Hell 2

My disappointment on the hostel was so obvious on my face that my parents were assuring me that in 1 year I can leave this place… Bloody 1 year!! As they bid farewell, I started cleaning my room since my roommates were coming after 2 days. Moping, dusting, unpacking, sweeping…drained my energy to the core and I retire early cursing my hostel management. I can share room with people but sharing room with termites and worms…ewww! Nowadays, I take really short baths because, worms starts climbing in if you take bath for longer. May be that’s a strategy used by the admin to prevent us from ‘wasting’ water.

While hostel was unbearable, college was worse. I was not looking forward to the first day of college as my instinct was not positive. Though meeting all the friends after 2 years was indeed a good thing, the meeting place was not. Following the stupid college’s stupid protocol we had 3 days of orientation where all we had to do was sit still in the auditorium and pretend as though we are listening to the itsy-bitsy things they say. Staying overseas for 2 years has changed our thinking and our view and perspective have widened. However, the discipline board of the college is still in denial as they expect us to follow their silly orders without a second thought. Of all the ‘lectures’ I had during the orientation, one speech that I dreaded most and despised most was that of the head of the student affairs. I have never seen a big-headed person like him before. He was not fluent in English yet was struggling to speak in the language (though the others spoke in Malay) but thinks he is near-native speaker as he was proudly telling “I’m from English medium. I can speak English too” (very brave to embarrass himself in front of TESL students and also English lecturers). And he was keep on reiterating that he is not like the others, he is straight forward, open-minded (but you cannot do whatever you used to do overseas and follow our rules strictly, if you have long hair we’ll bring you to the shop and cut your hair(the last I heard such rule was when I was in secondary school!)) and one thing that was most obvious in his speech was ‘discipline’. And he was in midst of saying “I was brought up strictly and discipline is important wherever you are” and Kelly Clarkson started singing “because of you” from his pocket! And the whole hall burst into laughter. Here is a head who values discipline so much yet forgot to silent his mobile while lecturing 123 students! And poor man was so embarrassed by that incident and was startled for a moment. The next minute he regained composure, and said “ sorry I forgot to silent the phone…(long pause) I like this song by Kelly Clarkson very much. Because of you… (another long pause) ..That’s why I’m here. Because of You..because of you my dear students” LOL. I think that’s the best cover up I have ever seen!

And then there was another lecturer from the religious department who proposed few silly rules..no jeans in the campus, guys can’t wear wrist band or any accessories (what the….), girls cannot pierce nose, praying is compulsory (most ridiculous rule..what if someone is present physically in the religious premise but mentally elsewhere? Is this something that can be forced into someone’s live?). I have no idea what’s wrong with some people. Just because someone was in a country of different culture and beliefs, you cannot categorise them as spoilt people. People who want to lose identity and divert away can still do that when they are still here. All that matters is your self-control. A person who has no self control cannot be helped no matter where they are. And the so called senior lecturers and disciplinarians still need years to understand that I guess.