Paying Guest – Part II

One of my friend messaged me, immediately after I had posted the first part. He said,”Are you going to accuse your friends of theft”? I was gobsmacked. My answer was,” no, but what made you think that.” I was stating everything as it happened. When you go to a new place and you don’t know anyone, you assume. And assumption may not be always true.

My narration of my relationship with these girls would carry a message which is clear and also subtle.

No 1. Never assume who and what is right, wrong, moral or immoral? There is nothing like wrong or right in this world. It is a matter of perception.

No 2. Girls are girls, they are soft, strong, beautiful, intelligent, ignorant, innocent, naive, judgmental, loving, prejudiced, envious, caring, bold, scared, anything they can be as long as they are girls.

No 3. Lose a material thing, but never a relationship. Never use and throw a relationship, and never keep what you can throw – a thing.

No 4. My story is not yet complete with them,… so let’s continue.

I narrated the incident to every girl who came to me, and they were really concerned about the whereabouts of the mobile but then what had gone, had gone. Probably nobody should be blamed but me. I regretted that over a decade back, why this messaging app – whatsapp was not there, I now realize that whatsapp is so important mobile saving app (no pun intended), you keep your mobile close to your heart, as a mother would keep her child. If whatsapp was there , my phone would have been with me every minute. But WhatsApp in India was launched in mid of 2010 and it was in Nov 2009 it was actually launched for Iphone. They were late by almost 2.5 years. And they did not understand the repercussions of that, they never will.

Anyhow, I had to carry on with my life and suddenly I saw something positive in this situation; if my phone had not been lost, how would I have got a new smartphone? The very right, next thing I did was to get a new NOKIA N95 mobile phone. Now you don’t have to chuckle – NOKIA is a phone and was a phone. Nokia was the market leader of sorts during that time. And I had the best phone with me to lick my wounds. Nokia N95 was the first real smartphone.By the way do you know why Nokia lost its market and succumbed to Apple or Samsung? Simple, it did not change to innovate despite being the market leader. In June 2007 APPLE launched the 1st generation iPhone and the success story of APPLE began. So the Lesson – Change for the better, if you do not move you will be trampled no matter how good you are, you need to grow even if it means growing old.

The kitchen was one level down and I had to go for dinner as I was extremely hungry. Now the good part was that, here though I was away from home, I was not alone, I liked it so much. Since my childhood situations led me to lead my life alone, even if I had friends, we were not meant to be together for long. Two of my very close friends went overseas, one after marriage and another for job prospects. We call ourselves  3 Idiots and we are. Because we are in touch but have never called each other for so many years. Strange!

Coming back to the common kitchen and the two very cheerful characters – Jaishri and Yamini, I still hear Jaishri’s laughter that could tear the clouds apart. She could easily give the voice over to the Indian Mythological characters who laugh in a deadly rhythm and then start hitting each other with lethal weapons. These two girls were responsible for preparing the meals for all the girls. The meals were only vegetarian and that means NO NON VEG dishes were allowed in the hostel – this was strict condition, which all girls abided like the religious tenets. We will get to this in detail later.

There was a common area where we used to sit and watch the TV and that was the place where a lot of conversations happened. This became my favorite place as I learnt about the aspirations, hopes, inspirations, fears, pain of these girls; today I look back and so much has changed in their lives and mine but may be nothing changed in theirs or mine. Yes, nothing, they -would be experiencing even today that the channel which one wants to see is the one other hates. So this led to formation of groups — which were based on variable factors – like the girls from the same room will form a group or the girls with common taste, this would ensure that who would sit in front of the TV first and gets the remote, that would be the person/group that gets to see the program till the last, exception being if the consensus  or majority was otherwise. It was a different version of a musical chair, the difference only is that no one gets up from the chair, we keep glued to the chair instead.

The PG was mini India in itself, where there were girls from Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat,Tamil Nadu and Kerala. I just felt so good to talk to each of them. I used to get a small peek at their lives and culture. Believe me, there was no better camaraderie then the hindu, muslim and christian girls together. Religion was not discussed the way it is now. We celebrated each other’s festivals together. I remember Lubena , a muslim girl,making modak as sweets on Ganesh Chaturthi with us. How pure is that? By the way Lubena itself means pure.

The Lesson – religions should not divide us but unite us, this is not what is happening in today’s world. Most of the killings in the world happen in the name of religion. God has gone into hiding as even he is not able to convince these blind people.

Our Landlady was like Gabbar Singh, “kitni ladkiyan thi” (How many girls were there?) as if she was asking the two caretakers. Her demeanor was bossy and haughty, she would carry a big handbag and wear a saree and the moment Jaishri warned that Mala, the landlady is coming, there was curfew in the hostel, no loud music – every one became the ideal characters from Ekta Kapoor’s Serial.

One week passed in a day. And then I had to vacate the bed of Avani(the girl from Bihar) and move to ground floor but now there was another issue (was it or not – I am not sure). I heard, don’t ask me from where – My would be room-mate was female version of Rajinikant(Filmstar), what Rajinikant is to villains in his movies. And I heard not many girls would have liked to share the room with her because for her every girl was a villain. But my luck as usual, as you have seen my luck with the phone, I was supposed to share the room none other than her.

Everyone was trying to prepare me mentally, what awaited me downstairs. And as you know the old phrase, the beggars can’t be choosers, and that beggar was definitely me, about whom it was spoken. She was known to be really good to the other girl who was sharing the room with her. But this other girl in her room was an exception and I seriously wanted to know the secret. I was like a sheep going into lioness’s den. Wasn’t it?

So after a week, I had to shift downstairs with Ritika and Mithali. Ritika, a Mangalorean girl, was working at a call centre and Mithali I understand too worked in some call centre. The latter was the boss kind, the strict one, obsessed with cleanliness and the blunt type. I was praying that some miracle happens, and I get peace when I am in that room. I think this girl had a way with the caretakers of this PG and I was required to speak to Mithali so that I have HER permission to share the room. What???

Now was it an interview by her or not, I don’t know, but I had not given any interview till that date in my life(except one- which landed me to the job) and here I am. Ok, so she got to speak to me and was not that bad to talk to, she liked me as she felt, “she is the obedient one, cleanliness freak , docile who goes to bed early and wakes up very early.”She needed someone exactly like that. There were terms and conditions as well – Is this Mysore Palace, that I needed to abide by strict rules? I was wondering who is the landlady, to whom I paid the deposit or this one, who was occupying just one bed in the room, and by the way who is she to enquire from me so much? But again, sometimes to get your way, you have to just agree with somethings and with those you do not agree, just keep quiet.This is exactly what is happening in India at the moment.

I realised the problem with this girl was not that she was some bad-ass but that she had to leave for her job quite early, she wanted a room-mate who was the not late sleeper. I was in fact the perfect room-mate. The accommodating person I am, I am so proud of myself…The terms were that I would never use the bathroom before her, fair enough. She had to leave quite early – in fact both the girls used to leave quite early. I was supposed to be in office at 10:00 am and the place was only 10 minutes away. The Lesson –  never assume anything about anyone, people who look rude may be the most soft people you came across. Now “Most” is bit exaggerated.

Now God does listen to your prayers, though Mithali was not bad but I felt she became extra nice after my prayer was answered, this girl got engaged to a guy and after that she was in some other level of happiness which made her extra nice to her room-mates. Love was in the air, and the room was not that big and even I could  breathe it. So now from fighting Rajinikant, I saw a transformation into Romantic Rajinikant.

I really enjoyed my stay at this hostel. But then I realised we were not just three girls in the room, it was in the darkness of the night – that a secret was divulged. And I absolutely hated it.

Watch out for the next piece …thanks for the read.

(C) Rekkha K 12-12-2018