Change Agent

She entered the main gate of her college exactly at 8. Eight; in the morning. It was a usual day. She lowered her eyes and went straight to the open arena in front of the canteen. She put her bag on the table which was farthest from the door: that had become her favourite place. She felt she needed fresh air urgently, so she went and made the standing fan turn towards her. She put her head on the table, made her hair split and hide her face as she turned to look at one side. That side looked towards the garden. The garden which was always drenched in red and yellow flowers… In five minutes from now, Sheetal would arrive and would give her a big hug: recalling what her boyfriend told her last evening. She always did this to make her envious of herself. Ten minutes and Jitin would arrive, always with a water bottle with him and a nervous look on his face. He pretended to be a business maverick; may be because he had pathetic scores in acads. Then in twenty minutes, the whole arena would ...

She looked at her watch. She looked at it again… The days had become shorter; it never used to be so dark at this time. This time she raised her wrist and kept it in front of her eyes until she could read the time: it was showing 7.20 PM… She wiped her forehead with her bare hands. She was not feeling well today; she wished she reached home soon. She looked at the road side; she had reached only the Ice-cream store till now… Two kids took-over her; they were also returning home and were faster than she was… If it was any other day, she would have talked to them, or at least would have tried to give them a competition… But not today… Today was her birthday. And it had so happened that she herself had forgotten about it. When she was returning home from office; she had gone to a cyber-café to book a ticket for her journey to Mumbai: she was to go there to take part in a social sector conclave on behalf of her NGO. When her ticket was done, she was to get out when she saw some young girls...