Mere samne wali khidki mein... - 3 sisters!!

Written in Aug 2000

Punctually when I opened my mail box few days back in the morning, surprise was waiting instead of the regular barking mails from On-site. That was rather due to a rare "Invitation" from my college to attend the Annual function! Wow!!! What a day to begin....I was also asked to render an hour program at the end from Alumni! More than 3 years completed after saying adieu to the college and its memorable days. Very few people knew me when I visited the place finally after a long gap. I visited many places..the same old colorless, odorless and tasteless canteen where we used to have hundreds of one by two sips of tea, the canteen owner, professors, lecturers who made me do all the gymnastics to get the attendance in the final semesters, the stage which we had conquered for years...Incidently two of my juniors who were currently staying in the same hostel where I lived, introduced themselves and spoke to me.

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A building with limited rooms attached to a party hall (kalyana mantap), a long creeper spread till the roof, a rose plant without rose in it, tulasi plants across the bldg of 14 colorless rooms with 2-3 persons staying per room was the place I can never forget. Persons living in these rooms mandatorily getting 3 threads tied over their body, with all Engineering and Medical books spread upon the table and in the respective racks of their rooms. For the whole building, inside the room or in the corridor no one used slippers that could spoil the divinity and cleanliness of the building. That was the time and the place when I decided to spend my four years of Engg. life to carry tons of memory. A senior most person vacating the hostel after finishing his final exams, shared us quite a few things when I was about to begin my career..he explained a lot about 45 year old Engineering college, and the 40 year old mechanical lathes and the milling machines, and about the inactive Computer labs without faculty, about the lazy government attenders, about the 76 year old hostel warden, about the semi crack cook, his food, the tasteless rasam, chatni and the chewing exerciser chapathis.....last but not the least, the samne waale khidki's Sowmya and her younger sister Shilpa.

While leaving the hostel, our seniors had described us a lot of active activities abt Sowmya, who used to be the center of attraction for the hostelites, also was the source of attraction for all those thread wearing bramhacharis until she got married..., they had a low voice when uttering the word "marriage". Shilpa was probably a high school girl peeping from her house to see all the monkeys living opposite to her. I guess she would have observed many things from her tender age; those apes turning energetic as soon as they observe her sister, coming out of their rooms when her sister goes out to her friend's house...and many other activities of those engineering students. But by the time we joined, she had grown more a matured girl..., understood to become more serious when we started observing her movements, also learnt to make more sound during closing or opening the iron gate, and glance at the presence of the body builder of our hostel, also taking extra care not to get caught during her observation. She reduced looking directly at her opposite doors, increased reflex angled view without turning her long neck in her day to day visit to the college..the fair skin of the Gujarathi girl looked even brighter whenever the incident sun rays of Davanagere fell. In the name of accompanying her younger sister and brother, she enjoyed the security, company even during her slant vision towards the vehicles entering and leaving the opposite hostel. The other side of her house without an exception also had several eyes watching all her moves through the holes of windows each room possessed and that voice when she used to shout at her mummyji. She became an entertaining source, during most of our leisure hours, after the exams, during the tea time, after evening cricket, after dinner walk, power cuts, and many other idle chat hours. Her exams used to be the hot topic during our cold coffee time on Sunday mornings. An interesting point to note here was that, inspite of gaining so much of importance in the land of bachelors, no one wished to speak to her or make friendship...everybody just liked observing her movements by standing near the hostel gates with a newspaper in hand. I guess when we were about to leave the place for good after our four years of memorable stay, she would have been in her final year Commerce.

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I asked the 2 juniors who decided to talk to me about my Cultural Secretary days, all about the hostel and its stories, warden, rasam, mess bill and many other things.. They gave me colorful stories about the hostel, its development, its politics etc.. In the end, I asked how was Shilpa! "Shilpa...?? Shilpa who??" one asked me back.. "Arree...u don't know her? The fair gujju girl who was staying infront of our hostel" I remarked. The second guy was quick to react.. "Hey...it must be Shruthi's akka kano!" pause for few seconds...... I clearly understood the scene then, that the name of the cute little girl who used to wear white petticoat and play flower pots during Diwali along with her brother and Shilpa was Shruthi, (the younger sister of Shilpa I guess) during our stay in the hostel. Without a delay, I had realized that these people I was talking to were the third generation guys!