Edited by: Mohan Rajagopal
When the topic of college comes up, most people say that it is full of new and exciting experiences. The implication is that these experiences are all pleasurable or enjoyable. But the truth is that there are a variety of unsavoury ordeals that one inevitably goes through while living on a college campus. I am thinking of communal showers in particular. Over the years, I have undergone numerous harrowing shower experiences, most of which will likely stay with me forever. Here are some of the more notable ones.
First Year:
I was but an innocent back then. I actually used to believe that people follow dorm rules. How mistaken I was. How quickly I was disabused of that notion. It was the Monsoon of 2018. I was living in Residence Hall 4 and happily adjusting to living in a hostel. When it came to taking showers, I was secure in my bathrobe and the understanding that the bathrooms were a sacred space, meant only for the use of us women (you see where this story is going, don’t you?). One fine day, I had just taken my bath and stepped out of the shower stall in my robe. I was in the process of adjusting my towel when the door to the stall next to me opened, and out stepped a man. He was the boyfriend of one of my floormates and he’d taken to showering in the girl’s dorm because it was cleaner than his own. I could do nothing but avoid eye contact and hurriedly make my way to my room. Unfortunately, his girlfriend’s room was in the same hallway as mine and we ended up walking together. It was one of the most awkward walks of my life and I thank God that it never happened again.
Second Year:
To be honest, this story is a mixed bag. It’s both distressing and kind of sweet at the same time. One night, I went to take a shower (the way all of these incidents begin). Everything was going fine—the shower stall was clean, the water was nice and hot, and my music was playing. I switched off the water to put on soap and shampoo (water conservation!). However, as I went to switch it on again, the handle came off in my hand. I tried to put it back on, hoping to fix it temporarily and finish my bath. No such luck. I was stuck. In my soapy state, I couldn’t leave the stall. I was panicking. Luckily, someone was showering in the stall next to mine. I called out and asked them if they had a bucket and if they could perhaps fill it up with water and place it outside their stall. They did, and I managed to drag it into mine without being spotted by anyone. To this day, I don’t know who it was that saved me but I am ever grateful.
Third Year:
This incident is a worse version of the previous one. In my second year, I had a saviour. In my third, it was every woman for herself. My friend and I had gone to take showers in adjacent stalls. It was the peak of winter and the hot water was a welcome relief from the freezing cold outside. I’d switched off the water to put on soap and shampoo. Suddenly, my friend’s voice comes from the other side of the wall, asking me if the water had gone off. With a sense of foreboding, I went to turn on the water. Nothing came out. Water wasn’t working in any stall. My friend was mostly done at this point and abandoned ship fairly quickly. Meanwhile, I stood under the useless showerhead, chattering and shivering and praying for a miracle. Ten minutes passed, fifteen minutes passed. Then, (finally!) at the twenty-minute mark, just as I was considering asking someone to fill water from the pantry sink, the water came on. In a flash, I washed everything off and made my hasty escape. A good thing too, because five minutes later, the water stopped working again.
Fourth Year:
In my last year, I moved into a different residence hall. For a time, we used to get hot water 24/7 rather than just during the usual hot water timings. You’d think this was a good thing, but, it turns out, we’d get only hot water at all times. You couldn’t even regulate the temperature. Another issue was that the water would jump out at you as soon as you switched it on instead of starting at a trickle and letting you adjust the right amount of flow. It took me a while to figure these things out and I paid dearly for it. One of the first times I went to take a shower in the new dorm, I made the mistake of standing too close to the showerhead and was immediately drenched in scalding water. My scalp burned for days afterwards. Another thing that 24/7 hot water gets you is hot water in all the pipes, including the sinks and the hand-held spray in the bathrooms. Luckily, the health faucet didn’t have boiling hot water, just warm water. But can you imagine? I don’t think I could ever recover from that. Thank god for small miracles.
These experiences, more than anything, I will not miss once I graduate. They are part of the quintessential Ashokan college life, yes, but I will quite happily forget them. Showertime sadness has no place in my future. Here’s to happy baths and access to water at all times!