The man seemed to be oblivious to her predicament. As she maintained a precarious balancing act on the rickety ladder while holding on to a tenuous sheet of alloy metal, he took the incoming call. Hashwini seethed. She could hear an angry voice over the phone shouting at “Sanmugan”; now she knew she was not the only one antagonised by the drunken nincompoop!

The rant on the phone went on for three full minutes. From what Hashwini could hear, it seemed that the voice belonged to Sanmugan’s bunkmate, who was reprimanding him for holding up the chartered bus. They had agreed to catch the 9pm transport back to their dormitory so that they could queue for a spot to do their laundry. Missing this bus and catching the next would mean landing themselves at the tail end of the two-hour queue and losing precious sleep that they needed.

Sanmugan murmured a slurred apology and a promise to hurry, then looked up at Hashwini and gesticulated that she should step down.

“This will just take a minute!” Hashwini shouted. She was boiling with murderous rage. “Will you hold the ladder with two hands, please?”

Taken aback by the young lady’s outburst, Sanmugan reached for the ladder with his left hand, but discovered that he could not secure a proper grasp, not while still holding the mobile phone. He took a second or two to ponder, and then solved the problem by leaning his whole body against the ladder, his head almost brushing against Hashwini’s thighs.

Hashwini felt like smacking the nincompoop’s head but decided wisely that she should just ascend the ladder, grab her bottle of hair conditioner and get the ordeal over and done with. As she climbed the third-last rung and stretched for the bottle, she thought she heard a click. She glanced downward. The man’s mobile phone was positioned directly below her.

“How dare you!” Hashwini hissed once she had both feet back on firm ground. “How dare you take a photo up my skirt!”

Sanmugan looked at her in bewilderment.

“Show me the photo you took!”

The man continued to stare at her stupidly.

Hashwini lost her patience and made a grab for the mobile phone. She was going to tap her way into the gallery when an incoming call disrupted her mission.

“Shit!” Hashwini cursed. Not knowing what to do, she handed the phone back to Sanmugan. It was the bunkmate, shouting at him again.

Hashwini decided she wasn’t going to suffer fools. Grabbing Sanmugan by his shirtsleeve, she hauled him past the crowded aisles towards the front counter, ignoring the curious stares the other shoppers threw at them. The inebriated man was strangely compliant, enduring both the rant on the phone and the manhandling by the fuming young lady without putting up a fight.

Hashwini found Kaustubh near the shop front carrying yet another crate of bottled beer. She quickly explained the situation.