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Life Is Weird, So Am I!! Episode 1: Unpredictable Events
Yes. I am weird. Very weird. Or maybe I'm just confused. How do you define a person who spends his whole day trying out different keyboards on his phone and settling for Grammarly, just because he likes to write? There are various other keyboards available, yet only Grammarly because it has suggestions and makes your writing better.

Or how do you define a person who spends his whole day organizing apps on his phone and yet not be satisfied with the sorting? A wavering mind. Non-lasting decisions. Unwanted precision.

Also, I'm pretty awkward. My conversations tend to go off track pretty easily. I change topics without even realising I did. Sometimes I even get irritated without any reason and quit the talk in the middle.

My name is Jin. I have many such things. I am a weird person. There might be huge problems or matters that expect certain attention like my college selection, or even my courses online and counselling, yet small problems (they shouldn't even be called problems) like 'should the GuitarTuna app go in the hobby folder or accessory folder?' tend to get more attention from my side.

This weird nature of mine cost me a lot of things in life. The difference in opinion led to disputes, so I stayed alone by myself, making me an introvert. This resulted in having no friends, so I could never really share anything with anyone. But this is when I discovered my hobby of writing. I used writing as a means to express myself to readers, and music, it became a part of me. Music became my tonic. If I need to focus: music. If I'm sad: music. If I'm happy: music. I realised I had the most of the sentence and the tune in me. So I used the tune to discover myself, and the sentence to express myself.

Two years passed, and I grew up. So did my writing, music and my weirdness. These two years gave me a maturity. At least I think I'm matured is because I'm no longer distracted by small things. My attention is and will be on the important things: my goal, my life and my future. So far, so good.

College life is kind of unpredictable. I joined the science stream. Perfect for me. Why? Because I j loved the subject. And also the students just don't have enough time to look at people, always busy looking at textbooks and byhearting something. Good for me too, because if they see me and talk to me, I'll have to respond. And if I respond, they'll come to know about my weird nature and awkwardness around people. Naturally, staying alone made me bad at communication. But my writing helped me here. So I wasn't 'as bad' in communication. I made a decent conversation, provided it lasts only a few mins. Exceed the time limit, and there I go ruining the image I built up all the while.

I was slowly getting used to college. Library, of course, is where I had made my nest. And also where I function the best. I'd visit the library whenever possible, even after college.

One day, I went to the library after college to spend some time reading a particular magazine I had recently taken a shine to. Just then I heard the sound of books falling. It was not the first time the books had fallen off the shelves because they were 'shoved' into the shelves by students who were in a hurry. But this time, it was different.



A beautiful girl had dropped a few books as she was arranging them one by one from her hand into the shelves. Naturally, as any boy would, I froze, admiring that beauty. But we must all remember that I'm weird, and with my weird nature kicking in, I started to walk away like I didn't care.

She seemed to have understood me. Maybe she was weird too because she called out for me to help her with arranging the books.

"Thanks a lot!" She said, with a warm smile.

"My pleasure, but it's nothing really. I drop a lot of books myself!" Now I was wondering when in this world did I ever drop a book.

"Hey, are you listening?" She gently shook me by my shoulder.

"Oh sorry. Guess I spaced out." I was so lost in thought about when I had dropped a book I forgot about her. She giggled at my reply.

A long, cold silence followed until she asked:

"Well... Umm... So... You come here every day?"

"Well, yeah. I have been coming from a week. It's the best place in the whole college." It had only been 15 days since the college had started.

"Oh, so you're a weirdo too?" It took her a while to realise that she had just asked me. When she did realise, her whole face turned red and she apologised:

"I'm really sorry. I really didn't mean to say that. It's just that I was so excited there is someone else like me."

"It's fine. Happens. Plus it's rare to find people of the same tastes and the same weird nature." I replied. True. We weren't normal. Unlike normal people, it's hard to find someone else exactly like us.

She gave me a smile that made me blush.

"Well then, shall we get going? It's almost time to close." It had been an hour. What felt like minutes of conversation was actually an hour.

"Sure. I'll just pack my bag." I went ahead and closed the book, placed it back and locked the library.

"Hey, can you give me some company till the bus stop?" She asked, in the cutest way possible.

"Sure, why not? I'll give the library keys in the office and join you near the gate." The bus stop was a 15 min walk from the college.

She left to the main gate and left towards the office. That's when it occurred to me. 'Is it normal for women to lead like this?' Maybe. Maybe not. It I didn't really matter. I was in bliss about having met her. I dropped the keys in the office and ran over to the gate. She was right there, waiting for me.

As we walked, we wanted to talk, but the awkwardness and our introverted nature didn't allow us to. Finally, I said:

"What's your name?"

"Megha."

"Nice name." Her name sounded so pleasant, the compliment came out without even me realising that I said it.

After a giggle with a blush, she asked:

"What's your name?"

"Jin."

"It's Jeevan, but I like Jin better."

"Okay." She replied with a mesmerising smile.

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the bus stand.

"So... Umm... will you come to the library tomorrow?" She asked, with an expression in her eyes that demanded a yes for an answer.

"Obviously, like I have anywhere else to go. You know I'm weird, I got no friends."

"Well! See you in the library tomorrow then, Amigo!" She leaves with a big smile and me, in a state of confusion.

'Amigo, huh?' 'Interesting' I murmured to myself as I waited for my bus, smiling like an idiot.

When I joined college, I thought I'd make use of the library to hide my weird nature from people, but who knew this very library would help me meet a person exactly like me, a person who will understand me and not judge.












© Jeevan