I felt like a goat trapped in a cage right next to a free hungry and prowling tiger as I hid behind the tree watching the whole scene, while Fawas faced the music. Where are your other partners in crime? he asked, the Campus Head Warden, we called him H.W. in short. The students made other expansions of their liking. Nobody knew his real name. Where there is smoke there ought to be Fire and where there is Fawas there ought to be Rahil and Abhay. Where are the other two? he asked; we knew Fawas would not give out our positions but knowing how the brain of H.W works when he has to get us, we decided to surrender. We gingerly walked towards him not in a straight line. We made a curved path that our subconscious had calculated to be the safest in case he decides to beat us up right then and there.
He just kept staring at us in a cold expressionless manner and then he spoke in his meek but very intimidating tone. "Did you all have your supper?" Like a concerned mother asking her child. It is more scary when you don't exactly know your fate. It is worse when you think you can escape the predicament. So far H.W. was not showing any signs of hostility. He continued to be very calm and in a pensive state. This was very unusual of him. "Follow me" he ordered. We kept thinking if he has some grand evil plans for us or has he become possessed by a motherly spirit. Either ways we knew we were in tight spot with no escape.
We followed his lead to the mess. It was dark with a few bulbs lit up here and there. We had never been here at the odd hour almost midnight. It was silent except the sound of a few workers sorting out the big vessels. They were already working for the next big breakfast for two thousand odd students. He asked one of the staff to get us what ever we wanted to eat.
The food was there right in front of us. We did realise that we were hungry. We hesitated a bit. H.W. took up a chair and seated himself a feet away from our table. He sat there like a good cop but we knew the bad cop was just about to leap out anytime. He kept looking at us intently. We just kept looking at the food with our heads bowed down. Abhay finally let go off the plastic bags full of eatables under the table. It was only getting more awkward by each passing second. We could feel the nervousness in each of us with out even looking at our fellow comrades. We just sensed that H.W would command us to eat anytime and to make the whole scene a lot less uncomfortable for all of us we were going to eat. Even before H.W. opened his mouth, Rahil started to eat rather comfortably. It seemed like he had forgot what predicament we were in. We both looked at him but he kept eating. For a moment we got worried about his mental well being. We looked up at H.W. and his gaze turned more threatening we started to eat too.
After we were done he escorted all of us to our dormitory and asked us to sleep well.
That's it? asked Abhay. We were all very confused. We got on our beds tucked ourselves in. All the other students were sleeping like corpses. It looked like we were in a mortuary and we all tried to sleep quietly in case we disturbed any evil spirits around. In no time Rahil was in deep slumber and started to snore. The whole episode kept troubling me. I couldn't sleep for a long time but just then I did the warden had come to wake us up like the usual days. We got ready and we seated ourselves promptly on the class bench. We looked abnormally active for the 7 O' clock period. While every other student around us acted half asleep. The whole last night episode appeared like a nightmare to us but it was not over yet.
The school peon appeared at the door and excused himself for disturbing the class which the Mathematics teacher was taking up rather ritualistically. He read out a piece of paper. "Abhay, Rahil and Fawas you are all summoned to the Principal's office".
We followed his lead to the mess. It was dark with a few bulbs lit up here and there. We had never been here at the odd hour almost midnight. It was silent except the sound of a few workers sorting out the big vessels. They were already working for the next big breakfast for two thousand odd students. He asked one of the staff to get us what ever we wanted to eat.
The food was there right in front of us. We did realise that we were hungry. We hesitated a bit. H.W. took up a chair and seated himself a feet away from our table. He sat there like a good cop but we knew the bad cop was just about to leap out anytime. He kept looking at us intently. We just kept looking at the food with our heads bowed down. Abhay finally let go off the plastic bags full of eatables under the table. It was only getting more awkward by each passing second. We could feel the nervousness in each of us with out even looking at our fellow comrades. We just sensed that H.W would command us to eat anytime and to make the whole scene a lot less uncomfortable for all of us we were going to eat. Even before H.W. opened his mouth, Rahil started to eat rather comfortably. It seemed like he had forgot what predicament we were in. We both looked at him but he kept eating. For a moment we got worried about his mental well being. We looked up at H.W. and his gaze turned more threatening we started to eat too.
After we were done he escorted all of us to our dormitory and asked us to sleep well.
That's it? asked Abhay. We were all very confused. We got on our beds tucked ourselves in. All the other students were sleeping like corpses. It looked like we were in a mortuary and we all tried to sleep quietly in case we disturbed any evil spirits around. In no time Rahil was in deep slumber and started to snore. The whole episode kept troubling me. I couldn't sleep for a long time but just then I did the warden had come to wake us up like the usual days. We got ready and we seated ourselves promptly on the class bench. We looked abnormally active for the 7 O' clock period. While every other student around us acted half asleep. The whole last night episode appeared like a nightmare to us but it was not over yet.
The school peon appeared at the door and excused himself for disturbing the class which the Mathematics teacher was taking up rather ritualistically. He read out a piece of paper. "Abhay, Rahil and Fawas you are all summoned to the Principal's office".
