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………..