Of Colleges and Train Journeys

Got back from Hyderabad just a day before college started. I thought that on the first day, the professor would just give a brief orientation class and then tell us to come back next week. That’s what had happened last year. If only wishes were horses! *Sighs*
On the first day itself our professor started off with a two and a half hour class! The only saving grace was that it was very, very interesting! Am doing clinical psychology and am going to start my internship this August. So hopefully, this year will not be as horrible and boring as it was last year!

This time my journey to Bombay from Hyderabad was kind of interesting. I was on a side berth as usual, and there were six friends in the cubicle opposite of mine – three guys and three girls. They looked to be about my age. They were having so much fun, playing dumb charades and antakshri! They got me going down memory lane and reflecting on all those class excursions I had gone on with my schoolmates. They were always soooo much fun! We would stay up the entire night in the train playing antakshri, or just talking and having a good time!
We had gone to Aurangabad in the eighth grade. I had bought a purple stone pendent for myself from one of the roadside stores there. It was about an inch or so big and was cut in the shape of a teardrop. I just fell in love with it as soon as I saw it!
Anyway, on the way back to Hyderabad in the train, a few of us were still up and talking at 12:30-1:00 AM. We were in a second-class bogie. I was on the upper-most berth, my best friend, Parikrama (not her real name. Am not going to use their real names. Don’t think they’d like that too much!) was on the upper side berth opposite to me, another friend, Amelia, was on the upper-most berth opposite of mine. Below Parikrama, was Arjun. In the cubicle on Amelia’s side Sohan was sound asleep on the upper-most berth. And another guy, Samar was standing below on the ground and we were all talking, and giggling for no reason at all.
I was leaning over the edge of my berth and talking, when suddenly the pendent that I’d bought came undone from around my neck, and fell to the floor, from where Samar picked it up at once. I asked (more like demanded!) him to give it back, but he refused to do so. I tried to grab his hair and pull it, but was unable to do so, and I was too lazy to go all the way down. I thought he’d return it sometime, and wasn’t all that bothered.
Samar chuckled wickedly and disappeared into Sohan’s cubicle. He then came back laughing uproariously. I asked him where my pendent was and he said that he had jammed it up Sohan’s nostril! I didn’t believe him at all and asked him to give it back. Parikrama who had a good view of Sohan’s cubicle said that she had indeed seen him put it into Sohan’s nostril! I was completely horrified! My beautiful purple pendent! Apparently the poor guy had woken up with a start to find a foreign object lodged in his nostril, removed it, and went right back to sleep!
Samar was now dangling the pendent from the black thread attached to it. I snatched it from him, and stalked off to the basin outside, where I held it under the water for a good 20-25 minutes. Then I just put it away in my bag.
Try as I may, I couldn’t get myself to be truly angry, as I was a bit tickled too by this gross act! Teenage sure is a weird age! :D
When I got back home in Hyderabad, I even steeped my pendent in boiling water for about 30 minutes or so!
My poor pendent from that day onwards was dubbed the “booger pendent” thanks to the ingeniousness of Samar!
Each time I wore it to school everyone would have a gala time pointing and laughing and screaming, “booger pendent”! That still did not deter me from wearing it. I just loved it too much! I wore it so often that the black thread got so frayed that it just snapped one day! I just went out and bought another black thread and I still wear my lovely purple pendent!