Paying Guest – Part III

In the last piece, I told you that I realised that there was someone else in the room beside the three girls. I discovered this in the darkness of one night and was shocked. You must be thinking who could enter the room without getting noticed. Well, hold on, the moment I got up from my bed and stepped on to the floor – there was dim moonlight lighting up the floor, I screamed -How dare you? No, I screamed – Cockroachhh, not one but two, three, four…you think I am learning to count, no I was counting them, they looked healthier than any of us in the hostel. I think they also used the same common kitchen which we all girls were using. There was a separate episode related to them, I need to tell you about it- may be later. But really they were the tenants who lived rent-free.

By the way, these creatures had the power to scare me to death, so much so that I saw them everywhere and believe me,I used to take my eyeglasses along with me in the bathroom so that I could save myself in case I see any of them in the bathroom while having shower. I needed to have a strategy up my sleeve to get rid of these wriggling creatures with antennas, my thoughts were – what will I do if this unwanted guest appears from somewhere.

In fact, the first thing I ever did in the morning was to wear my prescription glasses and look around my bed- if the ground was clear of the pests- I used to feel the day is blessed. I was a novice here so my reactions were bit exaggerated. Other girls were trained to face them more calmly it seemed.

Ganika, the dusky Maharashtrian girl from Belgaum with a beautiful voice worked from the hostel as Business Development Officer American Process. Her voice was more suited for singing, I don’t know what Business Development she was doing, she must have been putting people to sleep with that voice. She was the girl with a scooter if anyone had to go somewhere, she was always ready to take them wherever they wanted. Getting food from a restaurant or going with me to the Shiva temple on Shivratri or shopping endlessly with friends till they all dropped dead.

I have to admit that I missed the opportunity to know each girl well and knew them only a little. Now the reason was, they thought I am a very, very disciplined and strict girl (till now they think the same -how naive). I remember one of them mentioned, ”Are you for real”? I asked what made her say that she replied, ”who else wakes up at 5:30 in the morning, worships, goes to  the temple when your office time is 10.00 am.” I gazed towards the ceiling, the girl was right. Point taken. But that’s how my programmed mind worked since childhood.

These girls seriously thought they were giving me respect by not indulging in their mischiefs in front of me or along with me. The lesson – It is sometimes not good to be too good or appear good, you miss some of the fun the life has to offer you. For hostel girls – you should have  confirmed from the STRICT girl also – maybe she was good enough to indulge in your mischiefs – yes, maybe I was up for it and you missed. I must say, I always believed there is nothing wrong or right in this world, it is a matter of perception. Live your life, with conviction, because if you have doubt, then it is wrong, but if you are confident doing what you do – you can make it right.

Remember I said Non-Vegetarian food was not allowed in the hostel. Strictly, it was not allowed ( the same way beef is not allowed in India these days). But who said it was not cooked in the hostel. Yes, it was cooked but discreetly -everything chicken, mutton and eggs. As it was not possible to cook in the kitchen, the girls had their own stove and a mobile kitchen which could move to any room based on their requirement, all the spices were taken from the common kitchen and the non-veg food was cooked in the girls’ rooms. There was an issue –  the two caretakers, the paid employees of the landlady- the girls were afraid their secret would be divulged if these two were not offered ample bribe(non-vegetarian dish) to keep their mouth shut. So just like deities are offered the food before the masses could eat, these two caretakers had the same privilege though not in that order – they may have been given the food later but not before the girls.

And in fact, these caretakers themselves loved the non-veg food so much that they would help with everything and in case the landlady made a surgical strike I mean a surprise visit, the cooking army was disbursed immediately along with the weapons and equipment, and room freshener or perfume was sprayed throughout the room so that no trace of any smell was left lingering in the air. In case the girls were not able to hide the stuff by the time she reached the common area, someone or the other would engage her for sometime to delay her entry to the room. I myself am guilty of such cooking once and had to shove off all the stuff under the bed once Mala just entered the room like a ghost. And believe me, the pan was still hot when I pushed it – my egg curry was almost in tears as it blew hot and cold. Hot when I pushed it under the bed and cold when I pulled it out.

Mala, the landlady was really strict. No boys or men were allowed in the hostel. The hostel entrance had a small area where if some visitor came, he would meet the girl in that area only, he was not allowed to enter the hostel main area – strict Lakshman Rekha was drawn. She carried the same attitude which Amitabh had in the Movie “Mohabbatein”, the only difference, there was no Shahrukh Khan – or maybe, in fact, every girl was a Shahrukh Khan. But she was one of a kind, increased the rent every three months, who does that?

All the girls were beautiful in their own ways, Shipra, a marathi girl was the Shakira of the Mala’s PG and she would nail it on her song “ Shakira Shakira.” She would dance extremely well, believe me, I was so impressed by her dance once that I was forced to part with my anklet and gave it to her as a token of appreciation and felt like Saleem – when Anarkali just finished her dance. She was awesome.

I was “Di”, the elder sister, for most of the girls who were pursuing their CA coaching classes or were in some college. Yes, there were many girls besides the ones I am discussing, more for later. And some called me by name – Ganika was one of them. I never wore makeup and if I ever tried to, Ganika was the first to mention, you look beautiful without makeup- such a polite way to say you look horrible with makeup – especially the Kajal. I bet she was right, thumbs down to my kajal look – I never tried again – it seemed as if I was going to do some witchcraft or do you remember Amitabh’s eyes in “Agneepath” – that kind of look to be more precise. Well, I am Rekha so that example was obvious.

There were parties on the terrace of the hostel and loud music used to bother the neighbours as it was a residential area. The neighbours used to throw the bottles on the hostel windows as they were fed up with the noisy notorious girls. One strong group which I can think of, had Ganika, Shipra, Savita, Lubena, Ruchi and Manushi and these girls used to put on music and dance under the shower as if recreating the rain dance on the song from Akon- “Right Now”. These girls were in the truest sense the goodwill ambassadors of the young girls – whenever they went shopping, they would return and then show their dresses to all other girls in their group – not just like that but wearing them on a ramp walk – yes- even if it was the lingerie. Behind the closed doors!

We also had a Chak De India Girl – a hockey player – Moni. Curly bob cut and her mannerisms like a boy, and gave the flavour of masculinity in the hostel. But her masculinity could never earn her the remote of the tv in the common area, which required a chivalry of different level. There was an unfair advantage to the room which was exactly facing the common area, the girls from this room were first to be out of their room and on the chair for watching the programs. And I remember this was the only room with an attached bathroom – seemed like a luxury.

I always loved the Urdu language – and had one Muslim friend in my school – a very dark complexioned girl but having the sweetest voice and when she used to speak Urdu –  it was absolute honey. She would become the most beautiful girl for anyone- that is the power of this language. She could knock off any beautiful girl in the class. Here in the hostel, I met  two Muslim girls after such a long time, I loved to learn about other cultures and Lubena with her Urdu Language stood apart from others. She was from an orthodox Muslim family who had dreams of her own. Another Muslim girl was Shabeen, who according to our landlady reminded her of Asin, the film actress. Oh! So that meant Mala did watch movies – news it was.

Thinking about those times, it does make me think now, can we have some respect for everyone no matter what religion, language, colour or creed they belong to – love is without barriers -just keep it simple.

When we live each moment in our present, we are creating memories for future and we should take care that each passing moment in our lives makes for nice memories which make us smile after some years.

Make sparkling memories – (C) Rekkha 29th Dec 2018