It began to rain heavily. 'I have to run to reach my hostel', thought Meena as she stared out the window. "Meena! Meena! Get out of the class if you want to see outside," shouted Geetha ma'am, her biology teacher. Meena stood, and the bell rang. Everybody rushed out, and Meena also ran on her way to the hostel because on that day she had her "phone turn", the day where the students got their turn to use the pay phone. Meena is doing her higher secondary schooling in a hostel from a boarding school far away from her home. Her hostel has restricted the usage of mobile phones, and all they had was a couple of telephones, and students there get to use the phone only one day per week. Meena and her other classmates were assigned Thursdays as their "phone turn". Since there were only three phone booths, students had to wait in a long queue, and sometimes, for many reasons, some students won't get a chance to speak.
Meena was quite enthusiastic about speaking after a long time. She ran to the hostel, despite the heavy rain. To Meena's surprise, there was a heavy crowd around the phone booths. The warden of the hostel was trying to maintain the crowd. Meena soon took place in the queue and searched for coins in her bag. Unfortunately, she didn't find any. She had to go to the third floor because her room was there and the coins were in her room. She could possibly miss her phone turn today, or she could go to her room and quickly pick up the coins. Because the crowd that day was heavy, she thought, 'What should I do now?' and planned to go to her room and take some coins quickly. She ran and as she was finding it difficult to breathe. She searched for coins. She couldn't find any. Into the room came her roommate Monica. "Moni, do you have any coins? I need it immediately to make a phone call." Asked Meena pathetically. Monica replied sadly that she didn't have any.
Meena took some money and ran to the school's canteen, expecting she could get some coins in exchange. It was a heavy downpour. "Akka, I need coins in exchange for this twenty rupees note". The lady gave her twenty coins, and Meena ran again to her hostel. She was trying to fit herself in the queue, and that's when the warden shouted: "Nobody is allowed anymore. Go to your rooms. The time is over. Rest of you can speak next week". Meena, with tears bubbling in her eyes, saw the girl who was standing near the phone booth, talking very happily. This is the third week Meena is missing her phone turn, and when will she be able to speak on that phone again? Who knows!