Deep down a veil of black clouds and an endless sea of silence Reena felt herself falling down a bottomless pit. What was it that was happening to her? Why was she falling? Her thoughts were in tumult as she kept tumbling endlessly. All of a sudden everything went black and she couldn't fathom the what’s or the why’s of her current situation. After a few minutes she landed with a thud. She had no idea of her whereabouts. Slowly she got up, feeling dazed. An eerie feeling engulfed her. A few streaks of light dimly illuminated her surrounding and what she saw in that wispy light froze her blood.
Reena abruptly woke up in cold sweat, still shaking with the after effect of her nightmare. Why was this dream still haunting her even years after it had actually happened? She got up and walked to the fridge and gulped down a bottle of cold water. She sat down at the table shaking and with a palpitating heart that refused to calm down. Her forehead was swathed in sweat and she gently wiped them, her thoughts going back to her college days when she was living in the hostel. Those were carefree days of her initial college life.
Staying away from home in a hostel for the first time in life, it was a different kind of experience for Reena. A life understood only by those who have experienced it and had a whole lot of fun, a bag of mixed experiences that took one from one’s comfort zone and exposing oneself to the realities of life. It was enriching in so many ways. The hostel and college being new, there were no qualms of ragging. It was situated amidst mountains and scenic landscape, with the only drawback being a graveyard in the front, though that didn't mar the enthusiasm for many. There was a vineyard too close by that the boarders visited the warden as their chaperon.
Hostel life has its own charms; entering a new world with total strangers who undergo the same dilemmas as you makes it a memorable experience. I believe that true knowledge comes from living in a hostel all the while learning to overcome the fears in life, be it being on your own or meeting all kinds of people adjusting with them and bringing out the real you. Reena reflected upon the strangest and scariest experience of her hostel life. She felt a shiver course down her spine. Her thoughts took her back to that night when she had witnessed the most insensitive and scariest sight of her life.
She had been sick that day and after sleeping for a while she woke up to drink water but couldn't go back to her sleep, try as she might. She wondered what the time was and not wanting to disturb her room mates, went to the window. She was drawn in by the moonbeams that fell on her face. What she saw in the graveyard froze her blood and Reena felt as if she was being whipped with umpteen lashes while worms crawled all over her skin. That evening a lady had been buried in the graveyard. She had seen a corpse for the first time in her life. The body was placed in a bamboo chair and decked with flowers. The deceased was a beautiful lady who looked nothing less than a goddess even in death.
She was ritualistically buried by her relatives who later left with heavy hearts. Usually the graveyard was deserted. Now under the moonlight Reena saw some men digging the grave and take out the corpse. What followed after that made her hate men in general and especially those perverted animals that didn't even spare the corpse of a woman. She felt like puking her guts out. The retching sound had woken up her friends and at the sight of the graveyard they screamed. How could a man be such an animal! Even animals don't do that. The diggers raped the corpse one by one. Reena thought perhaps the poor woman’s soul had cried out at her cruel fate.
Reena was very upset. She had always been the one who questioned the plight of women. She kept away from men in general after that scary night. She always kept a safe distance from them because the sight of a man brought back that memory to her mind. The sight had tormented her for months; she would get up in the middle of the night breaking in cold sweat. It haunted her even now.
Reena made herself a piping hot coffee. She sat sipping it with her favourite music on till she was sleepy again and went back to her bed hoping she would never ever see that horrifying dream again.
