This ones for all the baaps, bhais and bacchas from IITB ...

Here u go guys, the repost from Algo when I left IITB ;)

Half an hour before ALGO was “finally” sent to be printed, I was requested out of the blue to write a ‘senti message’ on behalf of my batch… 30 minutes to sum up nearly 4 years of experiences, 30 minutes to pen down the perceptions of around 80 of my hostelmates, I thought I would hit a dead end writing this but somehow words are overflowing in my mind…

A very cliché way to begin would be by saying that I remember my first day at Hostel 13 … my first day at IITB - I remember the day I gawked at the beautiful hotel-like structure that stood before me, I remember the relief I felt when I found out that my room was not be shared with other species of the animal kingdom, I remember the fear I felt when some seniors said that H13 had no culture and the thrill it gave me to go through the welcome document compiled by the first freshie batch in the hostel, unfortunately meant for us … the last freshie batch of hostel 13. I remember the thrill it gave our huge freshie batch to sneak into SkyB after 10 to watch the most tattimax movie ever made – and the scolding the GSec gave us after that… I remember the roars of cheers 13 had, which deafened one and all in the LT…

We were titans … rightly so, there were just 2 groups in the insti, one was from 13, and everyone else against it … I remember the things our group of freshies & our seniors did … We swam with cramped legs, we anti-cheered with such zeal that even fifthies were put to shame, we forgot about quizzes altogether to work for the PAF, we ran cross-country races not to win, but just to put others to shame – others who claimed that 13 was good only for numbers and had no culture, others who shouted things like “insti ka dustbin” (!) … I remember the GBMs we had in the skyB where groups of freshies questioned even the warden, I remember the fights we had in the comproom over miniscule things like chatting v/s acads and the water fights we had followed by all of us, both crackuA1 and phoduC1 cleaning the hostel on our knees, I remember people coming to 13 from all over the insti to study before the exams – the inverse never held true, afterall we were titans, the brightest and the best…

The sophie year separated many of us from each other… but gave us access to a wonderful batch of seniors, seniors who up until a year ago had been kids, seniors who stepped up and metamorphosised to make sure we did all the chutiyaaps we could as sophies… seniors who took us to treats and who took treats from us … Sophie year was the first time I truly felt that a valfi was time to bid adieu, say goodbye to some of the most closest people in your lives, time to take leave of your second family…

The third year was one of power, the power Team Techfest gave me, the reverence of the ignorant freshies, the awe of the fresh sophies entering the home of the Centaur5. The academics went haywire with seminars, projects and electives alike... but then there was a certain feeling of knowing the workarounds that gave u reassurance!

It is almost time to go now… I speak for every single one of my batchmates when I say “We will miss the life we had here, the liberty to walk up to any door at 3 in the night to ask for some company, the freedom to trust anyone with some of our most hidden aspects, the chance to start anew everyday of our life here, the balls to speak up and question anything that upsets us, the groups to crib about some of the most miniscule of things, the teams to stand by us even when the rest of the world isn’t, the seniors who would lend us their fundaes without a qualm, the juniors who respected us and took our words without a question, the loyalty we had for H13, the home we found in IITB”

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Rahul S. K.

H13, IIT Bombay.