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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cJagannath Sir, Namaste,\u201d someone called me. I turned around.<\/p>\n
It was Swapna. Clad in a blue Mysore silk sari with a golden swan border and a matching blouse, she approached me with her trademark smile. \u201cSir, do you recognize me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course. Sorry, your bobbed hair threw me off for a second. Swapna, please, don\u2019t call me \u2018Sir\u2019. \u2018Dr. Jagannath or Mr. Jagannath\u2019 will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t change, Sir. Once a teacher, you\u2019re always a teacher and a student should respect you.\u00a0 I\u2019m an assistant professor here and doing well. I appreciate your encouragement and support. I learned a lot from you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks, Swapna.\u201d I was a little hesitant but asked anyway. \u201cHow is your classmate, Sailesh?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, don\u2019t mention his name, Sir. He\u2019s a jerk. During my final-year summer vacation I went to my native village. During that time, he met a girl from the U.S., spoke to her parents, and married her, just like that. He is there now, an opportunistic chameleon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry to hear this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a blessing in disguise, Jagannath Sir. I realized that true love is beyond beauty, positions or possessions. I\u2019m lucky. I married a gentleman, Santhosh.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I know him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps. He was, and still is, a technician in the animal house here, in charge of frogs. He is kind, you must see the way he tends to the frogs. He fills the huge tank with water from a nearby pond and makes sure the water is maintained at the proper temperature and oxygenation. He periodically plants aquatic vegetation to make the water as natural as possible. He buys the choicest worms and crickets to feed them. We have the fattest frogs among all the medical schools in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFattest and the fastest hopping frogs, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swapna laughed. \u201cOh, you still remember the incident?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry to interrupt you, Swapna, you were telling me about your husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he is such an interesting person. You may not believe it, but he calls the frogs by their individual names, such as, Jumping Jack, Water Baby, and Rebecca, like you have names for your dogs. I thought a man who loves animals so much, will love me too. It proved to be true.”<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right, Swapna. You can\u2019t put a value on love and affection; only people who don\u2019t get it, know what they\u2019re missing. You\u2019re indeed lucky. Any children?\u201d<\/p>\n
Swapna picked up a photo from her purse and gave it to me. It was of a beautiful, smiling, one year old girl with a pink dress and a tiara looking like a princess.<\/p>\n
\u201cLovely. What\u2019s her name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSanthosh likes frogs and the baby is indeed a princess for us. We named her Tiana, like from the Disney movie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Love blossoms at odd times in unusual places. Swapna, the college beauty, and Sailesh were physiology students and their love began in the lab while working with the frogs. \u2013 @Siliconeer #Siliconeer #Fiction #DrRaghavendraRao #Literature The frog had to be clamped, electrodes attached to the thigh muscle and electrically stimulated. The resulting muscle contracture was…<\/p>\n