#athulmenonsir

All of his roommates had left, most of the men from the corridor too, except some, who drops the first hour, most of the days, and still manage to swing around into the next semester.

I call them, 'The Brave Men'. They, who seem to be defying the '75% attendance law' (the universal law that makes college happen) are The Brave.

Well, we're drifting off a bit here, folks. The point is: How could Athul Menon sleep so peacefully even though it's half past nine? Is he one of The Brave?

I wouldn't imagine that. He's the one who said he had 'a lot of problems', one fine morning, from the hallway. That got a weak chuckle out of me at that moment, but I spent the whole night awake thinking about what's wrong with him and whether the problem was me. Oh my gosh, that was one hell of a night.

We're drifting off, again. Sorry, sorry.

Okay. Athul Menon. Sleeping. Half past nine.

What I'm saying is, it's impossible. The guy does all sorts of crazy stuff. The guy had taken a leave from the first period a couple of times last semester. He said, he just stayed in bed one day, took a really long hot water bath. He was so late and hence there was none of his psychopathic roommates to bug him. Later, he slowly walked to the Biotechnology Department's canteen, ate a Dosa, whilst the others woke up early to the chronic pain, that is Sahyadri mess hall's Upma and Pongal, which looks to me like someone threw up into that big basin, rather than breakfast, to help start my day.

A feast for my eyes, indeed.

And another time when me Azuran, Aky and Swami was vibin' in the canteen, I remember Menon just walking in all alone, ordering a coffee for himself, asking me politely when I'll be going to the lab, and telling me that he'll be late as he's going to Vallikkav to get towels.

Man, that sounds sad.

Walking alone,

all the way to Vallkkavu,

to get towels.

Damn.

I swear, I'll get to the point this time.

Okay,

deep breaths.

Athul Menon was sleeping in.

Maybe he was just depressed of doing things he has to, over and over again, like an infinite loop. Maybe that's why he was sleeping in.

But there was water.

Wait, what? Water? How? That's also what the warden, Mahesh, who happened to be unbelievably sober at the moment, had in his mind, while inspecting the rooms, to find, shout and mentally poison someone who was being late, or too lazy (I mean, tired) to go to classes.

But there was water. Let me just put this Shakespearean way.

Water! In the hallways!

I always wanted to do that.

Ahem. Furious, Mahesh kicked open every door he could find, one by one, and eventually opened Room number 134 to find our Athul Menon sleeping like a log. That too, in the lower bunk bed. If you ask him why he always picks the lower one, he’d say “I hate the upper ones“, but we obviously know why,

The night where he made a pact with himself on never sleeping more than a feet off the ground was a lonely night where Amritapuri lay inebriated with darkness.

Probably after a depressed day and several rounds of Rainbow Six Siege, Menon slept on the top bunk with no handrails on the sides of the room opposite to his, tumbled down to the floor and magically escaped with no broken ankles or wrists, where his fellow mates who were sleeping on the floor suffered from pain and later, nightmares, not even decades of therapy could remove.

I swear, that’s the last time I...

very deep breaths

Mahesh grabbed his heels and pulled him awake.

"How come there's water in my corridors?"

He didn't even care about Athul being late.

Puzzled and barely awake, Athul wanted to reply 'It's because of your past life karma', like every one of those old swamijis of the Ashram does, including the horny ones, when they are asked a question they can't answer, but just decided to go with

"I don't know, sir."

Ominous silence began to wrap up the shallow ceilings of Prahlada.

"Maybe someone spilled his hot water?"

But he added, after that awkward pause.

Water getting spilled over wasn't an uncommon phenomena in Prahlada. It was pretty interesting in the first semester, where clean water itself was a rare phenomenon, but now, people would just walk over it as they're walking over some hot lava.

"No, that water tap has broken again! Frickin Munnabhai."

Mahesh immediately took out his phone and dialed Munnabhai. "Munnabhai, idhar aavo", he babbled in what was left of his Hindi vocabulary from his military service.

After hanging up, he was slowly walking around, like he was having a panic attack.

"Why is my hostel wet!?”, he bellowed, and his voice echoed through the thin, sad walls of Prahlada.

The sound of a creaking door was heard and out, came a Telugu guy, in his uniforms, slowly, partly unsure of what he's doing.

"I spilled the water, sir, it was an accident."

I don’t know whether even a notch of embarresment or guilt went through the man’s mind at the moment, but, Mahesh, politely said it was alright and asked him to get going.

That's the life Athul Menon Ser leads.

Only he can get his sleep disturbed by the warden and get dumped by the warden, simultaneously.

Sed life.

By the way, do you realize that you've read this far and still doesn't know why Athul Menon was sleeping in?

-cjunior

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