‘Truth & Dare’

Seema

“I am not afraid” I said. Sonali looked back with a mocking expression. She enjoys making my life miserable.

“I can do that. Only to respect the rules of hostel I don’t go out after night curfew starts”. I said in a defensive tone. I know it proves me a coward.

Sonali said with a mocking smile “you are a baby, babe”. My parents gave me nickname- baby. Girls in hostel know that.

I wanted to reply with obscenities but my family values are too strong to use such words so I could manage only – “you are being rude to me”.

Sonali said in a taunting tone “baby got hurt by my words. Baby is going to cry. Now we are going to witness the baby cry. What do you call a crying baby”?

Some girl said “a cry baby”. I am not good with holding my tears. So, I am also known by another nickname CB a short form for cry baby. Scientist should do some research to find out hormones associated or any other fundamental defects with touchy people like me.

Sonali continued in her taunting voice “leave it girls. CB is not daring enough”. All girls started looking at me. I felt my face reddening with shame for being a disciplined good girl.

I shouted out loud “I will do it”. It was now the turn of other girls to get frightened. I am sure the hostel warden must have herd my voice.

Jeetha

Seema was my roommate. She was a good disciplined girl in college. Later she became a great family and career women. It is beneficial to be a good disciplined person in the long run. We all have our times of deviation. It was that night. People do not like you if you are a bad person, but then perhaps they hate you for being a good person even more. A jealous, immature and mischievous girl Sonali gave us a night to remember for our life. Seema had a big crush on our young contractual teacher Samy a short version of K. Swaminathan. He was our senior in college. He completed his post-graduation and was appointed on contract basis as a teacher. All girls had soft corner for him. We never missed his lectures. Two girls, Seema and Sonali used to attract most of his attention. Seema was most appreciated and Sonali was regularly scolded. Both, Sonali and Seema used to end up red faced. That night Sonali provoked Seema to do something stupid. I am sure she had planned this to spoil her image in front of teachers, especially Samy darling, as we girls used to call him.

That night as we were approaching the Television room, she met us on the way. She said casually- “anybody courageous enough to play ‘truth and dare’ tonight”.

One girl said “No guys I am not. I won’t play”, I am sure she was part of the conspiracy. “I am not daring at all”.

I saw Seema looking at Sonali with an expression of weakness. Sonali caught that and said “CB you go and watch cartoons on TV, this is matter of grownup girls”.

Seema looked even weaker. She said “what do you mean by that? I am not a child. I can do whatever I feel like”.

Sonali smiled as her plan was working, she said “this game is for cool daring girls. Those who have enough courage to speak out deep dark secrets and dare to do rebellious acts which this ‘Jurassic park’ of a society forbids us women”. So she was hitting the women’s liberation nerve. Even I felt motivated for a while to participate in this all liberating game.

Some girl from the crowd said in a mocking tone “Seema should have a secret for that. She is an open book daily read in Samy darling in the class”. All girls started laughing. Even I found it difficult not to smile. Seema was indeed a simple girl.

One girl then said- “I am not going to play this difficult game, I am going to watch television”. Another from the crowd shouted “you go and watch cartoons”. A few girls started walking away. I am sure some of them were part of the plan. It must have been easy for Sonali to recruit cronies for her conspiracy because at some or the other part of that semester we all had crush on Samy darling. Therefore we all had an element of jealousy for Seema. I am her best friend and I know she hated being so frequently appreciated by Samy darling. But that does not exclude her out from the list of victims of Samy’s charms. I had noticed many times that she used to blush in his class, with or without a reason.

Seema joined the game. Unwillingly I also participated. After all I could not leave her alone. Game went on. Girls revealed not so hidden secrets and did some idiotic daring acts. Seema got ‘truth’ as a task while playing. Sonali being the wicked game master asked her “did some guy proposed to you last month”? We had a few boys as our friends. Saket was one of them. He was closer to Seema amongst other girls. Saket was teased about this by other guys. One day a love letter from Saket was found by Seema. He refused to accept that it was written by him. Matter got resolved by itself but since then the friendship of Seema and Saket became strained. None of us spoke about the issue openly to others. But such news always leak out somehow. Rumours started spreading and to worsen the situation Saket fell sick due to food poisoning and was hospitalized for few days. He even had to go back home to recover. People started talking that Saket attempted suicide because Seema broke his heart. It was all false. Sonali was grabbing the opportunity to humiliate Seema.

Sonali asked her again “CB tell us the truth”. Seema’s face went pale. One girl said “CB is not daring enough”.

Sonali said in a fake frustration “She is just wasting our time”. A girl said in a mocking tone “Don’t be so strict or else cry baby will start crying”. I saw Seema’s eyes watering. Sometimes people are mean. Seema somehow managed to say in shaking voice “nobody”.

Someone said “I told you this cry baby is too soft to play grownups game”. Another said “she should have gone to watch cartoons with other weak girls”.

I saw Seema’s face turning red with anger, she said in a stronger tone “I told you no one. Whatever you all heard are rumours spread by some some….”. She was short of words and then could manage only- “….by some bad people”.

 All girls burst in to laugh. Some girl said “CB is too shy to use abusive language”. Then something unusual happened. Sonali came for her rescue and said “let her go girls. Let’s go on with the game”. Later we realized that it was all part of the plan.

Game continued and Seema was again caught. This time she had to ‘dare’ as she had already spoken the ‘truth’. I saw the wicked expression in Sonali’s eyes.

Sonali

           I had always loved Samy. It was love at first sight since the day I joined this college. It took me a while to make him notice me. While he was senior Post-Graduate scholar, we were dating secretly. He wanted to keep our relationship secret.

“My PG degree can get in to trouble if teachers find out that I am involved with an undergraduate student” he would repeat this whenever I tried to persuade him for making our relationship public.

Then I heard rumours that he was also involved with some other girl.  He was a two timer or may be more. We had a bad fight over this. He never accepted his fault, instead blamed me for not having trust in the relationship. He broke my heart and ended our relationship. Since then I am unable to concentrate on my studies. I somehow manage my broken heart by enjoying with my friends. My heart ache subsides whenever I break these stupid rules of college. Let them punish me as much as they want, it makes me feel better.

To make my life even more miserable he joined back our college as contractual teacher and came to teach our class. Then I found out who that other girl was. It was Seema. He will display his fake appreciation openly in class. He knows how to lure girls. But, that is not enough for him. He will always compare me to her and humiliate me.

I told him to stop this cold revenge. But he again dumped all the blame on me for misunderstanding him. He gave this false explanation that he was taking care of me so that I improve and concentrate on my studies. He also showed his willingness to get back with me. However, this time even more secretly as he was a teacher now. Our relationship may cost his job and career. What a lame excuse to have two girlfriends. Now I am going to show him what revenge means.

Last night I overheard from warden room that these new contractual lady teachers are going to have a party tonight. There will be hard drinks in their party. Samy darling, the lady’s man is the supplier. He was out of campus somewhere, so was going to get late. Therefore he will drop the bottles at an abandoned watchman’s post at the back side of hostel at about 8 pm.

People say that building is haunted. This warden and her gang of ladies will fetch their party pack after mess timings are over when most girls are in their rooms. I could estimate that it will be well after 9.00 pm. I have to just manage to send Seema there before teachers.

I took help from some of my friends and manipulated her ego to make her participate in the game of ‘truth & dare’. I trapped her nicely. The ‘dare’ task I was going to give her was to fetch the bag of bottles kept in that building. However things got a little out of control.

During the game I provoked her again “leave it girls. CB is not daring enough”. All girls started looking at her and her face turned red. Suddenly that stupid girl shouted out loud “I will do it”. I was shocked and so were other girls. I am sure warden must have heard that. I said with frustration, “this is her tick to escape, she wants to attract attention of warden”.

We heard a loud shriek from the end of corridor “what is going on”? It was warden. None of us could speak. Warden again shrieked “who was shouting? What are you all doing here? Sonali what you are up to this time”? I was shaken for a moment but took control of myself.

 Now warden was even more annoyed and her shrieks were now high pitched shrill squeaks “what is going on”? Meanwhile some of the contractual teachers also joined the raid with smugness of superiority overflowing from their faces. A couple of years back they were on this side of corridor. Almost all of them had a story of their own, right from smuggling outside food to alcohol in the hostel.

“These girls will never improve” said one of them in a condescending tone. Others smiled. I could not resist and blurted “Look who is speaking, holier than thou”. Her face turned red with anger, she looked towards warden.

The dark complexion of warden turned purple she released an incomprehensible squeal. A crude translation of it can be “if you don’t tell me what was going on, I am going to call the principal right away”. It scared the contractual teachers more than us. If our principal got chance to enter girls hostel at night, he will not leave till morning. There will be long lectures, followed by regular long visits for next few days. The party they were planning will never happen.

Now it was my chance, I said “yes madam, call him. Let him see if there is something wrong here”. The smugness on their faces melted in to paleness. They started to discuss something in a very low volume. “Oh I know what you all are talking about” I thought in my mind.

“You all girls immediately go to your rooms” warden ordered finally. We left. My plan was failing. It was getting late. The bottles will be picked up any time now. As a last attempt to humiliate Seema I whispered amongst us while walking back to room “if CB is daring enough she can still go there, take a selfie and post on our hostel ‘WhatsApp’ group.”. Seema again repeated again “I will do it”.

Writer

           That night a girl named Seema secretly escaped out of her hostel. She was heading towards an old abandoned watchman’s post at the back of her hostel. The hostel was located in a remote corner of the college campus. The campus itself was far away from the city. Sighting a few wild animals once in a while was not considered unusual. That abandoned watchman’s post was there even before the hostel was constructed. A grumpy old watchman died a natural death in there during night duty. Since then none of the superstitious local people were ready for night duty in that post. Rumours kept growing. The building being old and beyond repairs was eventually abandoned. Seema was walking in the moonlit night without using any torch light. Sound of dry leaves being crushed below her feet was adding up to her fear. She was mumbling prayers to God for help. Full moon night is scarier for some people. The hazy images of surroundings fuel the imagination. Somehow she reached the building. It was completely dark in there. She was afraid to switch on the torch light in her smart phone. It can attract attention of someone and she may get caught. She took help of dim light emerging from her smartphone screen to search for the bag she was supposed to collect from there. The musty smell inside the building was worsening her fear. She searched the building but could not find any bag in there. All the while she could hear some movement sound, as if someone else is also in there. She was so frustrated of her imagination. Finally she realized that Sonali fooled her into doing this stupid act. Sonali will definitely report this to warden. However, she could still prove herself courageous by taking the selfie. She was ready to make sacrifice. She adjusted her smartphone camera to night mode and with full flash of light took a selfie. She saw the picture. It was good. Before sharing it she zoomed in to admire the proof of her courage. Just as she examined it her mouth went dry, ears felt like burning due to rush of blood, feet started shaking. There were two pale hazy faces with red shining eyes staring from the window behind.

Jeetha

           I tried a lot to prevent her from going ahead with the task but she did not agree at all. I could not have let her go all alone. So I followed her keeping a safe distance. She went in to the building. I remained outside. I saw a bright flash of light. “My God! What will happen if someone noticed it”? I thought. Then I heard Seema screaming. I almost fainted myself. I don’t remember how long it took me to gather courage but finally I entered the building to help out my friend. There I saw two ghost bent over Seema, who was lying unconscious on the filthy floor. I cried out loud “leave her alone” and jumped to rescue her. One of them shouted “please, please listen to me, I am Swaminathan your teacher and this is Sangita your assistant warden” but by then I had torn off few buttons of his shirt.

It took me a few moments to realize what was happening. When I came back to senses they asked me what both of us doing there. I could not reply. But gathered courage and asked “what you two are doing here”? Now it was their turn to be short of reply.

Sangita said “we can explain everything, but please keep it to yourself”. Then they confessed about the party. I did not know how to react, whether to laugh or not. Then I told them the whole story. After listening to me Sangita said “Lets first take care of Seema, then I will deal with Sonali”. Sangita called Warden from her phone and told her whole story, meanwhile Samy and myself tried to examine Seema’s condition. I felt really self-conscious in front of him. I had never seen him so close. Seema started coming back to her senses. I thanked God. Samy looked towards me and said “you are a brave and loyal girl”. I Blushed and thanked God once again for being in dark, otherwise he would have seen my flushing face. Warden took care of the matter and Sonali was appropriately reprimanded. From then on she was closely monitored. However I shall always remain thankful to her. It was because of this stupid Sonali that I found love of my life.

Writer

           As Jeetha finished writing her college memories in her diary she heard the door bell ringing. She got up and opened the door. Samy was standing there with two kids. Children immediately ran inside the house. Samy said “Darling, what took you so long to open the door”? Yes, Jeetha became the darling wife of Samy darling.