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Monday, February 8, 2010

Life….in a hostel

It’s been nearly six months and I’ve been mentioning, or rather droning on, about what life in college is like. But while having a nice warm meal in the hostel mess a day ago, it hit me that I haven’t said much about hostel itself. So I suppose the time is right to publish a post on the day to day life of a hostelite.

It was on the slightly hot day of 8th August last year that I began my life as a hostel ‘inmate’. My father had come to drop me off at Chennai and had to leave the same day, so goodbyes were rushed and procedures barely completed. It was around twilight when I made my way back to the room I’d been allotted, room 508, though somebody had managed to scratch a ‘1’ at the end and give us a unique four digit room number. That night was the only time I felt the tiniest of twinges of leaving home for the first time and staying somewhere new. With just a mattress, some bags, a Bisleri bottle and a pack of biscuits for company, I slept off quite comfortably alone in my new room.

The next day was my first experience of the mess. After having heard horror stories about hostel food from cousins who attended college around the country, I must say I was apprehensive. But what greeted me was something totally unexpected. Yes, the food was good! I had expected my digestive system to take a week or two to get adjusted to the change but thankfully it settled in without complaint.

The same day I met my first roommate (who is also a classmate) and started getting acquainted with him, a fascinating experience as he hails from Manipur. This gave me an idea of the cultural exposure I was soon to receive here and also an understanding that maybe those horror stories were not a universal truth. Within a week or two, we were joined by another of our classmates, thus completing the trio and settling in to our new lifestyle. Or so we thought, until we realized that one more of our mates was in a different room at the same hostel and invited him over now and then, which has now reached the point where we now have four people in the room at all times(we’re charging rent from next month Bunty!!)

Coming back to the topic at hand, our hostel, like all other ones in our campus, has a weird name. It’s called Sannasi (we think). Because every time we tell someone where we stay, they say its name is something different. It’s been called A block, mess block and even staff quarters! At just five floors, it’s also among the smaller ones. But the advantage is that it’s one of the oldest too, meaning we have a properly working wi-fi connection and even attached bathrooms.

The funny thing is, every day I spend here I see someone new. It’s been a while, but other than recognizing a few faces and returning the occasional smile, it’s almost an alien place. Yet, there’s a sense of belonging among us all. It’s a unique feeling, a group of unconnected strangers, with bleary eyes and tousled hair, eating a late breakfast together on a Sunday morning. We come from different backgrounds and different parts of the country, yet we fit in somehow, almost like family.

Then there’s the sheer madness of hundreds of young people cooped up in a single building. Loud music playing, the sounds of swords clashing and engines revving from the many laptops in each room, hyena like laughter from god knows where, screams and shouts from midnight birthday celebrations, you name it.

As for us, we contribute to all the above mentioned things in proper hostel spirit. Watching cricket matches in the TV room, cheering with everyone who managed to fit in, planning to hit the gym at 6 in the morning and missing first period of class instead, fighting for bathrooms, flicking each other’s deodorant and burning holes in wallets at the food court. That Is not counting midnight walks in campus after tipping the guard and going for coffee. There’s so much more, but you get the idea!
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that hostels don’t sleep. No matter what time it is, a little stroll in the hallways to re-fill the water bottle will find guys walking around talking to girlfriends and relatives (in that order), watching movies, and very rarely, undertaking late night study sessions. And over the past few months, I’ve joined this strange species that’s always awake and doing something or the other.

The thing is, it’s not such a bad place to be. If you have some passion for staying on your own and managing your own stuff, can wash your own clothes and have a spirit for adventure, then life is here. Of course, the food here is great, so that’s a huge factor you should make sure of before deciding to become an ‘inmate’.

So if you’ve heard horror stories too, take them with a pinch of salt. All the stuff I mentioned here is true, since exaggeration really isn’t necessary when it comes to this.

That’ll be it for this post then, any longer and my roommates will throw me out. It’s my turn to re-fill the water you see…
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