Cosmopolitan 114

Some honesty first….the blog title and the idea itself is plagiarization of my friend Rajani’s work…an inspiration (to say in true Bollywood style), from her blog. The usage of cosmopolitan as an adjective for my room... it ticked me then, why hadn’t I, the self proclaimed blogmaniac who had been too busy with silly trivial stuff to read up blogs leave alone writing one, written something about my very interesting, capricious little… hmm….not so little actually, but yes a very crowded room. Also, this post is borne of my boredom, the few rarities of my college life include an empty 114, and alas it is what I face now! My roomies are coming tomorrow and it is one of those days when all alone in my room (well almost, if I don’t count a sleeping Gupti). So the long pending post, a tribute to my roomies finally sees the light of day today!

Cosmopolitan in some sense is pretty correct, Muddu Baby (yes! I am grinning) and Suchi represent the telugu community, Rajani our air-force girl has been all over India (I guess she’s the most cosmopolitan), our pseudo roomie Gupti is a US citizen, and me, well I proud to be Upite, I say. Surely that is a mighty interesting concoction, but wait those were just the credits of the cast and crew of 114.
For starters, to be one of room 114 is no mean feat, a threshold has been set, the alpha-cut as Muddu would say for you to belong to the cluster called 114. The recipe to gaining that threshold has been a long kept hostel secret, but today I reveal it… not because we are in a dire need of a roommate but coz it overflowing already and there’s no scope for one more. So let the world know today that ‘We are such stuff, as dreams are made on…’:p. Well, my usual melodrama apart, time for some serious business. The formula is simple, take an average sane person; remove all the zeal to study; throw in some bonkers on her; add in irresponsibility, carelessness and a tinge of zing for life; hone an extraordinary skill till she reaches a definite level of insanity, and voila you have a probable room 114 occupant. Just that now there’s no room for any, sorry, but then I can give you the next best thing… a quick insight into room 114.


The Characters
To begin with, the kiddo of the room the loveable doll we call Muddu baby, as already seen, Sambha has devoted a whole post to her which gives one an understanding to the many facets of Ms.Mudduluri’s personality. I’d just like to make a few more add-ons there - remarkable use of Hindi slang (a language she could barely converse in at the beginning of 1st semester); an ability to sleep irrespective of the jobs, study material piled up; to die for Hindi accent, and a penchant for cheapo masala numbers, the ones Suchi hates and we love to play just as to bug her that much! A special mention is required for Muddu’s strikingly good memory. You can’t even begin to imagine the extent to which she remembers things. The minutest of details of years gone by are still absolutely clear and vivid in her mind, but problem being she’s so engrossed into fine points that she generally forgets the bigger picture (need I mention the Hasibguda fiasco my dear little tourist guide?).

Sambha, she’s an open book for everyone around her. Not once does she reserve her opinion. With her it’s – she thinks it, you got it. Around her are a bevy of tortured souls who are struggling living with her but can’t live without her either! On an examination day when for a change all of us are toiling with our books she has around four windows on her monitor – a chat window, a movie, browser, and ofcourse if space permits a teeny meeny ppt window! Sometimes you want to call her unpredictable, erratic, irrational, foolish but then you realize may be not. A more apt description would be – a free soul, a helluva girl with a never say die spirit, a firm believer in Darwinism’s ‘Survival of the fittest’, an unstoppable force (so the dean realized in the mid sems ;) )! But apart from this what most haven’t seen is her helpful self, when it matters most, come what may you’ll find her by your side. A friend in need is a friend indeed, an old saying but befitting as it is for Rajani, I use it here yet again.

Suchi on the other hand is quite an unlikely resident of room 114. Overtly a quiet, innocent, simple looking girl with an angelic voice…but then looks are deceptive. The uniqueness of being a 114ite has to be there! A very famous Suchi trait is that you’ll find her perpetually with a book in her hand, on the bed, but alas those pretty eyes always need sleep! One can’t blame her totally, given the fact that she’s generally the first to get up (and wake up us all) and the last to sleep. The time-table (TT) as she is known as, never fails! Not to forget are her wondrous monosyllables, she’s capable of carrying out perfect (strictly according to her) conversation using just them. Teasing her is a favorite past time for all of us, and the great spirit in which she takes all our weird comments is what makes her so special and also a soft target ;)

When I mention the tenants of room 114, I can’t even dream of not introducing our junglee pseudo roomie Gupti. Forgetting an integral part like her is committing blasphemy. The reason she’s still called pseudo is because she doesn’t fit the profile well. She’s crazy alright but the hard worker in her just refuses to go away. But then our room is a second home for her after UDL lab, and without Chef Gupti our midnight meals won’t be the same again.
Four down; one more to go and that’s me. But because I am authoring this unintelligible piece of literature I rather skip this part. Though there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind (and I am sure there’s none :D) that I have the most qualified persona to be a 114ite!


The Narrative
The characters finally done away with, now the plot. On most days we follow the same routine – sleeping, whiling away time, sleeping, leg pulling, sleeping, cooking, sleeping, velagiri, sleeping. Special appearances by Neha, whenever she gets time out of her busy schedule of shuttling between CC-2 and the hostel, gives much needed oomph to the plot. Unwanted Matkis scolding us for no rhyme or reason play the villains. With special effects of cookery, spanking and pillow fights thrown in we have for you a complete family entertainer!


All said and done, and I am sure by now I have completely enraged all my inmates by presenting to you our wacko details, I’d like to wrap this up.
But before that a small reminiscent down the memory lane…our 1st year birthday parties, all seven of us sitting in huddled up in one blanket almost invariably discussing rather dissecting some poor senior or class guy, the water fights, our all girl treats where hogging was our sole purpose, stealing from the mess at night, cooking, the wicked names we gave everybody initially, the naughty songs we loved to dance too, Ramneet and Neha mimicking each and everyone we know so amazingly well, Shilpi’s freaky accidents….there’s no end to it. Ups and downs I have seen them both in college life but through thick and thin we have been together. Now I realize, when it’s almost over, why people say school days and college days are memories you cherish lifelong………..