Roomies

People often say, Time flies when you’re having fun! I finally understand the meaning of that phrase! The past year has been like a whirlwind, and one thing I’ve found is that, in the end, when you look back you don’t remember days, just moments!

When I first heard that I would have to share a room in hostel I was quite scared. Even though I’ve shared a room with my sister for most of my life, the idea of sharing a room with some stranger seemed alarming. Then I was given the good news, sometimes I would have more than one roommate! It all depended on luck! And anyone who knows me, knows what bad luck I have, just look at the long list of men I’ve dated! So I was terrified and spent many sleepless nights worrying about my future roommates before I got to Singapore.

Once I got to Singapore and reached the hostel, we were shown a glass bowl full of room keys and asked to pick one. I said my prayers and picked a key and then headed to the lift with my luggage. There was a huge queue near the lift as there was only one lift. After nearly 5 minutes the lift opened and two girls came out. As soon as one of the girl’s saw me she said, “Hi Pooja, what’s you room number?” and when I told her, she squealed, “Great we’re roommates and we have a room with only two beds!”. And I didn’t know how to react because for the life of me I had no idea who she was! And that is how I first met, Bhavya!

Bhavya, what can I say?! One of the wildest people I know but still very mature for her age and down to earth. She was everything I could have hoped for in a roommate and a friend.

The first morning I woke to some really strange noises and was wondering what was happening, when I investigated I realised it was Bhavya’s alarm going off. And she had some really strange song playing, one I’d never heard before! Anyway I woke her up since she seemed oblivious to the alarm and we both needed to get up and get dressed for the orientation. Then I asked her what the song was and she laughed and said, “Oh that’s Pappichulo, sounds like sex noises doesn’t it?!”. And then suddenly it made sense and I couldn’t stop laughing! What a strange thing to choose as an alarm but only Bhavya could have done it!

I think the reason that we both got along very well is that when it came to basic stuff we thought along the same lines. She was as much a neatness freak as I am, so our room remained spotlessly clean throughout the five months that we lived together much to the surprise of all those who visited our room.

We were both nocturnal so we didn’t really disturb each other when we stayed up late at night chatting with friends or going for walks and returning at odd hours. She used to have marathon movie sessions where she watched movies back to back, while I spent my time listening to music or chatting with friends. And so we spent our time in blissful companionship, each of us involved in our own world but glad to have company.

On nights when we were going out partying we would try on party outfits and ask each other how we looked. And once we got back from partying all high n happy we would listen to music loudly on my speakers and our all time favourite song at that time used to be “Ye Mera Divanapan Hai”, which we would both sing as loudly as possible, we were lucky that our neighbours never complained!

And then there were nights when we got bored of doing our pre-reading and we used to search for something to eat. Bhavya would make maggi or some exotic thing from a packet and I would search for snacks and dessert. Then we would share our food and happily eat till early morning while most folks were fast asleep.

Then there was the time that my mum came to Singapore and brought chocolate brownies along. And Bhavya and I used to eat em for all three meals. We’d both be deeply engrossed in our assignments one minute and the next, we’d glance at each other and the brownies and then it would be brownie time! The amount of brownies we ate it’s a wonder we didn’t grow really fat or make our selves ill.

How can I write about Bhavya and not mention her love for shoes! I thought I had lots of shoes till I met her. She is the only person I know who goes shopping and cannot return without buying at least one pair of shoes and usually it is waaaay more than one! And she’s one person who has shoes in all the possible colours! So she would return from her shoe shopping and then we’d both sit and admire them. The best part was that she had the same shoe size as me so I would try em out and parade around.

Then there were nights when we were bored stiff so we would do a fashion show and try on all the fashionable clothes from our wardrobe which we hadn’t had a chance to wear yet. Then crazy photographs would be taken for entertainment.

And then we had our gossip sessions where we caught up on all the news in college and beyond. It was always great to share news and discuss and debate various possible theories to explain all the strange phenomena taking place in college. And we had some really good theories about some folks; unfortunately I can’t reveal all that, what is said in the room stays in the room!

And so five months passed by in blissful companionship and then we moved to Dubai. In Dubai, I shared a flat with four other girls, Ramya, Anamika, Surbhi & Sneha.

I’ll start with Ramya, she was one person who just didn’t believe in going for a bath till the last possible moment. There would be five minutes left for the college bus and she would be going in for her bath. And the best part is she would be completely cool and relaxed about it. Initially it used to get my blood pressure up just watching her, I used to worry that she’d miss the bus and get left behind, but except one odd time she managed to make the bus with time to spare! No idea how she managed it, maybe she figured out a way to stop time and just didn’t feel like sharing it with the rest of us! I think if there was guinness record on fastest bath then she must have beaten the record on a regular basis! Truly spectacular!

Ramya also had some culinary talents and she loved experimenting with food. If the Italians had ever heard of her Szechwan pasta they would have been completely troubled and confused, because only Ramya could think that Pasta should be cooked Szechwan style! Though I must say it tasted pretty good.

Ramya was serial movie watcher and watched movies back to back with a vengeance. There were days when she would be so engrossed in movie watching that we would ask her if she had eaten, in fear that she might forget to eat in her aim to complete watching all the movies in the world!

Then there were days when she would be in a cleaning mode and madly start washing all the dishes in the sink early in the morning. One of our roommates once actually dreamt of a waterfall, what with all the noise! Poor Ramya, always had good intentions, just bad timing sometimes!

When Ramya was in the mood, she was hilariously funny and imitated people so well that she had the rest of us in splits. I used to love the way she always referred to us as “Ladies!”. And most of the time when we found her missing and checked on where she was, we would find that the poor girl was “struck” in college. Ah Ramya, I’m really going to miss all the fun we had together.

Anamika, what can I say about the baby in our room?! Other than always being hungry and tired, she is most blissfully happy person I know! She’s lost in her dream world most of the time, though I think over the past year she’s grown more worldly wise. She has a laugh that I will never forget, it sounds like a hyper gleeful child! And once she’s laughing it’s hard to understand a word she’s saying. She laughs so hard that she has tears coming out of her eyes. A funny girl, who always kept the rest of us amused with her bizarre theories and some times conservative ideas about life, our baby was a little grandma inside!

Surbhi or Sorbhee as she was affectionately called can never be thought of in isolation, when one thinks of her, her famous Khwaja dance always comes to mind. She was my eating partner for we spent most of our time in Dubai eating everything in sight, which explains my current size! A strict non-vegetarian and a big piggy like me so we usually ate during the time we spent together or chatted about the various events taking place in college. We were both quite militant in our dislike of dishonest folks and let our displeasure be known when it was appropriate.

How can I mention Sorbhee and not talk about her love for popcorn. Sorbhee was always burning popcorn in the microwave and declaring different manufacturers of popcorn as worthless. I think it was finally declared that only American Garden Popcorn should be consumed since that was the only popcorn that the poor girl had not burnt. The rest of us were glad of this development because it spared us from waking to the smell of burning popcorn. She was another serial movie watcher and any free time that she had was spent watching movies either at the movie theatre or on her computer. She also spent time reading and re-reading books and crying over them. It was not an uncommon sight to see Sorbhee crying after re-reading “The Kite Runner”. A totally mad child, who was always entertaining, with her dramatic expressions and mad dancing style.

Sneha, my best friend and confidante during my MBA, at SP Jain. I don’t think I could have gotten through the course without her. She always knew when to give advice and when to just listen and that’s what I love about her the most! She and I shared a room in Dubai. She is the sleepiest person in the world and can sleep for long periods without getting disturbed by the light or by any noise, including me falling off the bed! Her other favourite pastime is eating, always the hungry child, she’s needs to be constantly fed. The rest of her time is spent re-watching "Friends" or watching movies.We always had fun together and our friendship only grew stronger during the period that we stayed together, unlike some other folks who annoyed each other so much once they started living together that they don't even talk to each other now!

And then there were visiting roommates. They were a few both in Singapore and in Dubai. For their own sake, I won’t mention their names since none of them were supposed to be visiting according to the college rules! But what’s the point in having rules if you don’t break a few, huh?! I have fond memories of all the visiting roommates; they really made the journey in SP Jain all the more memorable!

Overall the past year has been special and I truly enjoyed living with all these different people. I think that each of them contributed to my learning and enjoying the course in their own special way. Love ya all!