In my previous post Hostel life : Part 1 i recounted my experience in a hostel for the 4 out of 6years i've stayed in a hostel. Those years were during my graduation and the year i took off from college to study for my MBA entrance exam. After which i joined a residential MBA college. And for the first time in my life i had a room of my own. Granted it was small, but it was mine and it was adequate. I went about making this place my own by promptly keeping it in a state of marginal untidiness and put up a few pictures and posters. The hostel had clusters of rooms, with ten in each and a communal bathroom. All of us in the cluster, unfortunately woke up around the same time and stood in line to make use of the facilities. this happened mostly in the first month or so. We later fell into a routine.
Each cluster was a separate world on its own. We had little get togethers, parties and we stuck by each other. In the first year we had our seniors as our neighbors. which was great for us as we could ask them advice on what subjects were great, which professor to look out for an which ones were a pushover. Most importantly which professors would mark us absent if we entered the class 5 min late or the classes in which we could easily obtain proxies.
This experience was better for me because everyone in the hostel was going to the same college and the same classes (atleast for the first year) and we all lived together. We were going through all this together. So it gave me a sense of camaraderie. The campus was great too. It was at the foothills of Chamundi hills(mysore) and the weather was always pleasant. The boys and girls hostels were in the same compound as the classrooms. So this time around i also made great guy friends ( i was in an all girls college for my undergraduation).
I've noticed that guys are more resourceful when it comes to food in the hostel.Us girls used to usually depend on the guys to provide us with something to eat whenever we were really hungry, which was usually around midnight. We usually used to go get something to eat from outside but there were guys who would actually cook in their rooms. Some of them had induction cookers in their rooms. I had a friend who used to make us sandwiches and burgers and another who used to make Maggi for us whenever we were hungry. They were life savers.
The mess used to have a night off on Wednesdays, so we had to fend for ourselves on that day for dinner. I had a great group of fiends with whom i went to a lot of eateries. One of my favorite places to go to was Jalpaan. Me and my best friend loved the Spaghetti there. With extra olives... Yum. Ok i am digressing. What i am trying to say is we were one big family. I had a huge group of friends for the first time who were as crazy as i was (if not more). We had a celebration almost every month. The best part for me was our MBA fest called Naissance. This was a 3 day fest and i was in the team taking care of one of the major events called Best Manager where we would basically put the participants thorugh the grinder and see who survives to be named the Best Manager. I had alot of fun devising the rounds for this event which was as long as the fest. As we were staying in the hostel we could devote almost all of our time to it. i barely slept for a few hours in those 3 days.
We had a pretty big campus so we would go out for walks at odd hours of the night when we couldn't sleep. We would hang out infront of our campus store and talk about, discuss or debate on almost everything under the sun. Sometimes the topic would be something really trivial and sometimes very serious. but we almost always talked about it as if the fate of the universe hung in the balance on whatever we concluded. I miss these discussions. its not the same over the phone.
In the 2nd year we were given the choice of choosing our own rooms. I chose to stay in my room but my close friends were now my neighbors. That is one of the reasons my 2nd year was such a blast. I used to spend a lot of time with the girl whom i consider my best friend and talk the night away. Whenever we had a party coming up all the girls would start getting ready about 3 hours prior and hog the mirror. we would each critique the other persons clothes and if we were the same body type lend each other our clothes. I have a lot of fond memories in that place. or maybe i should say i have a lot of fond memories because of the people i met there.
I am a better person now because of the time i spent in that hostel. I learnt to share, love, negotiate, compromise, stand up for myself. I learnt that i had friends who would stay by my side no matter what. I found a friend who is my 'Soul sister", a brother (who is a little nuts), someone i can fight with (i fondly call him the Jerk), and someone i can turn to with my problems (though he will make fun of me in the process). For that i thank Chaitra, Ankur, Aashith, Ashish, Carl, Rashmi, Shafeeq, Kanchan, Dee, Payal and all my friends from College. I love you all and i miss our days of goofing around.
Each cluster was a separate world on its own. We had little get togethers, parties and we stuck by each other. In the first year we had our seniors as our neighbors. which was great for us as we could ask them advice on what subjects were great, which professor to look out for an which ones were a pushover. Most importantly which professors would mark us absent if we entered the class 5 min late or the classes in which we could easily obtain proxies.
This experience was better for me because everyone in the hostel was going to the same college and the same classes (atleast for the first year) and we all lived together. We were going through all this together. So it gave me a sense of camaraderie. The campus was great too. It was at the foothills of Chamundi hills(mysore) and the weather was always pleasant. The boys and girls hostels were in the same compound as the classrooms. So this time around i also made great guy friends ( i was in an all girls college for my undergraduation).
I've noticed that guys are more resourceful when it comes to food in the hostel.Us girls used to usually depend on the guys to provide us with something to eat whenever we were really hungry, which was usually around midnight. We usually used to go get something to eat from outside but there were guys who would actually cook in their rooms. Some of them had induction cookers in their rooms. I had a friend who used to make us sandwiches and burgers and another who used to make Maggi for us whenever we were hungry. They were life savers.
The mess used to have a night off on Wednesdays, so we had to fend for ourselves on that day for dinner. I had a great group of fiends with whom i went to a lot of eateries. One of my favorite places to go to was Jalpaan. Me and my best friend loved the Spaghetti there. With extra olives... Yum. Ok i am digressing. What i am trying to say is we were one big family. I had a huge group of friends for the first time who were as crazy as i was (if not more). We had a celebration almost every month. The best part for me was our MBA fest called Naissance. This was a 3 day fest and i was in the team taking care of one of the major events called Best Manager where we would basically put the participants thorugh the grinder and see who survives to be named the Best Manager. I had alot of fun devising the rounds for this event which was as long as the fest. As we were staying in the hostel we could devote almost all of our time to it. i barely slept for a few hours in those 3 days.
We had a pretty big campus so we would go out for walks at odd hours of the night when we couldn't sleep. We would hang out infront of our campus store and talk about, discuss or debate on almost everything under the sun. Sometimes the topic would be something really trivial and sometimes very serious. but we almost always talked about it as if the fate of the universe hung in the balance on whatever we concluded. I miss these discussions. its not the same over the phone.
In the 2nd year we were given the choice of choosing our own rooms. I chose to stay in my room but my close friends were now my neighbors. That is one of the reasons my 2nd year was such a blast. I used to spend a lot of time with the girl whom i consider my best friend and talk the night away. Whenever we had a party coming up all the girls would start getting ready about 3 hours prior and hog the mirror. we would each critique the other persons clothes and if we were the same body type lend each other our clothes. I have a lot of fond memories in that place. or maybe i should say i have a lot of fond memories because of the people i met there.
I am a better person now because of the time i spent in that hostel. I learnt to share, love, negotiate, compromise, stand up for myself. I learnt that i had friends who would stay by my side no matter what. I found a friend who is my 'Soul sister", a brother (who is a little nuts), someone i can fight with (i fondly call him the Jerk), and someone i can turn to with my problems (though he will make fun of me in the process). For that i thank Chaitra, Ankur, Aashith, Ashish, Carl, Rashmi, Shafeeq, Kanchan, Dee, Payal and all my friends from College. I love you all and i miss our days of goofing around.
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