Like most of us, I was quite apprehensive of what life would be like in a hostel. So, I had been rather morose ever since I joined the Dhansiri women?s hostel at Tezpur University. It was a weird, sinking sort of a feeling. But it wore off in a few days and now I am actually enjoying myself here.

Funny incidents, pranks and jokes are the order of the day here. Recently, one of the girls told me she is married and even has a daughter. To make her story look genuine, she showed me her ?daughter?s? photograph. I was quite taken aback and also impressed.

My admiration for her grew when she told me that she had got married secretly. A real love story, I thought. This charade continued for a month.

On the last day of the month, all the girls including the ?mother?, decided to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me the truth about the ?mother? and the ?child?. My thoroughly-elated hostelmates crowned me the first bakra of Dhansiri hostel.

JUTIKA BORO
Tezpur University