Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 22: Aarohi

I just wished my quest to know who our Sophia is revealed before I have to go back to school. It feels like I have got a long way before I get to figure out who our Sophia is. I wanted to discuss Abhishek Banerjee with Miss Sengupta but I doubt that she might know anything about it. I decided to continue reading the journal so that I could get to know more. 

                                                               26th September 1992

 I learned another secret about Aarohi, but she threatened me that if I dared to tell this to anyone she would beat me to a pulp. Today afternoon at around 2 Monika came over to our place and we decided to go to the nearby Basketball club to practice. Aamaya di and Aarohi also went with us and then Aamaya di called Daniel dada and challenged him for a match. Daniel dada and his friends have still not reached the stadium by the time we reached there. As we were waiting for him, a group of 7 boys from the nearby neighborhood came up to us and began to tease Aamaya di. I saw her feel shy as they kept teasing her. 

A few moments later Aarohi and Monika looked at each other and winked. There was a crooked smile on their face and then the inevitable happened. The 2 of them stood up and walked towards the boys. At that moment the boys shifted the teasing from Aamaya di to Aarohi and suddenly they punched 2 of the boys straight on their noses. Before the rest of the boys understood what just happed, the 2 girls began to beat up the boys into pulp. 

There was a moment when one of the boys was actually begging Monika to stop but she wouldn’t. Suddenly one of the boys picked up a stick and was about to his Aarohi and then Aamaya di shouted ‘Sophia’ watch out and caught hold of the boy's hand. The moment she said the word, Aarohi stopped hitting the boy and caught another one by the collar and shouted ‘STOP CALLING ME SOPHIA’ and then she began to Slap the boy as hard as she could. I could see tears in his eyes. As for the boy whom Aamaya di stopped, she was still clutching his hand, and there it was, she kicked the boys in his privates. Watching the 3 girls fight, I decided to join in. 

After about 15 minutes, Daniel dada reached the stadium with his friends. He asked his friends to take them to the hospital. Aarohi, Monika, and I sat on the steps discussing how did they learn how to fight like that and if they were scared when they were fighting. As we were discussing, I saw Daniel dada handing Aamaya di a cell phone and she began to call someone. I asked Aarohi if she knew whom she is talking to and she replied that it's better that I don’t know anything about it. As I kept insisting she told me that all I need to know is that Aamaya di is making arrangements to protect someone she cares for the most, and that person’s life is going to be in grave danger very soon.

*** What the hell. Whom was Aamaya talking to? And who the hell is in danger. Did Aarohi just state that Abhinu might be in danger? Who is this Daniel dada he mentioned in his journals? Wait a minute, so that explains our Sophia is none other than Aarohi. Thankgod my doubts are finally cleared. But why did such a smart girl who was not afraid of standing ground against 7 boys much bigger than her size, suddenly changed and became a scared timid boy. I guess reading the journal further might give me the answers to my query. ***

"Yaay... I finally figure out..." I shouted at the top of my voice.

"Shhhh!!!" I saw one of the staff nurses step out and shouted "If you have to shout do it outside... patients are sleeping out here..."

I raised my hands and said "Sorry..." and then I sat on the bench again and continued reading the journal while the staff nurse left for here rounds.

28th September 1992

It has been 2 months now since the incident. I have been continuing my regular classes. There was a class test on maths yesterday and like most students, I didn't like the subject. Due to those matches, we missed a lot of our studies and had to take extra classes to cope up with the curriculum. Soham had regained his lost honor by topping the class and Aarohi and Monika made sure to retain the 2nd and third spot. As usual, I was fifth.

We had two new members that joined the musketeers, Sunaina and Surya. Even though Sunaina and Surya were from different sections and Surya is a year older than Sunaina, Monika still let them join our team. The five of us were the best of buddies.

We still liked to play basketball after class. There was an announcement in class today and all the players who received the S.A.I. scholarship were asked to come to the principal's office.

When we met Principal sir in his chamber, we were given a form each and asked to get it signed by our guardians. Once the procedure is complete, we will have to report to the SAI hostel and our training will commence. We went home and Uncle signed all our forms.

***Abhinu writes that the 29th and 30th September passed without any incident. Everything was normal and finally, the day came when they had to join the training academy. ***

1st October 1992

Today is the day we were joining the training academy. I didn't want to leave Aunty and Uncle behind and go to the training academy. Aarohi has been sobbing since morning because she didn't want to leave the family either and stay in a hostel. Uncle consoled us by saying that his place of work is right near our training academy and if we feel like leaving the academy at any time we can always call him and he will arrange to take us away from there.

Uncle, Aunty, and Aamaya didi came to drop us in the training academy. At the academy, we were told that boys and girls would be staying in separate dorm rooms. We were given our class schedules and our training coach told us that all we needed to do here is study, eat and play. We, being very young, we're allowed to talk to our parents as much as we want. His words relieved us a great deal. Finally, Coach sir took us to introduce ourselves to someone. One of them was Geethu Anna Jose, Prashanti Singh, and Akilan Pari. Coach sir told us that these 3 players were among the best Indian basketball players. Geethu Ma'am was sweet and had a lot of motivating talk to inspire us.

We came to know that Akilan sir himself was the captain of the under 13 Indian basketball team and he said that he had seen Aarohi taking really good shots, but he felt like there was one girl who truly deserves to be on this team of 10 but he doesn't see her. We asked him who that was, but he said he doesn't know the name, but she could score really long shots mostly from the charity stripe. He would want to personally train her himself. I had a strange feeling that the particular athlete might possibly be my Monika.

Later on, we came to know that our coach is Mr. Sat Prakash Yadav who was also the coach for the Indian basketball team but now he will be coaching the Bengal sub-junior basketball team.

***Abhinu wrote that every weekend their family members kept visiting them in the training center but the young entrants at the center built such a good rapport with all existing residents that it felt like their home and they nearly stopped thinking about their family back home.

This is a regular thing. Once you are in a hostel, your friends become your first family and they never let you feel homesick. He also writes that the training was very extensive which reminded him of their training in Purulia.

 Of all the friends he always missed Monika a lot. It was announced that the state-level tournament would begin from the 4th of March 1993, so the coach expanded their training schedules to get them ready and simultaneously making sure that the team doctor continues regular check-ups of the members so that they don't fall sick or tire out due to the extensive routine.

Before the tournament started, SAI organized 2 warm-up matches for the states. They were lined up against Tripura and Jharkhand. ***

14th February 1993

Today we had a try-out match against Tripura. We were informed that these matches had to be conducted to check the preparation of each team before the state-level matches start. The team from Tripura came down to Kolkata to play with us. Uncle, Aunty, and Aamaya didi came to the stadium to watch us play. Coach sir asked me, Sunaina, Aarav, Taposh dada, and Anju to play the first line-up. Aarohi and Justin, Joy, Prakash and Tony will be on the bench. The match started. The boys from Tripura was good but their performance suggested that they lacked proper practice and struggling to score. Upon seeing the situation, Coach sir decided to change the line-up after the first 25 minutes of the game. By the end of the match we ended up scoring 15 points and they scored only 7 points. We won the first warmup match.

***Abhinu further writes that the next match with the team from Jharkhand was a draw. Mr. Yadav their coach has announced after the warmup matches that the Sports Authority of India had sent them a new circular. They have been informed that during the state-level tournament, 15 players will be selected for the national team, so he wanted us to give our best to grab prominence in the national team selection. A total of 32 matches will be played in the tournament. Initially, it will be played on a league basis followed by knockout matches in the semi-final and finals of the tournament. Even though I knew how the tournament ended but I really liked the way Abhinu discussed everything in his journal. Wow... This sounds interesting... ***

TO BE CONTINUED…