N for Night-outs

For most part of my student life, I have been a day scholar, someone who goes from home to school / college and comes back in the evening. And, like every other kid who comes home every day in India, I was on quite a tight leash, with strict schedules for going and coming back.

Then, B-school happened, my hostel room becoming the cliched home away from home, and my friends becoming the family away from my family. While the latter suited me perfectly well (you know how some are blessed with great friends rather than a great family), the former took some time getting used to. After the initial wave of home sickness and withdrawal symptoms from mom food and mom love, things got to normal. However, things truly got normal once the night-outs began.

Night outs were invented by the Universe to have long, meaningless (mostly philosophically meaningful) conversations over endless amounts of chai and sandwich from the midnight canteen and Athicas (our very own 24 hour food mecca) under the garb of study groups or project groups. Not surprisingly, no projects have ever been completed in time, nor has anyone aced tests and quizzes as an outcome to these planned night-outs. 

Nevertheless, if one wants to be a better person in life, someone who can obsess over the world and the self equally seriously, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the political system, economic situation, and one's own capabilities in equal parts, I would recommend a few (rather, many) night-outs as part of hostel life.

Nothing can substitute that uninhibited time and mindspace you get in college (despite the workload) to think, mull over and be consumed by something other than monthly salaries, housing loans and the next big promotion. Nothing can replace the awesome minds of students trying to get innovative and creative about solving the problems of this world. Nothing, nothing can measure up to the value of those friendships formed, over nights of joys in conversations, where impossible is a word unknown, opportunities for thought and growth limitless.

This one is dedicated to some of my most special friends from B-School who have been instrumental in making me the better person I am today. 

P. S. This post is the fourteenth in the A-Z blogging challenge series for April.