Insti is said to carve the person you’re going to be. It does teach you some good and bad and some disturbing habits too. Here is a list of temporary habits that you just can’t get rid of after going home for the vacation.
Disclaimer: Not everyone might relate to all the habits covered.
1. You with the good habits :
If you are a regular mess attendee then you might have experienced this. Your mom is stupefied watching you throw away the dirty vessels to wash after you finish eating. Filling up water bottles on your own is no longer a chore but becomes an involuntary habit. Your relatives and neighbours praise your parents for raising such an obedient child doing all the chores by himself. But you know things are going out of hand when you start doing them in every restaurant you go to. You give that old cycle of yours that much-needed repair and cruise down your street like a boss.
2. You with the food :
“Oh my gaad! What is this exquisite elixir mother!?” you exclaim. “Relax! It’s yesterday’s sambar!” your father shouts with a disgruntled face. The food you hated and bickered about in your childhood now becomes a delicacy. You squabble about how overpriced everything is in real life, unless of course your father pays, in which case “take lite”.
3. You with the clothes :
You end up wearing the same shirt for 3 days in a row. Your parents come back after a 3 day trip and still find you in the same shirt, they are elated that you have washed your own clothes. But their noses are quick to notice otherwise. And when you wear a washed shirt the next day, the world suddenly doesn’t make sense, the skies open up, you can smell heaven’s gardens.. “What is this divine smell? “, you ask your mom. “It’s detergent!”. And if you’re anything not like me and have focused your mind and body to master the herculean art of using a washing machine, then kudos to you my friend, you can work the enigma machine.
4. You with Internet :
You constantly try to seek the refuge of netaccess to solve your slow internet issues at home and when that doesn’t work you try proxy and then facepalm yourself. DC ++ is no longer your savior for bulk downloads of movies, TV shows and “whatnot”. A wise man once said if you want to test a man’s patience give him slow internet and watch hell break loose. You get so accustomed to the fast internet in insti that you end up calling the customer care, registering at least one complaint a day!
5. You with sleep :
The sun is your alarm to sleep and it becomes impossible to change that. You keep trying to get back to the normal human lifestyle but you just end up running around like a hamster in a wheel trying to fix it. You get adjusted to your home’s timeline like you’re from a different country. The good thing about this though is that your mom no longer goes through the ordeal of waking up early in the morning and making you breakfast. It’s the one thing she trusts her child will never do!
In a few rare cases, waking up exactly at 7.50am may become reflexive to you or you may have dreams of going late to the class. Again only in a very few rare cases…
You try really hard to stay awake in a 3pm meeting because you miss those afternoon naps. You find your childhood is over when you start loving those afternoon naps.
6. You with lingo :
You realise the beauty of the words “cup” and “put” and its ability to convey so many ineffable emotions. You usually end up cupping trying to explain the meaning of the word ‘cup’. Your non-insti friends and relatives remain clueless about this newly acquired language of yours! Your family worries you’ve gone spiritual because of your frequent usage of the word “Peace!”
7. You with the mid-’night’ meals scheme :
You get so habituated to the institute’s midnight hospitality that you expect the same royalty at home. “Mom how about some dry noodles, eh? “, you shout at 1 in the morning. “Jhoote Padenge!!” is the invariable reply every time.
8. You with your awkward habits :
College makes you do weird things like setting 14 min alarms. Sweatpants and shorts become your casuals, formals, party-wear, basically your entire wardrobe. Your entire philosophy and understanding of the world is based on FRIENDS and Game Of Thrones. You secretly hope your school chemistry teacher is a Meth dealer and your family is baffled by your sudden interest in politics, but only you know you’re hoping for a real life “House of Cards”.
The police look at you suspiciously every time you take a 2am walk around the block and your parents give you the inveterate “It’s not safe!” speech. You keep checking for your room keys every time you leave home, and then realise that your mother is now the “lord of the keys”!
9. You with your room :
You keep locking your room to avoid the no longer existent monkeys or cats, but it does keep away something even more dangerous your family! Leaving your room open with the laptop ON can do a lot more damage than you expect. You no longer have to clean the floor of your room, because let’s face it, the floor is carpeted with all your dirty laundry that there is literally no area left for any dust to settle down. Your walls are draped with posters of beloved personalities like Megan fox or Ryan Gosling or just plain old motivational posters.
10. You and TV :
You finally have time to do all those things you did during the semester, just this time without the guilt. What is it about summer? We finally have time to catch up on TV and suddenly there’s nothing good on – all of your favourite TV shows are on vacation too! Of course thanks to YouTube and Torrents this quite isn’t the problem it used to be. Hello binge-watching!!
If you didn’t relate to any of the above habits, then I guess you’re not addicted to insti life after all. But if you still can’t get rid of any of the habits you learned from insti, then it just goes to prove how much it has become a part of you and your life. When your time comes to leave the place, you’re actually scared it might change who you are now, because you’ll never be this way again, because you’re leaving behind some part you. Suddenly nothing seems so bad after all.
