Javeria Iqtidar, First Yr MBBS (Class of 2020)
So the first month or so at KE is over and the first years are heading home for winter break. And even though most of us are of the opinion that nothing “special” happened, a lot still went down.
For the majority of the hostelites, this was their first time living away from home. I can at least speak for myself when I say it was exactly how I had pictured it. (Don’t worry; I’m not here to complain about the rock-hard aaloo of the mess hall.)
Hostel life has been an Adventure, with a capital A. Owing to the location of our hostel we could easily walk to Mall Road and.. well, get lost. We never knew where we were going, but it always fun walking around and learning about all the buildings.
We ended up in Al Hamra one day and got to attend the culture festival. And of course, how could we not go to the “legendary” Pak Tea House (which, true to its name, is really only good for tea). I also found a lovely little antique books store, and got the best birthday surprise ever, thanks to the amazing people I know here.
Apart from that, every day at university was a story in itself. As we’ve been told countless times, we are “the unlucky batch” who doesn’t have any lecture theatres to sit in. Each morning was a mess of “jaldi karo bus nikal jaye gi”, “pehla lecture kidhar hai”, and “where on earth is everyone going?” I’m sure everyone remembers that time we ran from Old Auditorium to Patiala to Pharma, and in the end Dr Avais simply refused to take the class.
Thus, after a month of bunking Dr Faridoon’s lectures, hiding from seniors, walking around utterly confused and basically doing no doctors walay kaam, we head home and our families welcome us with open arms. They see us as the heroes who got into KE. Distantly related aunties come to us with their prescriptions, we get the first pick of the roti, and our younger siblings respect us just a tiny bit more (although that last one is debatable).
So hey, despite everyting, this wasn’t all that bad was it?