The Venom of Jealousy (21/02/25)

The Venom of Jealousy

TING,TONG ….TING,TONG….The school gong for recess was sounded and we all, students of XII Science ’A’ scampered out of the classroom and headed towards the new MPH. There was the Inter-House Extempore Contest and Choney from our class, was going to represent Taag House. She was selected by the House Mistress and the Captains unanimously as she had a very good command over the language, both spoken and written. Besides, she was a rolemodel for the whole school. As I hurried down the stairs, I found Melam, our class-captain fumbling with something in her bag as she locked the door with a bang.

Once Choney, Melam and I were the best of friends. We were known as ‘The Three Musketeers of CHSS’. We did everything together and were so lost in ourselves that nothing else mattered to us. Then one day, while we were having a ball washing our plates outside the new MPH just before lunch, the unexpected happened. Having rinsed the water off my plate, the moment I raised my head, I caught sight of the grey-green looks on the faces of my companions. Following their eyes, I caught them eyeing the new bloke in our school. He was a heck of a guy with a superb physique. A new comer from PHSS, Lekden was already a big hit with all the girls in our school. He came up and stopped before us before looking at all three of us. He greeted us next with his characteristically jovial, ”Hi!’ and got inside, leaving us floored behind.

Things couldn’t have been the same after that and what was to happen, happened sooner than expected. Both Choney and Melam fell head over heels in love with Lekden. Well, to cut a long story short, Melam cut Choney short one gloomy afternoon by saying Lekden loved another girl when Choney had every reason to believe that she happened to be the apple of his eye. One thing led to another and the best buddies became sworn enemies! From then on, they made sure that their paths did not cross as far as practicable and preferred to stay apart. If Melam was taking part in Rigzhung Competition, Choney wouldn’t be anywhere in the vicinity. And when Choney was helping Ms.Deki wrap up the prizes for The Award Day, Melam was nowhere near to be seen! I tried to patch things up between the two, but without much success.

There was a buzz of noise that morning inside the Auditorium.

The MC asked us to do the usual mind training before the Extempore Contest began. There were sixteen contestants from the eight Houses, eight boys and eight girls. The third contestant made a mess of her topic, stopped in the middle and ran out with tears welling up in her eyes. Did not we all feel sorry for her? The next one from Druk House, a class XI student called Jigme, more than made up for the pathetic show of the previous contestant by speaking like a dream and we all were clapping like mad for him, when, there came from the microphone, amidst all the commotion, a hasty announcement :

“Choney Wangmo of Class Xii Science ’A’, you are asked to meet the Matron immediately in the hostel. Please hurry as it is urgent.”

Choney, who was siting next to me, sprang up and looking crestfallen and confused, dashed out of the hall. I felt very sorry for I knew what the contest meant to her and how she had been preparing for it. She was a bright girl and loved competition. I had no doubt in my mind that she would have been among the winners if fate hadn’t played spoilsport that day.

The contest over, I was retracing my steps back to the Girls’ Hostel when, on the way to our room, all on a sudden I had the urge to drop into Melam’s room. As a captain, she had her own room. As I was quite preoccupied with what had transpired during the Contest, how the participants had fared and all, I forced my way into her room without bothering to knock. Melam was bent over her mobile secretly checking an SMS or something.

“ Wai, wh..what’s the news? Who won the Contest?” she blurted out hesitantly the moment she saw me. “I feel sooo .. sorry for her as she’d have easily won today’s contest , …. How I wish she could be there till the end.” She really looked sad and my mind went back to the days, the days of our lives spent in true friendship, love and laughter.

Next day being a Sunday, I was coming out of the shower room trying to make my hair dry with the towel wrapped round my head, when I was startled to hear Choney’s hushed voice coming out of the Matron’s room. Most of the girls were out and the hostel was quite desolate at that time.

“No, Maam. It was a hoax. Someone just tried to play an oafish joke on me. No,no, she’s fine, by god’s grace. Maam, please, please don’t make a big fuss over it and please don’t report to

Principal Sir. Promise me you’ll keep it just between the two of us..”

I stood rooted to my spot at the precincts of the shower room. It was only then I could see someone, the pale silhouette of a familiar figure, sobbing, leaning against the outside wall. As realization dawned on me about who actually had played the spoilsport and denied Choney her share of glory in the Extempore, I could see her crouching, her face covered up with both hands in inexpressible pain.

[ I had written the story on the 23rd of May,2013, when I asked XII Scienc’A’ students to write a story with the title “The Venom of Jealousy”, having as its theme the jealous reaction of a friend to the success and popularity of another. I also read it out to one section of XII on the same day.]

The end