E04 : The Haunted Room

 Every person who is full of life and has had great deal of fun agrees to the fact college days can be tagged as the best days of his/her life. But, the first few days are the most cherished and even more memorable!! New College, New Place, New Environment, New Friends, New Subjects, New Dreams, New Crushes, that new look and style, and that different kind of enjoyment begins. Literally, everybody changes inside out! Just getting into college gives you that sense of achievement even when you haven’t achieved anything yet, but you just feel the new air and fall in 

love with it; and you smile and talk and laugh more often. Right?

“Hari...Wake up!!” Anshul whispered in a tense voice in Hari’s ear. Hari was drowned somewhere in his deep sleep on his bed in the room no. 31 of the Boys Hostel. He was sleeping with his mouth wide open, which made his round chubby face look even rounder.

“Hari, hurry up yaar! Get up! Come on!” Tension in Anshul’s voice was rising. He poked him, stirred him with a lot of effort, but Mr. Hari remained loyal to his sleep.

“Hari the whole college is coming to beat you!! Run, get up!!”

 Anshul tried such many more lucks.

“The hostel is hijacked! There’s a firing! Wake upp!!”

“Hari! I just came to know, that IT bomb Shanaya likes you and wants to go on a date with you!! Get up you fat ass!”Anshul slapped him on his cheek. Yet, Hari refused to click his eyes open.

“Hari! Your mom is on phone!”Anshul said in a low voice, he had given up. But, the next moment saw Hari sitting upright in full consciousness.

“What? ... Maa called? Give me the phone!”, if there was anyone for whom Hari could live or die for with all his heart, it was only his mother.

“Thank You MAA!!” Anshul shouted, joining his palms and looking up at the sky. “No, it was not your mom. It was Ravi. He needs our help.“ He told Hari.

“Now? What happened? Is he okay?” Knowing that it wasn’t his Maa, Hari had already started feeling sleepy again.

“I don’t know... He wants us in his room. He sounded too urgent on phone.”Anshul explained.

“Okay okay.” Hari got out of his bed finally,” I’ll just wear my shirt.”

The corridor of the 3^rd floor of Boy’s Hostel was unusually pitch dark. Silence was mingled with the noises made by insects. It would remind anyone of a perfect horror scene.

“Wh Wh What happened to the lights?” fear was very much evident in Hari’s voice.

“I don’t know, it must be the power cut” Anshul tried to convince himself and pushed Hari forward.

“But Ravi’s room is at the end. It’s too dark, I can’t see.” Hari was pushing Anshul back with great force.

“He needs us, let us go!...Pleasee?” Anshul insisted.

The thin skeleton like body of Anshul and the fat stout body of Hari were walking hand in hand in the dark towards the corridor end. When they reached Ravi’s door, they found it already open. Nothing was visible inside, the lights were off.  Ravi did not have roommates till now; he was staying alone in a room that could accommodate three students.

“Ravi... ?Where are you?”, Anshul too was freshly bathed in fear.

“In bathroom”, a thick voice echoed from Ravi’s room.

Hari and Anshul were terrorized by the voice. Somehow, they managed to walk to the bathroom. Hari switched on the lights, saw in the bathroom and thanked god to find that that voice was of Ravi only. He was sitting on the floor.

“What are you doing in here ,you idiot? You scared our shits off!” Anshul asked.

“Look outside the window.” That is all Ravi said.

Very slowly and with lots of efforts they reached the window that was just 15 foot away. And then, they wished their eyes hadn’t seen what they saw.........

­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________________________________________

NEXT DAY...

For Practical Lectures, every FE division in SCOE was divided into 4 batches consisting 20 students each. Hari, Miraya and Aryan were in the same batch A1. Rudra and Ishaani were in the batch A2. Eeshwar was in batch A3 and Miraya felt too blessed about this fact. For the past one week, since Eeshwar had met Miraya, he had been a nagging presence for her. Every morning he would just ask one question “Hey, did you add me on Facebook?” And Miraya would not shy to come up with a new annoying excuse everyday.

“Where’s Hari?”Miraya pointed out in physics practicals.

 “I called him before half an hour. He was returning from Siddhivinayak temple. He said he’ll come in the next lecture.” Aryan said, he was busy noting the readings of the experiment.

“Seriously? Temple?” Miraya laughed,” I mean there’s still time for exams. Or is he bribing well in advance?”

“Ha-ha...No.  Supposedly some incident has happened in Boys Hostel last night. This Hari and his roomie got scared to death I heard.”

“What? ?.” Miraya was never short of reasons to pity Sadu. But she tried to cheer him up every time, because he resembled too much to her cousin brother whom she loved a lot. He too was brutally made fun of in a similar way. And as an elder cousin, she would always stand for him. Hence, she would often take Hari’s side.

In the next lecture, Aryan found Hari in the classroom as he had promised on phone. He was encircled by the anxious story seekers of the previous night’s incident.

“...And... then Ravi told us to go to the window. We went and saw two dead bodies wrapped in white cloth, lying on the grass some 50 mts away from our building. You all know na behind hostel a smashan (Hindu burial ground) is there? It was very scary yaar... And then all of a sudden one dead body with white face came out of nowhere. It started waking up the other two dead bodies. Ravi said he saw four bodies wrapped in white. And we saw just three... That means....”

“Oh stop it Sadu! This isn’t possible!” Miraya said.

“I saw it myself Mira. And my roomie Ravi has fever. Anshul talked with the seniors also. They said that Ravi’s room is haunted. And that”

“And that only the ones who are in the room that Ravi is allotted, can see those ghosts from that window. From nowhere else they are visible.” Rudra declared, smiling coyly and taking a bite from apple.

“Exactly.”Hari agreed.

“And how do you know?” Miraya caught him.

“Simple. Because it was a prank.” Rudra said too innocently, taking another bite from apple.

“You too were involved? You know what, you are impossible!!” Miraya walked towards Rudra and said at his face.

“OOOO Miss Angry Young Woman. Why are YOU so impossible!? I am talking to Hari ok? Not you.” Rudra pointed his finger too close to the centre between her eyes. Miraya’s cheeks started turning red coz of anger.

“Fine!” Miraya left and went to her seat.

“Listen Hari and all the other INTERESTED fellas.” Rudra said it out loud enough for Miraya’s ears,” This was a prank, rather, a ritual named as ‘The Somaiya Legend’, and it was performed by our seniors. Ravi’s room on the third floor is supposedly the best room in hostel as a very rich politician’s son was staying there, like, some 7 years ago. So it’s furnished and blah blah blah. Every year the seniors get dressed up in white blankets and put white talc powder on face and hands, and try to scare FE’s who are allotted that room. If they get the right fish in the pond, they exchange their rooms and the seniors enjoy luxury. Simple.” Rudra proudly smiled.

Some were laughing, others were furious after listening to this. But Hari was happy. He hugged and thanked Rudra and bunked the next  lecture to meet Ravi and Anshul to give them this good news.

Rudra walked to Miraya and stood before her bench, “I was nowhere involved. When I came to know about the incident, I asked a senior whom I meet everyday in train. He told me the story.”

“I believe you, I’m sorry” Miraya was guilty.

“Me too. Shift inside”, Rudra sat beside Miraya, and all the eyeballs in the class were on them. It was an Oomph moment for the class, and the temperature had increased because many jealous hearts of both boys and girls were on fire. 'They both hate each other, they just can't be friends !!'

 Ishaani walked in the classroom with a lollipop in her mouth. Ooh La La,she smiled. On seeing that her seat was taken by Rudra, she winked at Miraya and sat with another gunda of the class.

“Look, I want to ask you something. Why “, but before Rudra could complete the question, the professor entered the classroom, and three guys followed her in. She was 20 minutes late for BEE lecture.

‘Yes?’, Miraya’s big eyes questioned. Rudra shook his head twice and said, “Later.”

The tallest and the coolest out of the three guys came forward and made an announcement in his style. He was wearing a red t-shirt and a warm smile. “Hi Friends! Tomorrow there’s a surprise for all the First Year students..! So be present in the Quadrangle by 12 in break. Occupy all the four floors. I’m sure none of you would want to miss the fun.” He winked.

The second guy came forward and continued in a charming way, “And that’s not all... Tomorrow evening 4 pm onwards, the most awaited event of the month is going to be held in the Auditorium!! ‘The Fresher’s Eve’!!! It’s YOUR event guys!  So wear your best dress and mood and be ready for the fun and surprises! See you all tomorrow. Yes?”

“Yes!!!” The decibels of noise increased as the students started hooting and engaging into animated conversations.

The three guys thanked the professor and left.

“Who were they?” Miraya asked Rudra.

“The tall guy in red T-Shirt is the PRO of Student’s Council.”

“What’s PRO?”, Miraya had joined the college late, so she wasn’t aware of many things yet.

“Public Relations Officer, he is responsible for making all the announcements in classes and such stuffs. The other two were joint PRO.” Rudra cleared her doubt.

“He was cool na...” Miraya’s eyes had brightened up and this time her cheeks were red because of blush.

“Yea he is”, Rudra rolled his eyes. “So, excited for tomorrow?”

“Nah...” It was Miraya’s turn to roll the eyes.

“You are too boring, has anyone ever said you that?”, Rudra laughed gently.

“No, but I am well aware of the fact.”She smiled, looking down at the book. For the first time Miraya believed that he was honest.

“Nice to know that.”

 While talking to Miraya in that hour, Rudra sensed that she was not what she seemed or faked. Her smiles were not real; her eyes were hiding some deep sorrow, at least they were trying to. And he also sensed that this girl must have been quite more lively and charming. He was somehow feeling sad for her, the way her eyes were hiding and the way her smiles were telling lies all around. He tried to imagine her real smile, but he failed at the attempt. In that hour, Rudra promised himself to try to make Miraya ‘really’ smile.

 (To Be Continued...)

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