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Monday, April 17, 2006

Hostel Days

We were watching ‘Minnalai pidithu’ song from the Tamil movie Shahjahan on the Sun Music channel… It brought me the memories of the times when I used to stay in hostel during my college days. Actually, any song from movies like ’12 B’, ‘Parthale Paravasam’, ‘Thulluvatho Ilamai’ and other popular songs of that period, take me back to those days.

We were eight girls, including me, who had joined the college that year. We were from different parts of TamilNadu and I had moved from Calicut to Chennai for pursuing my engineering course. We all became a close-knit group pretty soon.

Our hostel was outside the college campus (coz the college is in a remote area, far away from the human population). Since there wasn’t enough space for us eight in the main hostel, the college had taken an independent house in the next street for rent, where only we first years stayed (away from our seniors, apparently to keep us in the safe hands of innocence).

Now, staying separately did give us some freedom, which we couldn’t have enjoyed staying right under the warden’s nose. We were not supposed to listen to music loudly else our radios or tape recorders would be confiscated. Being in an independent house was a real boon we were blessed with.

The picture that comes to my mind whenever I listen to the songs I had mentioned above is this…

A bright, sunny Sunday afternoon… the room is filled with sunlight… me on my bed and under the fan, which is running at full speed… my long and wet hair dangling from the pillow where I was laying my head with my eyes closed, sounds of my friends chattering or washing buckets full of clothes … all this with the constant music from the audio cassettes which were already in a bad condition because of playing them umpteen number of times.

I remember, in our first year, once we had called a spirit to predict our future using a coin that moves on a board which has the English alphabet, numbers from 0-9 and a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ on it. I’m sure most of you must have tried it. An important thing that should be taken care of when invoking a spirit, it seems, is that we should never call the spirit of some person who had died in an accident or had an untimely death in their youth. Else, it seems, it would never leave you. Spooky!

Among the several silly questions we asked, we wanted to know in which year each of us would get married. And guess what, the girl who vowed that she would never marry was told that she would wed in 2006 and those who wanted to marry early were told that their wish would be fulfilled in 2009(sounded like an eternity for them). He he he… now when I think about it, I feel so embarrassed that we called a wandering spirit only to ask such silly questions. But surprisingly, its one prediction did come true… that girl who was against getting married did indeed get married in March 2006. Coincidence?

It is not like I miss staying in hostel or I wish I could relive those days in college again, but then I’m happy that it was a part of my life.

8 comments:

Vivhyd said...

1st time here.. I miss my hostel days too.. and cudnt help laughing at the spirit games.. it wud done even at the hostel I stayed with my frnds doing it all the time.. Somehow they kept me away frm it.. dunno y but i think they didnt trust me with getting along with d game and i wud probably end up being the spoilsport.. heard its spooky thgh.. never got to play tht..

Deepa said...

Hi vivhyd!

though it is spooky,it is fun!
better know the rules of the spirit game to avoid any kind of mess with 'the other world'... :)

Anonymous said...

"A bright, sunny Sunday afternoon… the room is filled with sunlight… me on my bed and under the fan, which is running at full speed… my long and wet hair dangling from the pillow where I was laying my head with my eyes closed, sounds of my friends chattering or washing buckets full of clothes … all this with the constant music from the audio cassettes which were already in a bad condition because of playing them umpteen number of times."

Very good description.. Reminded me of my hostel days..

So, what was 'the other world's prediction on you Deepa?

Deepa said...

he he... will post abt it after it comes true.. ;)

Jagan said...

entha spirit matter ellam konjam over ..spirit na namakku alcohol thaan nyabagam varum ;-)

Anonymous said...

dhooda.. So, you wont tell if it is not true ..is it ? Share us with the all the spiritual predictions...We will watch if it comes true.. :)

Deepa said...

@ Jagan

i guess u r talking about "spirits"... not spirit.

@ £££

I think making those predictions public would not be proper at this moment.
Don worry.. i will post about it even if it doesn't come true, but then it wud be only after the time period when whatever was predicted to happen laspses.. till then.. keep watching this space. :)

Jagan said...

egjactly ...