The call

During the training at Jaipur , we, the group c with theory classes between 6pm to 830pm had our lab practice hours from 10 pm to 2am night. Initially we were so enthused by the whole linux stuff that we went all grumpy to get it extended and now the people of group c could share the lab with girls in the morning (since girls couldn’t come at night 10-2 session they had been allotted special morning time 6am-830am for practice). Lol and that was cool!

But excitement lasted only a few days since we, specially myself, found it herculean to sleep at 2am and then again wake up at 5:30 for lab practice. (Nigam, the topper was always on top here too! Waking up all by himself by 5am or so… I donno exactly … cause by the time I was having a grandiose wake up from bed… he was all bathed and ready … and STUDYING!!!, of course!).

It was usually the case that we got late, as neither me nor ap could wake up that early.( for ap, the reason being that he had some really important calls from foreign lands (read as gf) to attend late night).

One fine morning…

Time 5:30 am, its all dark outside… a typical day when you throw your screaming alarm clock and go to sleep again.

Like other days, we all were sound asleep.

Haa -aa -aa -- oo -- aahh…--oo --aaaaahhhh (now that’s how my phone rings- actually its an opera singer screaming ringtone)

WTF???

itni subah kaun... beep... beep... beep... kar raha hai ??? ............. Itni subah???........jisne bhi kiya hai uska dimaag kharab hai???.... beep beep beep !!!!

Nigam woke up.. Looked at me like "????" (he has this peculiar look when I throw in some typical hostellers-special expletives... But its funny!)

All sleepy, clearing the eye mud… I noticed... Aastha calling???

(there were also missed calls from Swati and Ankita)

This early???

What? What could be so urgent?

Was I in some mortal danger?

A problem? Something serious?

Certainly it had to be something really serious, otherwise why else… aastha… this early….

(thousand ominous theories crossed my mind as I picked up…)

Aastha : Hello! Abhishek go to Ap's room immediately!

Me : why? Kya hua?

Aastha: arre don ask questions, no time for it, go fast! Its urgent!

(what? What happened to ap? Was he in danger? How could myself living next room not know what was happening to Ap while aastha n al can find it from girls hostel…)

Me: ok baba! Going! Going! Hold!

Aastha: Yes! Go fast!

Me: yup! Am there… ap is fine… sound asleep (I was relieved).. No-problemo with him!

Aastha: arre stupid! Its not about Ap! What about him roomie?

Me: WTF??? ROOMIE???... ROOMIE???

Aastha: Ya! Wake him up!

Me: WHAT??? Wake him up??? For what??? He is sound asleep!!!

Aastha: do as told! And do it fast!

(this must be really serious! I thought, may be Ap's roomie has taken some serious panga's with aastha… poor him…and so I woke him up)

Me: haan! Utha diya! Ab bol!

Aastha: Now ask him where RAMASHANKER is???

(oh! I thought, So he was the real culprit!... But who was he??? What had he done to earn aastha's wrath???... A GUNs and BINs part II ???)

Me: Peyush sorry yaar! Par plz bata ye ramashanker kahan milega??? Uska room et al???

Peyush: I donno him (all mud eyed and sleepy)

Me: He says I donno him!

Aastha: He's lying! He's lying! Asking him to tell where he is!!!

(oh! So this sounds like a conspiracy! Piyush conspiring with Mr. Ramashanker… taking panga's with aastha… lol aah! Trouble for the chap!)

Me: yaar he is adamant! He doesn’t know anything he says….

(ha! pretending to be innocent!, I thought... I know he has done something silly with you ppl… Aastha don worry, am all help ,for you ppl)

Aastha: accha! Koi ni! No probs…

Me: KYA??? (WTF???) NO PROBS??? Kyun??? Why did you call for Ramashanker exactly??? Who is he???

Aastha: Nothing ! Actually sir had called him for the morning classes also… so we were just checking if you people know him…. And may be we can inform him that it would be better if he comes… he is in our group 50….

Me: "!@#$%^&*()_" - that’s how my face was like after all that tense 5 minutes… I was completely shaken… had woke up nigam, ap and his unfortunate roomie… thought about all the doom universe can throw in at me and others…. All for this no one-for no reason and a total non-issue called RAMASHANKER ???

Lesson learnt: I never kept my phone switched on at night thereafter… even alarms were in switch off mode... who knows… aastha may call any time… better safe than sorry!