Chapter 4- from joy to F.E.A.R

“hello, I am Parth Chandel from Jabalpur and for your politeness I am your room partner.”

” Oh …hel…hello.” Pankaj finally responded.

” hello  I am YOUR room partner.” He stressed ‘your’ to catch my attention.

“Oh..sorry…I am Rohit Bhatt, your room partner.”

” I know.” And he smiled. I was still wondering why I said ‘…your room partner..’

“Don’t feel guilty buddy.! Even I would do the same if our thinking didn’t match.” Saying this he went in the bathroom.

“He is still a lil’ angry I suppose.” Pankaj stated the obvious.

“No I am not.” In came the reply.

It was looking like it wasn’t a good start and for real it wasn’t.! But still when we talked for the next few hours and knew each other better, he seemed to be an interesting guy.! It was 7 pm and Pankaj left. I was thinking of talking with ‘my room partner’ although it wasn’t to be.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Its open come in.”

And in came a short, black, atheletic person.

“Hi I am Ayush Nagwanshi from Jabalpur.”

“HALO, I am also from Jabalpur. Just shifted there.”

I was about to introduce myself , but that didn’t happen due the talks of the Jabalpurians. They kind of ignored me. And when I am ignored, I am not supposed to talk. Isn’t it?

Somehow they finally thought of me.

” Oh..umm sorry. I am Ayush and you?”

“I am Rohit.” I said with a smile. All three of us went outside. There was a balcony which was the best place as it seemed. As we were on the way to the balcony (there was a corridor in between), we saw a kid, with his mother going inside. He was looking a kid by the body structure, but not by face. A pretty dense moustache, long hair nicely combed, frameless specs; we were confused if he is from the first year or if he is the father although his body completely defied it. He saw us and went in.

“Looks like another 1st year student.” Ayush said.

“yeah..” Parth and I accepted.

The ‘kid’ came out within few minutes. He came straight to us. We were a lil’ surprised.

“Hi! I am Tikesh Narain from Bangalore.” He said to me.

“Oh south indian.!” Wasn’t I stupid?!?

“Not actually. My family just moved from Ahemdabad. I have even not seen my Bangalore house.”

“Oh…OK oK.” Tikesh joined the conversation.

“Which branch?” Parth asked a better question.

“Electrical and electronics.” Cool.!

“I am also in the same branch.” Atlast I found someone with the same branch, Ayush and Parth being in Electronics and communication.

The first day at the hostel was beginning to be interesting. Many new people came in. I made new friends in Gajendra Lavania, Virendra Bansal, Arpit Parihar, Sagar Bhadoria, Kalpraj Gupta……..and the list goes on.! We all bonded with each other very easily.

We were in Ayush’s room, playing cards as we had no other timepass, when suddenly someone banged the door very loudly. Ayush opened the door.

“No eye contact!!!” And he put Ayush’s face down.” Come on, move to room no. 53. Quick!!”