In big foreign universities during admission, you are asked to fill a form listing all your social interests, traits and practices. These are later compared with all the other selected students to arrange the most mutually suitable roommates for the students. However, in India, we are still a developing country that needs to manufacture educated individuals to run the country and upgrade it to a new level. Thus, we do not have time for these formalities. That is when the roomate steps in.

So, your rommate snores? Or is he/she a party animal who likes to invite hoardes of guests every evening? Or maybe the rommie is a racist? A pervert? An addict? A case-study in various medical conditions? Or perhaps a withdrawn loner? He could be some cleanliness-freak or perhaps she is a dirt-fly..... ther is no end to the list.

Like trouble, roommates come in various packages. They are of different kinds with different tastes and habits. And most of us are not the blessed selected few who get exactly compatible roomies and so we have to gel in! Preferrable or otherwise. God hardly cares.

When it comes to dealing with roommates, communication is one of the two keys. Understanig being the other one. When you can freely communicate your views, opinions and preferences to the guy/gal you dwell with, things become much easier. Else, you keep adjusting and fitting in till one day you have the big brawl or the loud cat-fight. And of course, you always have to have a certain sense of understanding to know that you have to make things work in order to have an equillibruim. You cannot always have the upper hand. Nor can you allow the other person to do so.

As far as my experiences are concerned, things opened out in such a way that I never spent any two semesters in the same place with the same roomie. I have lived with my seniors, my juniors, batch mates and even with complete strangers. I have shared my living space with one and at times with as many as five roomies. And like every other student rubbed with a roommate on him/her, I have had my wierd ones too.

Some of my roommates were high pitched Himesh fans who liked to delare their loyalty with loud music on the laptop.... even when they slept. Some were chain smokers. A few of them were heavy drinkers who loved to declare their love for all their fellow females aloud to the world in the dark after midnight. Some doped. Some danced (or thought they did!). And some gave out large packets of air from certain body parts, to put it in a their words. And one guy was a terrible cook who forced us to eat his so called 'food'! Trust me, the taste still sends shivers down my spine!

But one of the most challenging guys was this particular one who would cry each night in memory of his ex-flame who had most royally dumped him after splashing his cash and toying his credit card for one full year. What I still don't realise is what fulled his howls more – the girl who went away or the money that he will never see again.

While one guy I lived with was a devoted believer of his sacred 'Baba' and his scarier-than-voodoo superstitions; there was this another guy who liked to burn things.... more specifically clothes. And he loved it even more when they were on you! A senior I lived with loved to make us wait with heavy bellies outside the tiolet. Another, revelled in disappearing for days leaving us to attend phonecalls from his parents. And God knows how much he enjoyed doing it.

And trust me, this is not fiction! In fact there are worse cases. You could end up having to live with someone like Chatur who would suffocate the dear life out of your nostrils!

But most importantly, I realise that I have my shortcomings too and that all the people I have lived with, had to tolerate me at times too!

And then all is not evil. If life is not all fair, life isn't all unfair either. I still look back at times when I got some of the most memorable moments with my roommates. At times we would erupt in a dance together and then there was dinner when all of us, seated around the served food, would still wait for that one lazy guy to arrive so that we could all have dinner together. Matching wits on the chessboard and playing cards for endless hours was so much fun.

Turns out, roomates are not that bad. In fact at times you realise they are all you have! At times when you fall sick, they are your doctors and when you go through your rough patch, the same lunatics become your serious psychiatrists. Whether it be an empty wallet with an autorickshaw waiting to be paid at the door; or an out of balance cellphone at midnight when you have to make that 'bahut zaroori' call; its the roomie that becomes your God.

The trick, I reckon, is not in accepting rather than reacting. Soon your roomie learns to do the same. And that is when you learn to sleep despite the penetrating snores and learn to wake up a little late when the "delayer" is assuredly out of the toilet.

You need not be the person's best friends. But you can be friendly nevertheless.

And you will sooner or later figure out that..... "Oh! Shut up Rahul! Enough of your Himesh hitlist! Can't you see I am working here....................."

Sorry, guys. I will have to end it here and go kill my roommate first!

All the best with yours'.