It is a Sunday morning and I wake up a few minutes past eleven in my hostel room. Groggy from over seven hours of sleep in the chilly Dibrugarh winter, I promptly turn over and sleep some more. I have an off from work today, I haven't made any plans with friends (yet) and the day is mine as to what I want to do with it.
This sounds like any normal student in his/her early twenties living in a hostel. Hostel life can feel alien and uncomfortable in the begining, but once you get used to it, one starts realising the perks it comes with. Sure, there are rules to stick to and curfews to be met (only girls hostels have those, mind you), but it gives you by and large a sense of freedom and independence not encountered before.
Most graduate course programmes are over by the time you are in your early twenties, and if you are in med school, you may be in it for a while longer. But throw in masters courses, university programs for post grads and you get the option of staying in "college" and with it, the hostel, for nearabout a decade.
Sure, your counterparts are probably working now, some may be married with or without kids while some continue to make you feel a twinge of envy with pictures of their travelling experiences on social media. It is inevitable to want to have all of that instead of being stuck in a decade of studying. But there are flipsides to everything,and there is nothing better than a Sunday afternoon to remind you of those.
As an unmarried, (roughly) thirty year old living in a hostel, your primary concern on a sunday morning is probably to get the week's laundry done/get a haircut/get your car or bike to servicing/getting over last nights hangover etc. Mealtimes can be bizarre and even incase you are feeling extremely lazy to cook a simple meal for yourself, you know there will still be something in the mess that can be passed up as "food". I know people who have spent sundays in hostels without even taking a bath and simply whiled the day away passionately over video games or playing cards. Girls may like to pamper themselves by either visiting salons or trying out YouTube make up tutorials (although not always with the desired results). Studious ones get the day to study while some may choose to unwind over a cup of tea and a good book on Sundays. Reruns of TV series run for hours together on laptops in hostel rooms, while some enjoy movies or sports on television without being told to "switch it off and come to the table for lunch". Table tennis and carrom games go on forever and chai and maggi sustain many through the day. There are really no timetables, no routine...it is as relaxed as it possibly can get, without the pressure of even doing the most basic things as per the conventional time of the day--something that most of have to adhere to at home.
Sitting in my hostel room, as I flip through pictures of a friend enjoying a Sunday brunch in California or another group of classmates post pictures from Goa, I am sure they are having loads of fun- but I realise that having a super relaxed Sunday with myself is no less fun. I have spent more than a decade in hostel, and I have a few more months left to enjoy the perks of being a hostel-ite, topmost among which are my lazy Sundays. :-)
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