Few days ago I was
chatting with my friend about my first hostel experience…. of how weird it was
, of how the food sucked and of how it
gave us the ultimate fun as we all live away from the family, experiencing
freedom as well as responsibility for the first time. For most of the students,
their first experience of staying away from the family begins when they join
college in different part of their country. I have been living in hostel from
my higher secondary and from then my amazing life has began.
Living in hostel is fun,
but I have seen many guys getting homesick and returning back to home. I
remember my first day at the hostel. I have seen mothers crying when their children
pack their bags. But it wasn’t the case with me. My parents didn’t create a scene
(thankfully). Neither did I cried or felt homesick. Of course I miss home and
the home cooked food or as we say Maa ke
haath ka khana but staying alone has
obviously made me more self reliable and independent.
When I went to college, I
choose not to stay in the college hostel. I decide to give it a try to private
hostels. Unfortunately that wasn’t a pleasant experience. My hostel or as we
say mess was owned by group of men who remained drunk whenever I saw them.
Still as I was staying with my friends and the fact that there was no entry
time limit ( well it was because the landlords were awake whole night
drinking), so it was fun initially… but the reality set in soon. My first year
classes were held early in the morning. So early that I had to leave my mess by
6.30 am in the morning to catch my college bus. The building entrance was a
sort of indoor garage and the main gate was a huge steel gate. It was quite
tall and you couldn’t even jump off the gate. The key of the main gate remained
with the landlords. So every morning I have to go and wake up a bunch of stinky,
drunk sleeping men, who used to hurl abuses at me as I was waking them up from their precious slumber. This
continued from some days till one day I saw another guy of my mess jumping off
the gate. As I said earlier the gate was too high…so that day I learned the
technique to climb that gate by noticing the guy’s technique ( like at which
corner we have to place our foot to climb etc). And there I was, jumping a 12
to 15 feet gate every morning…. I still think how I was able to do that…. So
all set, no more dealing with those drunken idiots? Umm no!!
Apparently they used to call all the messmates
and gather them at the terrace during
night and under the influence of alcohol
made fake allegations such as ” I heard someone calling me a motherf@#$er” or “I saw someone puncturing my
bike”. I have to tell that those guys were quite huge and scary too. I remember one of them was more than 6
foot tall and had shaved head and eyebrows too (much like Sanjay Dutt’s kancha
cheena in the Movie “Agneepath”,,, really creepy). So I and my friends decided
we have had enough. We decided to leave the mess. But as per the rule we have
to pay two month’s rent in advance if we have to leave. Of course it was a
verbal agreement and nothing was made legal in paper before we joined. And we
knew that if we go and talk about leaving room to those goons, they would have
created a problem. So when it was Durga Pooja vacation (eastern Indian school
and colleges remains close for two week during this festival), we packed our
stuff and said that we are leaving for home, but instead switched to a better
place. After the vacations we informed them by the phone that we have left the
place. They shouted on us but then asked us to come and give us the room key at
least, to which we replied that you are free to break the lock!!! Thus the
nightmare finally ended!! Phew!!
I know what we did wasn’t
right, but hey sometimes you have to take the crooked way. So this is what I
wanted to say about the hostel life. I would have never imagined myself getting
out of the trouble like that, but I did. So in difficult times , these are the
precious reminders which help us to overcome any difficulty.
By the end of this year, I would be joining my
first job. I know even there I have to find a bachelor’s pad but one thing
which I can tell for sure is that it would not
be as fun as the college time…
P.S , I am bunking my class and
writing this piece now!!! 
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