class,” she replied back. She was sitting in her room obsessively finding out everything she could about Subrato Sen on Internet.

A graduate of ISI Kolkata, he had done his Ph. D. from London School of Economics and had worked for over five years at World Bank and IMF before coming back to India and joining IIAM. She remembered reading some of his articles in a major financial newspapers and also a paper on RBI’s monetary policy.

And she had been advising him on how to cope with first year of MBA! But why the hell did he not tell her?

—

“Good morning!” Paridhi was startled by the greeting and the voice.

“What the… What are you doing here?” she spoke without thinking, when she saw Subrato there. He was in his shorts, t-shirts and jogging shoes, sweating profusely from the exercise. One of the earphone buds was in his left ear, while the other was hanging down. Faint sound of music escaped from it indicating that he had just taken it out, possibly after noticing her.

“Umm… Last time I checked this place was the property of the institute and a proper response to a ‘good morning’ greeting is a ‘good morning’, a ‘hello’, or a ‘hi’…”

Paridhi gulped, obviously embarrassed at her abrupt reaction, and also at having to face him after the fiasco of their first meeting. But she tried to put up a brave face and replied, “Good morning. Actually nobody comes here…”

“So, you have encroached the space?”

“You are making no sense at all!” she frowned.

“I was joking, of course. How are you?”

Why the hell was he indulging in small talk with her. Paridhi was confused. She responded with a question instead, “Why did you lie to me that day?”

“When did I lie to you?”

“The day we first met, when you came to join…”

“Ah! When did I tell you that I was a first year student?”

Paridhi frowned in confusion. “You didn’t?” she mumbled.

“No.”

“But you didn’t tell me that you were a prof either?”

“Would you have believed me?”

She shook her head reluctantly.

“And has it occurred to you that you don’t let other people speak?”

“I am sorry,” she pouted, but apologized. “Sir…” she added hastily after a pause.

“Subrato is fine.”

‘Of course, it is not,’ she thought to herself, but nodded before him.

“And I see that you are up fairly early. So, getting up in time can’t be your problem. Why don’t you come to the classes then?”

“You noticed that?”

He laughed out loud, “Don’t you think it will be a little hard for me not to notice that.”

“I had hoped it wasn’t,” she mumbled.

“Anyway. If our first encounter was the reason you stopped coming to the class, you can get over it now.”

“I have missed too many classes. I will get a grade-drop anyway,” the reply came automatically. She noticed his raised eyebrows and added hastily, “Of course. One should come to the classes to learn and all…”

Subrato shook his head with a grin on his face. She was unbelievably voluble and clumsy about the things she said. But there was something cute about it. “Have a good day,” he wished her and restarted his jogging. Paridhi walked back to her hostel wordlessly. The entire exchange was very awkward and strange for her. But the most discomforting part was that somebody had invaded her secret little space. Nobody ever came to that part of the campus. Although technically the area was owned by the institute, but it was some distance away from most of the buildings. This land was acquired by the institute with an eye on the future, when the number of students would increase and more construction might be needed. Right now, it was just a grassland. How that hell did he discover it so quickly, she wondered. Most people on the campus were not even aware of its existence, much less it being the institute’s property.

‘Whatever!’ she calmed herself down. This wasn’t her usual hour anyway. She has had a night-out and that’s how she was there that early in the morning. He would come only for jogging. So, she could still have the place to herself at other times, she concluded happily.

She decided to start attending his classes.

—

“So, these two variables are correlated. And very strongly so. What obvious problem do you see in concluding any causality from this?”

A few hands went up in the class, including Paridhi’s. The other faces had become familiar to Subrato by now. They were the ones who answered most often in the class. But this girl had missed so many of the classes. He did not expect her to know the answer. So, he decided to test her and indicated towards her.

“We have time series data in both variables. It is likely that both of them are increasing with time. This is likely a spurious correlation.”

“How do you determine definitely whether or not they are really correlated?”

“We take the differential and see the correlation in that data.”

“Excellent!” Subrato was genuinely impressed.

“Why are you attending the classes after you have already missed enough for a grade-drop,” Catherine was curious after the class.

“He teaches well.”

“How did you know? You never attended a class.”

“Some of his recorded talks are available on you tube.”

“Ah! So, why didn’t you come earlier?”

“I just couldn’t get up early enough for an 8 ‘o class.”

“Hmm.” Catherine looked like she did not believe her, but did not say anything other than looking at her questioningly. Paridhi ignored that.

“By the way,” Catherine changed the topic and spoke excitedly, “We have found out all about him.”

“About whom?”

“Subrato Sen, yaar. Who else?”

“I see. What did you find?” Paridhi asked, though she herself had done enough research on him to know almost everything that was there to know.

“He is single!”

That was something she hadn’t thought about finding out. But it wasn’t surprising. Nothing she found about him on Internet seemed to indicate that he was married. And anyway! How did it matter?

“Good for you,” she replied.

“And you Ms. Prudent act all detached. Don’t tell me you don’t have a little crush on him.”

“Really? If that were the case, why wouldn’t I attend his classes?”

“If you ask me, it is the case. That’s why you have started attending his classes even after missing enough for a grade-drop.”

“You are crazy Cathy.”

“Am I? So be it.”

“Right. Let’s quickly grab a puff or something to eat before the next class. I missed my breakfast.”

—

To be continued