May 12, 2003 06:55 PM
1744 Views
(Updated May 12, 2003 06:55 PM)
I was very sad when I had to leave Delhi and go to study engineering to Chandrapur, a town 180 km away from Nagpur as I felt that leaving home would mean pain in more ways than one.
Now I must tell you that Chanda(Short for Chandrapur) is not a big city at all, its not even a city, but just a district, and for someone to go from Delhi and study there is not easy at all. So I was taken aback as it turned out to be worse than I had expected. No hangout places, no cool bazars, not a great looking college, and to top all that attendance in our college was 80% and above. Needless to say that I resented the day I joined the college.
Hostel was something else however. I virtually decided to leave the city and run away 2 days after I had come to stay in the hostel because of ragging. Believe me we can never prepare fot it enough, and ragging in hostels is not that funny what is done here in Delhi. It is scary and sometimes very scary. We freshers had a ratio of 4:1 with seniors. I had to do things which might seem unthinkable now, but whenever I think about those days now I cant help but laugh.
Anyways, friendships were galore in the initial days but only a few of them remained intact after our 1st year had ended. I still remember how carefully we used to select posters for our rooms and all the co-lages that were made to suit the tastes of respective inhibitants. My room was fileld with every poster that I could catch hold of Kajol and nothing else.
Those bathroom lines, those lines at the wash basin and tolets and fights and other cool things which are just not possible staying at home. Life turned out just fine after we all had adjusted there and had stopped missing our homes.
Staying there made a man out us boys and that was a great education in itself. Ragging taught to be confident and bold and practical at the same time and we had to make adjustments which neither ahd thought could make. Sharing of anything and everything was the norm and everbody stayed like brothers in rhyme.
I am a changed man today, am not afraid of facing anybody and any situation and am more controlled in many ways.
All I can say is that experience is a must for everybody to have a snap shot at what life really is and believe me our homes seldom show us life as it is.
