Sometime back I had to go to Bangalore for a period of 2 months for my final year project work. I spent 2 months in a PG accommodation located near a busy Tippasandra Main Road. Those where some of the most memorable days in my life... Why? Because, most of my lifestyle was changed as I tried to blend in to the Bangalore.
Let me start with our accommodation itself. It was a room in a nearly enviable duplex at a prime location in that area. The rooms were in the first floor. This was my first experience in a PG. Though it is supposedly called a Paying Guest accommodation, it was actually more like a hostel with around 15 girls living there apart from the PG aunty. Aunty had only 2 worries in running the PG- Water and Electricity. Electricity is expensive in Bangalore. And hence, we were initially allowed only those mini CFL bulbs! Later we had to cajole aunty into changing those into power-saver tubelights. After that electricity related stuff was OK with her.
Sometime after we went to Bangalore, one night, we went to sleep only around midnight. I was partially asleep. Suddenly I was awakened by some sounds outside the room. The room-doors are generally kept half-open so I was able to see some movement outside. After a few seconds, our door was opened. I was terrified(yes, at midnight, in the dark, I am afraid of ghosts... :P). A pale glow, with no form or size appeared. I thought I was only dreaming and that it was only a figment of my imagination. I tried to cover my eyes with my blanket and see through it. The form started walking into the room. I could hear faint tapping sounds. It crossed our beds and went to the other side of the room. By then all three of us were wide awake but only too scared to get up. Suddenly a bright white light flooded the room. I used all the courage I had to open my eyes fully and see. I saw a pale form. It wore a pale robe and a pale cloth covered its head. I let out a silent shriek. It turned towards me. It was aunty.
"Kya hua? Mein night-mein tap check karne aaongi... Kal 5:30 tum teenon snaan karna... pani waste mat karo... tap open mat rakhna..."
Aunty is from Karnataka, and like most Kannadigas, is really fair. She generally prefers to wear salwars with long, pale kurtis because it is easy to work with. January nights in Bangalore are cold, so aunty was wearing a scarf. And she too was half asleep, so she looked pale. And for the next 2 months she believed with her heart and soul that at nights we deliberately leave all the taps open. Are we crazy or what? Like we wanted to flood the house and sail paper boats in it or something.
We are night-owls. We used to work late every night. But everyone else in the PG would go to bed by 10. So aunty felt we were disturbing everyone else by keeping our light on. And so she would lock our room from outside!!! Everynight, around 12, she would come to check the taps and will always lock the door from outside. Every morning, in order to go out of the room, we have to bang the door until someone wakes up and opens it.
Our room was connected to a balcony, the entrance to which was from the common area. There was a window on the wall between the balcony and our room. Every night, around 10, the others will close the balcony door and go to sleep. Once, around midnight, when we too had gone to bed, I started hearing a weird groaning sound from the balcony. I got a little scared and asked my friend if she too heard it. She said that I was either dreaming or trying to scare them. But after a few minutes, she too heard it. I thought I should go check it out, but my friend warned me to not do so, since the groaning sound had stopped. But at that moment I was feeling like I was in a horror movie! :P So I decided to check it out anyway. I went out of our room and near the balcony door. I stood there listening for a while. After a few minutes, I felt a movement. I took another step closer and tried to listen more keenly. I felt the movement again, this time it was right behind me. I was felt a sudden chill. I tried to not move a single muscle but the eyes to see what it was, but I couldn't. And suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder. I shrieked and turned around. My friend was standing there,"I just came to see if everything's alright.". At that exact moment, the groan resumed, a little distant now. From what I guessed, it was right next to our window and a little away from the door. My other friend usually slept right next to the window and she was asleep now. I was engulfed in an acute fear. With all my courage, I opened the door. A girl from the PG was standing there. She had been locked out. She had been whispering to us from near then window to see if we were awake. That was the groan.
And that's was the "Night-Life" in our PG! :P More about it in the next post! :)
Let me start with our accommodation itself. It was a room in a nearly enviable duplex at a prime location in that area. The rooms were in the first floor. This was my first experience in a PG. Though it is supposedly called a Paying Guest accommodation, it was actually more like a hostel with around 15 girls living there apart from the PG aunty. Aunty had only 2 worries in running the PG- Water and Electricity. Electricity is expensive in Bangalore. And hence, we were initially allowed only those mini CFL bulbs! Later we had to cajole aunty into changing those into power-saver tubelights. After that electricity related stuff was OK with her.
Sometime after we went to Bangalore, one night, we went to sleep only around midnight. I was partially asleep. Suddenly I was awakened by some sounds outside the room. The room-doors are generally kept half-open so I was able to see some movement outside. After a few seconds, our door was opened. I was terrified(yes, at midnight, in the dark, I am afraid of ghosts... :P). A pale glow, with no form or size appeared. I thought I was only dreaming and that it was only a figment of my imagination. I tried to cover my eyes with my blanket and see through it. The form started walking into the room. I could hear faint tapping sounds. It crossed our beds and went to the other side of the room. By then all three of us were wide awake but only too scared to get up. Suddenly a bright white light flooded the room. I used all the courage I had to open my eyes fully and see. I saw a pale form. It wore a pale robe and a pale cloth covered its head. I let out a silent shriek. It turned towards me. It was aunty.
"Kya hua? Mein night-mein tap check karne aaongi... Kal 5:30 tum teenon snaan karna... pani waste mat karo... tap open mat rakhna..."
Aunty is from Karnataka, and like most Kannadigas, is really fair. She generally prefers to wear salwars with long, pale kurtis because it is easy to work with. January nights in Bangalore are cold, so aunty was wearing a scarf. And she too was half asleep, so she looked pale. And for the next 2 months she believed with her heart and soul that at nights we deliberately leave all the taps open. Are we crazy or what? Like we wanted to flood the house and sail paper boats in it or something.
We are night-owls. We used to work late every night. But everyone else in the PG would go to bed by 10. So aunty felt we were disturbing everyone else by keeping our light on. And so she would lock our room from outside!!! Everynight, around 12, she would come to check the taps and will always lock the door from outside. Every morning, in order to go out of the room, we have to bang the door until someone wakes up and opens it.
Our room was connected to a balcony, the entrance to which was from the common area. There was a window on the wall between the balcony and our room. Every night, around 10, the others will close the balcony door and go to sleep. Once, around midnight, when we too had gone to bed, I started hearing a weird groaning sound from the balcony. I got a little scared and asked my friend if she too heard it. She said that I was either dreaming or trying to scare them. But after a few minutes, she too heard it. I thought I should go check it out, but my friend warned me to not do so, since the groaning sound had stopped. But at that moment I was feeling like I was in a horror movie! :P So I decided to check it out anyway. I went out of our room and near the balcony door. I stood there listening for a while. After a few minutes, I felt a movement. I took another step closer and tried to listen more keenly. I felt the movement again, this time it was right behind me. I was felt a sudden chill. I tried to not move a single muscle but the eyes to see what it was, but I couldn't. And suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder. I shrieked and turned around. My friend was standing there,"I just came to see if everything's alright.". At that exact moment, the groan resumed, a little distant now. From what I guessed, it was right next to our window and a little away from the door. My other friend usually slept right next to the window and she was asleep now. I was engulfed in an acute fear. With all my courage, I opened the door. A girl from the PG was standing there. She had been locked out. She had been whispering to us from near then window to see if we were awake. That was the groan.
And that's was the "Night-Life" in our PG! :P More about it in the next post! :)
