Friday
12:00 a.m
“What is your problem man? I was just going to nail that Mig21.” He grunts.
P.K is an air force kid, his dad being an air commodore.
“Srini’s sneaked off to girls’ and S.T’s awake. Coming to our room. In 60 seconds."
Earlier in the term we had calculated the exact time it takes our houseparent to get to our door from his.( For similar reasons involving my having to make a phone call from the phone room which is 30 metres from our hostel and also empty only for twenty minutes at 2:00 am-but that’s another story)
“Nice try.” He flops back into bed.
“No, I’m serious” I put on the throaty tone reserved for such occasions.
“Why in the world would he sneak out to girls? He’d have to leave his pillow”
He has a point. Srini’s one of those Eat-sleep types. I mean ONLY Eat and sleep types. Except for chemistry that is. He’s a chem Stud.
“He wanted to ask Paro about R.K’s problem.”
“What??!! At 12:00????”
“We’ve got his early class at 7:00” I put things into perspective.
That does the trick. I see the military glint in P.K’s eyes that tell me he’s going into mission mode. He’s going to lay out a strategic plan in under 3 seconds which will save the day.
Also worth mentioning is that 45 seconds have elapsed since I slapped him last.S.T is 10 feet away from our door.
“O.K. Get to girls .Carry out a reccy. I’ll handle S.T. Take Anda with you.Be back with Srini in10 mins. Take off your slip-ons. Don’t let Venkat or Murthy see you.”
Stopping short of a salute, I nod and wake up Anda. P.K bolts outside. I hear in the background “Sir……loose motions again……”
30 seconds later, Anda and I are climbing out of the window, making sure the tottering watchmen (Venkat and Murthy) don’t see us.
Its going to be a long night, I think briefly before slipping into the Duranta hedge.
****
