I was at the mess hall having my tea. The tea was very hot, so I placed it back on the table to let it cool, I noticed a senior wearing white coat and a steth in her pocket walking towards me.
I stood up and sang the anthem.
“Are you a Malayalee?” She asked me
“Yes Ma’am”
“Senior boys wants to meet all the junior malayalee girls at 17 hours. Go and pass the message to your classmates”
“Yes Ma’am”
I sat down to finish my tea. Something made me look up and the way the senior was staring at me, made me leave my untouched tea and walk back to the hostel.
In the morning, during introduction, I noticed that there were 7 girls from Kerala. I was relieved to learn that not one person is from Kottayam.
I was aware of my mother’s reputation and was afraid of being chastised by my own classmates.
I knew one of the girls is staying next to my room, so I went and knocked the door.
Anitha opened the door. I learned in the morning that Anitha is from Cochin and that both her parents are doctors.
“Senior boys wants to meet all the Malayalee juniors at 5pm in the canteen” I spoke
“Oh god! Now what? Why do you think they want to see us?” Anitha asked me.
“Don’t know” I shook my head. “Will you tell the others?” I asked her
She nodded her head and said “yes”
I went back to my room.
I thought Anitha would call me before they went to the canteen and waited in my room. 5 Minutes to 5 o clock, there was still no sign of Anitha. So I went to her room again and knocked the door. Anitha’s room mate opened the door.
“Where is Anitha?” I asked
“She is already gone to the canteen with the Malayalee girls”
I didn’t know, what is wrong with me. Why can’t I fit in among the girls. With a heavy heart I walked to the canteen.
“Hello Kottayam” I could hear, seniors guys calling out as I walked in to the canteen. I had no choice but to ignore.
I found Anitha and the gang sitting in the corner with the seniors. One of them wearing spectacles looked up.
“So Ms, Kottayam, I heard that your father is very famous” He asked
“No” I shook my head.
“Ain’t you ‘xyz’s daughter?”
“No. He is my uncle”
“Oh Uncle ah?” he nudged the guy next to him.” Eda, he is only her uncle. He can’t do anything, if we ragged her. Next time get the correct information!”
“Ms. Kottayam, your duty is to find what is Khazarvan and tell us the answer same time tomorrow. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir” I replied
“Who is Nina?” I watched a senior entering the canteen and asking.
“Me”. I slowly got up. Everyone in the canteen was staring at me and I suddenly felt very scared.
“You have a visitor” He announced
I started to walk slowly towards the canteen door. The only thing that went through my head was ‘how will I escape?’ Of all the dumb things I have ever done, why did I have to call him? How could I be so stupid?. He would have used the dissection set as an excuse to come and pay me a visit.
By the time I reached the canteen entrance, everyone was staring at me. Some of them were looking through the window to see who my visitor was. I looked at the guys standing near the entrance. I wanted to shout and scream and say ‘help me’. But no words came out.
From the entrance, I could see the police jeep. I looked for the car. There was no sign of the car. Where could he be? I started to look left and right frantically. Meanwhile the police man from the jeep got down, greeted me and marched towards me.
I wanted to run, but my legs were bolted to the ground.
“Ma’am boss send these for you”
He handed me a big gunny sack and a small plastic bag. I watched him going back to the jeep and starting the jeep. I watched the jeep disappearing in to the main road. I looked around me. I couldn’t believe that ‘he’ really didn’t come.

Only then I remembered the parcels in my hand. What did ‘he’ send me? The gunny sack was heavy and I knew something wasn’t right. I was afraid to open the gunny sack in the canteen. Though I knew I would be disobeying the seniors by going back to the hostel without saying bye to them, I couldn’t risk opening the gunny sack infront of them. So I walked back to the hostel. I could see people were staring at me and talking about me. It isn’t often that a police man acts as a courier.
When I reached my room, I was relieved to see that both my room mates weren’t inside. I closed the door. I sat on my bed and opened the small plastic bag. It was a dissection set. What was in the gunny sack?
The sack was stiched on the top and I used my nail to untie. I broke my nails while trying to pry open the knots. I was so mad at myself and I remembered my dissection set. Using the scalpel, I removed the stitches. I opened the gunny sack and looked inside.
Right on top was the human skull, with the jaw wide open, hollow eyes and I wanted to scream. I stared at the skull.
‘He’has send me an entire bone set, without me asking him. The voice in my head kept telling me this was a ploy to scare me. But I knew him.
‘He’ has always boasted about how he uses his power to ‘fix’ things up for those needed fixing, even giving orderes to police to change FIR, to save people who needs to be saved.*
Was he trying to tell me something? Was he trying to tell me that, I too would end up in a gunny sack?
I heard someone knocking my door and went to open it. Shylaja saw the gunny sack on my bed and came to investigate.
“Oh my god!. you got the whole bone set! How did you manage to get this Nina?” She started to take the bones out of the gunny sack.
“My uncle send” I murmered
“You are so lucky Nina. I wish I had a famous uncle like you Nina” She said wishfully.
I didn’t respond.
*over the years I have lived with the knowledge that, there is a father and mother living some where in Kerala, who lost their son( he was studying in JJM Medical college) in a bike accident in the early 80’s in Davangere and never knew the truth about what happend to their son.
They were told that, their son was riding the bike at the time of accident. The truth is, their son was the pillion rider and certain powerful people have changed the FIR report to save the person who rode the bike that day.