How I Long To Go Back Here

Picture Courtesy: www.unc.edu, http://gazette.unc.edu

I Miss Hinton James

Today I got an e-mail from the alumni association of the University I did my undergrad from. It had something to do with 'freshmen', a term used to refer to first year undergraduate students in college in the United States. The mail brought back memories of my freshman year, particularly of the dorm I stayed in during that year.

I lived in Hinton James, one of the 33 dorms on campus. Ho Jo as we used to call it. Ho Jo primarily housed freshmen & sophomores (2nd year students). It had 10 floors and was home to approx. 800 students. Each floor had 4 wings and each wing was divided into suites containing 4 rooms each, with 2 people to a room. It really was like living with a very large family.

There was a basketball court on one side, volleyball court on another, parking lot on the third side, and a plush green lawn on the fourth side where students would soak up some sun during spring. The ground floor had a computer lab, laundry room, lounges and an assortment of vending machines for candy, soda, chips etc. I forget if Ho Jo had a vending machine for condoms as well - there were some such vending machines at other places on campus, I remember.

The biggest disadvantage of living in Hinton James was that we had to trudge up to North Campus for classes everyday. It was a good 15-20 minute walk, most of it uphill. Of course there were buses but they would generally be packed so a lot of people preferred to walk. The biggest advanatge was during the basketball season - the stadium was right behind the dorm!

I lived in three dorms over the course of my 4 years at the University of North Carolina but the reason Hinton James will always be special is because that's where I made my first friends in America. Friends who accepted someone so different from themselves without an ounce of hesitation or apprehension. Friends I met at the water fountain on my floor, or by the vending machines, or randomly while hanging out at the common passage. Friends I ordered loads of Gumby's/Papa John's pizzas with. Friends I played Secret Santa with during Christmas every year. Friends who would take me home for Thanksgiving b/c I had nowhere to go (I couldn't possibly come back to India for a 4 day holiday). Friends who would cheer me up whenever I got homesick. Friends who are all over the globe now but I'm still in touch with.

They say that friends you make in college stay with you for life. They say that for a reason. And Hinton James is a bloody good place to find such friends!

PS: The photo above has been taken from Flickr. If there are any copyright issues, please let me know and I'll take it off.

Lost Innocence?

School was about schoolbags, not big fashionista bags.

School was about playing anything from basketball to tag to hop skotch during lunch break, not talking on the cell phone.

School was about knee-length skirts, not mini skirts that show off waxed legs.

School was about playing with neighborhood kids in the evenings and reading Nancy Drews, not Cosmo Online.

Because there's the rest of your life for all of that. Someone please get these kids their childhood back!!

Who's the Boss?

Remember the show about Tony Micelli, the housekeeper, Angela Bower, the career woman, their kids Samantha Micelli & Jonathan Bower, and Mona, Angela’s boy crazy mother?

Angela was an up-tight and work-obsessed career woman, her son Jonathan was quiet & shy, and her crazy free-spirited mother, Mona, was obsessed with men!! Enter Tony Micelli (Tony Danza) and his daughter Samantha. Tony, an ex-major league baseball player joins Angela’s family as a live-in housekeeper, and wins the family over with his easy-going attitude, his penchant for fun and his disarming smile. Soon there’s a romance blossoming between Angela & Tony among household banter and loads of laughter.

I'm a big fan of 'Who's the Boss?' It used to be aired at 6.30pm (or was it 6?) on weekdays and I’d watch it religiously. I was in school then (I’m an 80s baby :)

It was such a funny show! The best part was the chemistry between Tony Danza & Judith Light. It was brilliant! The sexual tension between them was palpable. And Mona was simply hilarious!

There were a couple of conventions that the show went against. For one, the role reversal - male live-in housekeeper working for a career oriented woman - was new for the 80s. Secondly, Angela’s mother, Mona was shown to be a sexually progressive woman. She was boy crazy and had an active sex life – she dated men across age groups, from college kids to men in their 50s! Such a female character was quite unusual for 80s television.

The show was laden with laughter and peppered with feel-good moments. Yet I feel it never got its due :(