Down the Hostel Memory Lane

I went back to the hostel today. After many years it seems. I think the last time I went there was to meet Aruna. And she left India more than a year ago. So by calculation, I have not been there for nearly quarter to two years! It isn't a lot, but it feels like an era!

I went there to help one of my dad's Japanese student move in. She got the room exactly above the last room I was in, which is also the same room I first selected but decided not to take! 

I showed her around and told her about the ways some things are done. Like how to give your clothes for washing, or where to iron your clothes, where to register complaints, etc. I also took her across the street to show the main shops in Indra Vihar - especially Sardarji's shop. He recognised me and greeted me so kindly, even gave a discount on the juices we bought. And all the guard bhaiyas are the same and were happy to see me. The Laundry lady also greeted kindly. Even the rollie-pollie South Indian mess uncle was still there!! He is the cutest person on the planet and he automatically gave me a samosa that came with the tea without charging me for it! His Hindi has improved substantially, but I think, like before, he will still hand you something else in place of the thing you asked him for! 

Gosh I miss that place! When going in, I told Yuki it feels like I am returning home. I wanted to be Yuki, I wanted to be the one shifting in, I wanted to stay the night there and not drive back to Dwarka. I came back home and thought, I should apply in DU for PhD and come to live in the hostel when I get in! I think I feel this way only because I want to have my own place. I need to move out!

Nonetheless, it was nice to see the hostel again. It was nice to see again the Library I was once incharge of, to rearrange the furniture in a room I once could have been lived in, to have evening tea in the mess again, and to meet again the people whose lives were lived in service of the girls in the hostel. It was also nice to have that good feeling in your heart when you meet someone who you have unknown ties with. (I met a girl and her mother from Mauritius who knew my Dad and had asked Yuki whether she was my dad's daughter yesterday after Yuki's interview!!) 

Apart from the new Sunday brunch thing and two new papaya trees there, almost everything else is the same.

(part of my old room)