Been there, done that

Thursday
School Canteen
11:12 a.m.

'We have to go! Its Zihan's first performance and we have always promised to be there for him!
'And Black will be there! It's been so long…'

'I want to hear Wamiq again. The reviews at altermetal were quite impressive.'
'What do I wear?'

It was the usual break time clamour when everybody had something to say but no one was willing to listen. Today the intensity was particularly great since there was a big concert the next day.
'Shut up people!' As usual I took charge, 'let's get to the planning.' All great events need great scheming-by me.

'Armeen and Raisa are going to Nusrat's from where you all are supposed to come to my house, from what your parents know, right? A teeny little problem will be caused when the moms decide to check on their young ones….that is when we are done for!'
'My mom doesn't have your number.'

'I hid the phonebook.'
'Parents will be out for the day.'

'Good, good...' I nodded approvingly. That takes care of Safety Measures. Coming to Transport……' All heads turned to Sumita.
'Yes yes, we have my car for the day,' she said distractedly. She was probably calculating what volume of petrol would be consumed by the journey.

'We have to make sure we get there as early as possible. Deafened has been allotted the first slot and if we miss that there is really no point in going.' Armeen wanted to catch every single song which her boyfriend performed on his first show.
'Yes we went over the timings already. Don't worry……Clothes?'

'Westerns…duuh'
'But decent.'

'Duuhh…'
'All set then! See you all in good health tomorrow, meeting adjourned and……may God help us!'

Friday
My House
9:30 a.m.

Tring, tring! (yeah I know telephones no longer sound like that but…what the heck!)
'Hello Anissa?' it was Sumita's voice on the other line. My instincts told me that something was wrong.

'What happened?'
'Raisa's mom found out.'

'What!' I felt my knees buckling underneath me, 'How? When?'
'I called Raisa and her mom picked up. She asked me whether we were going to a concert……'

'And you told her?!' Was this girl absolutely out of her mind!
'What could I do she sounded so sure of it.'

'Well she wasn't! It was just a hunch! She's psychic. Raisa told me so…she dreams about things! Oh God…'
'Relax Anissa. You're getting hysterical for no real reason.' The nerve of that girl! 'I talked to Raisa and she said that everything is ok and her mom has no problem with it.'

'Are you sure?' I felt my heartbeat returning back to its normal pace.
'Positive.'

'Fine, when are you picking me up?'
'12:30 sharp. See you then. Bye.'

'Later.'

Same Day
1:15 p.m.

Nusrat's Garage
'Why aren't they coming down?' Sumita sounded anxious. 'I've already given Armeen two miss calls. Wait here let me go up.'

As I waited while the seconds blinked away on the car's digital clock, I could not help but feel that something had gone wrong. Right then all four of them came down and Nusrat said, sticking her head through the car window, 'My mom wants us to have lunch.'

'What! Then it will be too late, we won't catch their show. Listen having lunch is very impractical. You all are supposed to be going to my place for lunch right? You can't HAVE lunch and then go! Common sense. Tell her that my mom is waiting with the food and that she will be very upset. Plus if you all do eat now…what about me? I can't join you lot…because of course your mom knows I'm home and that's where you all are going! Now go, explain and come back in five minutes.'

After ten minutes they all piled into the car and as the wheels got rolling, we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Same day
Fu-Wang Parking Lot
2:00pm

'Did it once occur to any of us that we might possibly be early?' I wandered aloud scanning the deserted parking lot. There was not a soul in site except for the drowsy doorman. When asked he said that gates open at 3:00.
We all stared at each other's blank faces and then Raisa voiced out the universal question…'What now?'

'I'm hungry,' Nusrat complained. 'We could've just eaten at my place, Ammu cooked Biryani today…'
'This little fact we are missing out…I would still be starving,' I said.

'We could've said that the driver needs to eat and send down the food to you,' suggested Sumita. For some reason I did not savor the idea.
'Could we quit thinking about what we could have done and figure out what to do now instead…?' Raisa screamed. The heat and the tension were getting to her. Just then a car came through the entrance. We recognized the passengers as members of Void. They eyed us in this amused manner.

'This is so embarrassing!' Raisa muttered through clenched teeth. 'We look like the biggest losers on earth. Like we woke up extra early on a Friday so that we could be on time for a concert…how desperate!'
'Ok, we have a lot of time on our hands. Let's just drive around until we find a place to eat. We can eat, cool off and hang out until its time to come back.' Sumita looked around for approval.

It seemed like a logical suggestion.

Same day (which will never end!)
Somewhere in Gulshan
2:10 p.m.

Murphy's Law…I don't know exactly how it goes but it's something like-'when you really want something you can't find it, no matter how readily available it usually is'. Well it sure is true. We've been driving around Gulshan but there wasn't a single fast food joint that was open. We didn't have enough money to go into any of the fancy restaurants. Life can sometimes be 'a bit' difficult for a teenager you see.

We were almost near Ziauddan by now. That's when Sumita came up with another of her ingenious plans…'Café Mango! We are almost back in Dhanmondi; we might as well just go there.' The prospect of going to a place that we actually knew very well appealed to all of us. And so we were off to Café Mango.

Same Eternity-like Day
KFC Metro Plaza
2:25 P.M.

'Ok. Here's a riddle “if no other place in Dhaka was opened what is it that made us think that Café Mango would be?”' And Armeen threw back her head and laughed aloud. Poor girl was going delusional.

I looked around the table. Nobody was in the mood for the fat-breaded sandwiches and excessively oily French fries that lay in front of us. Just then Armeen's cell rang, it was Zihan…'Hello. We're at KFC…long story…what! But the guard said the gates opened at 3! I'm so sorry…We'll be there right away.' She cut the phone and got up hastily,' their performance is in five minutes'

'But its 2:30! The guard said……' I said pointlessly.
'Yes, yes…he was wrong!' We all got up hastily. That is except Sumita. We looked at her expectantly….

'I sent the driver home for lunch.'
We all fell back to our seats without a word. 'He's not well! He got into a fight a few days back and today is his first day back to work since that.' I shot her fiery look. Armeen looked close to tears and Raisa and Nusrat just looked distant.

(You guessed it!)….the same day
Near Fu-Wang
2:55 p.m.

The place looked very different from what it was when we left it. There were cars of every model and this particularly 'sporty' car had a sticker saying 'CAR' in huge fancy letters. Try as I did I could not find a purpose for that. The uptight girls with their perfectly ironed hair and the hunched over guys with their gel-dripping hair, swarmed the place.

During the journey back we had all sort of convinced ourselves that the concert was definitely going to be delayed and as a result we were in a lighter mood. Amongst the crowd I noticed a familiar face. Zihan was walking down the footpath, away from the venue. I wandered where he was going right before his show.

The car parked at the gate and met up with Raisa's boyfriend, Sumbadi (pronounced 'somebody'). He gave us the tickets.
'Hey….where did Zihan go? Aren't they up first?' Armeen asked.

'Oh you people just missed it.' He replied with a consoling smile.
We were finally convinced that this was by far the worst day of our lives.

Note to readers: Murphy's Law actually states that: 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' Let us just blame the much deviated version on the narrator's ignorance.

By Aniqa Monuddin

In an unprecedented study it has been concluded that girls who have better G.P.A are more likely to end up in a good college in home and abroad alike.

The study was conducted by a group of eager students lead by Mafij, who previously presented us with brilliant researches such as students who smoke consume more nicotine then others and girls follow soccer only to watch the cute guys.

In this particular study researchers interviewed a number of female students who were either studying in college or was trying to get into one and they came up with this immaculate result.

Mafij, put the findings in perspective. "Just imagine, talking to so many girls and the best part is they all volunteered" he said. "Is that cool or what?"

When asked about the result of the study he said that their findings could prove to be invaluable for any female student. “This is a topic which has puzzled everyone for some time,” he noted. “So we wanted to clear things out. And that we successfully did.”

According to the researchers, although students who study more are mocked by their fellow classmates, they are the ones who get the perfect scores and consequently get into a fancy college or university. “The ironic thing is that the same nerds we make fun of in class are actually the winners in the long run” he said. “Most girls don't understand that and end up being a worthless housewife wasting their husband's money.”

Mafij bristled, however, at the suggestion that researchers should also conduct similar study on male students. "No, you don't understand. It's not the same thing “. He added, ”The same results affects male and female students in completely different ways and it's an entirely diverse field of study.”

But a highly placed source in the research team admits that their initial aim was to study both male and female students.

However, later the researchers unanimously decided that narrowing the parameter would increase their interest in the study. And all the volunteers also had to provide the researchers with their contact number for any future requirements. “Now that's really cool!” proclaimed the source.

The reaction to the study was mixed. For most girls the result of this study has come as a great surprise. One such student says “All this time I never cared about studying cause I didn't think I needed to, but now it seems if I don't study I can't get into college, that's horrible…I don't wanna miss out on flirting with all those guys”. But some know-it-all-too-smart-to-talk girls claimed this study was just buffoonery and yet another example of how dumb guys are. However, they refused to talk to the reporter and share their views. And another group of girls were very excited about the apparent public exposure they were going to get thanks to this article, despite requesting to remain anonymous and having nothing to say on the topic.

Mafij insists that the most important conclusion of his study was that he could do many similar types of studies on girls in days to come. “The most important conclusion of our study is that we could do many similar types of studies on girls in days to come.” he said.

By Nabil