Save Sita, Breach in Ashoka Vanam!!!

Yesterday, I was in my hostel and I was browsing on my laptop and my friend who shares my room was also awake and giving me company. She was hooked on to her laptop and I was on mine and the time was about 11.00 pm.

We were discussing various things along with the laptops up and running. We discussed things like, company, work, life, family, girls, boys, television…anything. You know, girls can talk on anything and everything, so we were discussing amongst us and with the windows of the world open in front of us.

Suddenly we felt a knock on our room door; we knew for certain that some girls were watching television which was placed in the hall of our hostel. But the hour and the conversation kept us so much concentrated in our duty that are talking and we almost missed the silence in the corridors and the television shut down.

So now, just the sound of knock and then the silence around us, frightened and we tried to act brave and go ahead and open the door.

One of my room mates was already in the 7th heaven fast asleep as a dead log and nothing could wake her up…we tried not to panic and bringing up courage I got from my bed and walked to the door and holding my breadth, opened the door….slowly.

I could see some silhouette through the corner of my eye, a figure standing right in the front…through the gap of the door, I had opened. Not sure, who it is….I felt somebody pushing from the other side, and then the pressure….Hmm.

It was one of my hostel mates standing on one leg and screaming in words know only to her….some...Ah!! Oh! Oomph’s… I wondered what happened to her. I found a hostel mate standing on the chair of the dining table…I was just looking at the sight trying to gauge the condition and wondered what happened.

Just then I found something black crawling at a quicker pace then the bat of an eyelid and then there was a shriek again… Someone screamed - there it is …! There it is…!!! It is getting into your room, Kavitha!!!!

That’s it, I found the next chair dutifully occupied by me….Instantly, I did not know how I reached the chair or the table, and I was dutifully standing on the chair.

And Lo! It had passed quickly into my room and went under the godrej cupboard which was very much next to my bed. I was calling for my awake friend and said, ‘Hey there is the rat in our [still standing on the chair] and that’s it…I had just uttered rat and haven’t completed my sentence, I heard my friend’s shriek and I found her standing on her bed.

The rat had tried to leave my cupboard and went in search of my friend who was on her bed…and hid below her cupboard and there were some suitcases stacked in one corner of the room…we could not do anything. She was standing there and I was standing here and we all almost stood like that for sometime wondering what to do!!!

Then, I decided enough is enough I am going to hunt down the rat and put on my invisible armors and went on to the battlefield I said, “It is me or the rat tonight!!!”

Seeing my valor, the friend who was on the bed suggested throwing our slippers under the gap between the cupboard and the floor of the room that the rat ran into, to drive it out. What a Brilliant, idea! We joined to drive it away. All the aids of ours became a weapon against our little enemy.

Our enemy was a small rat that had been feeding on our hostel food I guess and it almost double the size of a big ant. But we were frightened by its sight, that we were definite to hunt it down and make a fry out of it... [I wasn’t thinking of feeding it to some of my friends, who said I can eat any Non-Veg].

It was freighted by our shrieks and we were frightened by its hazy and quick simmering through the room [Nobody, knew which of us was more frightened! Phew!]

We were on with our hunt and we tried to wake it out of the room and in vain. It ran hitter and titter but not out of the room…all this was happening and there was a loud banging noise and rolling of things, things falling from the cupboard tops, the rattling of the suitcases, the heavy shrieks of ours whenever it ran in our sight, the banging of the doors, the shouts of the other inmates, It is here, It is there….all much of a chaos, but in spite of all this our sweet roommate who was in the heaven was busy singing some romantic numbers with the lords up there or her dream boy[ not sure!!!] did not turn once in her bed, or bother to wake up and offer us her help.

We thought, WOW!! What a flawless incarnation of the Ravana’s brother Mr. Kumbakarna???!!! Now we had a mighty and legendary Ravana’s brother but in vain, we the Sita’s in Ashoka Vanam, had to fight the battle till we got our Hanuman, to save us from the present crisis.
Of course, our room is an Ashoka Vanam for us, for me and one of my room mate, who were living in solace with our dutiful husbands at our hometowns and we were fighting against these four legged creatures to keep us peace!!! What a piece of mythological story!!![I did not think of this till, I started writing about this episode. Will try to elaborate on this sometime]

Coming back to our hunt, we were also running hitter and titter and then I finally gave up, I thought a man’s hand would come handy and thus went in search of the watchman, I found him having his dinner right then, what a timing!!! [Had to wait for him to finish and then join the hunt]

So, there was help offered to us, and we tried to be calm with the surrounding and returned to our talking that centered on this little creature. What and how to get rid of it or how do we refrain it from getting into our room again….so we were on again.

Then what looked as a long time, the watchman entered our dinning room, I looked at him and thought, ‘What is he doing, without any weapons? How is he going to hunt down the rat? Does this man have sense?’ [In my mind, I thought maybe this man will fight the enemy with bare hands! Wah! What a man!]

But, then he came in asked us me in telugu, “Where is it?” I don’t understand a word of telugu but, I knew it had to be related to the rat. So, I showed him the place where it had hid from us. He just looked around and banged on the cupboard…I thought, my god, he is going to break the cupboard, instead of driving or killing the rat.

He then said something in telugu to my room mate, who is localite and thank heavens, she knows the language. He went out and got a broom and by the way he was walking with that in his hand, he looked like the “Arjuna, with his Bow and arrow…!”

He came in and put it into the space between the cupboard and the floor and did something that the frightened rat ran across the entire stretch of the room and hid again below my cupboard, I kept telling him it is there …here…there…here!!!

And then he walked from there and bent below the cupboard and knelt down to put the armor into the gap to drive the rat….and Lo! The rat ran across the stretch of the wall that held the cupboard and passed away by the front door.

Aapa!! What a tryst with the enemy. A battle well fought and the enemy is driven out! Immediately we had the laughter of victory and the Arjuna went in search of his prey….
We immediately closed our room door, no the tyranny wasn’t over yet…we saw a gap below our door which could not let one rat but an army of rats into the room. The gap was such big. We were in a fix what to do.

What! Will happen if the rat went and complained to its chieftain and there was an army of rats waiting to hunt us down…Oh! No, we don’t need Arjuna’s or legendary men, we needed the enchanting Pied Piper to take them away with him.

Now, it was almost 12.30 am where do we get the Pied Piper…leave alone a soul! Again the savior of the night, that is me, came up with a brilliant idea, quickly ran to the front door of the hostel and grabbed the jute sack that was lying there, I know, it is to wipe your feet when you enter the building, but I did not mind. I wanted it to protect us and I knew it would through the night protect us form our little enemy….

I neatly folded the sack into four folds in the breadth wise and spread it across the door and slid it into to the gap and Lo! It fitted perfectly into the gap and our Ashoka Vanam was saved from enemies of any sort, leave alone the rat, even Ravana could not get into the place in search of Sita, without making a racket or disguise!!! Well, need to check if that rat was in fact someone in disguise!!?? Might be can’t say!!!