After Sonali and Anushree had left for college, I was the
only one left in our room. I could still hear the rest of my hostel mates
getting ready for their respective classes. I removed my blanket and slowly got
up to bolt the door, only to hastily return to my bed and wear my blanket once
again. ‘November has turned really cold!’
As I lay in my blanket, I skimmed through the messages in the
inbox of my cell phone. There was a tail of messages from Mayur, which I was
barely interested in reading. Next were some messages from Nishant and others
were random messages from my friends. The inbox was almost full, so I decided
to empty it, however keeping the messages from Mayur and Nishant.
Mayur is, so as to say, my boyfriend. Mayur and I had started off simply as friends. Gradually,
friendship turned into a type of fondness for each other. We used to talk on
phone, as well as message each other regularly. We had just one date and that
too I was accompanied by my best friend, Nishu. So it can’t be called ‘a date’
altogether. However everything was going on just fine, except that he was very
possessive and I really hated that (although I liked it in the beginning!). Now
it has been three months since the day I had ‘officially accepted’ him as my
boyfriend, but I cannot entirely say that I was ‘in love’ with him. Of course, who
would fall in love by meeting a person just once? ‘Love at first sight’? Forget it!
Nishant was a different case. I never took him as my friend.
He wasn’t my boyfriend either. But there was one thing that I could neither
hide nor express- I liked him very much. Although I had never seen him, I had
developed some affection for him from the day I talked with him on the phone
for the first time. He was the perfect person, just the way I had dreamt of
having someone special in my life. I wanted to meet him once, in order to find
out whether he was really this person that I like so much or was he just some
kind of illusory. Finally today’s the D-day when I’m going on a blind date with
him.
I was still yawning and feeling lazy to get up from bed.
Slowly the hostel started emptying as the girls left for their classes, except
for one or two, who either had their classes in the afternoon or were just too
lazy and bunk their classes just like me. When the girls leave for college, the
corridor is filled with sounds of high heels, or wedges, or the dragging of
shoes or fashionable sandals. Now that the hostel was almost empty, I could
hear a familiar sound of ‘hawai chappals’ being dragged from a distance. The
dragging sound continued to grow louder and louder and stopped in front of my
room.
Knock, knock…
“Who is it?” I called out from underneath my blanket,
although I knew who was there outside, knocking.
“Dhara didi, its Madan here. You haven’t taken your breakfast
yet.”
Madan was the hostel cook and caretaker. Although he was in
his mid-thirties, he used to call each one of us by our names accompanied by
‘didi’(elder sister). He used to keep track of each one of ours activities.
This morning I hadn’t taken my breakfast, so he had come to ask about it.
“I am not in the mood of breakfast now Madan. Just keep aside
something for me. I’ll have it after I take a wash. Is the geyser on?”
“Haan didi. But there’s a bad news today. I suppose you would
prefer to take your bath as soon as possible.” He continued from the other side
of the closed door.
“Bad news?” I stopped fiddling with my phone and sat down in
attention. “What is it?”
“MCD* is stopping water supply after eleven o’ clock today.
So you better have your bath fast and store water if you require. I’ll keep
some breakfast aside for you.” Saying so Madan left, as I heard him dragging
his chappals away.
I sat there shaken. ‘No water after eleven? Oh no! I haven’t
even brushed my teeth… and it’s already…’ I took a look at the clock on
Anushree’s study table.
“TEN THIRTY!!! OH MY GOD!!!”
P.s. I was late… terribly. Thank God, he didn’t mind that
much and we were happy to see each other.
*Municipal corp. Delhi
