Back to the Future Hostel

Plan T!

It was the turn of the century, the year 2000 to be precise. Bombay or Mumbai, as it had been rechristened was India’s answer to New York. Well yes, it was and remains the financial capital but more importantly it is a city that never sleeps! Except between 1AM and 4AM.

This is a tale featuring 5 inmates of the K.J. Somaiya Hostel for Boys in Vidyavihar. In those days, the residential accommodation was limited for the students of K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR). While the girls were accommodated in a working women’s hostel in Tilak Nagar nearby, the boys were assigned a floor in the hostel that was originally built for the students at the engineering college and polytechnic. The problem – UG rules for PG students. One of the rules of the hostel was that the gates to the hostel building remained closed between 11PM to 6AM.

The rules however never curbed the lifestyle of the MBA/PGDBA students. They had figured out a way around them – a willing and pliant nightguard and a pre-negotiated rate.

Coming back. Our 5 protagonists let’s call them Surdy, Tingoo, Mota, Roopi and Buddha were students in the second and final year of their PGDBA and veterans of the late-night scene. Roopi especially had the nightguard dancing to his tune.

It was a Friday before a long weekend and bound to be one where most of the hostelers would head back home or simply head out! As did our fivesome! The plans were in place – catch the Friday release at Sterling in town, take the last train from VT (CST) back to Vidya Vihar get some sleep and catch the first train out to Lonavala. Hectic in the books of Mota, but if you were Surdy, it was just another weekend!

The Fivesome duly watched the movie and rushed back to VT station and managed to board the last train. Mota all this while kept cribbing and talking about how his romantic alternate plan of spending a night watching the waves roll-in at the promenade on Marine Drive while sitting on the stone wall followed by a bottomless cup at the Oberoi Coffee Shop was better. None of the others bothered. It was Mota being Mota – always wanting adventures to be comfortable! None of them had any inkling about how uncomfortable the night was about to get!!

By the time the boys reached the gates of the hostel it was past 2AM. The gates as was to be expected were locked. Confident as always Roopi gently whistled his signature tune like he had done on so many occasions for the guards to recognise and open the gates. There was no response. He whistled again, a little louder this time. No response.

Unbeknownst to the boys a raid had taken place in the hostel that evening. Aside to the contraband that is expected to be seized in a boys hostel the arrangement with the guards was also uncovered. Net result. The warden decided to stay the night at the hostel, the guards were changed and of course a trap was laid for the errant inmates. A trap that our quintet had just walked into!!

As mentioned, it was the turn of the century, technology was changing the face of India and in a certain way saving friends from imminent disaster too! Mota and Tingoo both used to carry pagers. Just as Roopi was about to whistle a third time their pagers buzzed.  In tandem!

<<< HOSTEL RAIDED. WARDEN INSIDE. GO TO  PLAN T. >>>

The message scrolled through their beepers. Tingoo looked at Surdy and Buddha sceptically and then looked towards Mota. Roopi confidently shifted gears and proceeded to walk towards the rear of the building. Mota didn’t know what to make of the message but generally felt that having an alternate plan was a good thing. Little did he know!

Plan T was code for entering the hostel through the narrow windows of the toilets. This entailed someone from the inside removing the glass louvers creating just enough space for a person to climb through. The process involved some gymnastic abilities in terms of first climbing to the window itself that was at a height. Nobody bothered to explain the process to anyone, especially to Mota.

“Watch me, follow me!” Roopi whispered with a sense of urgency, hopped to reach the windowsill, pulled himself up and climbed in.

The considerate friend in Tingoo came to senses and asked the one question that was begging to be asked.

“Mota kaise chadega?”

It was quickly discussed and decided that one more person would climb in and two on either side would prop Mota up and pull him in!

Easier said than done. It seemed liked a lifetime before the 5 of them had made it inside.

The picture would take far more than a thousand words but suffice to say – it was crowded, silent and smelly!

After that eventful night Plan T was not implemented again.

The protagonists however, spent many nights thereafter sitting on the stone wall on the promenade on Marine Drive followed by coffee at The Oberoi!