The Mischievous Wink

Suresh was a handsome, well-mannered young man and a good student, known for his studious habits and quiet nature. He was in the second year of his graduation course. He was considered a decent and well-behaved chap by both his professors and fellow students.

That reputation, however, was soon to be put to an unusual test.

One day, a girl student from another discipline ,named Rhea, lodged a complaint with the Principal alleging that Suresh had winked at her while passing by.

She had initially ignored it, thinking it might have been accidental. But when she noticed that he seemed to wink at her repeatedly, she decided that enough was enough.

Suresh was summoned to the Principal’s room and questioned.

He flatly denied the accusation.

“I have never winked at her, Sir. In fact, I don’t even remember having noticed her,” he said.

The Principal, aware of Suresh’s otherwise spotless record, decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. He let him off with a warning, advising him to be more careful about his behaviour around the girl students.

But within three days, two more girls came forward with similar complaints.

They said that Suresh had been making passes at them by winking. They were aware of the earlier complaint and, before approaching the Principal, made absolutely sure that they had actually seen him wink at them.

Suresh was summoned again.

Once more, he denied everything.

This time, the Principal was not amused.

He suspended Suresh from college for a week.

The poor boy pleaded his innocence. He insisted that he had never winked at anybody and, if anything, was actually rather scared of girls. He went out of his way to give them a wide berth whenever they came near him.

But by then, the matter had acquired a life of its own.

The story spread throughout the college, and almost every girl student who passed Suresh began watching him closely, curious to see whether he would wink at her.

Suresh, meanwhile, became even more cautious. Whenever he saw a girl approaching, he would immediately turn his face away and hurry past, as though trying to avoid a collision.

For a while, everything seemed to have settled down after his week-long suspension.

Then came the incident that nearly ended his college career.

One afternoon, an elderly lady professor, Parvatham, nearing fifty-five, was hurrying towards the library when she suddenly stopped and glared at Suresh.

She had caught him, she claimed, winking at her.

This, in the Principal’s view, was the height of misdemeanor.

The earlier complaints could perhaps have been dismissed as youthful mischief. But winking at a senior lady professor was an entirely different matter. The Principal seriously considered dismissing him from college.

Suresh was called in yet again.

“I swear, Sir, I did not wink at her,” he protested. “I don’t know why everyone thinks I am doing this. I haven’t done anything!”

The Principal stared at him thoughtfully.

There was something that did not quite add up.

The lady professor in question was a formidable woman, both in stature and appearance. She had a permanently stern expression, a scowl that rarely left her face, and a rather pronounced slouching mouth. The Principal found himself wondering whether any eighteen-year-old boy in his right mind would even look at her, let alone wink at her.

Moreover, all of Suresh’s professors spoke highly of him.

Perhaps there was another explanation. Instead of dismissing him, the Principal decided to investigate further.

Suresh was sent to an ophthalmologist for a thorough examination.

The doctor examined his eyes carefully. His eyesight was perfectly normal. There was nothing physically wrong with his eyes.

But the doctor, who happened to have a keen interest in human behaviour, was not satisfied with the obvious answer.

He stepped out of the room for a moment and asked a young nurse to go in and administer some eye drops to Suresh.

A few minutes later, the nurse came out.

“He winked at me,” she said.

The doctor raised an eyebrow. He sent another young nurse into the room on some pretext.

She returned shortly to say,“He winked at me too.”

The doctor smiled. He had found the answer.

It was not mischief at all. Suresh was suffering from an involuntary twitch of the nerves around his eye. The twitch became more pronounced whenever he was nervous or under stress.

The first complaint, followed by the warning from the Principal, had embarrassed and frightened him. That anxiety had aggravated the nervous twitch. Every subsequent confrontation had made matters worse.

Unfortunately, what was an involuntary movement to Suresh looked exactly like a deliberate wink to everyone watching him.

With proper counselling, reassurance and a little time, Suresh gradually overcame the problem.

When the Principal was informed of the doctor’s findings, the matter was finally explained to everyone who had complained. There was considerable embarrassment all around, followed by laughter at the strange misunderstanding.

The episode should have ended there.

But it did not.

Rhea, the girl, who had made the very first complaint felt genuinely remorseful. She went out looking for Suresh and, with some hesitation, apologized to him.

“I am sorry,” she said. “I really thought you were winking at me on purpose. I didn’t know…”

Suresh smiled.

“It’s all right. I didn’t know either!”

They both laughed.

And perhaps it was that shared laugh that changed everything. Rhea who had once been offended by his supposed wink now began noticing the shy young man behind it. Suresh, who had spent months avoiding her eyes, suddenly found himself looking into them without fear.

Cupid, who had been watching the whole absurd affair from a safe distance, finally decided that the time had come to intervene.

And this time, when Suresh looked at her, there was no nervous twitch and no misunderstanding,

Instead there was simply a mischievous wink from Suresh responded by Rhea with equal fervour!