My Hostel Days-4 (The Warden!!!)

I checked my watch. It showed 7:00 am. I was the third in the queue. Each girl in the queue took minimum five minutes. For me it seemed like five solid hours. (Time indeed is the strangest thing in the world. It shrinks and stretches its self as it wishes!) 

Finally when I got my turn, I was overjoyed. It was my very first (coinbox phone) call to my parents that too from a city unknown. I grabbed the receiver, press-dialed our ten digit mobile number. Call went but nobody answered. I heard only the caller tone and then the automated voice response started saying, "The number you are trying to reach is...."

It was heartbreaking beyond any word could express. I started shedding tears. After all, what a 16 year old girl could do at that moment. I felt utterly clueless and abandoned. There was a storm raging in my mind. An array of questions started emerging... "What's my mom doing? Why doesn't she pick the phone? If all the other parents talk, why can't they? Do I have to be entirely ripped off from my parents for the entire two years?...."

I stood there near the phone stand, lingering for a moment and finally sat on a ledge. I couldn't even move from there. But time was fleeting. Megala miss came out of her room with her typical pride. (Like a lion from its den) 

"What are you doing here? Do you have any plan to go to school or gonna gaurd the hostel with me?" she blurted out numerous questions. It startled me for a minute. I jumped off from the ledge and tried to answer her... "I came to talk to my mom. She didn't...." I started to weep uncontrollably without completing the sentence.  "..... didn't pick the call,uh??!", She added so indifferently. "Yes miss!" I added with sharp disappointment. 

"So what shall we do? Shall we fill some water bottles with your dripping tears?" There was not even a speck of concern in her words. Though her sense of humour was good, it was not time-appropriate. 

(To be continued...)