My first year of hostel life

I had never thought in my school days about ever going to a hostel for studies. It just happened and I was fortunate to have someone from my hometown to accompany me. We were two friends from the same school going to the same hostel far away from home. I still remember the sadness on the faces of our parents when they dropped us there. We were also not very happy about it. Although there was some hope and excitement as we were going to start a new journey.

The name of our hostel was “Gargi”. The hostel belonged to first year students only. I was quite disappointed after seeing the condition of the rooms specially the washrooms. They were pathetic.It was the first time we were living on our own, away from the family.Our family helped us in settling us ,organizing our wardrobe.

Initial Struggle

I was in Chemical engineering where as my friend was in computers. And there were thoughts in my mind that may be we two could be in the same stream. I had some hope though. In engineering after admission, there is an internal counseling where there are still chances of change of stream. I think I spent only two days in Chemical but made a friend whose room was adjacent to ours. It was her who introduced me to our neighborhood there.

Neighborhood or the rooms adjacent to ours ,was where I spent my whole first year. I do not remember from where it all started but we used to drink our evening tea together with snacks combined from each room. Sometimes this get-together was in the mess. Sometimes we brought our chai from the mess in a single room and the talking that start there only end at the night when it was time for sleep.Because the beds were small to accommodate two persons.Then there used to be huge waiting for the common washrooms which also provided a lot of room for interaction. I would love to tell you one incident of my initial days. Everybody was standing in the lane with their buckets and there was one sound from behind that people will get to use washrooms according to their exam ranks. I was like I would be the last to take bath then. It was hilarious.

Chemical Engineering

So talking about the struggle now. After spending two days in chemical,I got mechanical. In these two days, I had that intro session(not ragging ) with the seniors .Yes sessions where seniors find reasons of making fun of their juniors.I really do not like this culture .I believe there can be much better ways of developing interaction with juniors. I used to love physics in my school and it would be a graduation in physics if it was not engineering.So getting mechanical was appearing better to me.

Mechanical

Careful girl,there is a different scenario here. I remember going to my mechanical class and everybody staring. This is normal for a girl in mechanical engineering as there are hardly any in this field in India. I made good friends though in a very short period of time. We were a group of 4, I began enjoyed their company. But I realize soon that I did not belong here. Some of the boys stare badly, some of them were too shy and from some of them there was this vibe coming out about how a girl has taken admission in mechanical. I know you would be thinking that why I am talking about boys only. So 95% of the students were boys.

And there were stories in my mind that college life is quite cool and memorable time for any person.And what I was observing was quite abnormal. May be it was too early to think. While for my roommate from computers ,life was unwinding quite differently. They had a very interactive environment in the class and even some went to the dhaba that too in their first week of the college.For those who are not aware about dhabas, “these are dine in places on the highway like Dennys or Macdonalds”.They are open 24*7 ,serve delicious food for the travelers. So the whole idea is there was fun in the class in computers.

Finally computers

I do not know why I was fighting in the internal counseling but somewhere my mind was not in peace.My school friends who were studying in private colleges were either in computers or electronics.There were hardly any girls in Mechanical.What if there was no career in mechanical for girls.So all these questions were troubling my mind.And then after continuous standing in lanes of counseling, my moment arrived.I got the last seat in computers.

There were many students in my batch who were interested in changing their branch but they kind of lose hope in the last counseling as it was paid. Darling I have a lot of patience. There was one boy I remember ahead of me when it was told that two vacant seats have been generated one in computers and one in electrical.So it was up-to that boy what he choose,I was getting the other one. I was happy at this time with the electrical too because my mother’s sister was electrical engineer in semi-government organization.So career existed. And on the other hand computers was easy. He chose electrical and I got computers finally.I called my parents immediately. It was the happiest moment for me.

So this was how I choose computers not because I had a passion in computers.Tell me your person story too in the comments,I would be thrilled to know.Let’s explore some fun in the next section.

Things of 90’s kids

It was not the era of big phones. There was watsapp introduced but messaging was still popular. I still remember purchasing message plans. And we were discovering fun in messaging. Also we used to download the trending songs from the popular websites like djpunjab. And sometimes dance with that phone volume only. I might wonder now that if anybody still use those websites like djpunjab as there are apps in use. So where was I ,yes the evening tea talks slowly changed to we neighbors starting spending weekends together where we all stayed in the hostel.

We used to discuss college as we were a mixture of chemical and computers with one of us from biomedical. There were always endless conversations. We even survived quite happily without watching movies in the first semester. I remembered doing hair massages on weekends. Then going to dhabas was also a thing as it was at a distance from hostel and walking usually involve chatting again. It was fun on thw whole. We used to decide before what we are going to eat there. Our hostel food was not very bad, it was ok to eat.There is a saying “ghar ki murgi daal barabar” or we are not happy with what we have. They were the most lazy moments I have experienced in my life.We used to study only during exams.And that become a pattern for whole four years.

Special Moments

All the moments discussed above we were experiencing first time in our life that’s why they were special.But I realized after spending four years that first year was most special among them.People there did not have a common past. Everything was new.I remember interacting with a lot of them every-time going to my room from college.Even if it was just saying hello.

There was common syllabus to read. So it was the same material on which everybody was working on.So we had a lot to discuss in common. Holiday weekends specially Diwali and Holi used to be extra special. Hostel mess organize a little party on these events. There was special dinner hosted. I remember our first Diwali party in gargi. Our group was all dressed in traditional attire. There was a dj where we danced till the music stopped.There was sound of boys around the hostel. There were rumors that boys were hiding beside the trees. The mess was struggling that day to serve dinner.It was their worst decision to serve dosas. They were exceptionally good and as soon as they were served on the table. Everybody would just crowd around the plate and start fighting for the dosa.

While on Holi party, some girls from our batch decided to throw everyone in the mud pool. So on one side there was special dinner in the mess but to reach there you have to cross the mud pool. It was difficult but we decided to have some fun and get into the mud pool by ourself but they carry each and everyone and put them into the pool. But it was fun for a small time as before dinner we had to take a bath and clean that mud.It was very difficult in those washrooms where mud would just fill those water outlets.

For those who were part of my life in this beautiful timeperiod, “Guys you all were special ,the moments were special” Dont worry about pictures they are not clear.