’’HOSTEL’’ - an endearing word which brings back the most enjoyable blended with too much thrill into my memory. Hurrayyyyyy?.. Hostel life in a person?s life has both enjoyable as well as the most depressing moments. While my mom used to be a clean-freak always seen with her most petted vacuum cleaners, I used to be totally unconcerned about keeping even my small portion of the home clean.
During my school days at home with my parents, I would not even know who took my used clothes, laundered them, ironed them & arranged them. During week-ends, I would find that my book-shelves are automatically cleaned either by my responsible sister or my parents.
Since I had always been with my parents, the idea of entering into a Hostel totally away from the (pestering..????) parents brought me great cheeriness. Even before stepping into the hostel, I was feeling very delightful about the idea & as if I were going to be a carefree person thereafter.
Gradually, the day of going to the hostel also came & on the first hand itself, I was little shocked about the fact that I were to share a room (obviously single bedroom) with 2 more girls. I still remember how deeply worried I was about it. But I was cooled very soon as I was greeted by them in a very friendly way, of course they also stepped into the hostel the day I had.
The next shock to me was the very, very, very, very?? dusty cramped (very space-restricted) room (here it is not out of context to mention that I am only strictly used to the cleanest atmosphere at home). What next ? The next two days I was totally involved with my room-mates in cleaning the room. It was horrible. Really?. HORRIBLE..!!!
There were layers and layers of dust everywhere, and we had to clean the same exterior copious times before we got the expected result. There were lot of insects here and there, especially the most scary spiders with long skinny legs & that was the most killing aspect of it. In any case, the whole experience of the first time of cleaning a place turned out to be horrible.
The third shock came to me in the form of dinner. It was the most tasteless & spicy food I ever had in my life. Obviously, I was again & again rewinding the lovely sandwiches and rotis which remained untouched by me even after several reminders from my mother. But we all were intelligent enough to directly take up the matter with our Warden at the appropriate time. The next day the food was ain?t that bad & sooner it became to our tolerable quality.
It was my HOSTEL which brought in lot of responsibilities into me. In spite of allocating lot of time for studies, I started to make sure that my dress cupboard is always kept clean, the room is cleaned on regular intervals, weekly poojas are performed with my hostel-mates etc.
My innovative ideas of introducing natural plants in all the rooms which improved the ambience of the rooms, putting up the birthday wishing notes (of all hostel girls) on the common notice-Board, giving surprise birthday & Christmas presents by collecting a small amount of money every month from hostel-mates, introduction of weekly sports competitions, specific hours for group-studies (at least it was successfully implemented in the rooms in my floor) etc. were acknowledged by one and all in my hostel including my hostel-warden with great appreciation and enthusiasm.
In fact I was also very successful in pioneering the inspiration of all the girls in my hostel going on a pleasure trip to some nearby theme-park or some temple on the second Sunday of every alternate month, which also developed friendliness and understanding among the girls from diverse environments. In fact most of us were eagerly looking to the day.
Many of my memorable days in my HOSTEL had been a learning experience. Hostel life is a heady mix of discipline, routine, queues for everything (even to crap!!), innumerable study hours, very short vacations, long waits for special lunches and dinners, finding ways to run out into town, lots of midnight feasts, persistent shortage of dough and a whole lot of good friends??.. as well as worst (??) mates who always find fault with you with whatever good you do?? but it is always possible to go by their path and win their hearts.
OK now, what all you should NOT DO while entering into a Hostel??.
?Please??. For heaven sake don?t have any expectation about the environment? be ready even to face the worst people around, but optimistic about ur winning them by your smartest approach.
?Please??. don?t be a smartass with a motor mouth.. listen more than always talking more. Very soon even the most toughest people would start being attentive to your speech.
?Never talk back to your seniors - give them their due respect (at least try to act) ? many times healthy ragging would bring you much closer with your seniors.
?Initially itself please don?t try to break the existing rules. First impression is the best impression ? it is very much required to get a good name to your Warden first.
?Even though, you are your own boss, never ever try to encourage banned activities like smoking, taking drugs etc.
Now the DOs???..
?Try to get closer to the hearts of your mates by disclosing some disclosable personal incidents with them and gradually developing a confidence in them
?At the same time, never ever try to disclose the secrets of one person to another, which would make you the most distrusted person among the others
?Be an extrovert ? try to introduce as much as new events as possible among the entire hostel-mates (as I had done - mentioned aforesaid) ? very soon people would start coming to you for ideas on their most personal issues
?Always be fresh and good-looking
?Try to establish friendship with the cleaning maids, pantry chief ? being extrasweet with them would be favourable to you in very many ways
I sincerely & most seriously feel that at least a very short span of hostel life is most essential in every student?s life because you get to know lot of discipline, responsibility as well as lot of adjustment with others. All these I am sure would certainly bring a very happy future to you.
I personally have enjoyed my hostel life a great deal, not for the matter of being away from the commands of the parents but due to the fact that it has brought in me very appreciative behaviour.
Hope my revu had been slightly helpful and relevant to the subject matter. See you all soon with another interesting & informative revu???. Do provide me with your valuable feedbacks and votings.
Mrs. Jayalakshmi Shyam