September’ 2000,
Austin, Travis County, Texas
University of Technology and Arts. UTA, as they called and highly regarded as the First Tier Undergraduate University in the country. Aryan had enrolled at the University soon after he got his mitts over the acceptance letter. None of his friends from the junior college had been admitted, not only the place has a huge competition with a limited number of admissions but also the tuition and fees are in actuality worth a king’s ransom. Public ran off at the mouth that the university charters only the rich. Few others blurted out unwanted yarns or tittle-tattled on one and more of the other facets of the college. The suburban families knocked the stuffing out of their children dreams of graduating from the university.
The University entryway has a monumental arch with its name inscribed on it. As you ingress into the campus, you run into a long roadway stretching nearly couple of miles which abruptly bisects leading one way to the foyer and the other to the principal premises. While one keeps walking on thoroughfare, one would get a distinctive eyeshot of the oodles of lush foliage and extremely elegant architecture. The buildings lays a thick on tower and arched ceilings with drawings derived from the iconic places of worship. All the departmental buildings lay in parallel featuring waterfalls, wide range of turfs, sanctuaries. The heart of the campus has a beauteous arboretum which enacts a home to an agglomeration of tropical and warm weather plant life. Besides the fanciable, drop-dead buildings, the landscaping supplements the scenic beauty. The campus is spread over nine-hundred acres and had been recognized as the only school that accommodates such large area for education. The school put up over one hundred and fifty acres of land for sports related activities. There are as many as fifty blocks inside the campus with several lavish amenities. The outsiders conceived it as more of a professional conglomerate where the world went to work.The junior college had not left much for Aryan, it was highly unlikely that he could see any of his chums enrolled at the grad school. Furthermore, the UTA was away from Aryans hometown that being so, he didn’t pluck up courage to build the audacity for his hope to have a confab with any of them again. As Such, Aryan started his freshman year all alone but in no time he made few friends. The entrancing truth in his life had been that he had not gotten what he had fancied life for but he had always got a chum whenever he stood in hope of finding one.
Aryan first meet was with Mrunalini. Mruna and Aryan had landed in the city’s airport at the same time, early in the morning. As Mruna just exited the arrivals terminal, she pulled out a print-out from her tote-bag for making an inquiry on the address to UTA. In her trail, she happen on to turn right to find a boy dressed in neatly pressed variant blue coloured patterned shirt with two secure zip inner mesh pockets. With his back faced to Mruna, she patted on his shoulder. In two shakes of a lamb’s tail, Aryan pirouetted to see a girl in her springtime of life.
Aryan and Mruna continued to see each other thereafter starting with their classes at the college. After a while, Aryan met Jenny at a Car Racing event. Mruna met Saryu and Pooja at the canteen inside the college. Saryu and Pooja had been friends with each other by then, they also belonged to the same environs in the city. Ergo, the comradeship ensued as the five of them transpired in no time.
The freshman year had students from all the departments, which was wonted in every other college as well. First year was all about the rudiments in engineering before you pick a major, that was the hunch Aryan had but eventually he wrapped his mind around that the lectures were administered to haul him into this past to give a cue of what he had discerned. He had always turned a blind eye to all the subjects other than his interests and he continued to do the same at the University.
Aryan interest was automobile engineering. He had deep affection towards cars, an extreme ardour. He started driving at the age of sixteen, he drove at speeds near to 140 mph. In the fullness of time, he pitched in getting the shows on the road. He scored interest in the challenges at the racing competitions. Every time he made an ingress into the bout, he finished first winning an arm and a leg. Although, he didn’t race for the money, he did it for the jive he copped while racing, the cheers, the claps and the chanting of his name. For one more definite reason, he had the most expensive car with splendid powertrains, relatively with the contenders. Jenny, the ultra humor personality, fortunately, had also turned out belonging to his department. Aryan shared similar idiosyncrasies with jenny to an extent except for his humor. The three ravishing damsels in the clique belonged to the most overt section, the computer science. Aryan’s sentience had been engulfed in tranquillity with very little vim ever since he started his days at the university. The reason for which he choose automobile engineering and the days he was actually experiencing were all at obtuse angled halting his zest in his heed. It was a major reason for his lost inquisitiveness, and not only at the university level but also it had been the same scenario at every juncture in his life, right from the high schooling to where he was then. Every-time he was confronted with the sitch, he had fathom out to follow his heart. He did it then and he did it always.
It was an ordinary day, Aryan was sitting on a bench in the last row, thinking out loud on the next fixtures around the last week of the month, in a blink of an eye, he saw Jenny next to him,
“So, the AUDI TT, I guess it’s ours” he asked with a surmise.
“Oh, the gray car?” Aryan exhaled, “In fact, it’s mine”, he said and winked at him.
“Oh yeah, that’s exactly what I mean”, Jenny stressed, “it’s yours, that is, it’s ours, come on out, let’s go for a ride.”
“Will do it in the evening, It’s been just an hour since I arrived”, Aryan Shrugged.
“Well, I just showed up and I am excited to go for a ride,” Jenny said, “come on, get the car keys, I will call the girls, let’s ride”.
Aryan couldn’t contend with Jenny. Jenny knew that Aryan would hang onto his words and Aryan just did. He was in the parking lot sitting in his car and waited for the three damsels along with the sidekick till they walked in.
“Woah! This is incredible dude, it is freaking cool”, Jenny shouted in full of zing sitting inside the car while they were riding at 160 mph on the national highway, “what’s the power train it got?”, he asked.
“It’s 1.8 liters L4 20V Turbo”, Aryan said, Pooja intervened, “Oh, hold on. What’s all this L, V, turbo? Shut up and enlighten us but don’t freak us out”.
“Babes, I mean, an inline four cylinder, twenty value turbocharged engine”, Aryan said, “a valve is something like a vent structured hole that gives the engine a better breathing power for operating at higher rpms to deliver more power. To get the extra power, we need more fuel and air to be burnt proportionally, and that’s why turbochargers are used.”
“Argh! Typical automobile”, said Saryu after hearing to Aryans elucidation on the argot. Aryan dispelled his doubts and was convinced the girls had not made up a head or tail of his jargon. “I hate engines”, Mruna said in haste. Following Saryu, others burst into laughter. “Dude, check out this restaurant, ten miles down the road, menu looks delicious,” Jenny said pointing at a magazine in the car.
“Let’s drive there”, Aryan said and raised the accelerator.
Aryan’s car was forty-eight hour old running when he drove it for the first time. He felt just happy back then on his first ride but when he was driving with his chums, it was more than ecstatic for him, it was more than finding his feet. His bezzies played an indispensable role in according him the complete happiness and that’s why he believed to keep his relationships powerfully built and be until the twelfth of never but more often than not, out of the ordinary things kept happening in his life.
Power and Pelf 