A day in Hostel Life

,OLD BOYS HOSTEL  – OH BOY !!!

Almost all of us must have relished the hostel life as an undergraduate at MAMC. Some of us stayed all through the four and a half years and some must have shifted to the hostel periodically during exam days. I always had a room.

Some of the things that I would never forget about OBH (Old Boys Hostel) are –

·         The Indian Coffee House – located in the space above the scooter garage, opposite the hostel.

·         Pandit ji egg omelets & tea, whenever at night we needed a break from studies

·         Man Singh’s (on bicycle) Bun sandwich of Amul butter and boiled eggs – available till early hours.

·         The public phone – which was operated not by coins but by a contraption made of wire.

·         Lala’s mess.

·         Common room with TT table and TV to see ‘Chitrahaar’ on Wednesday evening and movies in two parts on Saturday & Sunday.

·         Badminton court – Ajit Nagra and I would go to play after midnight.

·         The scooter ride at night by picking any parked scooter in the garage with the ‘master key’.

·         Ravinder Rustagi’s privately distempered, green colored room, fitted with a tube light.

·         Deepak Yadav’s Air cooled room named ‘Diwan-e-Mughlai’.

·         Deepak Yadav, Charlie, L.R. Gandhi and I, sharing and tasting different food (dinner) sent by our moms.

·         Sleeping on terrace during power breakdowns.

·         Parantha & Butter breakfast in the Mess on Sundays.

·         Playing ‘teen patti’ with coins/match sticks.

·         Coming out of rooms into the corridor and do ‘lungi dance’ whenever ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’ song of Hanste Zhakham was broadcasted on the radio.

·         Whistling at the Mata Sundari Girls from our balcony.

And the list is endless

Today I would like to narrate an incident that occurred when we were in third year and we were quite carefree and were not that much worried and concerned about studies. As a matter of fact this was the best period of the medical curriculum those days as there was no pressure of Prof exam at the end of the year. Today the semester system has taken away that charm.

Varun Saxena, Padam Gupta and I shared a room, a triple seater. All three of us were having our parents’ home in Delhi only, but ostensibly to study we opted to stay in the hostel. We would go back to home at weekends, only to get the soiled clothes of the week washed and ironed. At least I did not miss the home food as I used to get my lunch and dinner from home, Rati Ram used to fetch the ‘dabbaas’ on bicycle all the way from Safadarjang Enclave !!

Varun was the ‘perfectionist’ among the three of us. His neat corner consisting of the bed, a study table and chair would stand out distinctly. I remember clearly that once Varun took more than four hours to cover one newly bought medical book. Padam and mine were typical ‘bachelors’ corner. At daytime the heap of our belongings would be transferred from chair to the bed and at night the other way around. In lunch hour the room would be transformed to ‘common room’ and was open to all. Many day boarders would come and have their lunch there and even rest a while. At times we had to struggle to find a place for ourselves even to sit. Typically one would find Rustagi and Padam playing ‘Papplu’ on the bed. Whatever Khosla (Cow) would touch was bound to break.

Occasionally we would have a drinks party in the evening in our room and then go out for dinner, either to Peshawar Restaurant, Moti Mahal or Pandara Road depending on the financial status on that day. All three would ride together on one scooter. On one of these occasions our guest was Sudhir Sehgal. He was suspended from college and was not allowed to enter the hostel for a few days at that time. To be sure that no one notices Sudhir Sehgal we locked the room and four of us were enjoying our beers and as usual our

inhibitory centres were dampened. We were talking loudly and singing away. Suddenly we heard a knock on the door.

One of us shouted “ kaun hai bey”.

A stern voice came from outside “Dr. Vishnu Kumar”. We thought some one was playing a trick on us.

One of us said  “Kaun Vishnu Kumar- yahan sabhi apne aap ko Vishnu Kumar kahta hain” and we all laughed mockingly.

Then another voice from outside said – “listen guys I am Yash Pal Rana and this is serious matter. The warden, Dr. Vishnu Kumar, is on a round of the hostel and is actually here, so open the door immediately”.  

Hamari sub ki chadhi hui turant utar gayi.

Sudhir Sehgal immediately realized the gravity of the situation and rushed to the balcony and from there crossed over to the balcony of next room and from there to the next room and hid there. In the room we tried to tidy up the place by hiding the beer bottles by pushing them under the beds. I opened the door and saw furious Dr. Vishnu Kumar right in front of me.

Spontaneously I said “Good evening, sirrrrrrr”.

Dr. Vishnu Kumar – “Kya ho raha hai yahan”.

I said – “ Nothing sir, just listening to music”.

Dr. Vishnu Kumar – “do not fool me, I can smell whiskey”.

Varun – “no sir, we were just having some beer”.

Dr. Vishnu Kumar – “do you know having beer in the hostel is not allowed. You all would be rusticated from the hostel. Where is Sudhir Sehgal” ?

Varun Saxena – “Sudhir?? No sir he did not come here’.

Dr. Vishnu Kumar – “are you sure. Yash Pal go and search the room, Sudhir must be hiding somewhere, check the balcony as well. I am sure I heard his voice”.

After checking the room and the balcony, Rana did not find Sudhir.

Rana – “sir, Sudhir to yahan nahi hain”.

Dr. Vishnu Kumar – “ Theek hain, in teeno ke naam note karo aur hostel se rusticate kar do. Write letter to their parents”.

All three of us in a chorus- “sir, please forgive us”.

Rana is also a Maulanian and quite senior than us. He took aside Padam and  told him “ Sir ke pair pakad lo to maaf kar denge, he is a soft hearted person”.

Now it was Padam’s turn to dramatize the whole situation. He literally fell on Dr. Vishnu Kumar’s feet and held one of his legs with both of his hands and said – “sir, please maaf kar do. Aap humain hostel se nikaal dogey, aur hamarey baap humain ghar se nikaal denge. Aap hi batayen, hum bechare kahan jayenge?”

Dr. Vishnu Kumar – “to yeh baat tab sochni thi jab beer pee rahe the”.

Rana winked at Padam indicating him to keep on holding the legs of Dr. Vishnu Kumar who tried to free himself from the tangle, but Padam would not let go.

Padam – “sir, please keh do ki maaf kiya”.

Dr. Vishnu Kumar- “you all are not in right condition to talk, leave me and meet me tomorrow, when you all are sober, in my office at 1.00 PM”.

He and Dr. Rana started leaving. Now look at our audacity, I asked “sir, bachi hui to khatam kar de na?”

Dr. Vishnu Kumar gave an angry look, but I am sure inside he was saying “tum log nahi sudhrogey”.

Next day we woke up early and started discussing among ourselves how to get out of this situation. We decided that whatever Dr. Vishnu Kumar asks us to do or write, we would do that but we must somehow prevent him from sending the complaint to our parents.So we shaved, had nice bath, wore well ironed pants, white shirts, a neck-tie and shining shoes (as if  we were going for the final viva).

Exactly at one PM, Dr. Rana took us inside Dr. Vishnu Kumar’s room. We all wished him and again asked him for his forgiveness. He asked us to write an apology letter and mention that we would not repeat this in future.

Again we tried to be smart, forgetting that we were dealing with a professor of Forensic Medicine.  In the application we wrote that we were sorry for last night’s incident and that we promise not to repeat such incident in future and all of us signed and gave it to him. His legal mind straight away asked us “what do you mean by ‘last night’s incident?’ specify that.

Marta kya na karta. We had to write that we were sorry for having beer in the hostel room last night and that we shall not repeat it in future. Only then was he satisfied and closed the chapter there.

At the end Dr. Vishnu Kumar said that “I know Sudhir Sehgal was with you last night, lucky to have escaped”.

You can never beat experience that is my experience.