Engineering Hostel Classic: The 3 AM Dhaba Run

There are nights in hostel life that begin as ordinary and end up etched in memory — not because something grand happened, but because something ridiculous did.

It was around 8:30 PM in our engineering hostel room — our 'mini theatre,' where that CRT had played everything from Chak De India to Troy.

Below the book is our 'mini theatre' CRT

That night, someone had passed around a pen drive with a fresh copy of Jannat 2. I just came back from dinner and thought, 'Why not?' My roommate joined in too, saying he'd watch for 'just 15–20 minutes' before heading to dinner.

Well, that '15 minutes' turned into the entire movie — and dinner became a distant dream.

By 2 AM, Nikhil realized he was starving and our room had zero food stock, not even a forgotten Maggi packet — the kind of crisis every hostelite understands.

He looked at me with that engineering hostel emergency face and said, 'Rohan, chalo, let’s go to the dhaba near the medical college.'

The Hostel

Now, this dhaba was about 5 km away — 4 km on NH3 highway and then 1 km inside a smaller road.

At 2 AM, that distance feels equal to an expedition, but somehow, in hostel life, such plans always sound exciting.

So, we rode off into the night. Cool breeze, empty highway, and the thrill of a secret food hunt — life was simple, and happiness came fried with extra onions.

My roommate finally got his midnight feast while I sipped chai, watching truck lights fade into the distance. Life was peaceful — until karma asked for its cut.

While returning around 3 AM, Just a few minutes into the highway, the bike started coughing.

He looked down, paused, and muttered the words that can drain your soul at 3 in the night: 'Petrol sampla.'

Perfect timing!

We were about 3 km away from the hostel. Thankfully, the road tilted slightly downhill toward campus — so for the first 1 km, we coasted smoothly, powered by gravity and regret.

After that, it was manual labor — pushing the bike through the silent highway night.

Now, here’s where it got funnier (and scarier).

If we took the main highway, there was a chance patrolling police might spot two engineering students pushing a bike at 3 AM — guaranteed drama.

If we took the service road, it was home to the street dogs of doom — the real kings of the night.

We looked at each other, laughed helplessly, and kept pushing — whispering 'please don’t bark' every time we heard a sound in the dark.

We chose a mix of both — half caution, half stupidity — and kept pushing, whispering prayers and laughing at our fate.

Revisited City

As this is my first blog, I was a bit nervous about writing it. This one is dedicated to all my friends.

It has been about 2 years since I haven’t been to Aurangabad, as we get on to Aurangabad the first thing which comes in my mind is Chate Junior College as because of the Chate Education Group this beautiful city came into my life. I could not forget those 2 years of college.

As soon as I read e-mail that CSI (Computer Society of India) Student branch is organizing event ‘AGNITIO-14’ at Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College, Aurangabad. I decided to go because I really wanted to revisit everything that I was badly missing.

Just two days before the event, it was decided that four of us from K. K. Wagh Institute of Engineering Education & Research, Nashik would attend. We booked the last four train tickets — pure luck! It was my first-ever train journey to Aurangabad, and as soon as I stepped out of the station, I was lost in a magical flashback. I could still recall that moment.

I informed my friends (former classmates), nearly after 2 years I’m here so, it was expected and also accepted that they will show me some anger. Above all they came to receive me with full enthusiasm. Then we went to watch a movie exactly in the same theatre where we use to watch movies earlier. At late night after returning from movie we discussed about previous 2 years. We could clearly remember every moment we have shared together. That was the inexperienced part of our life, the great spirit of friendship and it’s all about joy & true relations that we left behind. Everyone was busy in their schedules but only because of our priorities we met and spent great time together & had ‘dhating’ experience.

Next morning I have to get ready to participate in event. Friends dropped me to JNEC. I reached the location earlier at 9 am so I got enough time to enjoy college campus and do event registrations for all of us.

My targeted contest in event was VIRTUAL CAMPUS, Aptitude test started at 12 pm. Experience of cracking 3 MTS exams fulfilled my dream of cracking aptitude within only 45 minutes out of 1 hour, followed by great experience of participations in CAD-CRACKERS, CODIAC, C-GAMBLE & T-TWIST. We all tried hard in all contests and also got good results.

Before coming to this city for the first time I never expected that I would find such true relations that make the feel of ‘A home away from home’. This was only possible because of my friends that met me there. We are like a big family. My love to this city is nothing but the true relations I found there.

So all I want to say is, just follow your heart & take out some time for yourself from your busy schedule. May you also find some true friends & great relations that you might be missing.