Arrival…

A white tata indica which had been cruising till now came to a stop on the Gujarat- Rajasthan highway. The road ahead would not permit the car to go ahead. The sole occupant of the car got out, stretched his cramped legs and let his eyes wander all over the place. He spotted a hoarding which said GEC,MODASA and an arrow beneath it pointing in the direction of a distant building which was in middle of nowhere ,unloaded his luggage and paid of the driver . As the car sped of leaving a small puff of smoke the occupant collected his luggage and moved towards the building.

Mornings in the hostels of Engineering colleges on Sundays usually begins at 2 p.m in the day, People tired after bouts of drinking, lan gaming, night calling(people responsible for the spurt in growth of reliance) and studying(ya …we have aliens amongst us) the previous night disturbed by pangs of hunger wake up. Amid fights over turns at the wash-rooms  people waking each other up, doors being banged and barrages of expletives doing rounds the hostel comes to life. It is just like a CD which in the start does not emit any sound giving us the impression that it is corrupted and then suddenly it belts out rock music at very high decibels and thus shell shocking us.

I woke to the noise of my door being pounded, i removed the pillow beneath me and used it to cover my ears and tried to go back to sleep but the incessant ponding continued. Finally ,I relented and with my foot I slid the lock aside. The door was slammed to the wall with a loud thud which startled me.it was a guy named Ravi  who lived in the room across that of mine. HE shouted.

Wake up. And get dressed.

I nodded my head and using my hand to support my head dozed of once again. Drops followed by a trickle of water against my skin  jolted me out of my sleep. I noticed Ravi holding the empty bottle of water with a smile. I cursed him for waking me up. He threw me a towel and said ,Get up ,we need to go ,you are finally getting a room partner. I looked over at the the empty bed which had till now been acting as a store house of my books.sadly,I had to clear them but as of now I had to head down and help the guy. Racing down the stairs I asked ravi if he knew anything about the guy.

I got a call from a senior. This guy is from Assam.

I saw a guy leaning on the gates of the hostel surrounded by his luggage.It looked like as if he was a refugee who had packed everything that he could lay his hands on with no hope of returning back.I shared my analysis with ravi ho chuckled. On reaching closer I found a short pot bellied guy smiling.He looked out of breath and his clothes were drenched in sweat.He extended his hand forward and said.

I am Deka from Assam.

Deka.what sort of name is this ?? was the first thought that came to my mind. Anyhow I shook hands with him and said.

I am Ronit ogra.

HE exchanged pleasantries with my senior and then directed us to pick 2 bags each and he would carry the remaining ones. We ,looked in awe as he slid 2 bags on his hand and then went on to pick 2 more bags in each hands and started walking with relative ease. We smiled at each other and then followed him. We directed him to my room. He took his seat on my bed while I started cleaning out his Bed. When I had finished I turned around and realized that he had dozed off in my bed. I looked around and saw his luggage. I saw that each one had a sticker with a label DEKA.

DEKA.

What kind of a name is this.

Ah.it must be his surname or his first name.

But then again who goes around with a name like  DEKA.I smiled again and then rushed off to the washroom with the words of somebody very famous who had said

What’s in the name. Well now he was destined to be with us for the next 4 years and there was nothing much that either of us could do about it .I also wondered what in the world had he brought in the large assortment of numerous suitcase and bags. This would have been  probably enough to rehabilitate a small family from the slums. Looks like there was no going back for this one. I hoped he had brought food from home ,5 days already into the hostel and I was already missing home food.

It was late in the evening when I returned from playing football with studs hanging around my neck and my tongue out of my mouth. The hostel in the distant was shining due to the lights of the individual rooms, had it not been for these lights one could completely miss the hostel in the night and walk away and only realize one’s folly when one had reached the state highway. I slowly trudged up the stairs while discussing about the today’s match with a friend.I suddenly realized that there was a lot of commotion out of my room, with the remaining strength I raced towards my room to find throngs of people standing there. Numerous things raced through my mind –

had there been a break-in, my laptop ,damn man, dad would kill me for this.

 Had there been a fight, man but a fight in my room, everybody was out playing….except the new guy DEKA….!!!

Had there been some kind of official visit, but why was everybody in my room??

As I pushed through a couple of guys to enter the room I noticed that everybody was eating and gossippin. the beds which had been separated by tables had now been combined so as to make way for more people to sit.The tables were now kept pressed to the walls and it had polybags which contained food,it took me a moment to realize what was happening.I located deka among a bunch of gujaratis telling them about the contents of the various packets.My intial reaction was to shout his name loudly and then barrage him with expletives and at the same time get rid of the crowd.But I kept my emotions in check and went up to deka and pulled him towards the verndah

What are you doing dude??

whats up with the crowd and food??

 Are you nuts..calling people like that in the room..

They could steal something…..

i have my laptop in there

He smiled. This smiling was not going to help his cause. I wanted to push him over the railings of the veranda down into the ground. He said

Chill dude…..I had brought food from home so I decided to invite everybody . Moreover mom had told me to share this with everybody. And these guys have been a real help, they helped me in setting up the room. Come on lets eat else there won’t be anything left for us and I wouldn’t want my room partner to go without food.

I couldn’t help but smile at his naïve nature . The anger vanished immediately as my stomach growled at the mention of food. He had hit me at my weakest spot. Although the mention of food had made me lose my focus for a bit , I realized he needed to be taught few things about hostel life. I said

Deka bhai. Its alright what u said. But this is not your home that you can invite everybody. Plus these are people who just came at the mention of food. None of them are your friends and don’t expect any help from them in future. Also some of them can steal things from our room. And this room is mine too, so the next time you decide to hold a langar please do inform me.

He again smiled and said

Bhai it is not necessary to make friends for help. I didnt share food with them so that I could get help from them. I just did it because mom had told me to do and I felt like doing and I apologise for not having consulted with you before but it didn’t occur to me that u would have a problem with it .Anyhow I will the next time.

I was tongue tied.

Morever the distant noises of people gobbling up food diluted my remaining anger and I said:

Lets go and get rid of these people.Over my tiffin and your food lets get introduced informally.

He smiled back and then shouted everybody to leave the room.I tried to stop him midway telling him that nobody would listen,but apparently deka magic was at action and the people emptied out of our room.and I sat down to have my food with deka thinking about his words………..