First Two Years in Mumbai-- Hostel Life (part1)
This was written on 12th Sept 2015! Go to the date and pretend that I am still in the hostel! Second year of degree college is over! Will write the 2nd part hopefully sooner.. Last year of the degree college and great friendships and much more! :) Stay tuned. Let me know your feedback about this one!
The D.G Ruparel College.. college with a big campus, compared to other colleges in Mumbai. After confirming the admission in this college, the next mission was to find a place to live. For the first month, lived at one of my relative's place in Mahim. For the 7.48am lecture, I had to board the bus early in the morning. And at the start that was "hectic" for me. Then I realized, Hrishikesh(my first friend in Mumbai) used to board a crowded train every morning and used to travel for around one hour. So my travel in the bus wasn't "hectic" at all!
One day along with Aai, I checked the hostel and inquired about it. First impression of the hostel wasn't that good, it didn't appeal my mind at all. Then as we were checking out some paying guest accommodation, we found one behind the citylight cinema (Mahim). It was a decent apartment and the owner was also a happy-go-lucky old lady. (She was strict as well, that I came to know later!) So the rent was Rs.7500?- per month only (?). With three people in one room and 4 such rooms in the flat it was a bit crowded. But more than half of them were working so they used to come pretty late at night. I was the one to arrive earliest, in the afternoon. My room-mates were both studying in Institute of Hotel Management. They tried to interact with me a lot, but because of my "shy" nature, I don't think we "mixed-up" well. There was one south Indian and one Gujju and it was fun sharing room with them. I got the habit of watching English movies and TV-series because of them. I got addicted to the shows! As I used to be alone in the flat after getting back, I used to watch it for hours!
As every first-year student, I didn't take studies seriously, but I did enjoy economics and statistics.
The food we got was good and spicy! Non-veg twice a week!
So, as the year passed, major study that I did, in the first year, was with friends in the college campus. Surprisingly our college gave us a lot of vacations (almost 2 months Diwali vacation, 2 and half months summer vacation!) So I lived in Mumbai as a Paying Guest only for 8 months. And I would have been surprised if the expenses were less than 1lakh, for those 8 months.
In this one year, my friend circle had expanded. One of my friends Abhinav- who also wasn't from Mumbai was looking for accommodation somewhere near to the college. He used to travel from Dombivali, but was unable to attend early morning lectures. So I had a partner to search for accommodation. We checked some places in Parel but, either they weren't clean enough or they were expensive. The time was ticking by, so we decided to apply for the hostel. Just before leaving Mumbai for some adventures in Himalaya, we gave our applications to Vice-Principal sir!
The hostel was in the college campus only! As we visited it, it was still the same, old building....! First time when I visited, I had the feeling that, how I am going to adjust here, as I didn't know anyone back then! But now I had someone with whom I had spent a year and he was studying the same subjects too!
So there we were, living closest to the collge, no need to wake up very early. The hostel life had finally begun. My Aai, used to tell a lot of things about hostel life, her experiences living in the hostel in Pune.... I was excited about it!
This was different than the Paying Guest. Here, there were plenty of students to interact with, friends to hang-out daily with, people to play cricket with! Last year (second year of degree) we developed a special bond with Bond, Ajay and Kunal! Room no. 2 it was, where we laughed till midnight, chatted on random topics... (Nope, there weren't any drinks involved!... Still we laughed a lot, and it was funny!)
Anand kaka and Avinash (the guard) were ever smiling as well. Andy bhai (Anand kaka) comes once in a week to clean our room! And Guptaji is the ultimate boss of the hostel! He gets real angry on hard working Anand kaka or Avinash, for their smallest mistakes. He is very strict about the rules. He can scold the boys for hours late night, explaining his expert views to them! But he is a go-to-guy for us whenever we have some office work in college!
How can I forget to mention Taai- A honest Mumbaikar housewife turned small Entrepreneur!!! One of our friends in hostel, Pranav introduced to the "mess (Khaanaval) where almost all the hostelites go for food. A Konkani lady with very straight forward nature (sometimes used to get angry at almost anything and using slang words- which honestly was entertaining!) cooks delicious food for us. 30-40 minutes spent every night for dinner are full of entertainment. She is caring as well, she understands that we are living away from home, away from parents! Whenever someone fells ill, she recommends a Dr., makes special food for him (bhaatachi pej, chaha-chapati)! (After leaving Ruparel as I am typing this, I do miss her homely food!)
The hostel life brought a lot of positive changes in my life. I used to spend a lot of time in front of TV, laptop before, I hardly used to go out! But being in hostel, I started playing regularly. I become socially active, got a lot of friends from different regions of Maharashtra. With the guy - having same subject as mine- as my room partner, I started studying more. Got a lot of knowledge about various things, which I was unaware of. As the year passed, my grades improved. (Grades may mislead that we were too much studious, but to be honest we weren't; we never studied for hours daily, but whatever we did (most of in last week before the exam), we tried to do it perfectly.
The most important thing I learnt from Hostel, is the bond between people. We may not be learning same subjects, but we all were away from our homes, our families, so we have to live together. Another thing which applies to everyone living in a locality, a city, a state, a country or even the world is that- Our thoughts may differ from one another, we may argue, fight, but at the end of the day we had to compromise some things, we had to make adjustments to live a happy life (Important learning of the hostel life!)! We don't have the comfort zone of our parents but what we have was the bond of friendship with us! And this bond, I feel, is enough to live in the Metro-city like Mumbai! The city which never sleeps, the city which is always on hitlists of almost all terror groups, the business capital of India, the crowded city.... Yes, this is Mumbai! Outside the college campus, is the Mumbai which I described above - running people, crowded locals, the traffic, the buzz! But while I am in hostel, I never thought of the crowds, the local trains or the busy public! Because, we have such a quiet campus around us! Inside we have a quiet environment, trees around us, big ground, lot of squirrels, cats, parrots roaming around freely in the campus!!
All credit goes to the hostel and the people in it for the courage I have got to be a part of buzzing and crowded Mumbai!!
 |
| The D.G.Ruparel Boys' hostel |
The D.G Ruparel College.. college with a big campus, compared to other colleges in Mumbai. After confirming the admission in this college, the next mission was to find a place to live. For the first month, lived at one of my relative's place in Mahim. For the 7.48am lecture, I had to board the bus early in the morning. And at the start that was "hectic" for me. Then I realized, Hrishikesh(my first friend in Mumbai) used to board a crowded train every morning and used to travel for around one hour. So my travel in the bus wasn't "hectic" at all!
One day along with Aai, I checked the hostel and inquired about it. First impression of the hostel wasn't that good, it didn't appeal my mind at all. Then as we were checking out some paying guest accommodation, we found one behind the citylight cinema (Mahim). It was a decent apartment and the owner was also a happy-go-lucky old lady. (She was strict as well, that I came to know later!) So the rent was Rs.7500?- per month only (?). With three people in one room and 4 such rooms in the flat it was a bit crowded. But more than half of them were working so they used to come pretty late at night. I was the one to arrive earliest, in the afternoon. My room-mates were both studying in Institute of Hotel Management. They tried to interact with me a lot, but because of my "shy" nature, I don't think we "mixed-up" well. There was one south Indian and one Gujju and it was fun sharing room with them. I got the habit of watching English movies and TV-series because of them. I got addicted to the shows! As I used to be alone in the flat after getting back, I used to watch it for hours!
As every first-year student, I didn't take studies seriously, but I did enjoy economics and statistics.
The food we got was good and spicy! Non-veg twice a week!
So, as the year passed, major study that I did, in the first year, was with friends in the college campus. Surprisingly our college gave us a lot of vacations (almost 2 months Diwali vacation, 2 and half months summer vacation!) So I lived in Mumbai as a Paying Guest only for 8 months. And I would have been surprised if the expenses were less than 1lakh, for those 8 months.
In this one year, my friend circle had expanded. One of my friends Abhinav- who also wasn't from Mumbai was looking for accommodation somewhere near to the college. He used to travel from Dombivali, but was unable to attend early morning lectures. So I had a partner to search for accommodation. We checked some places in Parel but, either they weren't clean enough or they were expensive. The time was ticking by, so we decided to apply for the hostel. Just before leaving Mumbai for some adventures in Himalaya, we gave our applications to Vice-Principal sir!
The hostel was in the college campus only! As we visited it, it was still the same, old building....! First time when I visited, I had the feeling that, how I am going to adjust here, as I didn't know anyone back then! But now I had someone with whom I had spent a year and he was studying the same subjects too!
So there we were, living closest to the collge, no need to wake up very early. The hostel life had finally begun. My Aai, used to tell a lot of things about hostel life, her experiences living in the hostel in Pune.... I was excited about it!
 |
| The room no.2 |
Anand kaka and Avinash (the guard) were ever smiling as well. Andy bhai (Anand kaka) comes once in a week to clean our room! And Guptaji is the ultimate boss of the hostel! He gets real angry on hard working Anand kaka or Avinash, for their smallest mistakes. He is very strict about the rules. He can scold the boys for hours late night, explaining his expert views to them! But he is a go-to-guy for us whenever we have some office work in college!
How can I forget to mention Taai- A honest Mumbaikar housewife turned small Entrepreneur!!! One of our friends in hostel, Pranav introduced to the "mess (Khaanaval) where almost all the hostelites go for food. A Konkani lady with very straight forward nature (sometimes used to get angry at almost anything and using slang words- which honestly was entertaining!) cooks delicious food for us. 30-40 minutes spent every night for dinner are full of entertainment. She is caring as well, she understands that we are living away from home, away from parents! Whenever someone fells ill, she recommends a Dr., makes special food for him (bhaatachi pej, chaha-chapati)! (After leaving Ruparel as I am typing this, I do miss her homely food!)
The hostel life brought a lot of positive changes in my life. I used to spend a lot of time in front of TV, laptop before, I hardly used to go out! But being in hostel, I started playing regularly. I become socially active, got a lot of friends from different regions of Maharashtra. With the guy - having same subject as mine- as my room partner, I started studying more. Got a lot of knowledge about various things, which I was unaware of. As the year passed, my grades improved. (Grades may mislead that we were too much studious, but to be honest we weren't; we never studied for hours daily, but whatever we did (most of in last week before the exam), we tried to do it perfectly.
The most important thing I learnt from Hostel, is the bond between people. We may not be learning same subjects, but we all were away from our homes, our families, so we have to live together. Another thing which applies to everyone living in a locality, a city, a state, a country or even the world is that- Our thoughts may differ from one another, we may argue, fight, but at the end of the day we had to compromise some things, we had to make adjustments to live a happy life (Important learning of the hostel life!)! We don't have the comfort zone of our parents but what we have was the bond of friendship with us! And this bond, I feel, is enough to live in the Metro-city like Mumbai! The city which never sleeps, the city which is always on hitlists of almost all terror groups, the business capital of India, the crowded city.... Yes, this is Mumbai! Outside the college campus, is the Mumbai which I described above - running people, crowded locals, the traffic, the buzz! But while I am in hostel, I never thought of the crowds, the local trains or the busy public! Because, we have such a quiet campus around us! Inside we have a quiet environment, trees around us, big ground, lot of squirrels, cats, parrots roaming around freely in the campus!!
All credit goes to the hostel and the people in it for the courage I have got to be a part of buzzing and crowded Mumbai!!
You have brought it out very well, Kabeer..!
ReplyDeleteHey, what a write-up dude!
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this your every sentence created series of pictures decorating your experience!
You must continue this art!
You are a developing artist..
Go on buddy! Cheers.. and kudos...