My life in IIT Bombay, Hostel 2 began and ended with memorable events. It was like the bookends on a shelf holding up memories of a lifetime at IITB.
The night I moved into Hostel 2 was July 19th, 1969 and was also the night when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and made the radio broadcast to the world “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Those days, forget TV, even a transistor radio was a big deal, and in the middle of the night, to go around the hostel corridors to see if any one was listening to the broadcast required courage. As a fresher, first night in hostel, and having heard of ragging (in those days), it was a daunting task to locate someone senior to share the broadcast. Finally found one room with the lights on and could hear the radio. Gently knocked on the door and Marathe from Aero and Kundu (PG footballer) were listening. Almost whispered if I could join to listen to the memorable broadcast from the moon. They very graciously allowed me in to hear those words.
The next five years now seem like a breeze though there were some storms and other memorable events both in the hostel and at the institute. We had hostel specific festivities like Holi where a dunking in the hostel pool was inevitable. The Inter-IIT sports held in IITB meant non-stop hard labour to arrange for some of the sports equipment borrowed from the Kalina Army camp, their transportation and loading/unloading. Mood Indigo began during our time with shoestring budgets and hostel volunteers preparing sandwiches for the food stalls during the festival.
Academic life had its own ups and downs. Many of the faculty who taught us have left lasting impressions. The IITs with their academic rigour and the mandated hostel life have made us what we are today. The process of approaching a problem from first principles and only then attempting a solution with the holistic learning from hostel life seems to be the formula for our success.
The last night in the Hostel was equally memorable. We were about 50 from our batch (69-74) who, as the parting event, had a gala party in the corridors of a first-floor wing. There was enough food (brought from Sion-Koliwada) and enough spirits for all. There was obviously adequate noise and some boisterous behaviour to make some PGs uncomfortable. However, by next morning most of us had moved out back to our homes with bag and baggage, not knowing when we would return! Later we had to approach the academic section to collect our marksheets. When it was my turn, I was told to first clear my hostel dues and then collect my marksheet. Since I was sure I had not left any pending dues, I thought it would be some clerical error to be easily sorted in the hostel. As it was vacation time, there was hardly anyone there except some PGs and others who had pending courses. The notice board however had a notice stating penalty for two students for unruly drunken behaviour. The irony was, it was two of us who were teetotallers and did not have any liquor that night. The person who complained must have had his own sense of humour to name us besides supernatural powers or insight.
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 