2. Living in IITD

Definition of a basic life

It’s good that I had expectations for the living conditions here to be ‘bad’, and that it only turned out to be ‘shitty’. Otherwise, I would have found it even harder to stay calm whenever I saw something provoking here.

There isn’t really much you need to live a basic lifestyle -- descent food, a descent room to stay in, a descent toilet and a descent computer with descent internet access, but this place doesn’t seem to cater for the basics – for my standards anyway.

Kumaon Boy's Hostel -- where I live

Food

There is this place called the ‘mess’ in the hostel where I'm able to enjoy free meals during scheduled hours. It sounds good but I prefer eating out. It’s not that the food there tastes really bad, but more to do with the lack of meat making the food less satisfying; and I just can’t help feeling that I’m eating in a prison. Walking out to a restaurant to have a delicious yet moderately priced meal is a much more enjoyable dining experience, which also kills some of the time which, otherwise, I would probably have spent doing something trivial in my room.

Where we get our food

Where we eat our food

Here are some arbitrary photos of food in the mess.

Breakfast

Strawberry jam and butter on bread, some kind of dry grain mixed into a paste and curry-flavoured beans

  Lunch 

This is Roti Thali, a typical Indian dish. Roti is the Indian bread and Thali is rice sided several kinds of sauce and paste. From the top-left clockwise: Curried potatoes and peas, yoghurt, curry, roti, rice and crunchy vegetable.

Dinner

The best food is usually served at dinner. From top-left clockwise: sweet tomato paste, deep-fried potato flakes, soggy pizza, tomato sauce, noodles and sour powder.

Drinking water

Sound advice when going to India would be not to drink tap water…

Guy waiting for his bottle to fill up who doesn't feeling like posing in front of the camera but ends up posing anyway.

Room

My jaw dropped though the floor the first time I opened the door of my room. As you can see, the room is indeed crummy, and the thought of staying in this pigsty for the next four and a half months made me feel weak. IITD is supposed to be one of the top institutions in India, right? Yes, academically – it would have been more just to mention that the institution was government-owned and had one of the worst infrastructures and facilities in the country as well.

Shocking sight that led to a temporary hole in the floor and a broken jaw

Front door

Apart from the crappy floor, bed, shelves, window and light, the paint comes off the wall and the internet LAN socket does not work!

Two days later...

Other side...

   

My roommate hadn't arrived at this point

Cleaning tools

Toilet

Let the photos speak for themselves…

The pot

Toilet that doesn't flush properly.
The tap near the floor is meant for people who don't use tissue for no.2.
I, however, use it for flushing the toilet.

The shower

Examine the photos below and try to figure out how I shower. It's fun!

Hint: You can have any water temperature you like!

Hot water on the third floor

The cubicle

Bathing utensils

Ye, the ritual involves mixing hot and cold water.I realize that you really don't need much water to take a bath, especially if you're thinking about exiting the shower as fast as you can.

Note: It gets as low as 3 degrees at night and there's no indoor heating outside our rooms.RUN!!!

The basin

The knobs on the tap don't work, but there's a foot pedal at the bottom. It's actually works quite well.

Laundry

1st choice: The washing machine

Washing machine which washes with cold water only

2nd choice: The Laundry Guy
The Laundry Guy provides luxious service of doing the washing, the drying and the sorting, but there is one hitch -- he likes to keep his schedule surprisingly flexible!

Laundry Guy's timetable

For example, I gave my washing to him last Saturday, hoping to get it back on Monday. And sure enough he wasn't there on Monday. But I eventually got back my clothing on Wednesday at 9:15pm! What is he doing here on Wednesday??

Somewhere in there is my washing...

Laundry Guy back from holiday

My clothes returned in a neat pile

Frequent Blackouts

Having lived in Hong Kong all my life, I’ve only experience a power-cut once in my lifetime, and that was because of a suspected gas leakage so authorities shut down the power in the building. Now in IITD, blackouts become a norm. In general, there are blackouts in the hostel, the computer service centre (CSC) and the library.

Blackouts in the hostel are not so frequent and can last anywhere from 1 minute to as many as 20 minutes, and up to 8 times per day. It is especially aggravating when you’re in the middle of a shower. I have experienced approximately four days with power-cuts in the hostel during my first week of stay.

Blackouts in the CSC and library, however, are much more frequent. The first time the lights went out in the CSC, I was looking around and getting ready to panic, but seeing everyone else continuing their work indifferently, I started to realize how normal this was. You’re bound to experience one if you stay long enough in these places.

Occasional blackouts aren’t really that bad. They make life here more interesting and varied. Let me give you some scenarios that have actually happened to me to think about:

1.      I’m brushing my teeth when the lights go out…

2.      I’m having a shower when the lights go out…

3.      I’m having a crap when the lights go out…

My standards for living have plummeted

I'm gradually getting used to all the facilities and way of life here and that is also to say that my standards for living have plummeted as well.

Yes, Scott, still so young, is certified…

My advice to my counterparts: Don’t take things for granted Hongkongers, huh, huh, huh…

1.   Why did I choose to come to India?

My friends found it puzzling

It’s probably puzzling for my friends that I chose to come to India for exchange. Very often they wondered if I was forced to come here because I didn't have many places to choose from -- or if I wasn’t sober when I was picking out choices from the list.

No, I definitely choose this place out of my own will – and yes, I am sober as I say this.

My expectations for India

Yes, I too expected India to be a place less developed than Hong Kong and the living conditions would probably be pretty bad – and at this stage I can justify that it is pretty ‘shitty’. In fact, I couldn’t be sure of anything because I seemed to be the first student from my school to go on exchange to India and I didn’t have the privilege of counseling before my departure as most of the other exchange students did.

My major consideration for exchange

But when I chose India, my major consideration wasn’t about satisfying my needs and desires but, in the contrary, it was more about living out of my comfort zone and meeting challenges I had never encountered before. I believe that satisfaction and comfort only lead to ignorance and laziness, whereas as it is new and adverse situations that make a person grow and mature.

Living out of my comfort zone

In summary, I decided to leave the comfort and routines of my home in Hong Kong and live an Indian life. I’m going to try my best to stay away from the desire and temptations of staying in my comfort zone and living the same life in HK, and hopefully I will be able to experience and learn as many new things here as possible, and maybe even return with a different view on life and core values that will change my life for the better. Of course, I’m, at the same time, very excited about sharing all my adventures and experiences with my friends and family!