Hostel: To me precisely it is a home for three and a half years for which I pay a monthly rental of three and a half thousand. For people in general, living alone can be viewed as an opportunity for self introspection, to lead the life as they want to, to win rewards at the strength of their own talent and to suffer at the cost of their own decisions. The youth calls it being independent.
Living in a hostel is an experience in itself. For me, its like living in an alien world away from your parents but eventually like everything else in this world you get used to this living as well. Strange things don't seem strange anymore and the aliens become your comrades. It is also a huge reminder that "Life's not a cakewalk, baby!" and that one day you have to wash your own underwear. What makes it easier to survive there though is the networking. It is an essential process I guess to overcome the most common states when living alone: loneliness and boredom. And of course how can we forget the joy of studying together, eating together, drinking together, staying up all night one day before exams together, gossiping about classmates together....its the togetherness which we miss the most when we say goodbye to hostel life. But the most important part which I look forward to at hostel everyday is the evening time from six to seven. Its when your lethargy from the morning classes melts away with the setting sun, your eyes picture the sky blended with a shade of pink and pale yellow, your brain makes an immediate "things to do" list now that it has got its much needed afternoon nap, the evening breeze brushes your hair slightly making you anxious to step out of the room. I see people marching their way to the gym determined to burn the high calorie pizza they had yesterday and hear the football players screaming with excitement "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh" from my balcony as one of them hits a goal which reminds me "Time for me to hit the goal as well". At the very same time hunger strikes, the phone rings, the alarm shouts and the clock tower starts singing. It feels like everything has come out alive all of a sudden.
As the sunlight fades away making way for the night sky, I turn on my room lights. It takes me some time to realize that its 6:30 pm, its dark outside, I am still on my bed since how long I dont know and I needed to do something to stop my stomach from growling. I quickly pulled on my jeans, laid my hands on to a jacket and rushed outside to grab something to eat. For some reason, I always look at the sky whenever I go out and try to count all the stars even when I know I cannot. Somehow I related it to our lives, just like there are countless stars in the sky but only some are visible to us, in the same way we all have countless ambitions but only some turn into reality in the end.
Out of the room awaits a world of young who all are searching for something or the other, very much like me. I see a student sitting over the wall staring at nothing in particular; either she is dwelling over her past or worried about her future or just dissolving into nothingness. A few steps ahead I see a boy with headphones on; shaking his head constantly to a fast track. Next to the boy, I hear a gang of boys having a heated conversation about whether the world would really end in 2012. I moved on look at a group of girls debating over what movies to watch this weekend. Reflecting back on all these recent observations, I realised that we all have 24 hours but how we decide to spend it depends solely on our creativity. Creativity was one of the skills I had to use on a frequent basis as I started living alone to escape the monotony here. At first, the task of staying alone seemed daunting to me but as each day passed I started discovering something new. It was anything unusual or distinct I came across. Even small scale accomplishments such as making a cup of coffee on my own; exactly the way I wanted it to taste, made my day. There was a fresh feel every time I entered my room or walked my way to class despite the heat because I knew facing it would only make me stronger. And I think it was the feeling of standing on your own and realizing what you truly are capable of which made all the difference.
Coming back to the search, all students are in a search, some for a job, some for a tutor, some for a better grade, some for friends, some for love and some for a search itself. And in this quest is born an idea, a discovery which cuts across the deep ocean of knowledge and springs on to the surface creating a swirl of pressure. It's the youth pressure because when they decide to take things in their own hands even the greatest of odds have to back up. If it hadn't been for the hostel, the young minds would have never gathered, there would have been no search, no quest and no youth pressure.
And thinking about independence, hostel life, stars and the search, I am heading towards a restaurant for now. But I am also aware of the fact that this hunger is hard to suffice.
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