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Here’s Why Living In A Hostel Is Awesome!

By Youth Ki Awaaz in Society
8th October, 2013

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By Simran Sultania:

Pampering moms, caring dads and annoying siblings; undeniably, nothing in the world replaces the feeling of staying with your folks. Definitely, home is the best but we can’t ignore the perks of staying in a hostel.

hostel

People from different parts of the world come together to stay in a hostel, away from home, with the hope of becoming independent, to become self-reliant, and to prepare themselves for the future adversities (if any). Going away from your comfort zone and managing yourself entirely on your own is what a hostler knows best. Trust me, I have been staying in different hostels since the past 5 years and I know how difficult it is to be away from your family members, but I am content because what I am getting today is what people staying at home miss out on in their lives!

Hostel also provides a platform for individuals coming from very different geographic and cultural regions to become best of friends and I am sure in some way, people staying at home would have missed that out if the social networking sites did not exist.

According to a popular belief, hostels are also one of the reasons that children get detached from their family, but what I feel is when you stay away from someone, you know how important that person is and that naturally increases the love and respect for them in your heart. The most significant and amazing thing about being in a hostel is how it makes people forget about regional, social and cultural differences and teaches to live as a family.

It is generally said that students who stay away from home usually miss out various family rituals, their culture, and lack a sense of attachment with their religious proceedings etc., but what I feel is that they are culturally more aware and active. At home we are generally restricted to a certain category of festivals but this is not the case in a hostel.

Today, I know what lohri, Christmas, Pongal and Eid is all about and how to joyfully engage in the celebrations. Although I can bet anyone from my family would not be aware of how lohri or Christmas or Eid is celebrated. Nobody cares about the social stereotype and people just enjoy being themselves. Interacting with people, getting to know different languages, indulging in others cultural practices is what gives a hostler a diversified identity.

Also, being a foodie is the most appealing part of staying in a hostel where the theplas, kharkharas, rasams, the till ke ladoos etc. Not only I enjoyed the food but learnt to cook these new cuisines, a plus point in most moms list. In the end, hostel has made me grow as an individual. Today I feel more self reliant and independent and it has made me more aware about different cultures from all over the country. I’ve never felt happier about being a hostler in the most substantial years of my life.

You must be to comment.

  1. Tulika Srivastava

    Its true dat we learn more about different culture and become more social too but when da question of independence comes its depends upon da management of your hostel cz in my hostel it feels like I am locked in a jail. We cant go anywhere except weekends and that too requires nos. of formalities.Also,all the rules and regulations are only for girls hostel in our college dats y I want to run to home now as I was much more independent over there.

  2. Simran Sultania

    Hey Tulika , I totally understand what you must be feeling because when I was in my boarding school,even my hostel used to be like this as you told but there are different phases of life and we get to experience many other things. Trust me,now you feel it like a jail,some years down the line you will badly miss it and the article has been written keeping a broader perspective of most of the hostels in the country 🙂

  3. Ektha

    I can relate to this article.
    I never thought I’d miss hostel times, but amazingly I do miss hostel times.
    Moving from one country to another where things were bound to be drastically different, I found my ‘home’ in the hostel room.
    Your damn right it wasn’t easy but I made it through with so many lessons learnt, hurdles crossed and memories and friends to take along.
    I know more about myself through this experience.

    Wonderful article Simran

  4. simran sultania

    Thanks Ektha 🙂

  5. rajkanyadm

    I am in complete agreement with you. Living far off really helps, it does. Also i think, you did a good job in covering just about every aspect that makes living in a hostel such a joy ride.
    And you definitely saved the best for the last, the FOOD. I am such a huge foodie myself and i had never had so much food from all corners of India before, all in ONE WEEK!!

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An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

Read more about his campaign.

Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

Her campaign #MeriMarzi aims to promote menstrual health and wellness, hygiene and facilities for female sex workers in UP. She says, “Knowledge about natural body processes is a very basic human right. And for individuals whose occupation is providing sexual services, it becomes even more important.”

Meri Marzi aims to ensure sensitised, non-discriminatory health workers for the needs of female sex workers in the Suraksha Clinics under the UPSACS (Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) program by creating more dialogues and garnering public support for the cause of sex workers’ menstrual rights. The campaign will also ensure interventions with sex workers to clear misconceptions around overall hygiene management to ensure that results flow both ways.

Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

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A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

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A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

Let’s Talk Period aims to change this by

Find out more about her campaign here.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

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A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

Bidisha was selected in Change.org’s flagship program ‘She Creates Change’ having run successful online advocacy
campaigns, which were widely recognised. Through the #BleedwithDignity campaign; she organised and celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2019 in Guwahati, Assam by hosting a wall mural by collaborating with local organisations. The initiative was widely covered by national and local media, and the mural was later inaugurated by the event’s chief guest Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Debeswar Malakar, IAS.

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