Wahidiya hostel is magnificent . I am obsessed with architectural style buildings. Large spacious rooms remain cool even in summers. Large doors with still larger latches. Ragging or intro is one of the most dreaded words for a freshy like me. Twisted questions having answers that land you in trouble at both ends.
The abstract cricket with an imaginary bat and ball made me sweat profusely. An imaginary ball was thrown by the junior and imaginary strokes were shot by the seniors. If I extended my hands to catch in the air they said its a four and ball is on the ground. If I made an attempt to field on the ground they said the ball is up in the air gone for six, where the hell are you fielding. And this continued on and on.....Mimicry, mono-acting, singing quizzes, sports and what not all you known and unknown talents are honed to perfection these nights.
Anyhow I am thankful to my seniors who instilled in me a lot of good habits which would otherwise not have been a part of me. They also made me aware of the very courteous traditions of Aligarh Muslim University. I would also like to add that the intro in AMU was not as I used to read in the newspaper,. Here I was not subjected to any physical torture, abusive or foul language. In fact it proved to be a bridge to get closer to my seniors. After this period the seniors became the best friends Needless to say that the one who "introed" the most helped the most later.

The ride from the station to Abdullah hall through Marris road is full of bumps and potholes large enough to be called black holes. Grand entrance with dull and pale blue rusted gate needs a quicks painting session. When the Bab E Sayyed had been given due importance, this "Bab E Husn" should at least not be left so neglected. The breeze was cool as I waded through the green avenue towards the rooms and the hostel, but the fire of seniority was lashing hard on the juniors. I knew that soon after this, I will the "murgi" under the banner of "Intro". Ladies old enough to be my dadi will force me to call Aapa, and why not, they have been sitting on the throne of seniority for the past two decades, moving up each class in a minimum of four years or so. The best thing they know is to take intro. I was just waiting to face music. Aaagey aagey dekhiye hota hai kyaa.....

The soothing morning breeze of August, when I first stepped down the train to Aligarh was to start a new story altogether. I could see Abbajaan hold the smile on his face as if he himself returned back to study in Aligarh Muslim University. Without a clue he rushed to the Subedar chai wala to have his morning tea as he used to do when he was a student of this great university. At this point of time I could not sense much difference from my small home town and the mighty AMU. With a small refreshment we headed towards the university for the fulfilment of the formalities of my admission process.
My curious eyes paid attention to every little detail of this new place, which will be my abode for a few years from now. I couldn't help examinig even the rickshaw on which I and Abba sat down. The rickshaw in Aligarh are quite different, small seats, slanting in front, difficult to balance. I saw Abba siting quite comfortably, well there had to be a difference in a senior Alig and a novice. After a myriad of forms and umpteen photo pasting sessions, using glues enough to paste the moon on earth, we had a sigh of relief.