The Misadventures of Naina Dholakia

Bumpy arrivals

Naina

The car ride towards college is a mixture of nervous, excited and unpredictable emotions. I find myself more anxious about didi's moment of truth revelation than the fact that this is the first time I'll be living on my own. Although home is just an hour away, living with roommates, having the freedom to go wherever I want and living on my terms is a new world to me. 

"I hope your dad doesn't keep running around like a madman all day..." my mom thinks out loud as I also worry about my ever-hyper dad who takes everything too seriously. He always puts us first and him last but he does so in terms of his work too. I think about how I used to refill his water bottles and remind him of his evening tea multiple times and how he'd say if it wasn't for me or mom, he'd forget to eat and drink. We know it's not healthy but we've lectured him more times than I can count and he still loses himself in the whimsical world of motel management. 

"Oh shit!" I exclaim as I remember that I forgot one of my favorite blue nighty with penguins on it. Nooooooooooooo-

"The fuck!" Didi shouts at me while looking in the rear-view mirror to see if anything happened on the road.

"I forgot my penguin nighty." I whisper as my mom and sister sigh simultaneously, probably wondering which mighty deeds of theirs led them to have a delightful daughter and sister like me.

"You shouted as if you left your college id card back home. Pagal." My mom scolds me, rightfully so. I really need that nighty though. Also, that was a good reminder to check if I brought my id card or not. I secretly rummage in my purse to find it and thankfully it's there. Phew. I really didn't want to die at the hands of my sister and mom on this pitty freeway this fresh morning. 

When the navigation shows that college is 4 miles away, my heartbeats start rising and the breakfast I had this morning starts moving around turbulently in my stomach like my dad around the motel on busy weekends. 

"At the next light, take a left," I tell my sister as we near the campus.

"I heard it the first time." She says heatedly and I can sense she's nervous about the big reveal. If only she listened to my golden advice about waiting till she gets a job. Sigh. There's no appreciation for young people's foresight these days.

As we enter the designated parking lot to pick up my keys, my stomach makes yet another sound which if put on repeat could be successfully used to torture and seize information out of a perp in custody. 

"Can you not? Your tummy tornado will scare away these poor volunteers," Didi says referring to the students giving us check-in packets and directing us to the designated area to get trolleys. 

We finally park our fully-loaded car in the lot and walk towards the volunteers giving out blue trolleys to move our stuff up to the apartment. Why does it look like I have the most stuff out of all these people? 

"See, mom? I told you to lecture me hard if it looked like I overpacked. Look around us! People are basically moving empty trolleys to their apartments!" I look around nervously and then at my overloaded trolley which looks like it could burst any minute. 

"As if it would make a difference. There's one big bag just full of all the things you need to sleep. Why do you need two full blankets, one medium blankie, one small blankie, two pillows, one smaller pillow and one apple-shaped stuffed toy to sleep?" My mom counts my sleeping buddies loudly in front of the entire world and I put my mask up again.

"MOM! It's not a toy. It's much more than that. It helps me sleep at ease. Do you not want me to sleep at ease?" I defend the tiny little red pillow that I hold to sleep imagining it is someone...

"Enough. Let's go up now." Mom says and we enter the building and into the elevator that takes us to the fifth floor where my room is. This is the topmost floor in the building. Good thing I won't hear other people moving above me. A small ray of positivity enters my mind as I punch in the passcode given to me with my key and open the doors of my spacious 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment. The living room is quite spacious, the sofas look comfy, the kitchen is big enough for the four of us, perfect. I take a deep breath and open my assigned bedroom door which is the last room in the right corner. Even more perfect.

I open the door to a lovely view of mountains seen from my windows and the cozy little bedroom that I will have all to myself. The room comes with a twin-sized bed, a decent-sized desk and chair, a fairly big closet, and a bedside table. I couldn't ask for anything better than this. 

"I love it!" I exclaim with happiness and take another good look at my home for the next two years. 

"If you're done being aroused by a room, can we unload your things now? We have to make a second round too," My sister reminds me I actually have to organize the room and not just stand and stare. The three of us get to work and mom starts unpacking my clothes to put in the closet while didi and I unpack stuff to put on my desk: laptop, charger, lamp, pen stand, and a box of tissues which will come in handy when they leave, a small perfume bottle and a photo-frame holding a photo of my three best friends back in India. They are already too excited for me to start college in the US and want all the details of things happening with me and around me. I'll probably be serving them news on the latter because nothing interesting happens with me, for the most part. 

At least I thought so.

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Gujarati-to-English translation:

Pagal: mad