hAy meri cell!

The recess bell rang and I dashed straight to her desk, she had already pulled out the Milton Tweety headed 'akshaya pAtra', her Tiffin box. The intoxicating smell of roasted gram flour and clarified butter filled the air when the lid of the Tiffin box was removed. My favorite! I exclaimed in excitement, how could I have survived the hostel food without the ‘akshaya pAtra’ I wondered. I took the largest chunk of the sweet and had barely made to my lip when I heard a loud screech “Rey..........idiot that was the fifth alarm to go off..............."

I opened my eyes to see the furious face of my roomy, "could you not have waited till I ate the yummy sweet", I mumbled. "Its 9:45 and principal's class begins at 10:00 do you remember, today is Wednesday", he continued slinging his bag over his shoulders. Without any more protests I went to the bathroom. Curses flowed out at the sight of the soaked clothes. A choking wring, a rough brush and heavy punch made the T-shirt bright as new, next it was the turn of the Bermuda( a type of caprie for men) the choking wring produced a cubical bulge in the middle while the rest of the fabric coiled to form a cylinder.

The gloom of the night became afresh, I had lost my cell phone and a few seconds through future I may find it. Gently un-wringing the Bermuda I pulled out the cell phone from the pocket. If I were a poet, "water was here, water was there. water was everywhere upon the cell phone”. Water could be seen flowing through the screen when you shook the phone, a change in angle let out a jet of water from every possible angle. Unable to decide whether I was happy or sad at finding my cell phone; I went to my bed and dismantled the phone. My mattress grew soggy; water scarcity has certainly not affected my cell phone. With very few options left I dried up the parts with a towel and left it on the windowsill, hoping the sun with all its nuclear activity could lead my phone to desiccation.

Both the consecutive classes by The Principal were apparently over and the tiny bespectacled, Sari clad architecture teacher smiled and let me into the classroom. Two sleepy hours and then the sonorous recess bell rang.

"you see I accidentally rinsed it along with my clothes." she stared at me with her left brow raised (hope someday her eye brows have a bout of alopecia), with I-could not-expect-anything-better-from-you look on her face." I have left it to sun-dry" I said.

"You have left it for what?" she rolled her eyes all along the circumference of her cornea. The disgusted expression told me I had said something wrong. I scampered off to the college mess, taking the refuge of long wait, instead of answering her question. I made sure to linger around the male toilet for an abnormally long time when she came out of the classroom, and enter the classroom five minutes after the bell marking end of recess had sounded.

The HOD got annoyed upon my rhetoric late coming but facing an annoyed HOD is much better than facing the annoyed girl. An annoyed nod by the HOD and I was back to my comfortable, airy, snug, last bench. I took a gasp and then grinned to myself, having been successful in avoiding the beautiful beast.

"You can sundry nothing", came a whisper; I turned around to find her right opposite to me in the adjacent column of benches. I was aghast, she had changed her bench during the recess, even pests would find this pestilent; I can bet a million if I ever had.

My grin changed to a grimace, she smiled. she tactfully looked around without turning her head, after ensuring teacher's minimal attention she continued," you cannot sundry, though you can leave your sundries in the sun to dry." I loathe riddles, but I hate them when they come from the oral orifice of this particular creature." sundry is an adjective which means various, example: - The conference had people with sundry ideas. When used as a plural it can be used to mean miscellaneous items...."

"Both of you, at the last! Out of my class!" the teacher needed no repetition, I made straight to the door heaving a sigh of relief while the classroom was drowned in a solway of apologies and excuses in a quaint feminine voice.