Saga 1

So it all started in the month of May I guess, when I was completely drowned in the commotion of not getting a promising rank in the medical entrance…

I was rock strong with the idea of going for a B.Sc Microbiology. I thought that had a good scope of research (Big dreams, eh?)
The ideas inside my head those days were all a bit freaky. i wanted to join Criminology and forensic science, which was not an easily available course in Kerala. Much like dreaming to buy a BMW with the finance of a Maruti 800. Neither did my parents had anything bright to suggest other than medicine and engineering.
After the result was announced the situation grew from bad to worse.
So one night Achan and Amma had this foolproof idea sprout out inside their head, to sent me for the repeater’s course at Pala Brilliant Study centre (The irony is, that night there was a  power cut)

And there I was in the early June, boarding a train to Brilliant. I still remember that journey.

I thought I was the only fool playing the game with absolutely no faith in reaching the goal (Hehe)

I saw Kesavan coming towards the same compartment of the train. He too was trying out this repeaters thing.
It was way too beyond all my expectaations. Till then my idea about repeaters were that only dummies attended these kind of stuffs. And here he was, Kesavan, notorious for his problem solving speed and intelligence (He was the mascot of canvassing for those TIME people, I fell for the first time…:P)

Thus I met Kesavan and we were having friendly chit chat till we reached Pala. We both reached the pinnacle of all my adventures, our Hostel, the Pala house.

To tell you the truth, prima fasciae I could make out that was not going to be a good year. The room was dusty. There were a single cot, a table and a wooden chair

The bathroom was far ahead of what we call, diabolical. There was a bucket, tan in color( Accidentally I came to know that it was a white bucket)

Fortunately, I rarely had the urge to bath. So water was not a big necessity…

By evening I was all set to begin the new era. By that time I already made visits to mohammed’s room. Rounding him up with me, I roamed through our floor to meet other floor mates. There was Chinthu. There was Balu. And there was Sibi.

And when I was back in the room, I found myself melting inside the concrete cubicle. The fan had this roaring noise with its cup constantly scratching against the blades. Then I had two vistors to my room. Thus I met Gohul and Praveen, from the ground floor.

Those days it was customary to ask what was the entrance rank and what was the wretched feeling behind joining repeater’s course (We had to ascertain where we stood and how close these other rascals came. After all its one hell of a competition, this entrance exam was). So I asked both Gohul and Praveen their ranks. To my horror the replies were hideous. Both these guys were near getting into a govt. medical college. To tell you the truth, I was jealous of them. I thought “If I was to get such humongous ranks, I would have gone for opting into some medical college, be that a private college”

So, in between our chit chat we slowly drifted towards the historical monument next to Pala House (oh, not the church. Even it’s ranked second.) the Royees Canteen.

Fact File 1: The Royees Canteen

Royees canteen has a history as old as Pala house. Literally even the food is that old. Run by the drunkard-yet-gentle Roy (Royichayan as we call him) this canteen has a unique name of its own. Royichayan his wife and their children are the joint proprietors of this canteen. The canteen looks pretty old and dilapidated. Yet you are drawn towards it by the lustrous smile of Royichayan (Of course you have nowhere else to go.) and the grace of his wife. We never knew what was the name of his wife. But we had a pretty handsome name for her. We called her ‘Kozhuva’ chechy (The word ‘Kozhuva’ refers to that tiny tropical fish, which was a favorite or rather the only delicacy in the canteen). The menu as stable throughout the year (I guess the food too). There was an all time serving of porotta, chappathi, beef ( Whenever we ordered beef the dog in the backyard was missing. The mystery remains unsolved) and some special delights like masala dosa (A Tamil guy was always hidden inside the kitchen. We guess he was responsible for this brutal sin).

Royees canteen also provided us with luxurious amenities like a phone booth ( with utopian billing system) and small trifles like soap, washing powder, agarbathy, soda etc. and the payment can be made per purchase or as a whole in the end. Each of us had a page into which we wrote our dues each day.

By the way I went way too off the shore. Here I am with Gohul and Praveen and Kesavan whom we met on our way sitting inside Royees canteen. I still remember that lime soda we had that day.

Bidding farewell to Royichayan we were back in the hostel building. We were taking over the corridors and standing at our doors we were discussing how things are in this dreadful pantheon. Amal said that the two wardens were mean and cut throat and scary and all that. I was not moved by them. The one reason was I could not till that minute fully digest the fact that I was repeating. My mood was that I was on a long holiday. And when I heard all these stories of hostels turning into concentration camps, the whole idea was not ok with me.

And when I heard our landlord Joy shouting from the other end of the corridor, all hell broke lose on me. He shouted on each and every human being in the corridor. He barked everybody to get into the rooms and never to make any noise. He came to my door. An admonition was thrown upon me. I was petrified. Mortified. Mummified.

When he went all I could hear was my own labored breathing. I tried hard to remain at peace. This was it. One long year to go. Boy, I was not on vacation. I slept with a fear deep down. I was almost asleep and it was some earthly hour of midnight. And just for some horror, my fan’s canopy cup loosened and fell over the blades to get shattered all across the room. Again this poor narrator had another fabled near death experience. And that too the very first night in Pala house. I will be long gone even before I could spell “entrance”. But for the sake of Amma n Achan, I had to survive.\

The bright morning that followed, I was all dressed up for my first day at Brilliant….