Chronicles of a Tamil Freshman – Part 2

“Damn it,” she thought. She knew she had a habit of doing clumsy things, and being given the top bunk would just add fuel to the fire. “What if I roll over one night, and fall flat on my face? Or, what if I gain so much weight that I break the bed and crush Eliza?” She began to imagine an obese version of herself, dressed in black, attending Eliza’s funeral. She pictured her tombstone reading: “Crushed to death by fat Tamil”.

Trying not to think about it, she began unpacking her luggage, and found the container of her mother’s infamous chicken biryani. “I’ll save this baby for tonight,” she thought. She put away her clothes and supplies in her assigned dresser, and organized her binders and notebooks for the first day of classes tomorrow. “I think that’s it,” Tanya thought to herself. She began digging through the rest of her luggage to see if she’d forgotten anything. She felt something underneath one of the folds, and pulled out a few packets of Fair and Lovely. “Jeez, thanks Amma,” Tanya muttered, as she threw the packets into the garbage bin underneath her desk.