ECC stands for Employee Care Center, in short, it refers to the Hostels managed by Infosys for employees and trainees. All the trainees were supposed to stay in the residential area of the campus. There was strict separation of hostels for boys and girls and each hostel building was guarded 24*7. Our hostel guard's name was Bojappa who was stern but helpful. He would remind us whenever we'd forget our ID cards.
Our training batch was allotted single rooms and I still remember the first day that I entered my room. One glance at the room and I felt grateful that all my hard work has finally paid off.
The room was spacious and had a neatly laid bed with two side tables, a study desk + chair to work on, large TV, and a seating area with 2 chairs and a center table. The room also had a large mirror, few cupboards, a safety locker, a telephone for calling room services, and a kettle. The bathroom had vanity cabins, a large shower area, and good lighting.
Looking back, I’d say that the Rs. 3500 rent for this room was one of the best expenses of my life.
We never really got time to spend in our hostel rooms and finally one weekend, I got some time.
The last few days of the training were quite overwhelming and I was glad that it was weekend time, I could finally get some rest. We were going back to the hostel on a Friday evening.
“Chetan asked me out.”, Myra said. Of course, he did. They spent a lot of time now that they were seated next to each other. Arjun and I exchanged looks.
“What did you say?”, I replied.
“I don’t know, he seems to be a nice guy beneath all that tough boy facade”, she said.
“And those creepy eyes. I still don’t like the way he looks at you.”, I added.
“Well, maybe he’s creepy. But he cannot help it, he has large, owl-like eyes. I feel I should give him a chance.”, she replied.
“So, you’re going out with him?”, I asked.
“Am planning to say yes. He’s become a good friend of mine and I would like to get to know him”, she said.
“Sweeeeeet”, I said, enunciating the e’s.
Myra then got a call and got busy. We reached the Girls’ hostel by then. “So, this is really happening!”, I started a conversation with Arjun. He was unusually silent the entire time.
“Good night girls”, he said instead of replying to me and sped away.
I realized that it had something to do with Chetan.
Myra and I headed to our hostel rooms. I unlocked my room's door and felt an immediate peace on seeing the tidy room. Of course, the housekeeping staff had cleaned it. Every day, we could come back to immaculate rooms, with the bed done, everything in place and the desk would be stocked with tea, coffee sachets, and milk powder. My favorite part of the hostels was definitely the housekeeping services.
The next morning, a telephone call awoke me. It was Anusha, who sat next to me in class. She asked if we could meet for breakfast and I told her that we could meet later for lunch.
Myra called within a few minutes and said that she’s meeting Chetan in an hour, “Arjun is not picking my call”, she added.
I sensed something was wrong and assured her that I’ll contact him.
I called him up but he did not take my call. He instead sent me a text saying that he was going out with some guys and would meet me in the evening.
With Myra & Arjun away, I started planning my day. I would have lunch with Anusha, Swathi ( another college mate) and maybe chill in my room for the rest of the day. We went to lunch and met other college mates in the food court.
“Hey shall we go to the laundromat today evening?”, Anusha asked me after lunch. We decided to meet at about 5 PM and went back to our hostel rooms. I laid down on my cozy bed and watched TV for a while. It felt very peaceful. We all need privacy once in a while.
At about 5 in the evening, I knocked on Anusha’s room. She came out with her laundry bag.
“Hey is it okay if Myra doesn’t join us?”, she asked.
“That’s okay. We’ll go next week”, I replied.
“You three seem very close and rather keep to yourself”, she said.
From a third person’s point of view, we did look like a closed group.
“Yes, we are close, we hung out in the same group in college”, I replied.
We reached the laundromat which was about 1 block away from our hostel. It was a large room and had about 100 washer-driers.
We picked 2 washing machines and dropped our clothes in them. 50 minutes time was displayed on it.
“Let’s go out for tea? We can come back in 40 minutes.”, I suggested.
We were crossing the road to go to the Oasis food court when we saw Arjun going on a bicycle.
“Arjun”, I shouted.
He gave a quick glance and sped without responding.
Why was he ignoring us???
- To be continued
This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.
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