Dedicated to Jyothi and Tabitha, my room mates for 4 complete months, in a hostel.
Our playing mother to each other; your applying oil to my hair and my massaging Jyothi's feet with mustard oil when she sprained her leg; scratching together our itching heads on Sunday mornings and wondering why the hostel water favoured such luxuriant lice growth. Our bathing in the small adjacent hostel cubicles and singing mad songs, and splashing water across the low partitions over each other (:P once it fell on some other girl because I didn't know if you were on my left or on my right!).
Your wanting to wear my kurtis and insisting it suited you more than it suited me! Your loudly calling me sexy when I would be down and lowly, and my insisting you had strong lesbian tendencies. Our mummas sending us a month's stock of sweets and snacks and our finishing it in less than a week and then blaming each other for the greed and impatience. My making you laugh with my antics and silly imitations of hostel staff. The grotesque cat walks we did in our small room and cartoon behaviours that we recorded on my cell phone. Your exploring every feature of me new hi-fi cell phone before I could even learn to switch it on. Your wasting my cell battery by listening to radio as you went to sleep and then forgetting to switch it off as you drifted into dreams; and then rushing to college bathroom to charge my cell because that was the only place a safely usable plug point existed. Our opening that room switchboard and charging our cells in the silence of night.
Your helping me jump over the hostel gate and taking my side with the hostel warden, when I wanted to particpate in a dance competition, and stay out late for practice. Your hideously sneaking up food from hostel kitchen, and keeping it for me till I returned to our room. Our observing each other's pimples and assuring ourselves that they were fading. The vulgar jokes we cracked, and your teasing me about every guy I mentioned. Gossiping and hating other girls together and then wondering if we were anti-social. The shopping with you and coming back, only to realise that we forgot buying pads. Your telling me that I slept the last night exactly in the pose of the college dog. Your once ordering a full Biryani pack, and insisting we could finish it... and then ultimately distributing the jumbo feast to other girls (some of whom we hated).
My calling Tabitha a baby because of the ubiquitous thumb in her mouth...while talking, sleeping and staring at walls. Our planning assasinations of certain members in the hostel staff and laughing our guts out. Our copying the bulbul in the outside tree, because we were not allowed to make noise, and we wanted to. Washing clothes together and your sharing the clips with me, and bringing back your clothes along with mine whenever it suddenly rained, and folding them neatly on my bed. Your reading my secret diary and then making my next few hours horribly embarrassing. My telling you we were Three Musketeers and your asking what was that! My gifting you silly hand made crafts on your birthdays and your treasuring them. Your facing my bad moods at times and watching me like a baby waiting for his mother to get over her anger.
And then, the day you cried and cried and cried because I suddenly announced that I am leaving the hostel; your helping me pack my luggage. The hugging, the slapping, the spanking and the joking. And so much more...I can never begin to express fully...
Girls, you have created a void inside me, which will always remain...
And though you lazy, lost bugs will never know I wrote this piece...but what the heck, I love you.
Our playing mother to each other; your applying oil to my hair and my massaging Jyothi's feet with mustard oil when she sprained her leg; scratching together our itching heads on Sunday mornings and wondering why the hostel water favoured such luxuriant lice growth. Our bathing in the small adjacent hostel cubicles and singing mad songs, and splashing water across the low partitions over each other (:P once it fell on some other girl because I didn't know if you were on my left or on my right!).
Your wanting to wear my kurtis and insisting it suited you more than it suited me! Your loudly calling me sexy when I would be down and lowly, and my insisting you had strong lesbian tendencies. Our mummas sending us a month's stock of sweets and snacks and our finishing it in less than a week and then blaming each other for the greed and impatience. My making you laugh with my antics and silly imitations of hostel staff. The grotesque cat walks we did in our small room and cartoon behaviours that we recorded on my cell phone. Your exploring every feature of me new hi-fi cell phone before I could even learn to switch it on. Your wasting my cell battery by listening to radio as you went to sleep and then forgetting to switch it off as you drifted into dreams; and then rushing to college bathroom to charge my cell because that was the only place a safely usable plug point existed. Our opening that room switchboard and charging our cells in the silence of night.
Your helping me jump over the hostel gate and taking my side with the hostel warden, when I wanted to particpate in a dance competition, and stay out late for practice. Your hideously sneaking up food from hostel kitchen, and keeping it for me till I returned to our room. Our observing each other's pimples and assuring ourselves that they were fading. The vulgar jokes we cracked, and your teasing me about every guy I mentioned. Gossiping and hating other girls together and then wondering if we were anti-social. The shopping with you and coming back, only to realise that we forgot buying pads. Your telling me that I slept the last night exactly in the pose of the college dog. Your once ordering a full Biryani pack, and insisting we could finish it... and then ultimately distributing the jumbo feast to other girls (some of whom we hated).
My calling Tabitha a baby because of the ubiquitous thumb in her mouth...while talking, sleeping and staring at walls. Our planning assasinations of certain members in the hostel staff and laughing our guts out. Our copying the bulbul in the outside tree, because we were not allowed to make noise, and we wanted to. Washing clothes together and your sharing the clips with me, and bringing back your clothes along with mine whenever it suddenly rained, and folding them neatly on my bed. Your reading my secret diary and then making my next few hours horribly embarrassing. My telling you we were Three Musketeers and your asking what was that! My gifting you silly hand made crafts on your birthdays and your treasuring them. Your facing my bad moods at times and watching me like a baby waiting for his mother to get over her anger.
And then, the day you cried and cried and cried because I suddenly announced that I am leaving the hostel; your helping me pack my luggage. The hugging, the slapping, the spanking and the joking. And so much more...I can never begin to express fully...
Girls, you have created a void inside me, which will always remain...
And though you lazy, lost bugs will never know I wrote this piece...but what the heck, I love you.
sweet :)
ReplyDelete:) thanks Christo
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