“Hey, I heard Princy caught you” Shylaja was so excited as she rushed in to the room followed by Aparna and Anitha. They must have heard the news straight from the horse’s mouth. I was so annoyed with the cleaning lady. No one else in the hostel would have known about what happened in the morning.
“Yeah” I mumbled
‘What happened?” Shylaja was so eager to know all the details.
“Nothing much. he wanted to know why I didn’t go to the hospital”
“But I heard he yelled at you?” Shylaja looked at me
“No, he didn’t. He just wanted to know why I didn’t go, that is all. Who told you that I got yelled at? Besides Why would he yell at me for being sick?”
Shylaja looked so lost, so disappointed!
I felt sorry for deflating her hope of seeing me in trouble.
I thought of telling her, if I can survive in my own home, I can survive anywhere.
I am a survivor. Born survivor.
No Princy, no cleaning lady was going to stop me from reaching the goals I set for myself. When your family members thrive on humiliating you, then you are all the more determined not to ever get humiliated by anyone else.
“Did he ask you to bring your parents?” Shylaja asked. She still hadn’t given up hope.
“For having migraine? Are you crazy?” I asked her.
“Oh”
“Oh, I forgot. Arjun told me to tell you that Dr. Bhatti wants to see you” Anitha spoke
Anitha and Arjun are in the same batch, but they were not posted to medical ward.
“How did Arjun meet Dr. Bhatti?”
“When we were leaving the Paeds, we met Dr. Bhatti in the hallway and he spoke to Arjun”
“Oh”
I was really worried when Anitha told me that Dr. Bhatti asked Arjun to pass the message to me. I was worried that he knew about Arjun and me. Medical students are not supposed to be dating. They are supposed to ‘only’ study.
I felt so relieved knowing that Dr. Bhatti didn’t know about Arjun and me.

Wait a minute, then why didn’t he talk to Anitha? Why Arjun?
Oh oh. Now even Dr. Bhatti knew about Arjun and I.
Damn!
“Did Arjun say what exactly Dr. Bhatti said?”
“No, He just told me to tell you that Dr. Bhatti wants you to attend the evening rounds.”
I wanted to pull my hair and scream.
First it was Dr. Murthy, then it was the Princy and now Dr. Bhatti.
What did I do to get in to so much trouble?
I tried to figure out a way out of this mess.
First, I needed a medical certificate.
I had to see Arjun to get a medical certificate and ask him exactly what Dr. Bhatti told him.
“Are you coming for lunch?” Anitha asked
“Nah, I am going to the canteen, I need to see Arjun”
Anitha started to whistle.
Oh shut up. I thought of telling her.
More than anything I wanted to slam my stupid head on the wall for being so dumb. Why did I have to tell her that I wanted to see Arjun. I should have kept my mouth shut.
Me and my big mouth!
I waited for them to leave the room, so I can lock the door and change my clothes. I made a mental note to stitch the salwar mooti when I come back in the evening. The rip was definitely getting bigger.
A stitch in time saves nine. I remembered the proverb.
But then I wanted to know why not 10, 11 12, 100 or whatever. Why only 9?
Time and Nine.. Rhymes, so does five. So why nine?
English is a funny language. I thought. Just like tooth and teeth. E is before O, so technically the singular form should be teeth and the plural should be tooth.
But I didn’t have time to waste worrying about English language.

The canteen was crowded with boys. Girls usually don’t go to the canteen during lunch time. Probably because only handful of girls smoked unlike the boys.
“excuse me” I called one of the juniors who was just finishing his Torino.
“Yes Ma’am” He nodded his head in reverence.
“Can you tell Arjun that I want to see him”
“Sure Ma’am”
As he left to go to the boys hostel, I realized he didn’t ask me who I was or my name. He knew who I was and I had no idea who he was, except that he was a junior student. It felt weird being so popular.

I ordered for tea and found a place to sit.
“Hey, I heard Princy caught you today” Ramesh was standing by the window and was smoking.
“How in the world did you hear about that?”
“Mess boys were talking about it”
“What?”
Ramesh shrugged his shoulder.
“So what did Princy say?”
“Nothing much. He wanted to know why I didn’t go for the morning rounds and I told him I had migraine”
Ramesh was trying to make smoke rings. I thought he looked cool. I really wanted to learn how to make smoke rings. May be I should start smoking!
“What?” I asked him because he was staring at me.
“Did you really have migraine?”
“Of course. otherwise Why would I skip the rounds?”
Ramesh started to laugh.
“You are a paradox. Do you know that?” he spoke.
“What do you mean?”
“nothing. Your man is here” Ramesh nodded towards the door and left.
Paradox? What did he mean by that? I planned to ask him the next time I see him.
“hey” I greeted Arjun.
He didn’t say anything.
This is not going well. I told myself.
“Why were you talking to Ramesh?” Arjun asked as he sat in front of me.
“huh?” “What?” I stared at Arjun to figure out what exactly was he asking me. Did he not know that Ramesh was my batch mate?
“Nothing. Never mind. Why did you ask to see me?”
“I wanted to know What exactly did Dr. Bhatti tell you?”
“He asked me to tell you to come for the evening rounds”
“oh”
I wanted to ask Arjun for the medical certificate. He looked so angry and irritable, besides I didn’t know why he was upset because I spoke to Ramesh.
“Anything else?” Arjun asked
“no, nothing”
“Bye” he got up and left.
And all of a sudden I felt so lost.
It felt like I was in the midst of choppy seas and my only support just left me and I was drowning..down.. down.. down