Hostel -- My best abode ever

My first home – Hostels

One of my cousins has said to me that I should write something personal & interesting about my life . Here it goes ….
I have lived 5 years of my life in hostel till now and one more year to go . Four years of my engineering life and two years of MBA , that makes it a little less than 25% of my life spent in hostels.
June’2000 … after getting admission in electrical, bvm engineering college I was a bit skeptical about living in hostel and leaving my sweet and comfortable home …. Pops said to me “ Son , its time you faced the world on your own but we will be there to support you” . I said in a reluctant voice “ OK” .
On the day of allotment of rooms , I went alone . There was utter chaos with people struggling to find room partners . I was also on the lookout for some good decent guys , but how does one look out for good decent guys . I said to myself “ bunny, look out for Central board people , they will the safest bet’ . So , just when room allocation was getting over I bumped into ranjit and abhishek . That was it, the day when the three musketeers met and the story of amar-akbar-anthony started .

We were first allocated Room no 62 in vindhya hostel . vindhya hostel was the nearest to campus and was an ancient sort of building with stingy bathrooms and toilets … hell even the water supply was not consistent . Sometimes, we had to go without bathing …. I did not mind that though , he he .
Well , room no 62 was on the top(second) floor . The room was very big giving us the feeling of ancient kings living in their huge palaces . Its ceiling was about 13-14 feet high with tin sheds …yes tin sheds .I will always remember these tin sheds because of the sleepless nights it has given me ….. MAN !!! the gutur-gu pigeons tapping these sheds all day long . We had iron beds which used to make a weird sound when we used to even touch the comfortable beds . So, it became pretty hot due to the tin sheds . But soon after joining, it started to rain hence the problem of scorching summers was no more but we had a new problem … crickets, frogs and some other unknown insects made entry to the rooms …. No option , I had to share my room and bed with them . One more thing , ranjit and abhishek will testify that I had a fetish for white bedsheets ….. one on the study table which was used for all purposes except studies and the other one to take over while sleeping …. Always !!!!
One routine which i will never forget are the morning classes @ 8 am …. Hell , how I reached those classes only I know . So, a person with two horns and a horrifying face used to come and wake me up at 7:55 am ….i always said “ 5 minutes aur “ … then the devil says “ u will be detained bro” ….. I sprang up on my bed and within five minutes was in the class … u can imagine what happened in those five minutes … I will leave it to your good and witty imaginations . If we used to wake up early someday … it was a ritual to go to class only after having tea, poha , bun-samosa at the SHAKTI’s .

Days passed and months passed on smoothly .



January 26th , 2001 . The devastating 7.9 richer scale Gujarat earthquake struck us at 8:46 am . Being a national holiday , the three of us were lost in their own blissful slumber. My bed was shaking as again I was thinking that the devil is here but hey the devil did not have so much power ….. my eyes just opened up a wee bit and I heard abhishek yelling “ BHAGO ,… BHAGO“ … What a bad dream … then I saw abhishek grabbing his slippers and running out of the door … I then realized IT IS AN EARTHQUAKE …. MUMMMMMY …. I got up and dammit “ where are my slippers “ .. I found the left one but after struggling found the right one and ran for the stairs . When I reached downstairs, I saw all my hostel mates in their shorts, towels , some came out halfway from their morning chores in the compound below . The earthquake lasted some 60 seconds . I did not realize the gravity of the situation until I went out and tried calling ma-pa to know their well being . All phones were jammed , electricity was not there .. those days people did not used mobiles that much . The electricity came in 30 minutes and we watched the cable with stunned shock …. Scene of total destruction and misery on the television sets ….. We went to the warden with a petition for holiday … this was the first and last time I had seen the warden …. Been a good boy that’s why never again met the warden ..he he … 1 week holiday was declared by evening and everyone went to their respective homes .
Okie then , seniors left by June’2002 and rooms on the first floor and ground floor became vacant , so we shifted to room no 35 on the first floor and this was my room for the next 2.5 years . V35 is officially also the name of our gang of ten brothers as most of the things happened there … all memories … all mishaps … all bad deeds … all beautiful memories . College went on smoothly with grades dropping after each semester .

Hostel became good once again …water supply was assured at least twice/day by the warden . Our fan was also good as it worked fine at speed five . The new batch of architecture college girls came which was just opposite our hostel … all of hostel mates standing there on the lobby of hostel with their famine stricken clothes and loser like personalities just drooling and drooling on .. he he …. So , hostel was enjoyable ..aren’t u liking it ?

I will write about the rest of my wonderful hostel years soon …. First year is over ….

Later brothers and their sisters !!! Cheers !!!!