Yes, most of us stay almost naked with just the boxers. No, we are not in protest or stripping for money using webcams. IITians stripping, anyone for a startup idea? LOL.. We are simply trying to survive the furnace like rooms in the IIT Delhi hostels with just a ceiling fan running 24/7. i.e until the electricity goes out. It's not a pleasant sight to see another man with hair in their chest but this is a hairy society and there's no escaping it. Opening windows in this heat is nothing but suicidal and therefore the doors are left open to let some breeze come in.
No, this picture isn't taken at a railway station but the common room in the Karakoram Hostel, IIT Delhi. Students fight for space to sleep in this hall since there are two "legal" coolers. They bring their own mattresses and other bed sheets as it is IMPOSSIBLE to sleep in the rooms specially the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Come to think of it, this is the best college in India and ranked 152 in the world with a top class infrastructure! They say, "Infrastructure facilities at IIT Delhi are being regularly upgraded or expanded to meet the requirements and aspirations of its students." Last summer and the summer before that and the years before that, some students had gone to the authorities concerned requesting them to allow atleast air coolers in the hostel but they simply said "NO" with no reasons and the students came back disappointed. Some few more went with reasonable points and they said, "The entire wiring in the campus needs to be replaced which will run into few crores to allow air coolers and ACs." They simply refused to listen to our greviences. They come up with one reason or an excuse everytime. What is so hard to say "yes" and allow coolers and ACs? It isn't their hard earned money nor their papa's. It is the government's, yes, the corrupted government or so everyone's been complaining. Why not say yes and do something good for the students' welfare? The elected representatives are no good and they chicken out everytime before the higher authorities. They can never argue. Who elects them anyway? Us. Duh.
Life's like that all over again. Frustration takes over but there's nothing really that can be done. Some students have Air Coolers and Refrigerators in their rooms while the others suffer quietly waiting impatiently to graduate and get away.
One incident that I'll never forget about what happened in Karakoram Hostel last summer goes like this:
An M.Tech guy went to the caretaker asking for "written" permission to bring in an air cooler thinking it is legal since the guys in his wing uses it. When the caretaker refused saying, "it's not legal and allowed." He cooly replied, "My friend next door uses it." Yes, of course his friend was fined Rs 3000 and both of them had a heated argument that night. I was hoping fist would be raised but what a disappointment. This hairy society can argue but never really goes physical unlike the head hunting blood in us, the north easterners. Oh what a blissful summer night!
