Deeya's Deductions # 1
Honestly, I would have loved to be a day scholar. Coming back home and relaxing with my feet up on the sofa, with the A.C. switched on. Hmm! What a life. But since life has pushed me through the hostel gates and I haven't regretted a day since, I thought I should jot down a few points as to why I feel so lucky that I am a hosteller.
1. Sleepover Everyday. Friends are forever by your side, in every aspect of your life. You automatically start getting obsessed about them, singing and dancing to your roomie's current favourite song for example (irrespective of whether you yourself like the song or not). So yes, I can sing along to Anaconda, word by word.
2. Gossip is heard first hand. The juiciest bits are told in utmost detail and hostellers are usually the first to hear about them. Like recently, I heard.. Okay, let's not get into that.
3. "EC1 ain't an easy one, and EC2 ain't easy too". We all have tough subjects in our courses, thus group studying really helps. We learn better when we teach others too.
4. Absence makes the heart grow fonder - Well of course we miss our home, but the moment we go back home, nostalgia hits us and there's a nice warm feeling in our heart, something like love at first sight. Who doesn't want to experience ' love at first sight ' every 6 months?
Similarly, our sense of taste gets heightened when we are finally reunited with home cooked food after being away from it for so long (ever tried dieting? Given up pizza for a year and then resumed to eat it when your weighing scale doesn't show any difference? It feels like that).
5. Since we don't stay with our parents and siblings anymore, and meet them quite less, there's no time or space for fights (as much as I love quarrelling with my mother, I'm glad her B.P. is stable now, all thanks to me being a hosteller).
6. Woke up late? No attendance? No problem, use this mantra: "RUN". You can still make it in time for class. This is the best time for you to improve your running speed. Go for it!
7. Girls! Bored of your clothes, shoes and bags? Or guys! Ran out of clean shirts to wear and acquired a huge butter chicken stain on the one shirt you wear every day? Borrow your friend’s. What are friends for anyway, if not to take advantage of in every possible situation?
8. Can't have pets in the hostel? Says who? All the animals in the college are our pets! And please, they don't bite unless you step on their tail.
9. So, your teacher asked you to research on something over the net? But you were too busy sleeping off the entire day (plus it's homework after all, who does homework). Hostellers have a fool-proof excuse. "Sir, hosteller. No internet" and Bam! Works every time. Sometimes you can even say that you don't own a laptop, your teacher will buy it, trust me.
10. There are no money issues mostly, as we learn to manage and save up money very quickly. We learn to say "No" to that voice in our head which says "Oooh! Look at those monochrome pumps! They'd go with everything I own! Everything! "
11. Independence is the key to success . Also, the freedom of talking with your beloved (#theone) without having to be alert whether your elder sister is overhearing, is simply inconceivable. But independence comes with its own baggage called 'Responsibility'.
12. We become the 'Masterchefs' of instant food. We can make Maggi in our sleep. Believe it or not.
13. We don't need to clean our rooms! Mom's never going to know!
14. Lastly, I'd like to include that the hostel life experience, i.e., getting to know so many people, some we may not even get along with (and having to forcefully see them everyday trying not to pounce on them and scratch their eyeballs out) just makes us more mature, better people. It helps us grow and prepares us for many such events in future. It teaches us to cope up with life!
In a similar context comes patience. We develop tremendous amounts of patience, especially on Sunday afternoons, when the first round of Biryani served gets over quicker than you can say "Hakuna Matata".
I'm sure if I do a survey of hostellers, they'll have more things to add, but this is my perspective.
Disclaimer: No offence to the day scholars who are unknowingly missing a lot.
The author is an aspiring rebel and is thoroughly confused about her ancestry.
