Once, I answered a question in a slam book which went like this “Which is your favourite place in the world?” I answered “My Home”. Nothing equals to the place where your parents raised you with so much love. As M.K. Soni says, “A house is made of brick and mortar, but a home is made by the people who live there”. Here is phase of my life when I first left my home. It's time to stay at college hostel.
THE DARING VENTURE
For the first ever time in my life, I was about to be separated from my dear parents. We three- me, mom and dad were always together. We were the best team. While I was growing up, my parents slowly ingrained the thought that “one day I should stay at hostel, away from them”. My mind was already prepared for this moving out and living out from the family at that young an age. Still, fear gripped me when I faced it. I was looking very happy on the outside, but in the corner of my heart, I knew I have to face things alone, away from my parents.
We packed our things. Dad bought me a new suitcase. It was red and black in colour. He also bought nice fluffy bed, not a light one, as he always wanted me to have the best comfort. My mom was very good at keeping up with the trend when it comes to fashion. She bought me many new Kurtis with Punjabi Patiala pants, which was very popular then. We travelled by train and we arrived in the beloved city, Madurai. Auto men surrounded us as we came out of the station. All set and done we started to move towards my LDC.
IN PURSUIT OF THE DREAMLAND
The college had sent a letter, in which we were informed about the name of the residence I would be staying, it was "Sir James Doak Hall", (SJDH).
We entered the college, many autos and cars were lined up throughout the campus. We crossed many old colonial type of buildings built by the vision filled American missionary 'Katie Wilcox'. The names of the hostels go like this, first we crossed the 'Pandiyan hall', then 'Wilcox hall', next came 'Gaylord and Harilakshmi hall'. They almost looked like an old palace. We were directed to move further and there came Sir James Doak Hall it was a two storey building which looked more contemporary.
We were lovingly directed by the student volunteers to do every procedure. My turn to visit my wardens came, and there seated was this very beautiful Professor Archana from Business department. She allotted my room, it was Dorm 3, cube 2.
THE REVELATION
My senior Priyadharshini guided myself and my parents to the cube, it was next to hers. I was so full of joy when I saw my personal space. I was expecting something horrible like a long hall filled with beds (kind of hospital look). But Voila! I fell in love with that cube at the first sight, it was a cute little personalised space. The dorm has twelve cubes, six on right, six on left. Each cube was separated by a huge cupboard, which was like a wall on both sides, in the front was a curtain, which covers your personal space. At the end of the cubes was this vanity corner and the rest rooms. I was thanking Jesus with all my heart for that gift. My parents were so happy about how God was leading us. My mom was so touched with my senior Priyadharshini who was with us on every step, Priya akka said “Aunty, your daughter will love this place and will never leave even if you ask her to leave in future”. Her words were very true. My parents left me after the hostel orientation. I missed them a lot and so did they. But they knew that I was in safe hands. In God’s plan and protection.
I had no mobile phone with me back then and the only mode of telecommunication was the campus "Phone Booth" (must have become extinct now). The "Phone Booth" was a scene of intense emotion, as I have witnessed some students sharing tender moments shedding tears with their parents from far away places. We had to stand in a long queue to pay and use the facility. Also, phone time was limited, the non-teaching staff used to urge us to end the conversation if the limit was extended. Particular timing was allotted to use the phone, two hours in the mornings and three hours in the evenings. Just near to the Phone Booth, there was a typing class going on. So much has changed in the last one decade, in retrospect, how little time we spent on the phone those days. Gone are those days.
THE CAMPUS TOUR?
Our hostel seniors took us, the juniors for a campus tour. They got special permission from our very friendly wardens. They showed the lunch pavilion and said, "This is the most important holy place, so when you enter you should touch the ground and fold your hands like how you enter the temple”.
The place was kind of having this Buddha temple like look. Some girls believed and bowed and entered the place, some were very afraid that the seniors are up to something, so all of us entered the lunch pavilion as instructed. I kept a friendly but also a confident face. I was so curious to learn what they were up to. We were asked to form a line and follow everywhere they took us. They showed us every place and added some weird fictional story to it.
We came to a building which was near the entrance of the college. It was called as “Margaret Clapp hall”. The hostel president senior Priyadharshini started to teach about the building to us. She said, this is called Margaret Clapp hall.
She pointed out the same name written on the front of the building and asked us to repeat after her. Though we felt so stupid, we all repeated the name after her. She gave us the next instruction, whenever you enter this hall you have to clap your hands as this is the "Margaret CLAPP hall". We all started to clap and then happened the most unexpected twist to the story.
Someone who was very fair, beautiful and respectable came out of the hall to the utter despair of my seniors. It was none other than the principal of the college Dr. Mercy Pushpalatha. My seniors stood there as if they were frozen. This wonderful first woman of the college asked the seniors about what was going on there. They said that they were taking us for the campus tour, and the principal mam replied, "The juniors know how to read I believe", for which my seniors gave an embarrassed smile. The whole scenario made me to burst out with uncontrollable laughter. We were asked to disperse and return to our hostel. There ended the campus tour.
SPILL THE BEANS.
We juniors were still very new to each other, so we never knew that actually some of the seniors were amongst us - acting as juniors, while we were going for this sneaky campus tour. The real seniors were ragging their fellow friends in disguise like anything. One who was in such a disguise was a senior called 'Deepa'. Deepa pretended that she was being ragged by another senior - Roselin. I felt very bad for Deepa and shared my feelings about this cruel Roselin with Shirly Akka who was walking along with me. She calmed me down but went along with the fake campus tour plan of her friends. All these plans were revealed to us in the night when we had the meeting with our warden. I believe the fake campus tour of our seniors was an entertainment not only to them but for us, their juniors as well. Soon, all of us became very close to each other.
WELCOME JUNIORS
There came this colourful celebration that my hostel seniors threw to celebrate their junior sisters. We were given an invitation to attend the Junior's welcome day which they prepared very lovingly and secretly. They gave us the card by waking us up in the midnight with a prank. With our eyes still heavy laden with sleep, our hair in a complete mess, we walked out to the corridor and we were given the invitation.
It was supposed to happen in the evening. The Welcome program was scheduled @ 6 P.M.
I dressed in one of my favourite traditional outfits, silk skirt and top, with a cute matching ear stud with pink stone. The skirt was in peacock green and top in rani pink. I went along with my friends Charanya (who left for engineering college in a month) and Reshmi of BBA (who remained a very good friend throughout that year of my stay at the SJDH-GF). We went to the GJ auditorium, I was totally impressed and amazed at how the whole celebration was organised. It was solely done by girls!!. They were here and there on the stage, they were near the sound system. They were making all arrangements everywhere! The JCAR student committee rocked. Wow! This is what woman empowerment is all about. Thank you LADY DOAK.
The show started and the whole stadium had shoutouts from everywhere. Girls from each hostel shouted the name of their hostels when their girls danced. When our hostel's turn came we were shouting at the top of our voices with our seniors. At the end of the show all of the juniors gave huge shoutouts for seniors.
We, SJDH-GF girls were asked to unite in a place. Our seniors joined us. We formed a line like a train. We were keeping our hands on the shoulder of the person in front of us. We started the train run. We shouted the shouts of joy, 'koo-jigu jigu' till we reached the James Doak hall from GJ. When we reached our hostel, all of us formed a circle again. The circle moved step after step in rounds with each of us holding the other's hand.
President senior Priya shouted "SHALABULA, SHALABULA GUMTHALAKKA" and all others replied in the top pitch of their voice "Ohh Ahh, Ohh Ahh". She again said, "GUMTHALAKKADI GUMMAVA" and the crowd replied "JAMES DOAK NA SUMMAVA". I forgot all my shyness and was shouting with them at the top of my voice "OHH AHH, OHH AHH"and "JAMES DOAK NA SUMMAVA". After we shouted our hearts out, we all gave a chorus shout and said "OHHHHH" which must have echoed till the main road.
And then we had this delicious chicken biriyani, chicken gravy, potato chips and sweets for dinner. The fantastic "Junior's welcome day" ended.
THE MIDNIGHT CHAT
I found a very special sister there, named Shirly, who introduced herself to my parents as our relative on day one itself. She was from Vallam, Shenkottai. She was the chapel representative. A relative from my father’s side. She used to visit my cube to see my how about. I started to rely on her guidance for many things. Every day we went together to the mess, I sat along with her friends. We started to develop a deep friendship. We used to talk and laugh aloud in her cube often. She stayed in dorm 4.
One night @12P.M. we were so into our fun talk, we didn’t realise that our warden Ms.Sudha was standing just behind us in the dark night. She said “I can’t sleep when you both are laughing out like this”, she was standing exactly behind me and I didn’t dare to look at her. I was sitting on Shirly ka's bed like a stone. Later, we dispersed the night talk.
What is college hostel life without senior-junior friendship, without the loud shoutouts, dance, and awesome food, without the late night talks, without getting scoldings from teachers for naughty pranks. Yes, it is The Dream Land, the "James Doak Hall GF".
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