Of rooming, saving and growing up

STUDENT ACCOMMODATION

Ronak Agarwal (18)
BBM student, Christ College

I am, what you can call, a hard-core hostelite. I was just 10 years old when I joined my first hostel in Kalimpong. I still remember the day I had to leave my parents. I have been independent ever since. I am now a resident of the Jain College hostel in Bangalore and I’m enjoying every moment of my stay here. I love to cook and my friends really relish the dishes I whip up. I learnt to cook as I hated the food served in my previous hostel. I maintain a cordial relationship with my present roommate and as I am senior to him, he always comes to me for advice! I like the responsibility and it has made me a better person.

In a hostel, life is full of opportunities for fun and pranks. Good arrangements for games and sports, Sunday special eating competitions and day-to day merry-making make hostel life a thing of envy for all. Weaker students can always get help from their friends. When a careless and negligent student sees his roommate studying hard for top honours, he tries to follow his example.

Kanchi Ramanujan (20)
Engineering student, M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology

Anybody who has spent a few years in a hostel will tell you that life in a hostel is a mixed bag. Neither is it all fun and games nor is it all a regimented routine. I have no complaints about my hostel life.

The first few months were difficult and I was extremely homesick. During my first semester, I waited for the holidays and spent all 45 days at home! Eventually I made a lot of friends at the hostel. I have one of the best roommates ever and now I don’t even go home for my holidays! My sleep habits have also changed and I never get  to hit the sack early as I hardly get a chance to sleep. On the whole it’s a unique experience and I have learnt a lot from it.

Keerthana Nagraj (19)
Commerce student

I’ve had both my happiest and my most depressing moments at the hostel.
The day I entered a paying guest accommodation I was a little worried about the fact that I had to share my room with two more girls. Luckily for me, they were friendly people who were easy to get along with. The room was so dusty and cramped that we spent an entire day just getting rid of all the dust and clutter. Staying at the hostel has made me more responsible. Although a lot my time is taken up by my studies, I make sure that I allocate some time for cleaning my room. Life in a hostel teaches you discipline, responsibility, the importance of a routine and the meaning of true friendship.

Gaurav Agarwal (18)
BBM student, Christ College

I am new to Bangalore and was raised in Siliguri. As a kid, I was always pampered by my parents but my dream to study outside Siliguri brought me to this wonderful city. The day I landed at the Jain College hostel near Ashoka Pillar in south Bangalore, I was terribly homesick. I still miss my parents but have learnt what it is to live without their constant presence. I really like my roommate, as he helps me with everything and also shares all the good food he gets from home! He introduced me to old Hindi music as he is a die-hard Kishore Kumar fan. When I first came to Bangalore, I would spend hours listening to trash metal but now I have a totally new perspective on music.

Jyothi Shingote (20)
Engineering student, Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering

I love the fact that I have been given a lot of freedom at my hostel in Yelahanka. I found it to be an entirely new atmosphere at first, but my roommate helped me get through my homesick phase. I have developed a spirit of healthy competition. Hostel life has some drawbacks too. Some first-timers cannot handle the sudden sense of freedom and tend to go astray. If they don’t have the right friends, they could end up ruining their lives.