A memoir (Chapter II)

CHAPTER II

Huh? Didn't expect this!

     I walk down the narrow lanes of Raozan, once a village, now a functioning, busy town which houses lakhs of residents. in one of those alleys, there is my apartment, 'Ehsan Co-operative Apartment', which was constructed by the government in its five year plan. This little room was organised for me by prof. Nguyen, and to be very honest I am very grateful to her for this. I took it for a lease till I am studying, and I do feel fine here, but ehh, the surroundings are very dirty and there is always this stinky smell of dried fish coming from windows.

As a result, my windows are closed, always. I don't care about what my neighbours think about me, and I want some privacy too, because the thing is, I smoke tobacco. I don't want that smell to go out either, and give my neighbours a chance to snitch on me and call the police!

  I have decorated my room at my own will. I hanged some sweet anime posters, I have installed a study table with a chair, A sofa which turns into a bed (with storage), a bookshelf which I also use to keep my clothes, some kitchen equipment which I have put in the mostly empty kitchen at the corner of my room, and a table lamp, which is the only thing I have bought from Raozan, and is also useful. I tried a lot of times to get a table lamp in Bago, but I was always met with disappointment, because ehh, those folks are happy with their tubelight for some reason.

"Mom! Why did you ask an unknown boy to check on me?" I yelled on my phone, as soon as my mom picked up the phone.

"Sweetie! He's not unknown! I know him! He once came to Bago with his parents, and he got lost. Poor boy, I found him in a temple getting harassed and made fun of by monks. I helped the poor boy get the directions properly and reach his hotel properly. He seems a shy boy, but a really nice one. Dw I always check on people to trust on." Mom replies in a calm voice.

"Ah, I almost assumed you had started believing on unknown people, thank god you didn't hehe..." I reply, moving with a long discussion with my mom about life, and about whatever Dad is doing in politics, Ahn, my brother is caught up in and my cat, Kanna's mischief.

To be honest, my mom is a really sweet person, but oh my, she doesn't trust people easily. I really enjoy time with my mom, and I get what she feels like to stay far from her daughter for so long. She's trying her best to mask a happy face by chatting around with the women of the household, but ah, she's sad. Dad? Dad is always busy with party work, and his work in the small notebook factory. He never really got accepted into the family, mainly for his annoying political ramblings, and he tries to keep himself busy with party work as a result, creating a vicious cycle of him just getting away from family day by day. 

    However, somehow, Ahn manages to keep a good relation with him, probably because of their shared interests of not praying and loitering around the city. Ahn, my little brother, around two years younger than me is the typical rebellious boy of an household. My uncles and aunts live in a joint household, and somehow everyone hates him, even more than Dad. Not like we have the best relations with them but ahh, come on there is a limit. Ahn had the 'great' idea of creating a gang with his schoolmates and terrorise the city, for which he got arrested once, and pardoned because he f**king rizzed up the mayor's daughter, like wtf.

    Ahn knows, if something, rizzing up girls. Now, as I told, he is a partner of the mayor's daughter, and regularly gets proposals, BUT, somehow does not cross the limit of cheating on her, maybe because Shwe Lin is a sweet girl, I don't know. But, for some reason, MOM, of all people, HATES HER. Like really, really hate her. Mom would terrorise her, shout on her for no reason, blaming Ahn's behaviour on her (ironically Shwe is the one protecting Ahn and improving him) and just slap Ahn everytime she finds out Ahn went to meet her.

With that, the last member, whom I actually know is my little cat, Kanna. It is a local Burmese cat, and I would feed and take care of it for most part. It is the most relatable being to me after my mom. Now mom has agreed to help clean and feed Kanna, but I am not really sure about it. I wanted to bring her with me to Raozan, but I myself was scared about my whereabouts in the city, so yeah, it would have been a fool's job to bring her.

The rest, in my family are the two other brothers of my dad, who have not been on the best terms with our family because after Grandma and Grandpa's death, they really had some tense argument, and dad's four sisters occasionally visit him, take out their tantrums in our home and then leave. My mom's brother, my uncle once lived with us but he left for Rangoon, citing better opportunities rather than running a small 'Balm making factory'.

Ah, my talk with my mom was nice, now I sleep and brace up for visiting master Dey and whatever nightmare awaits for me at his dormitory.

Getting ready, I take out my third white shirt out of the four I have, which I keep reserved for the sh*ttiest occasions that I make myself fall in, wear a sarong I had bought from Chittagong, which is a really cheap one and has some weird Bengali designs so it sucks, and I start heading to the dormitory. And yeah, I can't go empty handed, even though that weirdo told me would "work just fine if I brought nothing".

At night, if something, the streets of Raozan still look scary. It is a fifty year already, that the old nations collapsed and East India took over this land, but oh my, the gullies haunt me, despite knowing there is some undercover police officer or a paramilitary guy waiting to catch any miscreant on the street.

Now one thing I learned in the University was that it never sleeps. And I am serious about it. The last time, I saw a couple bleeding because they got involved in a political conflict. Ah, just a perfectly normal day in the uni. Now I am not f**king risking it, so I will go through the small broken area of the wall, which broke down when some students had the perfect idea to seize control of the varsity and fortify it. The administration of the university never bothered to fix it later though.

Reaching the Male dormitories, especially in the medical student's section, I was actually surprised to find the area neat. There was no smell, unlike what professor had told me, nor there was any loitering unlike those of what the Female dorms have. I ask the warden, who is referred here as the Darwan for directions to Mr. Dey's room, and he tells me "Ah, go on that building. Also, he invited me too actually, but since I am busy keeping a check if some imposter from the female dorms doesn't enter, why don't you also give my little present to him?". 

I couldn't deny a middle-aged man like that, so I with a small smile took it and headed to his room. When Dey opened the door, I was surprised to see two more girls were waiting, alongside one boy, who all appeared to be Dey's friends, but I don't judge anyone, so I give Dey a little smile, holding the two presents and my bag, excuse him and enter his room, which appears to be really well-kept, completely baffling me. Guess I and professor were really wrong about him. Just when I thought that, Dey suddenly spoke up:

"May, just so you know professor told you the truth. This dorm is always the smelliest, but ah, since it's my birthday, I and some others decided to clean the cow-!@#$ and the sh*t around.." I look at him in utter shock. He literally guess correctly whatever was in my mind. If something, I was kind of impressed.

Suddenly, the door rang again, Aman hurriedly told me to sit on the small bed in the room and went to open the door, inviting three more boys, who appeared senior to him, but were still behaving in a very friendly manner to him. I was baffled to see Aman had made such good relations with his seniors. 

"Hey May, let me introduce you to everyone. These three boys are Manthan, Joseph and Masud. They are studying different fields of medicine, and Joseph is the most senior of them, who really helped me out here in this college. The two sitting there beside you are Meera and Rayma." Aman explained in a calm voice. All of them greeted me by waving their hand.

Everyone celebrated by cutting a small cake, which everyone except me had claimed to make together, and the cake did taste well. We all handed him gifts, which Aman with an awkward smile accepted, repeating in a low tone "Thanks but there was no need of all this..". Now, Aman informed us that he had cooked some chicken curry and rotis for us, as a dinner, and we all enjoyed it, which did destroy my really wrong feelings about Aman, but still made me more confused about his group. Who were they? Why do they seem so humble and why did Aman invite all of them?

Just when I had decided it was time to leave, everyone decided it was the best idea to have fun in the room instead. Under the peer pressure, I decided nah, it was best we chat and have a late night discussion. It was already midnight, and there is a lot of fight that occurs outside the varsity. 

It was then I understood who they were and how they met. Manthan, Joseph and Masud are really senior students of this university. They had spent a lot of time teaming, ganging up and establishing order at the varsity in the past, but now Joseph was doing his PhD, while Manthan and Masud their Graduation year. After this, Joseph will return to Calcutta to get more involved in Church service and help the needy, Masud will get back to Dhaka, and Manthan to Mumbai to work at a normal hospital.

Meera and Rayma were a bit older than us, but not as old as Masud and Manthan. They were almost like twins and lived in the same room. They study music, and Aman's apparent interest of music brought them close to him. Aman had done music till 12th grade, after which he had to abandon music, and move to study veterinary, mainly because he was scared of the future, and also because his music marks were not as good to get him into Uni, mainly because he lacked instrumental knowledge except some classical ones. While Meera plans to pursue classical music and get a talim in Dhaka, Rayma wants to increase popularity of Assamese folk music, and blend it with more forms.

I, the shy one introduced myself, and explained how Aman had invited me to his birthday party, to which most seemed positive. The MedBros of Masud, Manthan and Joseph explained that they met Aman when he needed protection from some really nasty people of the varsity, who eventhough less than before, still had some fear from them.

If something, I ended up the most cheerful in the party, as I clearly enjoyed more speaking to people who actually cared about me and spoke to me with some respect, and manage to someday bring me out of the wrong ways I have myself into.

Next chapter to come out soon. I am tired and its midnight so I'll have to leave now again lol