Confessions of a Hostelite - Janice Rodrigues

When I first discovered I was spending the next three years of my life in a hostel; to say I was upset would be a massive understatement. I remember reading the hostel rule book (yes, it really does exist) and being filled with a sense of dread for what lay in store for me. Atrocious food? Early curfew? ONLY ONE TV???

Such words floated to me, through endless advice and suggestions. But something seemed to happen almost immediately after joining. All those mundane rules and restrictions seemed insignificant for two major reasons – one, there were an endless stream of new activities that helped me keep my mind off them. And two, I learnt that hostelites don’t follow the rules anyway!!!

The last six months have been like an invigorating journey, filled with ups and downs. But in the end, when I think of my fondest memories of Mumbai, I give credit to the hostel for making it all possible. And although it gives me intense happiness to complain about its endless flaws and the grumpy warden, in the end, I’m glad to be a hostelite.

We may have occasional pangs of ‘homesickness’ but there are always a great number of things that make it worthwhile - singing along to the tune of the guitar at 2 in the morning, celebrating someone’s birthday at midnight, having a mass study session the night before an exam. So many more wonderful opportunities and experiences I would have hated to miss.

So this goes out to all those incredible, independent people staying in hostels. It’s true: we still have atrocious food, an early curfew and ONLY ONE TV. But along this way, we get to meet these remarkable people we call friends, and that’s what makes all the difference.

When the Premises were all Ears

“Encore” was the word, the crowd bawled out in chorus after listening to the performance by Sheldon Bangera’s band. Needless to mention, the enthusiasm and the vigour held by the crowd had paid off in a colossal manner. The premises of Wilson College were all ears to the beautiful Christian Gospel Music played by the band. The throng which was full of vigour and liveliness shouted approval to each song of theirs. But what left a touch was the song, “Pyaar toh andhaa hai” as everybody was seen humming the song along with the crew. And if that wasn’t enough, people are still heard singing it to themselves in the canteen or elsewhere. And then when the excitement, the noise and the zest had reached the top notch, there came to perform the very legendary and celebrated, Yeshua Band Artists. Within minutes they managed to capture the attention of the on-lookers and take them on this little hypothetical trip to the world of Gospel. As was very visible, all and sundry in attendance there were flabbergasted and amazed at their marvellous and enthralling performance. Surely, they too were a huge success. But what struck a chord in the people there were the striking and riveting words said by the lead singer. To quote him, he said, “At the end of this beautiful life we’ve been bestowed upon, it’s not about finding success through materialistic or money-oriented means. To find victory in our lives, we simply need to look towards God and it will be in that direction that we’ll find ourselves to be most triumphant.” So all in all, the entire occasion ended up being a gigantic success punctuated with loud applauds and cheers.
All hail Sheldon Bangera and Yeshua.

-Alisha Mishra