Sanam’s tryst with the runaway horse becomes the breaking news that keeps trending for quite some time on the academy grapevine. Her objection to being rescued drives the OTs insane. They bandy hundreds of reasons why she might have done that, each more outrageous than the other. Though the other riders arrived at the scene only at the tail end of her eruption, they give free rein to their imagination and generate enough fodder for their gossip-famished community to chew upon.
Some call Sanam a he-woman for she was trying to be unnecessarily macho. Some a fool. Most agree that she is a drama queen, spoilt silly by her Rank One status. ‘She walks like she’s entitled,’ points out one. ‘And now rides like one too. But the horse didn’t know this! ’At this, the assembled OTs almost roll over the floor laughing. ‘Highly selfish and immature!’ That is the general verdict. Sanam tries to shut her ears to this talk. Yet it filters through. Every slur. Opinion. And their verdict. Until she decides to give all this negative press an ear and take a good hard look at herself. Be her own judge. She feels, indeed, knows, she was wrong. But how wrong? The academy is making her out to be a selfish and brainless supervillain.
She goes to the library, seeking some peace and quiet; to ponder and to question.‘I just heard,’ Sanam overhears someone say, ‘of that horse adventure in your batch.’ Sanam swivels around to see who is talking, but finds no one.The voice came again, from behind the bookshelves—the poetry section. It’s a girl. And yes, she knows that voice—it’s that senorita of his! Her antennae go up; she is curious about how he sees the whole fiasco. For not one word has he uttered since their adventure. And the academy was abuzz, speculating why he was keeping mum. He chose not to answer that too. Here too, in the library, there is silence. She heard no reply from him.
Did she miss something? Sanam strains to hear. ‘Why did you save her?’ the senorita’s voice floats out, just then, insisting. ‘Wouldn’t you?’ he asks in return.‘But why did she abuse you after that?’Silence. After almost a minute, Sanam hears Aamir reply, ‘She didn’t. Stories. That’s what it all is . . . just stories.’ His declaration surprises her . . . confuses her . . . and drowns her in bottomless guilt. She runs out of the library then, breathing hard. What had she done! Classes were over for the day. Instead of sitting with her notes or with Dheeraj sir, discussing some topic or the other, Sanam decides to clear her head and takes off on her own. Walks out of the academy gates, out into the open expanse. Wanting to lose herself.
And also to find herself. The road winds down to the historic Library Chowk where stands the Father of the Nation in all his stony splendour, looking down upon the maddening line of cars, honking incessantly and belching toxic fumes that choke both the hills and its people. Not wanting any of this touristy madness, Sanam takes the path going up, away from the busy Mall Road, teeming with its shops and noisy tourists, up and up, towards Landour. She opts for the narrow track that the locals favour, the one that climbs up the scrubby wooded spur of the ridge and then winds its way around the hilltop. The pine tops, swaddled in mist, look so inviting. She walks on, feeling the release of pent-up emotions as she treks.
Extracted from Trending in Love by Pankaj Dubey, with permission from Penguin Random House India.