Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
Life's cool for hostelites
THE HOSTELITE is usually found in old crumbling buildings with bad plumbing and worse ventilation. It survives on spoonfuls of jam and Bournvita binges, talks animatedly through the night and snoozes sluggishly through the day. An athletic species, it is especially quick to duck behind bushes and overhanging mosquito nets when it sees predators in the form of wardens or teachers. Because of its penchant for wide open spaces, it tends to `break out' of hostel regularly by clambering over walls, camouflaging itself as a `day-ski' (or day scholar - a sister species) or by posing as luggage in the boot of a friend's car.
This week, Metroplus takes a look at the world of the city's hostelites. Their unique customs and behaviour, exotic food and colourfully `different' clothing - in fact, all the things that go towards making them a unique species that survives year after year in the city's concrete jungle.
While you can't really call the hostelite an endangered species, it is true that it is slowly being forced to move away from its traditional habitat. "There are way too many rules at our hostel," says one student, who then went on to swear Metroplus to secrecy, "otherwise they'll add a hundred and ten more!" Apparently, in most of the women's colleges in the city, `night outs' are counted with the same enthusiasm that Shakespeare's Shylock generally reserved for his gold.
The rule of thumb is generally ten nights out a term - and to go out, students have to fill in `night out slips,' (stating where they are going, when they leave and when they will return) get them approved and signed by the warden, punch them in and then leave. "All of us have to kajoosify (hostel speak for `treat very carefully') our night outs to make them last through the term," says one young lady spiritedly adding, "That's why a bunch of us moved out. The city's women's hostels are far less oppressive than the college hostels."
Not that the rules cramp everyone's style. More often than not, the hostelite solution is to cheerfully go ahead and break them. Every hostel in the city has a fund of `break out' stories. Perhaps one of the most colourful one is the story about a group of girls who got their boyfriends to bring in their cars during a college function, got into the car boot and were then driven out - right under the noses of the `powers that be'.
The men's colleges on the other hand seem to have an easier time. "Our warden's really cool!" says one young man, discussing how all his friends leave hostel any time they want by clambering over the walls. "One night, we came back at about 1 a.m. after whooping it up all night and, obviously, the gates were locked. When we climbed over, we saw our warden standing on the otherside with a big torch. And instead of yelling, he just stood there helping us down one by one and saying `be careful... don't slip' ".
`Bonding', evidently, is what hostel life is all about. "You miss out on a lot of activity when you are a day scholar - unless you are really `enthu', (enthusiastic) I suppose ," says Radhika, who has been a hostelite for about five years, and counting. "Even then, there are a lot of college traditions that only the hostelites participate in," she adds. The Women's Christian College, for example, has a set of Christmas traditions that include carol singing at the crack of dawn, accompanied by hot coffee and plum cake. And, yes, it's a `hostelite-only' tradition.
To quote an especially philosophical hostelite: "Bad food, dumb rules and swarms of mosquitoes are just one part of the story. The friends you make and memories you take with you after a stint in hostel - they make it all worthwhile."
SHONALI MUTHALALY
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Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
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