Life is full of challenges, goes up and down. Since the time we are born we have to follow a routine. A child, a teenager or an adult, everyone is busy to follow a routine. Take up a new challenge and fight to finish it. Never ending workout to be on the straight path, achieving goals squeezes out energy and we sometimes feel losing the true essence of life.
We live only once. Living as human, it is precious. The world is so vast and there are ample things to know, to see, to taste. Do we care enough to live life to the fullest? Or instead, we get trapped in a daily routine of eating, working and sleeping? Why can’t we make our life’s routine flexible? Why can’t we live to know the bounteous world? Why make life so tough?
This thought of mine took me out of my sweet home when I was a teenager. I decided to leave my sweet home and stay in a hostel for my studies. I wanted to live independently, do all my work and studies independently. Little did I knew what actually hostel life was?
First thing we learnt in hostel was about seniors. Obey all your seniors, they can’t be wrong. Do all your work alone and it was tough. Attend lectures regularly, follow a routine. First six months went on smoothly as we juniors were all trying to understand what the ‘hostel life” was all about. Slowly we realised we were eating bland food for a long time. That was not the food we were used to having in our home! The food was very traditional and without varieties. Since we were living in a remote area there were no eating outlets to taste varieties of delicious food. We started requesting the managers for good quality food but he didn’t pay a heed to our request. Now, we became desperate to have something crunchy, crispy on our platter. Huge syllabus, regular classes, acquiring knowledge, remembering and preparing for tests, without proper food, was making us tired of hostel life. Hence we decided to cook. A group of friends of mine sat together and discussed how to find a way out. We wanted to taste Crispy Chickens, French fries, Egg rolls immediately. The hunger was burning inside. Moreover, why to lead a tough life which follows a strict routine. Young minds thought so much and became revolutionary. So we decided to have a feast in the nearby place which was full of big trees amidst the mountain. Our hostel was located in a really beautiful place as if it were sitting on the lap of small mountains surrounded by trees.
We went to our warden to seek his permission and tell him the agony and pain of not having good food for months. As he was a kind gentleman, he understood our plight and permitted us to have a picnic on a Sunday but in the Day time. We agreed. The excitement was so much that we were cursing the calendar system. Why not every day is a Sunday??
I still remember, the raw chickens marinated in all spices and curd. The preparation for making a stove out of available stones, collecting woods for fire and then bringing barbeque sticks from a nearby market. Then roasting the chickens. We were so hungry and so excited that we could not wait for the chicken to roast fully. So the first round went half crispy and when the mind and stomach felt little peaceful, we had the complete crispy ones. The surrounding got filled with the sounds of crackles of crunchy crispy food. Heartfelt relaxed, mind felt sleepy. Life’s experiences are so many. It was one of them!!
Revolving Around Life 