Deteriorating Circumstances at the IBA Girl’s Hostel

Reading Time : 3 minutes

In a series of calculated and vicious moves, the admin took out the last standing pillar of the Girl’s Hostel. But it doesn’t end here. Before we progress, let me give you a brief background of what’s really happening.

Background Story to the Girl’s Hostel

With the unprecedented number of freshman female hostelites entering the IBA Girl’s Hostel, there was nowhere to place them. So, in typical IBA fashion, they dismantled the gym to make space for the girls. Since that isn’t bad enough, in accordance with the lack of social-distancing SOPs.

Therefore, when the girls were in an uproar over this carelessness, the admin placated them by promising not to move them from their designated rooms into the gym. It was fine for a while, till beds made their way into the visiting and utility rooms. Amazingly, seems to be no limit to the space available in one building. Meanwhile, the construction of the new campus in DHA City continues.

It seems too calculated to not be pre-planned. When the influx of hostelites came, our OG warden was overwhelmed with finding a place for the freshmen. Unbeknownst to her, all this headache was her farewell present.

Consequently, two new wardens were placed within the week to take charge. And we were forced to say goodbye to our matriarch.

Our long-standing face of the Girl’s Hostel.

Que New Administration

In came the admin with pseudo promises of ending discrimination and change.

Hope is a funny thing. It shows the light at the end of the tunnel. When you need it most, it disappears just as things start looking up.

Just as the anger and frustration boiled over into the protest, both HR registrars pulled up outside the Girl’s Hostel without prior notice. The girls were dealt with and the admin breathed a sigh of relief. However, the feeling of dread never left. It felt like the start of tighter monitoring, and limited freedom.

It took just one incident in KU for the flip to be switched. Curfew reverted back to 10:30 in a ‘city that never sleeps’. Instead of having tighter security inside KU, or surveillance outside the hostels, a stricter curfew for the Girl’s Hostel has been implemented.

In contrast, the same could not be said for our male counterparts sitting in the boy’s hostel. Sexism never tasted sweeter.

The Situation Worsens…

Controversially, an old superintendent was reinstated. Causing the situation to worsen. Apparently, our new patron happens to have a bad history with the graduating batch.

A few problematic accounts from the girls were enough to make me sink into misery at the possibilities of how hellish life is about to become.

Overall, having believed the admin once was foolish enough. However, words were quickly retracted after the KU incident. Therefore, only showing me that equality is just a matter of words for most men. Its almost always the measures which compromise our freedom that are adopted.

‘Maghrib ke baad bahir maat jao’ or ‘larki larkey ke sath akeli kyun thi?‘.

Finally, I am tired of sitting back and seeing disappointment and hopelessness etched on the faces of the women I live with. Moreover, I am exhausted from sitting scared inside my room and missing out on the most mundane of things, like going to the campus gym at night.

Who is going to protect me when I’m sitting with two other girls in a rickshaw? Whom am I to call? Who are we to trust when not even the walls within the Girl’s Hostel can keep us safe.