Hostel Life at IIT Bombay !

[Ankur Tulsian]

OK, so for the next four or five years, your address will read something like this:

Room # ___, Hostel __
IIT Bombay, Powai
Mumbai – 400076

Here’s to your first-ever stay in a hostel – definitely a first-ever of it’s kind. Welcome to the hostel life at IIT Bombay! Excited? You should be. Anxious? Just chill! Hostels eventually become the second home to many of us here (or even the first home for quite a few). We will leave it to you to figure out. But we do like to give you some basic information to get you started.

Hostel Allocation:
All incoming undergraduate freshies are allotted one among Hostels 2, 3, 4 (for guys) and Hostel 10 (for girls). We affectionately call these freshie hostels. In spite of the name, seniors do live in these hostels – as also in other senior hostels (we have a total of 15 hostels at IIT Bombay). The hostels have been around for some time, so do not expect fancy buildings and lavish, luxurious rooms. With the infrastructure development failing to catch up with the ever increasing intake of students, the rooms are allotted on a twin sharing basis (we take the word sharing pretty seriously here – because you would also need to share the cupboard and table with your room mate). But we assure you, it's not a dealbreaker. If it’s any consolation, even second year and third year students are required to share rooms.

The hostel allocation is random (roommates are usually from the same department and geographical location of JEE Test Centres). You get hostel accommodation right when you reach IITB and the allocation list is available at the Main Gate and the Main Building.

Basic Amenities:
Every hostel has a separate washing room (with washing machines), ironing room, a mess (dining hall), a Computer Room, a gym, a TV, sports grounds and indoor games like Table Tennis, Carrom Board, Chess etc. These facilities can be availed of against your I-Card (which you all will be getting). There’s Internet connection in each room, but we highly recommend you to leave your computers behind, atleast for your first year. Hostels 3 (which is not far from Hostel 2 or 4) and 10 also have a Xerox and Stationary shop for basic requirements.

Rules for Visitors:
Parents are not allowed to stay in the hostels without prior permission from the Hostel Coordinating Unit. Till 10PM female visitors to Hostels 2, 3 and 4 and male visitors to H10 are allowed after entering details in a register kept with the security at the hostel entrance and after depositing the host’s I-Card. After 10PM, entry is restricted only till the common areas – Mess, Lounge and Canteen. However, there is no restriction on the in-time or out-time for a resident in his/her hostel or any other hostel for students of the same gender. For more information regarding booking rooms for guests, read here : Rules for Guests.

Hostel Activities:
There are a plethora of activities that go around in the hostel which makes life fun. Lot of intra hostel events and competitions (amongst your hostel inmates) or practice for inter hostel (with other hostels) competitions in Sports and Cultural activites take place all year round. Also, a variety of festivals like Lohri, Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Jansmashtami, Dusshera, Diwali etc are celebrated in the hostels along with flag hoisting on Republic Day and Independence Day, keeping the atmosphere in the hostels vibrant and full of life all year round. Do participate in whatever interests you, of course after having devoted enough time to academics. It helps in breaking the ice and socializing with your batchmates and seniors.

A grandparent-ish word of caution here: It is too easy to get taken away by such activities and the sense of freedom that college gives you. We advise you to live your passion but exercise discretion. You have heard too much about time management already, so we'll skip the lecture, but you know what we mean.

Council Structure:
The hostel council is divided into Cultural (Cult), Maintenance (Maint), Mess and Sports. Each of the council is headed by Hostel Councillors (or Cos - generally third year students or thirdies) with Hostel Secretaries (Secys - second year students or sophies) assisting them in the administration of the hostels. All cultural programs and activities are the responsibility of the Cult Council; likewise all sports events are managed by the Sports Council. The Mess Council looks after mess and canteen while the Maint Council ensures proper working of the common areas and the hostel maintenance. All the councils are supervised by the Hostel General Secretary (GSec - a fourthie or fifthie = big daddies). To oversee hostel funds and the Student Council, every hostel has a Hall Manager and a Warden and to assist them, there are Warden Nominees. Every hostel also has an Alumni Secretary to maintain cordial relations with the hostel alumni. Computer Secretary (Comp Secy) takes care of the Computer Room and Internet connection problems while Technical Secretary (Tech Secy) manages the Technical Events at hostel and institute level. More details on the specific functions of each council member would be conveyed to you once you reach here.

Hostel Spirit and Wing Culture:
This is perhaps the best part of the whole deal. With time, all inmates become the part of one big family. For nothing else but the sense of belonging, you are expected to support and cheer for your hostel and other inmates in inter hostel events (this includes hooting for your hostel during the much coveted freshie orientation programmes, of which you will come to know in due time ). Blocks of some 10-15 rooms constitute a wing in each hostel and your wingmates (wingies) will be your immediate support group in more ways than one. We cherish the time we have spent with our wingies and we hope you do so too. Your wingies might be people from very diverse backgrounds but do not let that hinder interaction in any way. In fact, use it to your advantage. You would go with your wingies on intra hostel volley and cricket matches, treats (birthdays, crack acads, mentor's placement et al), treks, tours, hang-outs etc all the time. At the same time, socialize with other hostelers - batchmates and seniors alike - all the time. If you are afraid of Ragging - then probably you haven't read the post on Ragging and Senior Interaction

So, here's what we had to say. Hope this answers some of your questions and gives you a basic picture of the hostel life. If you have any further question, do post in separate threads  (as per the forum guidelines) and we would be more than happy to answer you. We look forward to have you amongst us and hope that you look forward to it too.



[Credits to Ankur Tulsian]