Solapur story- part 4.

Wow! I really used to write well! My boredom finally forced me to read my own blog and while reading the Solapur stories all the memories started coming back... To read the prev solapur posts, click on the link-http://spriha.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_spriha_archive.html .There's so much more to tell. So here I go.
Well, the first month at my hostel was filled with home-sickness, made worse by hostile seniors. I went home every fifteen days on the weekends. On my first home-visit, I tried real hard to persuade my parents to shift me into a private college in Mumbai. It wasn't just the home-sickness. I was very depressed there. And somehow other girls seemed to have adjusted better than me. Of course, I behaved myself and never caused anyone trouble, but I felt very lonely. I never cultivated the habit of making friends. I believed and still do, that friends just happen.
On Sundays, the mess used to be closed in the evening. As if to compensate for the inconvenience, which was welcomed actually, they used to give us special treats in the lunch that day. Some dessert or something good and different. So we'd go out for dinner on the Sundays that we stayed there. That was the time we started bonding.
Whatever people may say about attraction of opposition, truth is, people with similar interests bond better. Fortunately I had people who liked the restaurant I okayed. And fortunately they were my friends I've mentioned before. We used to go to this veg restaurant called Aishwarya. Nice food.
My subsequent home-visits were less hard on my parents. I would take back only dirty laundry and stories. No complaints.
I used to catch a train that reached Mumbai early in the morning. It was needless to instruct my dad to not come to the station to pick me up. He knew me. And I knew him. Anyways, on my way home in the bus, I'd pass by LT, my current college, and more often than not I'd wonder how its students must be. Smarter, arrogant, luckier... Gradually, I stopped thinking that they were luckier.
Life wasn't easy in the hostel. The day started with the hassle to get into the bathroom! There used to be a long queue of buckets every morning. Some people used to get up in the middle of the night to catch the first place! They were the ones who bathed the last anyways... My standard bathing time is fifteen minutes. And I get damn irritated when someone knocks on the door while I'm in. So most of the mornings I was irritated.
Then the boring breakfast that I never liked. Hey I forgot filling up water in the morning! Drinking water! There was this tap outside our dean's house from where we used to fill up our daily drinking water reservoires. That was so rural! I cannot believe I used to consume that water. Water is scarce in the interiors. Especially when a donkey gets drowned in the main municipal reservoir! Oh, there were more donkeys than people in Solapur.
Anyways, we'd get into the bus finally and then wait...for the chronic late-comers. I didn't mind. Slowly I was getting back to my usual self. The bus-traveling part was getting interesting.
Our bus caused 20% of Solapur's pollution! In one word it was a khatara! No trouble in the morning. All boys and girls could squeeze onto the seats except one or two. And mostly because boys and girls didn't sit on the same seat.
We'd reach college just in time. Fill up the lecture hall. Shift to another after an hour. And another for the third.
Then go back to the hostel for lunch. This was the time when the bus showed its true colors! It won't start and then would have to be pushed for a few meters before the engine would awaken with an angry groan. Initially, the guys showed a little chivalry by simply going ahead and helping the conductor to push the giant. But one day, I can't say if they were being naughty or just plain guys, they refused to help start the bus. They said it was the girls' turn today. Reluctantly we tried. But the momentum wasn't enough. At least, the guys had started interacting with the girls. More about them later.
Well, I didn't care what was there for lunch because by that time I'd be damn hungry. Then we'd go back to college, again surprisingly the bus would start on its own. After practicals we'd come back to the hostel in the evening, have some tea and would be taken for the 'sessions'. That became less frequent gradually.
Those were the few days of my life when I'd surrender to a deep slumber by 10 in the night.
Its hard not to study in medical school. It took me alot of time to master it! My friends were the sincere lot. In fact, most of the girls were quite regular with their studies. It was surprising that hostelites preferred studies over time-pass there. There was this tall girl who played basket ball and knew all the anatomy! My roomie hadn't come yet. So I'd hang around with my neighbors, Shweta and Mukta, in room number one. That went on to become our common adda when we started spending most of our time together. I mean, the three of us and Vidisha, Tanmayi and her roomie Priyanka who was also from Mumbai. We'd study together and of course, it was hard to not chat.
In the hostel, your friends are your family. And I was so lucky to have a family second only to my real family. We had tremendous amounts of fun!
Well, life was peaceful in Solapur. One thing I'll never forget about that place, and my friends would also remember, is how fascinated I was with the sky out there! I mean, you never had to raise your head to see the horizon and the sky was always so clear, I mean not of clouds but dirt. I just couldn't refrain myself from looking out of my histology lab on the third floor. I felt I could touch the sky if I stretched enough! It was beautiful. And the sun-sets were mind-blowing.
There were cyber-cafes in plenty. The market was decent. There was an ice-cream parlor nearby, called Chikita. But our favorite was originals! Wow, thats where I've had the best softies. Our regular Sunday plan would be to visit Siddheshwar temple in the evening, I went there to see the lake. The eat at Aishwarya and Originals. Then come back, 10 was the limit.
(its not over yet...)