My Room

Red curtains. A red lamp casting yellow light. A red chair. Bedsheets with red design on them. A laptop that has forgotten the last time it was shut down. A teddy bear that is slowly asphyxiating inside its cover because its owner thinks it would be too girly to take it out. A white piece of thermocol with some twenty pairs of earrings hung on it. A cupboard containing way too many clothes. A basketball in the corner. Clothes chucked here and there. Course books that have clearly never been opened. A folded up rajai and two red cushions pretending that they form a cool floor-seating-type thing.

The view outside is of the ugly, lichen-laden back of the cafeteria - which is why she never opens her curtains. But sometimes, when it's just about to rain, she opens the curtains and sits at the corner of the bed. She loves the sight of the buildings framed in black clouds. She wishes she could burn that picture onto her mind - try as she might, she can't take a photo that quite captures the magic of that moment.

There's music perpetually on - music that none of her neighbours appreciate. English music - Coldplay, Blue October, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Fleetwood Mac - Hindi music, Malayalam music, Tamil music. Eclectic? Nope - 'wannabe' is more like it.

I like this room - it's my sanctuary.