Sorry GOT fans, but you would find neither the Starks nor the Winter king here. But indeed, it was one hell of a night for me. Time seemed to halt- every second felt like an hour, and there occurred a perfect demonstration of the law of relativity! If you're in a hostel, either you obey your seniors' word for word or be bold enough to stand firm as a rebel. Yet knowing that I belonged to neither of the categories, I committed a nuisance, a big one, for it evoked a gang of them into searching me for an entire night to trash me up!
It was the time of our pre-finals. After a hectic day, I had my dinner and motioned towards my room, with Raj and Reyansh accompanying me. Once inside the room, Raj began, "I hope the papers won't be difficult like last year."
"Well, that's not in our hand," I answered him, "all we can do is give our best efforts and leave other matters to the prof!"
"I got my competition around the corner, and I don't like studying. So," Reyansh muttered in.
"Well, you could have directly asked me to teach you one night before the exam. Why the excuse?"
"Sexy lagta hai"
We all broke out into laughter.
'Bang, bang, bang', someone started repeatedly banging on the door.
"Hold on, hold on. Don't break the door," I stood up and walked towards the door.
I was a bit stunned to find Mani, our immediate senior, on the door. Before I could say anything, he began, "Didn't I ask you to inform me before doing anything?"
"What happened?" I couldn't get his reference.
"It's Vikram! He's searching the whole building for you."
"Fuck!"
"He's not someone you mess with!"
"I didn't! All I did was return his money. I don't know what's so wrong with that!"
"Only he knows, but I saw him. He was furious, and you know what he can do once he reaches that state of anger. Remember the rule of the hostel, 'You do what Vikram asks you for,' or you forgot that?"
"No, I didn't, but no way was I going to fetch wine for him. If he needs that, he's got to use his legs and hands to visit the shop."
"This attitude of yours will kill you someday, man." He then turned towards Reyansh and Raj and began, "At least you both are sensible; guide this stubborn friend of yours and make sure he doesn't mess up again."
"FINE", I admitted, "tell me now, what should I do? Visit and tell him that I'm sorry?"
"That's a straight route to death! All I suggest is that you escape from your room for a night. Hide somewhere, but he's going to search rooms, maybe each one of them. So be careful."
That scared the shit out of me. From being bold, I turned pathetic within a fraction of a second.
"Go now. He can arrive any moment!"
And off I ventured and moved to the furthest wing possible in search of an escape for the night. Then, finally, it occurred to me that I should be in a room, which no one would typically try to enter. And for that, there's only one room I knew about. Tanweer let me into their room, which was more like a horror movie set, with clothes hanging all around, stuff scattered, and whatnot. I wondered how they managed to breathe, for I felt it suffocating. If my room was a neatly arranged Savannah, this room was an untidy Amazon.
"Help me hide for the night," I told Tanweer.
His confusion was evident, and I narrated to him the circumstance which led me into this mess.
"Where will you hide?"
"Of course, under your bed!"
"Okay. I got no issue with that."
I bent down to clear the bottom of the bed, which was loaded with bags and books. Once that was done, I broomed the floor so that I can lay down. Yes, they had a broom in their room, and to clarify, it was a messy and untidy room, not dirty!
Fifteen minutes or so into the room, Shiraz came back from the library and was surprised to find the bags piled up near his bed.
"Oye, I guess you have lots of room under your bed to keep those," he pointed the bags to Tanweer.
He started laughing, "Of course I do. But we have an uninvited guest staying under my bed."
"Stop joking, you and your poor jokes!"
"If you don't believe me, take a look yourself."
He motioned towards me, "As if there will be... AAH" he jerked back as he saw me hiding there.
"Hello Shiraz," I greeted him from under the bed.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"It's a long story", and I narrated to him the exact words I used for Tanweer before.
"That's why you should obey your seniors."
"Oh, please!"
"It's fine. Stay there; we won't tell anyone. But I hope you don't snore."
"No, I don't."
I don't know what broke my sleep in the middle of the night. I pressed the lights of the watch, which read 1:45 a.m. Well, yes, I was asleep on the floor! I have this incredible ability to sleep anytime, anywhere. Be it on a moving bus or a bench in the classroom; nothing could obstruct me from my sleep. There was silence all around, and it felt as if I was the only person left in the world! It took me a few moments to get my answer, that indeed it was my dust allergy, which woke me up. I pressed my nose to stop the sneeze, rushed out, and cautiously opened the door, making sure no one was outside. I went to the washroom to check, and I saw my nose being enlarged and reddened in the mirror. It was getting difficult to control the sneezes any further, and they exploded up, one after the other- more than ten sneezes in a minute, along with irritation in the nose.
After about a quarter of an hour or so, the irritation finally stopped, and I moved back into the room. My sleep was gone then. I kept tossing from one side to the other but failed to get any implications of drowsiness. Realising that sleep was not an option, I got out again, grabbed a book from their shelf and went back towards the washroom, as only the washroom lights are not shut off at night!
The book was entitled "The Time Keeper", written by Mitch Albom. The name caught my attention, and the blurb was exciting too. Though I felt like I was reading slowly, even after completing three chapters, it was hardly 2:15 a.m. It was a good work of fiction, and by the time I was three-quarters done with the book, it was almost 5 a.m.- finally, time had sped up. As a few students would wake up at dawn, I hurried back into the room and laid down again.
Tanweer woke me up about an hour before the class, and I went back to my room for the morning chores. The morning went fine, and I didn't meet Vikram during breakfast or on my way back and forth. Once the classes started, I got back to work and had very little to think about Vikram or anything else. Morning came and passed by, so was afternoon and evening, and yet, no sign of Vikram! After having snacks, I asked Gaurav, my roommate, "What do you suggest I do tonight? Flee again?"
"Well, there are two things to that." he began, "First, it would save you again. But second and which seems more likely to me, owing to the personality of Vikram, is that he would get ferocious not finding you again. And he might lose his already imbalanced tempo and start breaking up your things or tear up your bedsheet, mattress or pillow and whatnot. He won't even mind setting your books on fire!"
"Don't scare me!"
"There are more than 400 seniors, and you only found him to mess up with! So I suggest you stay here, and once he arrives, say sorry to him and get the few slaps that will follow, and it will be over then."
"Seems logical."
"It indeed is. Remember, this is not going to end unless you meet him and get things sorted out."
I approved and kept on waiting for him till dinner, and sensing no signs of him whatsoever, I decided to go for my dinner. Once inside the hall, I looked all around but failed to find him. I was done with dinner too, and he's nowhere to be seen! So, after putting back the plate in the sink, I came back to fetch my hot water bottle, which I kept in the seat. And then I saw him, right in front of me, two tables separating us. He signalled me to come over, which I did.
I waited for him to speak once I was near him. He didn't look at me but was staring at his food, "Do you know what everyone is calling you now?"
"No," I was confused, "I have no idea."
"The Boy who DEFIED Vikram!"
I wanted to laugh at that but controlled myself.
He began again, "It took me a lot of time to build up my reputation, and a 1st-year guy shattered it. Do you know how it feels?"
I was silent.
"That is how things work in a hostel. You got to work for your seniors and, in turn, make your juniors work for you when you become senior!"
"I told you that day too. I don't want to work for others or make someone work for me!"
And finally, he turned his gaze towards me and began, "Even then, if you want to refuse, you got to do that in person and not as a coward and keep the money back in my bag with a paper note saying 'I can't do it!' That was naive of you."
"You refused to take back the money, so that was the only way left for me."
"What if someone had stolen my money? If someone saw you putting money in my bag and took it from there?"
"I didn't think about that, sorry."
He patted on my cheek with his left hand, and I won't call that to be a slap, for it wasn't one. "You know I could have beat you up?"
"Yes, I do!" I answered slowly.
"Good. Go now, let me have my dinner!"
"Wait, that's all?" I spoke it inaudibly.
"You need something?"
"No, no, bye." and I raced past him. And then I noticed that everyone was looking at us, maybe in the hope to see me getting blown up by Vikram.
I was perplexed at this sudden change of nature of Vikram. The guy who smashed a batchmate of mine for touching his bike didn't do anything to me even after I refused him and spoiled his reputation. And then it occurred to me that Mani might have played a role here. So I went to visit him, "Did you do that to Vikram?"
"Well, if you mean not getting beaten up by him, then yes!"
"Thank you so much for that." I was filled with gratitude.
"I just told him who helped his sister pass her internals. I spoke well about the guy, who taught her the topics in a way she could understand, which she failed to do in class."
"Wait, wait, wait! Tina?" I was amazed.
"Yes, she's his cousin."
"Woah," I was surprised at the coincidence. A few months back, I helped her with her studies, and in turn, it saved me up from getting injured!
"You're lucky indeed!"
"Such a small world it is, aye! Everyone seems to be related in some way or the other!"
"But that doesn't mean you put your hand inside Lion's mouth again, just because it refused to bite the first time!"
"I won't", I chuckled.