Chaklala Scheme 3 : Hostel Life

Just before I was about to join the legendary hostels of NIIT-NUST, I met the OIC ( Officer Incharge ) Hostels . When asked how are the hostels, he brilliantly summed it up, “ Imagine going to a four star hotel ” .  And here I was standing in front of my room on the first floor, and remembering those words of the OIC and in the same breath cursing him vehemently. 

It was a room of three beds with no attached bathroom .It had pretty disgusting old curtains which were often used for cleaning hands by my future roommates. The closets were outside of the room and later I found out that our specific room had a public bathroom which anyone could use , and I do mean anyone.

Luckily for me my first two roommates were pretty nice . One was Humayun khan , a mysterious character but one with great ethics and for one who I have utmost respect. I strangely , donot remember the name of my second room mate , primarily because he left within a week of joining. The thing that united us was that we were all A level students which was somewhat strange because we were the only A level students in the hostel and by chance we ended up in the same room. I did realize soon afterwards that Pakistan was a society with essentially three different education systems. The masses were educated at government schools. Then there was a crop of people who studied FSC at private schools and lastly there was an ostentatious minority which liked to emulate the west in every respective way and these were the A level’s educated breed . So it seemed the authorities decided to put all three of us in one place primarily  because they thought it would be easier to adjust for us.

The truth is it didn’t matter much to me , because I really didn’t come with that frame of mind . Anyway there was one imminent fear and one prominent discussion which all of us discussed and that was how to dodge the notorious tradition of ragging over here. (Ragging is a south asia specific tradition at universities and is primarily a remnant of the british empire. It is a practice in which senior students “rag” new students for a week or two)

                              

We were scared , we were fearful and we were extremely frightened when we heard from a hostelite that our ragging videos will get uploaded on youtube.  We did not see any seniors around  and all we saw were more of our batch mates , but they were there, we knew it, they knew it. We knew they were somewhere secretly hiding ,and plotting against their next victim . We did not have the courage to go out and all we did mostly was stayed at our rooms .

As the clock struck  10 , we started hearing a whistle  and then someone knocked at our door . We were scared . We did eventually open the door and we were relieved when we found out that it was a security guard who was calling us for the “night assembly”.

We stepped outside our room , and there he was (nope it wasn't a senior), the harbinger of destruction for us for the next two years coming slowly in a ironed shalwar kameez with a register in his right hand and walking stoically with a stiff back . He was honorary captain Afzal , our hostel warden.

Here is a video our seniors made :