Hi! Okay, I will say Namaste if you insist on that. Let me introduce myself first. I am Aditi and I have just moved into a hostel in Pune. To study. Yes, my college is very good. And I do love it. And I am getting used to living away from home. But sometimes, I suddenly miss home. It is at such times that I realize how my family always went out of the way to make me feel special. I did not even know that I took such things for granted.
I felt this sudden rush of emotions when my friend was celebrating her birthday. She too was away from her parents for the first time. And I could sense that it was a totally different feeling for her too. Of course, we do enjoy ourselves with our friends. We also go out to have some good food on our birthdays. All of us are happy that we at least do not have to eat the mess food on that day.
A couple of months after I joined college, I realized that our seniors had started a birthday ritual in our University. So whenever it is someone’s birthday, all her friends would gather near a place called Kund at sharp midnight. I love this place. I think everyone loves Kund. Because it is the most peaceful place in my entire university.
Kund is a pond which lies between the university campus and the hostel blocks. Almost all of us love to sit there and chat with our friends. We go there whenever we want to relax and enjoy ourselves. So, at 12.00 in the night, the birthday girl is dragged out of the room. A few friends then lift her and throw her into the pond. Ah…I know you have lived in Pune for four years. Yes, the water is freezing cold in winters. The temperature dips down to 10 degree Celsius.
Don’t be shocked. It’s fun actually. Scream at me later, okay. First, listen to my story. You can have this kind of fun only in college, No? Not everyone is goody goody like you. Listen now. It was fun and we laughed all through this experience for days together. It was nice to see the reaction of the birthday girl and we were all prepared for it. Yes, I felt glad that I was born in May. Brr….that was really cold, eh…but such fun too.
But despite the fun that we all were having, I could sense my friend was missing her family. She had spent over 18 years celebrating her birthday with her family. And I think that no matter how busy we become in our lives even later on or which part of the world we eventually move onto, we will always stay in touch with our base – our family. We will make that connection, mentally and emotionally at least even when we are unable to meet our family in person. We miss even the food that our mothers and grandmothers cook for us especially on that day – especially when we are living in hostels.
All my friends could feel this difference even though we were celebrating only one girl’s birthday on that day. We knew we too would miss our families on when we celebrated our birthdays here. It was my roommate’s birthday that day. So, as usual, we all went out for lunch.
But we were all so so surprised when her family paid her a surprise visit right when we were having our lunch. Well, actually, all of us had asked her parents to do that. We had given them the name of the restaurant and sent them the location on Google Maps. You have to learn that, you know. Don’t say it is not necessary. You never know when you will need it. Okay okay – I’ll teach you to use it on your phone when we meet next. Promise.
Now listen. Guess the reaction of my roommate now. She was so so happy, that she left the table, ran and clung to them. It was her 18th birthday. Her sister too had come. And both her mother and sister were in tears. They were so happy just to see her and hug her like that.
And strangely, all of us felt a strange lump in our throats too. I could feel the coldness in the pit of my stomach. I looked around and tried to brink back my tears. And I could see that all my other friends too were feeling the same way. We all missed our families so so very much at that time.
A couple of minutes later, my friend’s mother disengaged herself from my friend’s tight embrace and came towards us. She opened her arms widely and beckoned towards all of us. We could not control our tears. We rushed into her arms and hugged her tightly. I know everyone was missing their mother the most at that time. And everyone felt that they were missing their mother the most because they loved their mothers more than anyone else did.
Aunty then gave us all a forehead kiss. She had brought a lot of homemade goodies with her. She was such a sweet person. She said she will give it to us on our way to the hostel. She then ordered a special dessert for all of us. We loved chatting with her and had a nice time while we had our lunch at the restaurant too. The food was really delicious. But not like ghar ka khana – of course.
And I know we were all waiting for the homemade nashta that Aunty had got for us. Murukku and laddus. That is what she had made for all of us. Wow. They were super delicious. But not like the ones my Ma makes during Diwali.
After gorging on all that homemade stuff, I realized how lucky my roommate was because her family lives in a city which is quite close to Pune. My family lives so far away. So they cannot visit me as frequently as her family if they want to.
College and hostel life is fun, nice, interesting and yes, we also learn to become independent. I don’t know. Maybe I will think of my friends as my family too after a year or so. But right now, I feel that everything is just so different here. Nice. But different. Yes, I know it will take us all some time to adjust to one another and make friends too. I don’t know how to describe this phase. So I just wrote whatever came to my heart. Yes, you can build on it and make it into a blog post. That is fine. Thank you for reading my story.