Student Hostels at IITs: Will My Belongings Be Safe in My Room!

Often IIT aspirants come up with interesting questions regarding the campus life at IITs and our experience as IIT students. Their queries never end. Recently, one of my bright students asked me whether student hostels at IITs are safe enough or not – when it comes to personal belongings of an IITian.

The question led me to a memory trip to the past when I was still studying at IIT Kharagpur.
Here are my hostel life tips for IIT aspirants who make it through JEE Advanced successfully:

• My roommate Sahil once broke the lock to our room because he had lost the key. For the rest of the semester, both of us did not get time (actually we were too lazy) to get it fixed. So our room remained pretty much unlocked but nothing was ever stolen. Do you think that IIT students have only their snacks to hide? Think again. Here is the list of items we had in our room at the time:
  • Apple iPod Classic (worth Rs 15,000)
  • Apple iPod Touch (worth Rs 10,000)
  • Dell XPS Studio 16 (worth Rs 70,000)
  • Google Nexus S (worth Rs 30,000)
  • HP dv6 (worth Rs 55,000)
  • Nokia N73 (worth Rs 11,500)

But it does not mean that you can always be careless in an IIT hostel. One of my wingies had 3TB Seagate hard drive which was worth Rs 9,000 which got stolen somehow. Remember that there are all types of students in a hostel and it never hurts to be careful and keep your room locked.

• Little things like a toothpaste, a handwash, or snacks your mother packs up for you often go amiss in IIT hostels. These are the items that you would like to keep in the locker in a hostel at IIT.
• Being an IITian means that you have to learn to share your things. Many students come from single child families and have never had to share their things with siblings or other children around them. At IITs, you have to learn to live with your friend playing FIFA at your laptop or Temple Run on your tablet (without seeking your permission of course!) when you return to your room. One fine day you go nuts trying to find your headphones and controllers and then, you hear shouts and yippies from the next room and you know where to find them. Water bottles you filled up before going to class empty on their own, and books on your table go missing just before your end-sems.

Point to Note: If you do not want your roommates and wingies to go through that ‘hidden’ folder on your laptop, keep your room securely locked.