My Ghostly Affairs-Conclusion (without ghost)

(-continued after the last post-)

           After a (not so) thrilling night of ghost hunting we returned to our respective rooms. I slept very well. Got up at 9 the next morning, it was Sunday by the way. The mess served paper roast (very thin but very large dosa), which was my favorite. I ate a lot and slept again. Sure we had exam the next day, but I was one of those arrogant guys who won’t start studying until the exam is less than 12 hours away, which I was going to regret soon.

            I woke up again at about 11 in the morning, not for studying but because I got bored of sleeping. I went to the restroom for freshening up. I don’t know what happened next. I was standing there in front of mirror and suddenly everything went black.

            I woke up to the sound of my friends talking. When I opened my eyes I was lying on my bed and everyone was looking at me. It’s an awkward feeling when you wake up and find everyone sitting around you looking at you, like I’m some celebrity.

            In a movie like manner I looked around and said, “Where am I?”

            A friend sitting nearby said, “Nothing dude, no need to worry. You just banged your head on the floor of bathroom and went unconscious.” Well that’s reassuring.

            I tried to get up but couldn’t. It was like my head was plastered on my neck. Any movement to the neck sent a million volt electricity into the whole body. I just lied there thinking about what happened in the restroom, but it was like my memory was erased. I just remember standing there. It’s nothing paranormal though, I hope. This oblivion is just a side effect of being knocked out.

            Apparently, what must have happened is, due to sudden waking up and walking (to the bathroom) there was a head rush which made me feel a little dizzy. It happens to everyone some time or other, immediately after getting up after a long time and if you stay put it passes away. I must’ve lost balance for a second and fell back straight like a statue. Bad luck for me, I hit some very sensitive part on the back of my head, like some restart button on me, and I was logged out of reality. Later I found out that while I was lying there my eyes were open. A Hindi guy came to the restroom, saw me lying there motionless, thought me for dead, and ran away even without finishing his business what he came for. Then one of my friends happened to come there and saw me lying. He ran to my room and told everyone and so I was brought to the safe embrace of my bed.

            The guy who saw me first didn’t tell anyone as he didn’t wish to be part of a police case. Maybe he was hoping to hear the news of a dead boy and act surprised. His roommates noticed him nervous the whole day and asked what’s up with him. He muttered, “One man dead in bathroom” by which time I had recovered. One of his roommates was my classmate who assured him that nobody had died indeed. Later “One man dead in bathroom” became a famous phrase among my friends, to mock me.

            Back to my story. Someone applied Iodex on my neck but the pain was killing me. I told them I couldn’t turn my neck. To make matters worse, guys had seen a Tamil movie called ‘Sivi’ the previous night on TV (also ‘Shutter’ in English). It shows a guy suffering with neck pain only to find out in the end (spoiler alert!) that a ghost is sitting on him all the time. It took no time for the guys to connect the movie with my neck pain and the ghost hunting we went to the previous night. I don’t think it made any difference when I said that we saw no ghost there. I was named “Pei pudi” which loosely translates to “Ghost Catch”. It’s not clear who caught whom from the name. Even today some of my college friends call me that (which is annoying btw).

             The greatest tragedy wasn’t that I was hurt or that I threw up a couple of times or that people called me haunted or the annoying nickname, but we had university exam the very next day. It was evening by the time I could sit straight. Whole head still hurt like hell. I had to turn like a robot to look at anything or anyone. It was frustrating and the fact that I couldn’t concentrate on studying on top of this pain was pissing me off. I wished I could just remove my head for some time to get away from the pain and study a little. But the eyes are with the head so… never mind, it’s a bad joke anyway. Point is I was sure I’m going to fail this time.

            I had not touched the book yet, because I always studied the last night before exam. All the other times, I had been very lucky and got away with my express study routine, without flunking. They called me lucky guy for a reason. Whatever question I read last before entering the exam hall, came in the paper. Or perhaps it’s the other way around, because the question paper was printed long before I read that answer. It worked for me every damn time. I really don’t know how. Now, it was like someone ‘up there’ finally found me cheating the system and wanted to teach me a lesson for not reading my lessons. To make it even worse, it started raining. ‘He’ was pointing finger at me, laughing and saying “Beta thu tho ab gaya” or ”Mavane setha di nee” or “You are screwed my son” and in many other languages. It was a pain in the neck, literally.

            It was a theoretical paper but with some mathematical problems. Great isn’t it, no hope at all. I learned how to solve a few problems that the question paper might contain. Couldn’t study any other theory parts, I was already overloaded, not with info but with pain. This wasn’t some theory where I could write my own thesis in exam paper. It was science; you had to understand it, which wasn’t going to happen with this excruciating pain. Finally I thought,

“I’m going to flunk anyway. There’s no point fighting the battle after knowing you’re lost. Why not take some good rest before I take the fall.”

           Only problem, I couldn’t sleep either. I tried different positions but my neck wasn’t agreeing in any of them. The pain got worse after the turning and twisting. In the end, a friend who had breathing trouble and chronic cold taught me how he sleeps when he has trouble sleeping. He folded the pillow in an inverted ‘U’ shape and I put my head in it. It was comfortable since I won’t be able to move my neck now involuntarily during sleep. All was good, except one thing. The damn rain won’t go. It started thundering just to mock me even more. I covered my ears and after a long battle, finally dozed off.

            Next morning, I’m sitting in the hall. I receive the question paper. “What’s this non-sense?” I say. I don’t know anything on the question paper. It’s all gibberish. Nothing I learned the previous night. I look at my friends around. They’re all lost in the paper. “Traitors” I curse. I look again at the paper. Where are the problems, I’m only good with problems. I’ve never heard of such things on the question paper. I try to look at the paper of the girl sitting in front. Just then the invigilator comes from the back, “What are you doing? Get up.”

            I woke up with a start. I realized it’s morning, and with that the pain in the neck came back. Just a bad dream, I told myself. Not gonna be a dream much longer, my mind replied. There was lot of sound outside. People don’t make noise when they’re preparing for exam. That’s the time when even the burliest of bullies makes peace with the nerd. At least in the morning, a couple of hours before exam, you can even see people in the restroom brushing teeth with a book in one hand. They eat with a book, spill coffee on the book. So why this disturbance?

            I came out of the rooms. Guys were moving excitedly to and fro. Soon my roommate came from the outside.

            “What’s up with the noise? Did someone die for real?” I asked (like I cared). Nothing could be good in my condition. I was sure of it.

            “No dude, your lucky stars shined again” he said grinning.

            “I’m in pain and that’s not sign of luck.” I said.

            “Nope, but the exam has been postponed due to heavy rain last night.”

            No frigging way, I thought. Nature isn’t so cruel after all. Even better, the exam was scheduled for 2 weeks after this day. So I had enough time to go home, get some treatment, have the much needed rest, and of course study for the exam. The subject was “Signals and Systems”. If you studied in any one of Anna university affiliated colleges in the 2007-11 batch, you would remember that an exam was postponed in our 2^nd year (3^rd semester). But then again I studied on the last day. Some habits never go. Unfortunately many people failed in that exam even after getting so much time, but hey, I passed.

            I’m not the only one cheating with the education system, because as soon as the university had announced holiday, the rain stopped. It was like He turned off the faucet.

New Theory: We could use this power, you know. Whenever a region is having heavy downpour and there’s a threat of flood, ask the educational institutions in that area to announce holiday. The rain will stop. Works every time!