My hostel days-3 (The morning that wasn't!!)

The first day of my hostel life!!!

The first day of my hostel life!!! How auspiciously special that day seemed to me then.  I still remember (vaguely though) ....

Tik titick tik titick... My baby pink alarm clock hooted. Tuttt! I tapped it off, sat up, and rubbed my eyes. My roommates who were still on their beds, threw a disturbed glance at me. 

I spread a sheepish grin across my face, clutched my new brush and toothpaste and slipped away to the bathroom to escape their irritated looks. 

When I entered the bathroom, I saw two of the girls from the box room – room no.119 already standing there brushing and washing their face. They were different from my room mates. I could feel a strange fondness for them which I couldn't feel for my roommates. 

Those two girls were equally tall. One was Divya, a fair skinned girl another was Samyu, a dusky complexioned one. They both were about to leave the bathroom sink after that everyday-ritual of brushing and gargling.  When I reached to turn open the tap, Samyu grabbed my bucket and instructed me, "Hey, don't use that. It's hard to close it.. rusty.." It wasn't bossy. There was a tinge of closeness in that instruction. She never seemed a stranger to me at all. Divya was standing next to her and gestured me to the third tap. I thanked them with an uneasy smile creeping across my face and went to proceed further to deal with my brush and paste.

I returned our room and it was 6:00a.m. In the still murky dawn, I heard a strange jingling sound. When I peeped through the window, I saw a group of students jostling there on the ground floor, nearby the warden's room. 

When I zoomed in, it was for that one and only coinbox phone. (the other two were not working on that day) They were standing there with their jingling pouches filled with coins to ring up their parents. It took just a minute for me to jump out of my room, grabbing my coin pouch to the phone stand. 

When I reached there, I saw Megala mam😍, coming out of her room having a mic in her hand. I could feel the tremors of fear spread wildly through the seniors (grade-12 girls) who were nearby the phone stand. 

I couldn't understand the reason for their fear, that day. Later I learnt that the students were not allowed to use the phone as they wish but only during the allotted time. (We could use as we were new to hostel and victims of "HOMESICKNESS")