Thursday, April 19, 2012

Hostel मध्ये पाहावे राहून

Last night, my roommate returned to the room exhausted by the efforts of breaking a lock in her friend’s room. The rock had hit the cupboard more times than the actual lock and finally they had given up. Just then, I recalled that I have an iron rod, preserved specially for this purpose. I offered it to her, told her the technique that worked for me twice and she was back in two minutes rejoicing that finally, the lock had surrendered.  This made me think about what are the new experiences that hostel life has given me. Here are a few of them:

1. How to break a lock: In fact, one of my classmates was such an expert lock-breaker that we used to tease her that we need to inform her employer about this skill which she hadn't mentioned in her CV. ;)

2. How to locate, identify and kill a bedbug: Bedbug was a creature, which had met me only through stories. In fact, I didn’t know what a bedbug looked like.  In earlier days, we had a roommate who used to examine each and every insect found in our room and would give her verdict on whether the suspect was bedbug or not. Later on, all of us acquired the skill of locating the bedbugs, tracking down their habitats, destroying their colonies by using various weapons like candles, pesticides, heat, water, cement and what not.

3. How to repair a drenched laptop/cellphone: Just open it up, try to clean the wet portions by a dry cloth and then put it below a working laptop until it gets dried completely. It recovers pretty fast and gets back to work, except for a few minor injury marks on its screen, which get cured with the passing time.  In case of a drenched cellphone, use the laptop adaptor as the hot bed. (Practice at your own risk ;))

4. How to sleep on newspapers: This was a really rare experience. You cannot claim your own bedding kept in luggage room, just because you couldn’t complete the technical formalities of hostel admission. So, you are forced to sleep on the newspapers, though it’s cold outside.

5. Lazybones may help: This is in continuation with the previous one. You spend a night shivering. Next day, you manage to complete the admission procedure and return to hostel to collect your luggage, only to realize that you are too late. That is what happened with us. Eight of us had slept on the newspapers, the earlier day. Next day, we requested for the luggage, but were told that as it was already 4.30pm, only two of us can get their bedding. Then suddenly we recalled that, two of us had kept two mattresses each (one their own, one their roommate’s, as their roommates were too lazy to take care of their own belongings). So, we got four mattresses though we were allowed to take out only two. In this way, the lazybones, who didn’t take care of putting their things on their own name, helped us.

That’s enough for today. There are still many more. Will write about them at some later date…..

13 comments:

  1. Light and crispy post :)

    Delighted to see various shades of your writing ..

    All reminiscences of hostel life refreshed .. Great work !!

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    1. Thanks, Richa. Would like to have your suggestions for part-II of this post....

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  2. Replies
    1. Would love to read about ur IISc / Madumalai experiences as well

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  3. you still have the rod..!!!
    gud gud...
    nice post...

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Harshada.
      Yes, I still have the rod. I guess, I'll part with it only when I leave the hostel...

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  4. Completely agree with Richa.. I really like this lighter face of your writing :)

    PS: Loved this post, so wanted to comment, but kept it pending in a hope that I will share some incidence.. have procrastinated for 2 days now. Seems I am too poor in recalling :(

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, will try to have some posts on the similar note...

      And for recalling, it's never too late... So, keep trying :)

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  5. Here, AK gives another category for posts. Mixture Post. Title in Marathi and post in English? So, its a mixture type post!

    Agreed that one should at hostel sometime in life. That's why I keep threatening Madhav that if he doesnt behave good, he will be sent to boarding school. Sometimes it works.

    Nice Post and I hope to have a series of posts on this topic.

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    1. Couldn't come up with a good equivalent in English for this Marathi title... So, had to write a "mixture type" of post.

      Thanks. Hope, I can have a series of posts dedicated to this issue...

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  6. Thank tou so much for this post!!! While reading the post I felt as if I was back in the hostel...
    The memories are still quite fresh :)

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    1. Thanks Amrin! Hope you will give me some more topics with the help of your sharp memory!!

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    2. Hey as monsoon begins it reminds me of the photo-shoot :D we hostelites did for a newspaper near the hostel!!! I guess that newspaper is still with Swati.

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