There are only few reasons for people kidding opposite gender people.
-They talk over phone
-They like each other for some reason
-They both went out to buy something for a mutual friend
-went to eat out in a restaurant, together
-came wearing, same colour outfit, one day.
Some people are born rich and don't like living in ordinary surroundings. Some 'pannayaar' girls in tamil films may. Our heroine is not a rich girl, but doesn't like to live in normal environments. She made friends very easily and lived happily.
Friends in colleges can happen in minutes. Some reasons to be friends in GCT are
-from the same district in TamilNadu
-same gender
-same batch in laboratory practical classes
-same room or hostel floor in the first year
-friend of a friend.
The same gender principle works well with girls. To be a friend of a girl, you just need to be a girl. That will do. That is how Deepa, Swarna, Janaki became friends.
Swarna: Should I describe her? Ok. Fine. She hails from Thirupathur. I've had hardly 10 exchanges with her in college. Wheatish colour, with an ill matching spectacles. Many call her different name. CS was a familiar one. Another one I remember is 'nurse'. Ya! She'd look like those ordinary fat, wheatish coloures nurse with spectacles on, as we have seen in many tamil movies. And, she had nothing special to attract people towards her except for some talks that would hurt the bearer in a minute. Sarcastic - she and her friends thought so.
All attention was given to her when she won an election to be the General Secretary for girls of EEE department (16 of them). What happened, how they won the election and all is coming up in another story later this year. She won the election and was the secretary till the next election happened.
* * * *
"Hey Swarna... Can you please withdraw money for me, from my account using my ATM?", Sathya asked.
"Yeah!.. Why not? Whats the pin number?"
"...."
Sathya had some urgent work. She left. In the evening she got money from Swarna.
"Ey.. Thank you di..."
"Its ok.."
* * * *
"Are you coming to college today?" - Deepa.
"No.. You all go. I feel very tired" - Swarna.
"If you had told us earlier, all could have bunked"
* * * *
Girls in their hostels, will be very caring and affectionate to others in the room, floor or whatever. They care like mothers do, if the bearer is very close. You know to what extent they go? They get up early in the morning, get water(very rare phenomena) in a bucket, warm the water with immersion heater(that the hostel office has no records about. Power theft) and after the water is warm they wake up their loved ones with a smile.
* * * *
"Hey... Wake up. The water is warm..."
It was a pleasant morning, in the month of September. Coimbatore will be like Ooty at 6a.m. in this month. In december, It'll be like north pole.
Swarna woke up from her bed. The cold pierced through her flesh and reaches the bone and that feels like she was placed in an ice-box. She rubbed her palms together and placed the warm palm on the cheeks. She felt better. The warm water helps you to refresh yourself a lot.
Swarna was living like a queen. Hot water, friends ready to take leave along with her, friends all around her for everything, friends all around to make her win an election. It was a great life for her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Throw it to me"
"Throw what?"
"The key..."
She threw it. Swarna caught it and threw it back. Again Janaki caught it and threw it back... throw... catch... throw... catch... throw... miss... Swarna missed it. "Hey... You lost...", said Janaki, laughing at her proud win. The key had fallen to some remote place in the room and could not be taken immediately. It was left unnoticed.
* * * *
"This semester I've saved two thousand rupees di", Deepa told very happily.
"Thats great", replies Swarna. "So, whats your plan?"
"My plans...", Deepa started telling her plans. Girls in general have this habit of saving money and gifting things to their loved ones - parents, siblings - something really good and memorable. While Deepa told her plans, Swarna was listening to it happily.
* * * *
Exam fees. Rs. 800 + 75 + (100*(no. of arrear papers))
Every semester, the class representative and the treasurer will have to go to people, asking for money till the last date. Lucky for there is something called as last date. Otherwise, no indian would pay his bills.
"My money is missing di...", Janaki was searching, throwing her dresses here and there. A chain was lying down there, cut with a Hacksaw blade.
"What happened?", asked Deepa as she walked in. Suddenly, a lot of people came in. "What happened?" was everyone's question. Janaki was weeping like she had her death sentence tomorrow. "I had locked the suitcase with this chain and locked it. I had kept my semester fees in it. It is missing. See", she took the only note in that and said, "only 100 rupees is there". She was sobbing.
"Don't worry. You'd have placed it somewhere else", said Deepa.
"No di. I kept it here only. Its missing".
Swarna was searching for the money in the thrown, unarranged clothes. Janaki was weeping, lying on Deepa's shoulder and Deepa was patting Janaki on her head saying, "Its okay... Its okay..."
It was a few days later that Deepa lost her saved money. It was a clear case of fraud. Someone had taken her passbook and gone to the bank and had withdrawn money from her account.
Many girls lost their money. The room, the wing, the floor. Salwar - a brand new one of one of the girls' was stolen. she had bought it, not for her boyfriend. I think that was why it was lost.
Final year.
Seventh semester.
A lot of things had changed among people. They started understanding each other well. Placement funds were collected. This semester's vacation was going to get us job - In some software company. Boys collect it for boys and girls, for girls. There was no last date for this and some people like Mohammed Raffi have not paid it till now. If there was fine for late payment, his fine would have been more that the fees itself.
One Girl's placement fund went missing. It was not her's alone. It was a few people's money and any girl would have cried in this situation. So did she. The wing was raided. Everyone was asked if they had 500 Indian rupee note and the Hostel girls representative noted it down. During the regular girls hostel roll call, there was an announcement regarding the missing placement-money. The person who had stolen the money was given a legendary 'keep it in a public place' chance.
The representative went around asking for five-hundred rupees note. She did a very remarkable thing. There was a suspect in that wing and she memorised the number of the five hundred rupee note she showed her. Then, it was told to everyone that, no one was allowed to spend or change those notes till they are allowed to do so. The next day, when they were again asked to show that, she alone showed a different one.
“No. This is not it. I remember. The note had some number written on the white area. Which note is this?”
“This is one of my friend’s. I spent mine throwing a party at Mothi mahal”
“We told you to not spend it no?”
“Ya. But, I had no other go. I’m sorry”, said Swarna.
The representative called Mothi mahal and asked them if that rupee note was there. They went immediately to that place and collected it, giving them change for it.
* * * *
I was wondering in my class, why Gopalakrishnan came only once a month to the class. He was staff for an Electrical science subject, that everyone will be reading one day before the exam to get a pass mark.
* * * *
Evening, everyone arrived at the hostel and the representative asked her,”we remember, that this was one of the notes in the money that was taken. Now, accept your mistake and give the remaining money back. Swarna told,”I’ll vacate the hostel.Please don’t inform my home about this”. She gave the money and went out of the hostel.
* * * *
One question remains. Right? How did they find out it was her? Who would manage to remember rupee note’s number? Let me tell that...
Sathya’s account was losing money periodically, after she gave the ATM to Swarna to withdraw money.
Janaki’s suitcase lock’s key was the one that Swarna missed and that fell into a very remote place. Later the money was taken, the key was lost and the chain was cut.
Deepa’s savings money was withdrawn using her passbook, signature and ID card. Who else could do it? There were a lot of other people who lost their money while living with her in the same room. All these were reasons for suspicion.As I was thinking about Gopalakrishnan not coming to class, with 47 other people was Swarna, sitting with no knowledge of her bag being checked for balance money in the presence of hostel warden. They got it.
Now, Janaki and Deepa don’t talk to Swarna. When a chance to change ourselves is given, we must happily do it. Swarna was provided with one. But, she said,”I’ve been like this from childhood. I steal. I am a thief. You didn’t understand that. What can I do for that? Who told you to be my friend?” – She told this to her close friends. Very responsible answer.
When Swarna left the hostel, Janaki cried for 2 days. Probably, she had no one to prepare hot water for and wake up, now.
