Some of you already know that living out of
your house is not great and all is not hunky-dory but only when you go to live
in a boy’s PG do you actually get to experience hell-on-earth. It is a truly
enlightening experience.
1. There’s a distinct lack of
privacy
2. Even your bottles get stolen
You have to get used to the fact that you
no longer buy things for yourself but for everyone who ventures into your room
to use your deodorant, eat your snacks, drink your juice, sleep on your bed and
even drink the water that you kept in the fridge five hours ago so that it
could get cold. In the end, you still get to drink hot water in 45 degrees Celsius.
Your things get used and then they don’t even get replaced because you
obviously brought it for everyone to use. You stop expecting people to fill
your bottle and keep it after they drink from it because no matter how much you
scream at them, indiscipline is the only principle that is followed with
religious zeal everywhere.
3. There’s no space to even walk
around breathe!
The paying guest business is booming and if
I had enough money, I’d buy a place and rent it out too but since I don’t I’m
waiting for someone to gift me some property. In the meantime, PGs are so
cluttered that you are overwhelmed with the sheer number of people in your
vicinity. I had a sense of personal space about five years ago. It got violated
the first time I stepped into a PG and I’ve never managed to reclaim it ever
since. You gradually realize that the only place you have a modicum of actual
unadulterated air to breathe is on your own bed. The moment you get up, it’s
like a Mumbai local but with considerably less chances of getting thrown out
and dying.
4. Food habits change with every
new place
Like South Indian food? Like Punjabi? Like
Indian-Chinese? Like Gujarati fafda-jalebi? Sorry, who cares what you like.
Most PGs hire people who can cook a maximum of two types of food. Sometimes,
it’s just one type. So if you manage to find a place that serves different food
on different days, you’re in luck but if you’re getting too cocky, don’t. You
never know when the cook might get changed for stealing, making everyone sick
or because of a payment issue. You might want to search out a safe alternative
place that will deliver food to wherever you stay. It makes life much easier.
But you always have the option of staying alive on tea, biscuits, wafers and
good old Maggi. Damn! Is that an endorsement? Will I go to jail?
5. Contracting a communicable
disease is relatively easy
Did you read the third point where I said
that… just go and read it. On the other hand, if you did, you now know how it
would be as easy as one sneeze, one cough, one handshake, one snot-barrage to
spread any air-borne or touch-based communicable disease. PGs are what you can
describe as the perfect environment for malign viruses and bacterium to
flourish. It can take anywhere between three days and a week for the common
cold to infect everyone. Now you know why I had myself checked for swine flu
every time I coughed or sneezed. If you didn’t already know how dangerous this
disease is, go check the stats, this article can wait. And now imagine that you
are living in a place looks clean but harbours more diseases than the WHO lab
in World War Z.
[This is my article for the Youth Connect magazine. You can read the entire article here: 10 Ways living in a Boy's PG is more horrifying than you think]
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