Salim and Kayal #Watty's 2016 # YourStoryIndia #ProjectWomanUp

Hostel life

Kayal's POV

A little after I settled my things in the room Sara entered the room with the warden. Only after few seconds I realized about my smiling face. I already like Sara. Warden gave her the usual instructions and left. I moved towards Sara. "Hai Sara, I am Kayal from Chennai."

"Hey, I am so happy that my roommate is a Tamilian. Do you have any good Tamil movies in your laptop? I am a big fan of Tamil Cinema."

"I am pleased to know that my roommate is a movie buff like me. I do have few Tamil movies in my laptop. Do you have any Malayalam movies with you? I am a fan of Dulquer, Nivin Pauly and Fahad Fazil."

Sara was excited. "That's so sweet. We can have movie nights together."

"Sure. First unpack your stuff and then we will raid our laptops".

"Cool. Which one can I take? I think I will settle with this view."

With that she started arranging her stuff and called her parents to inform them about myself. Within few minutes, there was a knock in the door and Jaanu entered with our warden. Warden gave the same instructions to Jaanu. As soon as I saw Jaanu, I felt like she was faking a smile. May be she was afraid of this new environment or people. I decided to put her in ease. Sara was still on the phone.

"Hai Jaanu, I am Kayal from Chennai."

"Hai, I am from Andhra Pradesh".

"Great, where in Andhra?"

"Srikakulam"

"Nice. I did my Under Graduation in Journalism. How about you?"

Jaanu replied in a very soft voice "Communication".

"Okay Jaanu, why don't you just settle down? We can talk later."

She politely nodded. Her English accent told me that she wasn't comfortable speaking in English.

"Jaanu, can you teach me Telugu? I know very basic Telugu. But I want to learn much better."

To this she gave me a confused look "Why do you want to learn Telugu?"

"I want to watch 'Baahubali' in Telugu, the original version."

She gave me a hearty laugh. "So you are a fan of Telugu Cinema?"

"Nope, just Telugu actors and few directors. Earlier I was a fan of Allu Arjun, now I am a fan of Nani. How about you?"

"I am always a fan of Chiranjeevigaaru, and then of course Prabhas."

"I liked him in Mirchi".

"That's my all time favorite movie."

"Sara and I were discussing about having movie nights, if you have some movie with you we can also watch Telugu movies."

"I have 'Mirchi'. I have watched it like ten times. But I still like to watch it."

By then, Sara finished her call and turned towards us.

Sara said "Today you can watch it for the eleventh time on one condition. You will have to explain us the scene when it becomes difficult for us to understand."

Jaanu now had a happy grin on her face. "Sure."

"I am Sara." Sara gave her hand to shake.

"Jaanu, nice meeting you."

Both of them then turned towards their respective cupboards and started arranging their books. Sara had a lot of books. Just like me. Most of her books were poetry collections whereas I mostly stick to novels. Jaanu had fewer books. Those books were in Telugu. In few books I could see the picture of Babasaheb Ambedkar. Within few minutes, a bell rang indicating the time for dinner.

Sara was the first one to yell, "I am hungry. Let's go". All of us grabbed our plates and left for the ground floor. Sara casually placed her hand in my shoulder while waiting in the queue. Jaanu was standing ahead of me. In my curiosity to know what is there for dinner I placed my chin on Jaanu's shoulder and I noticed that she suddenly flinched. "Cool Jaanu. I just wanted to check the food."

"Sorry Kayal. I am not used to it. Sorry. Please don't mistake me."

"Now that you are my roommate you will get used to it in few days."

"Yes. I hope so."

Three of us entered our room with Roti, Dal and some Sabzi in our plates. After having the first bite, I missed my Amma. Oh my God, she was such a wonderful cook and how I am missing my hot and crispy dosa for dinner. I could see similar expressions on everybody's face and all of us started laughing. After dinner, Jaanu called her parents and informed them about us.

After that we settled for a movie night. Jaanu was constantly explaining the scenes to us. Somewhere around the climax I saw her shifting uncomfortably.

"What happened Jaanu?"

"Just a little backache. Nothing else."

All of us were sitting on the floor with our backs leaning towards my cot. We had placed the laptop on top of our pillows.

"Jaanu, why don't you lie down on my lap?"

"You sure?"

"Very sure. Come here." I pulled her towards me and she happily placed her head in my lap. One word which defines me is "Over Protective". I am over protective towards my own self, my family and friends and basically towards everybody for whom I care for. Today I felt the need to protect Jaanu, from whom and what I don't know. But I had that feeling that somewhere she has been hurt and that shouldn't happen in the future. Towards the end of the movie I felt her tears in my lap. "Jaanu, why are you crying?"

"Nothing, I was just missing my Amma(Mummy) and Nanna(Daddy)."

To this Sara suddenly lifted Jaanu from my lap and hugged her. She said, "Jaanu, all of us are missing our family. But remember we are here for you."

Now I spoke with Jaanu, "Jaanu, it is just for one year we will be studying here. This is a unique experience and we should make the best use of it and make our families proud about us. Okay?" To this she happily nodded. Around the same time, the movie got over and all of us settled down in our beds.

Next morning

I so wanted to jog around the campus in the morning. But both Sara and Jaanu were sleeping and I didn't want to go alone. So I finished my morning duties, had a cup of coffee and then settled to read a novel. Both Sara and Jaanu were constantly putting their alarm in snooze and sleeping again. When there was just one hour left for our first class I hurriedly woke them up. Nobody can say how all of us got ready, had a sad breakfast and left for college. We were that fast. All of us left the hostel when there were just fifteen minutes left for our first class. We reached the main corridor within five minutes. 

Just when we were about to move into our class room, I heard a hearty laugh from somebody. When I turned towards the sound I saw a really handsome guy. He had Dravidian facial features and a fair complexion. His hair was so curly and neat. And it suited him. Only when he stopped laughing, I realized that I might have stared at him a little too hard that he felt uncomfortable. He went inside the classroom with lowered gaze. There are chances that he might be a Muslim. Sara and Jaanu nudged me in my elbows. I just nodded my head and moved inside the class. All three of us settled in the second last row. 

There were only 12 girls in our class. So there were only four benches on the girl's side. We had small introductions with girls from other benches. All of us were so busy in chatting that we didn't realize that our Professor had come to our class. It was only after he cleared his throat all of us turned towards him.

Sara is from Kerala and Malayalam is her mother tongue.

Jaanu is from Andhra Pradesh and Telugu is her mother tongue.