Those enchanted four and half years

Chapter 3

"When are you shifting to the hostel? The allotment list has been displayed," Nayana told me as we sat drinking bitter coffee in SP.

"Let's go and have a look at the room now. We can shift our necessities tonight itself," I told Sufee.

The girls' hostel was a three storey building. Six steps led to the main hall, on both sides of which ran dark narrow corridors, ending in staircases on those sides. Rooms were present along both sides of the corridor. Ahead of the main lobby was the mess from where spicy smell was coming.

I and Sufee went near the noticeboard. As we were reading the allotment list, someone from behind us said, "Names?" We ignored, thinking that it was for someone else. "Names?" Now the voice was loud and stern. We both turned around, startled. In front of us, stood two seniors, "Do you need an application asking for your names?" one of them asked sarcastically.

"Ru...Ruta," I said.

"Sufee," Sufee added.

"Are you localites?" the other one asked.

"Yes," we replied.

"Okay then, sing a song," the first one said. By now two more girls had joined them. I and Sufee started staring at the floor. "So the flooring is more important than us?" one of the new girls said. We continued staring at the floor. "Come on 'Ruta Mangeshkar and...." "Sophie Chowdhary," another one added, "Sing fast."

"Which song ma'am?" Sufee murmured.

"Okay, so our item girl is ready...sing kaanta lagaa." Sufee gave me a sideward glance. Then she started singing, rather murmuring something in such a low and inaudible voice that I bet even she could not hear herself.

"We didn't ask you to sing in micro voice madam," a senior said, "Sing in a voice appropriate to your body size," and all the senior girls laughed. This probably angered Sufee. Leaving the flooring, now she stared into the eyes of the girl who had made the comment, and suddenly, at the top of her voice, baring her lungs out, she started screaming 'kaanta lagaa'. All the senior girls were taken by surprise and were shocked at the sudden change in her demeanor. Many girls came running from their rooms to see what was going on. Sufee kept staring at the girl and continued singing at the top of her voice. The mess manager, the security guard, and two mavshi's also came rushing. By then, the seniors were urging Sufee to stop, but she did not. Finally someone called the warden, Dr.Mrs. Mishra, who came rushing. Till then a huge crowd had gathered around us, Sufee was staring at the senior girl whilst still singing 'kaanta lagaa' at the top of her voice, and those senior girls were now staring at the flooring, extremely embarrassed.

"Stop this nonsense," Dr. Mishra shouted, "What's this tamasha?"

"Madam, these seniors asked me to sing this song in a loud voice appropriate to my size," Sufee said.

"Okay, so now you too have started doing all this!" Dr.Mishra asked the seniors. "Rest of the girls, go back to your rooms. Get a hint of drama going on, you drop the work at hand and rush to have a look. You two, go to your allotted rooms," she told us, "And you," she addressed the seniors who were ragging us. "Come with me to my office," and she stormed off.

That day we shifted our entire luggage into the three-seater room allotted to us. Our third roommate was Sneha, our batch mate. The room was average size, with three cots and three tables arranged along the walls. "Whole of this wall belongs to me now," Sufee claimed, "And soon it will be covered by one-by-Cos C posters of Tom Cruise and Hugh Grant." "What's one by Cos C?" Sneha asked. "Hmm...That's why you took biology, because your mathematics is so bad!" Sufee said. I and Sneha exchanged puzzled looks. "Okay, let me explain," Sufee proceeded, "What is 1/Cos θ?" "Umm..Sec θ," I answered. "So then, what's 1/Cos C?" "Umm...Sec C?" Sneha replied. "Exactly! Sexy!" Sufee said triumphantly.