I had 6% attendance: Abhishek Chaubey

If their ID-cards didn’t give away the year they had graduated in, it would’ve been difficult for anyone to gauge that the 200-odd men gathered in Hindu College on Saturday were not students currently living in the boys’ hostel. But, they were all ex-residents of the Hindu College boys’ hostel, and had gathered there for the first hostel alumni reunion bash.From celebrated filmmakers to television actors, IAS personnel, IPS officers, professors and even students from batches of the 80s, the get-together saw everyone relive the spirit of their college days.
At this reunion, a glass window was broken during an afternoon cricket session, groups of people sat on the parapet and others sat in the lawns to finalise plans of meeting their common old friend named ‘Old Monk’. But, the arrival of directors Imtiaz Ali and Vishal Bhardwaj was clearly one of the highlights of the evening
The guys had a fun night at the hostel. Nalin Singh from the alumni said, “Beer kept pouring in. From where? Only God knows! Everyone went wild dancing. Cheap type wali gaalis were commonly used. But, the gals were missed badly. Some of us went in the night on a rickshaw to Miranda House for a taste of our gool ol’ days. Then at 4am we went to the Hindu Rao area to have tea. Did anyone sleep? Nah!”
I have always hung out with the dregs of society, even in college: Imtiaz Ali
“In college, a lot of guys had stripped me naked during the ragging. But I must say that I enjoyed the experience ultimately. At that time it was terrible, but everyone was getting stripped together, so there was bonhomie. In our times, ragging was severe, but no one would touch anyone.
During my college days, I did a lot of theatre. My principal had said that as long as you do two English productions a year, I don’t care about your attendance. You just have to pass.
Such has been my good fortune that I have always hung out with the dregs of society. The worst people in class were my friends, worst people of the hostel – guys who used to curse, abuse, fight and create trouble – were my friends. Coming here is very nostalgic for me. A lot of crazy things happened during college, like a general body meeting was held against me because I didn’t vote for a certain candidate. A lot of politics has happened.
Craziest thing I’ve ever done – we’ve all walked naked to Miranda House. In those days, these roads were deserted. And it was part of mass ragging that everyone had to do. I ragged my juniors badly. I was Mr Fresher in the first year and later became Mr Ragger. But ragging was not what it is today.”
I had 6% attendance: Abhishek Chaubey
“I was in the hostel for a couple of months only since I didn’t get accommodation there. I did English (Hons) from Hindu and graduated in 1998. I didn’t know any famous alumni back then, though I had heard about Imtiaz and I was myself doing a lot of English theatre in college.
This is the place where I really decided that I wanted to make movies. This is where my actual cultural learning began... watching movies, doing theatre, and more.
Craziest thing I did – I got ragged pretty bad. That time MTV and Channel V crews were here. And they were shooting pretty random stuff. So, for several days, I had to remove my shirt and run towards them and say, ‘bhaiya mera photo le lo’. I was otherwise a very quiet kind of a guy. We used to smoke here bindaas (and smoke up too). But the atmosphere was very chilled out. Now it’s very strict. I had 6% attendance and I’d gotten away with a lot.”
I got married in college: Rajesh
Rajesh Kumar has been surviving on only a diet drink daily for the last 32 days to ensure he looked like a college-goer and not someone who visited his alumni years later. Thanks to his strict regimen, the actor was elated with the compliments that came his way.
For Rajesh, Hindu hostel was never a part of Hindu college. “Hindu college aur Hindu hostel ka aapas main kuch lena dena nahin hai. Both are two separate entities. Hindu Hostel ke niyam hostlers tay karte hain aur college ke niyam bhi hostlers tay karte hain,” he declared.
Only when Rajesh spoke to those gathered at this alumni meet, did he get to know the location of the principal’s and the staff room – something he was unaware of during his graduation years. “Today I have realized that once you step out of the auditorium, on the right is the principal’s office and on the left is the staff room. I don’t think it is my mistake! I hold Hindu College responsible for it. Agar aap naksha dekhein, Hindu College aur hostel ki entry bhi alag hain.”
Unlike others, who are only familiar with the term mass ragging, Rajesh offered the audience a different side to the ragging phenomenon, by calling it “maans ragging”. Rajesh said, “Ragging toh hamesh se hi prachlit thi yahan. But in reality, it was maans ragging. For the seniors would scan us from top to bottom in a way as if we had something different. Aisa lagta tha ki abhi bolenge ki humein yeh sab kyun nahin diya. Talking about the seniors, I have to make this point. They had befriended so many girls from LSR and IP that we had no option but to survive with what was left for us – Gargi College, Lady Irwin College, etc.”
After this, Rajesh took us to his hostel room. “Room 68 was mine. We would shift the beds to one side and make more space for our friends. And we never had a wall mirror! There were no grills on the windows either. I remember asking fuchchas to clean our room and paste wall papers. Since curtains weren’t allowed, we would ask them to cover the window panes with papers. I know it was a task, but we all did it. I had to clean around 17 rooms in this hostel! We have thrown bottles at fuchchas to get us water. We would say ‘Aye fuchche, paani leke aa chal!’ Aur uske mooh pe bottle phenk dete thay.”
But did anyone steal his room keys and do something bizarre? “No. Aise kuch humare rooms main nahin hota tha. Itne gareeb thay hum log, ki doosre yeh sochte thay ki isse leke nahin, kuch iske liye rakh ke hi jao. Since most of the students lived their college lives on a shoe-string budget, it was expected that thoda-udhaar-dede-yaar concept was pretty common at the time.”
As Rajesh recalls, he got his first girlfriend after spending eight months in the college. And no, he didn’t feel the need of making more! “Kamla Nagar was the place where we would go. I remember, ‘Virgin Tree’ which was very significant and had an interesting concept attached to it. ‘Virgin Tree’ ke ek taraf ladkiyan virgin samjhi jaati thin aur doosri taraf jo hoti thi, unka hum zimma nahin lete thay. Maine toh machis ki tilli jalake ladki ke saath shaadi bhi kari hai college main. It was a part of my ragging and I had to do it.”
On the last day, we got drunk in the front corridor and cried: Vishal Bhardwaj
“I did the royal course in college – BA (Pass) since I was a cricketer and played for two years for the college team too. The hostel for me was about a new life altogether. At that time, it was shocking for me (in a positive sense) to be there. When you come from a small town and with that, you have a room of your own and so many facilities, liberties and beautiful girls around...
But, I wasn’t ragged like most of my other colleagues at the hostel because I came here late. I hadn’t got the hostel for the first three months. During that time, I’d stayed with a friend in the Ramjas hostel. So, I was ragged just for one evening. There was a tradition here that the last person to come into college was ragged by freshers, so I was ragged by my batchmates. But it was fun harassment. I was lucky I didn’t have to walk naked because that was the mass ragging that happened here.
Even though I’ve been to the college several times, it’s the first time I am coming back and actually staying in hostel and I am very nostalgic. Especially since I am coming back after 25 years. Nothing has changed here – even the water cooler is where it used to be. The roads, the streets, the corridors, the people, everything is the same.
I was a good student and a good cricketer. But, it’s the hostel where I groomed my skills as a musician. There were a lot of good musicians there at that time and we all were very nice. I also met my wife here. It was actually to woo her that I’d become a composer in college.
I stayed in the same wing for all three years of college and my room numbers were 27, 29 and then 33. Girls would often come to the hostel, and I have really nice memories from that time. However, one of the best ones is from the last day – we got drunk, lay down in a row in the front corridor and started crying because we had to leave the college.”
Contributed by Divya Pal and Garima Sharma