Ria and her father spend the next two days checking out various medical colleges in Mumbai but in the end, her father decided to send Ria to the same medical college, from where studied MBBS. Ria's father already spoke with a person from the administrative office and got her a paid medical seat.
Lakshmi Narayan Medical College was located away from central Mumbai, very close to the outskirts. Her father had already informed her that it would take two hours for them to reach college. Ria and her father had already booked a cab to travel to the college. Though Mumbai was a thickly populated city, the outskirts were filled with several trees and shrubs. As the car drove she also saw a white temple with a beautiful garden in front. Ria asked the driver to stop so that she could take pictures from her new iPhone. Although her father l
Ria filled the form for admission and gave it to her father, who submitted it along with her high school certificates to a bald man who sat outside the Dean's room.In return, the man gave him a couple of papers. On the top of one of the papers,Medical Fitness Certificatewas written. Few papers were attached to it from behind."We are taking most of the tests in this building today. You can go to the study room on the first floor. They will guide you from there for other tests. The X-ray will be taken only in the hospital." said the bald man.Ria along with the father walked used the U shaped stairs near the office to reach the floor. The study room was directly in front of them. It was a huge room with students sitting at one end and doctors examining the students
Ria managed to give her urine sample in the washrooms on the ground floor. Though she argued with her father all the way downstairs, she finally used it. Although the washroom down was stinking as well, she quickly collected her sample.For an X-ray of the chest, she had to go to the hospital. Ria and her father stood outside a room on the ground floor of the hospital. Along with students many patients too had to wait. When her turn came, she went inside the room. Ria didn't have any problem while doing this test.It was afternoon by the time they finished all the tests. Ria and her father went back to the office but most of the staff including the Dean itself were on lunch break. Ria and her father went outside to a restaurant nearby for lunch. They planned to eat and go back quickly.
Ria spend the next few days buying books for her college. While she had gone inside to give the x-ray for her chest, her father had gone to the office to get the list of books needed. In addition to this, she also had to buy aprons and a dissection box.Her aunt insisted her father to buy some traditional clothes for her as well."Your daughter doesn't look like Indian. That shirt is so short and those jeans are so tight. She is going to study in a college that is away from the city. People from villages and towns will come there. There will not look at her as a doctor. Please buy some Indian clothes for her." said Mrs Gayatri Malhotra."There is no way I will wear those uncomfortable clothes.""Ria, Gayatri is right. You must wear so
A woman in her middle-aged opened the chocolate brown door of the hostel. She wore a simple blue sari and her black hair was tied in a bun."Do you have the receipt for hostel fees?" asked the woman, looking at Ria and her father.Mr Kunal Singh removed a small piece of paper and gave it to the woman. The woman looked at it and nodded her head."Ria Singh?" asked the woman looking at the paper."Yes?""You can come inside with your bag now. There is only one room left for you to stay. Usually, the freshers take the ground floor but since you arrived just a day before the first day of college, you will have to take a room on the second floor."
Ria and Nazia sat on their beds unpacking their suitcases quietly. Ria didn't remove her clothes but she removed a large plastic cover which she kept separately to put used clothes in. She wondered if there was any laundry shop nearby the college."Is there any laundry shop nearby?" Ria asked Nazia."No, but there is a room downstairs that has a washing machine, a television and a fridge. We can use it but we have to pay the warden.""I have noticed something in India. We have to pay for every small thing. I mean payment just to keep something in the fridge sounds absurd to me." said Ria, shocked."I know it sounds funny. I can understand about using a washing machine but we will hardly use a fridge. We would be eating in the hostel canteen. Maybe once or twice we may need to keep something in the fridge and just for that, we have to pay. It sounds like the college is desperate for money." said Nazia.
It was almost eight in the evening and the girls on the second floor seemed excited. They kept moving in and out of one particular room on the floor. Some of the girls brought up balloons, ribbons and white masking tapes for decoration on the walls. A tall girl with a nose ring and black t-shirt stood in the corner of the room and switched on her laptop."Amrita, which song should we play first?" asked the girl turning to a girl who sat on a chair beside her."Manisha let's put that Ik vaari aa song from Raabta."A girl with curly black hair and dark purple glasses glared at them as she arranged paper plates on a table near the bed. She wondered what her roommate planned for them. It was their first night at the hostel and she didn't want to cause any more trouble but she a
Ria had never expected her first evening on the campus to be so eventful. She didn't think she would land in trouble with the seniors. Even though she felt happy after getting them arrested, she wondered what lay ahead of her.She didn't bring anything for the mattress because she thought that it was already provided by the hostel so she asked Nazia if she could borrow a bedsheet from her. It was the only thing she could do for the moment. Ria decided to send some money to her uncle and ask him to buy a couple of bedsheets and a blanket for her.Nazia removed two white bedsheets. She gave one to Ria and adjusted the other one on the mattress.Ria sighed as she sat on the bed. She looked at Nazia who had already fallen asleep. Ria now decided to focus on her plan. Tomorrow w
After jogging, both Nazia and Ria took baths one after the other. Ria wore a dark blue long shirt on her denim jeans while Nazia wore a long brown shirt on brown trousers. They both got out of their room and walked downstairs. The hostel canteen was separated from the regular canteen. The hostel canteen was in another two-storey building right beside the girl's hostel. This building was built in between the boys and girls hostel. The boys had to eat upstairs while the girls ate downstairs. Ria wondered about the reason for this separation and thought if the boys were so terrible to eat with.The hostel canteen had several small round tables with chairs around it. There was a small table near the door that had two large dishes kept on it. One dish had a popular Indian dish called Dal, a dish that was prepared in form of a soup. It was a dish rich in pulses and onions. Tomatoes and various