Cool Hostel Life

Any guy or girl who has spent a few years in a hostel will tell you that it is a mixed bag. Neither is it all fun, games and drinking, nor is it all studies, ragging and tension. It is an ideal preparatory ground for all ’kids’ to grow up and face life.

Here I will list down 3 good and bad sides of Hostel life (as I see it).

WHAT I ENJOYED:

1. Movies: While I was in hostel, I watched most of the movies FDFS (First Day First Show). It did not really matter if the movie was good, bad or ugly. It did not matter if the movie was a comedy, romance or a tragedy. It did not matter if it came from a Yash Raj banner or was a C Grade South Indian adult fare. WE HAD FUN.

2. Dhaba Food: We had lots of Dhaba food. Being a non veg eater, I ate numerous plates of juicy Tandoori Chicken, Butter Chicken and Rotis at various dhabas. We had food in dhabas mainly becos we enjoyed the food there and could not afford food in big restaurants anyway.

3. Drinking and Dirty Mags: As any guy staying in hostels will tell you, guys drink a LOT! In our hostel, Daaru was plentiful. It did not matter if you had money or not - no body refused you a drink! So we drank like there was no tomorrow............and ofcourse every guys hostel has lots of dirty mags. The number of Dirty Mags i have been through in those 3 years - I can not match up in all my years ahead. And everybody used to bring their own collection and share with all. So I read English, Tamil, Telegu, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi and even some French dirty mags. (Fortunately you read less and look more - as I cant read all those languages).

WHAT I HATED:

1. Ragging: No body enjoys running around in the college campus without clothes on (at night)! Neither did I! But ragging was accepted as a necessary evil and we had to tolerate it as well. But to our credit WE NEVER RAGGED anyone. No exceptions.....no clarifications. No one was even told to sing a song, dance - nothing at all. Unfortunately we were not so lucky and had to do several ragging acts like:
- Proposing to senior’s girlfriends
- Dancing Mujra in our undies (or nothing) for our seniors / ’pleasuring’ ourselves openly
- Wearing flimsy girl’s undergarments in our ragging period (1.5 months)
But thanks to this - I could after that bath, change clothes in front of others - no issues. I was very shy before i went to the hostel.

2. Hostel Food: I will let you judge our hostel food by describing a typical canteen meal.
Rice with stones (90% and 10%)
Dal in water (90% and 10%)
Sabzi (A mix of vegetables no one can understand)
Chaas (Dahi and Water)
:) To say the least - we hated it from the bottom of our heart and ate out when the pocket permitted. But thanks to this - I can today eat anything, anywhere - no problem sir!

3. Exams: It’s not really anything to do with Hostels, but we did have to study a lot in the hostel. Atleast 3 months a year we used to study day and night. And by day and night - I mean upto 15 hours a day! And the hostel dudes were very supportive. No one EVER disturbed you if you were studying. But those 3 months were really tough. The only pleasure was the day results came out and we could see the Distinction" stamp on the result card!

At the end of it all, I feel when i have kids, i will definitely keep them a few years in hostel. This will help them ’GROW UP’.

Please add your experiences in the comments!