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…..

Antarnaad

It was there again..., the long awaited event.... annual gathering; comes every year, in a new disguise… This time it was named “Infinity-2011”. But my mind drifted around the previous ones –“Antarnaad-2010” and the “Summer Zeal -2009”; the same hustle and bustle, the same anxiety, and in the end, the same sense of fulfillment. Though this time, I was only a silent spectator, I was trying to relive those golden moments… And the actual gathering day, was a climax… Along with the same feelings, I got to hear the same songs… I was totally in my own world. I could imagine Prajakta in “Chandu ke chachane…” (I know, others were there – but the cameraman caught only her actions :-) ) and visualize Richa and Chetan in place of this year’s Banasthallite and Puneite pair, on zoobi doobi . In fact the puneite here also was a Kulkarni. Instead of Anjana in Totakahini, I could see Swati revolving merrily in “khwabon ki galiyaan”, and how can I forget Nikhil, when confronted with “Pappu can’t dance sala”. 

In all, it was a good ruminating experience, which enthused me to have a short trip down the long memory lane….

Reunion... in part

The day before yesterday was the convocation day. Finally, we graduated with master’s in Statistics. As the date of convocation was announced, the excitement mounted since it was meant to be a day to be spent with the good old buddies. (Not old exactly…it’s just eight months since we have parted, yet it seems to be a lengthy interlude of separation from the cronies (especially the hostel dwellers)). But, alas…not many of them were there. No prize for guessing reasons…because though graduation means passing the final exam i.e. the end of studies, it’s in fact like qualifying the entrance exam of real life; to decide whether you are fit to come out of the academic cocoon. And there come the difficulties associated with the real life like getting leave, securing tickets and so on… So were my friends pestered by these problems and couldn’t make it to the program. But still, there were quite a few lucky ones. To be precise, we, four project partners were able to meet as planned, after overcoming some petty obstacles.

It looked as if nothing had changed. The same meeting place: open canteen…, the same delay by one of us (though this time it was me who caused the hold up and not the ones who were known for getting delayed most of the times), irritated others bothering her by calling every minute…, everyone skipping lunch for making up this delay, the relentless chatter, the incessant photo session, …all these, unmindful of the other tasks seeking attention. And then abrupt goodbyes, once the deadlines were looming. The only difference was – we didn’t think twice, while hiring an auto to catch the running time, the reasons being: we are earning and now, missing deadlines would cost more than just a few grades here and there. 

After all, that’s life…smaller joys replaced by bigger ones at the cost of lesser sorrows being replaced by the larger ones…