Spriha in Solapur! -episode 1

I am Spriha Pandey. Jabse hosh sambhala hai, I've been living in Mumbai. I hail from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. I have no relatives in Maharashtra outside Mumbai.
Solapur is a fairly large 'townish' city in the interiors of Maharashtra (towards South, if at all you care to know...) which is inhabited by mostly Maharashtrians and people from Karnataka (what are they called?). It has one big luxurious 3 star hotel, two 3 star restaurants, two good ice-cream parlors, a few good Chinese food hangouts, a zoo, a lake, the famous Siddheshwar temple, a bunch of ROTTEN movie theatres, few engineering colleges, one MEDICAL college, lots of cyber-cafes and innumerable donkeys!
I lived for over 3 months in Solapur, alone!
It so happened, that when my MH-CET results were declared for the 'first time', my rank was 545. It was suggested by the after-results-self declared-career counselors that I must go to a government medical college if I'm getting one, even if its situated on 2003UB313! Solapur's Dr. Vaishampayan memorial medical college; est:1956, has a good reputation. There are several trains Mumbai-Solapur (an overnight journey). So it was on my list and in my destiny. On the day of councelling, it was on my selection letter.
The very next day, me and my dad left for the place where I was to live the next 4.5 years of my life. The moment I stepped outside the railway station, I thought I'll have to go back from here, I mean, when I'd visit home- a very trivial background thought, but I remember clearly. We reached there early in the morning.We needed a place to get fresh. Just outside the station, there were several lodges. I dunno what else I can call them. It had rained there and the area seemed pretty busy. So it was dirty.
We chose the least dirty looking place for the couple of hours we needed. All I remember of that room is that it was dark, dirty, stinking of vomitus, dirty, the bed was damp, the walls were stained by paan ki pichkari, the loo was dark, dirty and had the weirdest architecture ever! (I've learnt about 13 types in PSM, believe me!) We had to leave the same night so we didn't waste any time and...*gulp*...adjusted.
We ate wada-paav and caught a rick to the college.
The smell of the vomitus got stuck in my head.
My God! The college was huge! The hospital was situated on the other side of a road dividing the two. It was a district centre. A tertiary centre.
The office wasn't open yet so we decided to go to the hostel.
A hostel? I am going to stay in a hostel? I was struck by the full realization of this fact only when I saw it. For the first time since my CET exam, was I nervous.
The hostel was located at about 10 minutes distance by a rick from the college. Don't be surprised. It was a huge campus, with several double storied buildings and lots of greenery and it was shared by the police's colony. We had the comissioner's office just behind our hostel and our dean's house in front.
The building for UG girls was the first one. It was a quadrangular building with rooms on the sides and open space in the centre. Two badminton courts were built there. (Sporty, you said? Girls used the nets to dry their clothes!) There was a huge mess opposite the entrance. (Mess= a place to eat where you cannot choose the menu.)
The smell of the vomitus...
My dad wasn't allowed inside. We did the paper work outside.
The rector (I always found this post funny!) asked me to choose a room. I thought room number one was closest to the entrance and the phone so that would be good. (Mobile phone revolution hadn't occurred yet.) But it was already booked so I gladly settled down with room number two. (Mistake # 1)
My dad requested the officials over there to allot my room to someone form Mumbai or Pune. It was a two-seater. I don't know what my dad was thinking, but my room-mate to-be was beyond anyone's imagination!
I took a round of the ground floor. I spoke to a senior (probably, final year) about the place. She was a PMTite and fine. Some other seniors passed by, looking at me with hungry eyes. Some stared from the first floor. And I looked straight back into their eyes! (Mistake # 2)
We met my local guardian to be- Gauri Kulkarni studying in 3rd/2nd, i.e, a senior! She was from a place called Tarapore where my family used to live till I was four. ( My dad works in BARC. Tarapore has two atomic power plants.)
She was very sweet and refrained from ills like ragging. I felt safe talking to her.
We opened a bank account, came back to the college and did all the required work. I got the idea that the office people are going to be someone I'll have to see often and whom I'll have to tolerate the most. The smell stayed with me whenever I sat down to eat. The day ended uneventfully and we returned to our home next morning, without the smell..
(to be continued...)